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Naming Your Weapons

Gurkhal

Auror
Generally I'm not that keen on naming items or tools.

But if a weapon has a deeper meaning for a character than just an exchangable tool, no matter how magical or efficient, then I'm willing to go along with it having a name.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
Yeah, well... We didn't stop at named weapons. ;)

From Beneath a Stone Sky: The Third Book of Binding...

~~~

“Then hell yeah.” Ásta pulled a sizeable package from the bottom of the bag, about the size and shape of a large breadbox. “And this is for you. I made it.” She beamed with evident pride.

Winter returned her smile and pulled off the cloth cover. Inside, covered in undulating scrollwork and softly gleaming gemstones, was an eight-slice toaster.

Etienne burst into laughter.

Ásta flipped him an obscene gesture.

Winter brushed a hand over the side and found it to be a bit hot, strangely enough, and lacking an electrical cord. She looked a question at Ásta.

“Its name is Brenna Brauth. Burning Bread. There are two salamanders in there. Hallí and Gunna. They sometimes eat the toast, but it’s not a big deal.” She looked pleased with herself. “They like cinnamon toast the best, but you have to toast it, do the butter and cinnamon sugar thing, and then feed it back into the toaster. It’ll keep them happy. And they’re pretty happy. They aren’t trapped in there. I wouldn’t make them stay. They work for snacks.”

Winter tilted her head just to one side, and then chuckled. Salamanders in the kitchen were better than soggy bread any day. “It’s perfect. Thank you, Ásta. We’ll treasure it and them.”
 
“Its name is Brenna Brauth. Burning Bread. There are two salamanders in there. Hallí and Gunna. They sometimes eat the toast, but it’s not a big deal.”
:ROFLMAO:

Thank you for that. It's early on a monday morning, and that got a good laugh. I love it.

Have you considered writing Discworld-esque comedic fantasy?
 
I love when weapons have names! GRRM does it best: Dark Sister, Longclaw, Oathkeeper, Lightbringer. I like how it seems that most of his weapons are named after something significant to their first wielders. For example, the sword is called Dark Sister because its first wielder was Visenya Targaryen, the conqueror's sister who fought by his side during the conquest of Westeros. This is also kind of symbolic/ironic for its other well-known wielder, Daemon Targaryen, who was known for being the 'darker' counterpart to his brother King Viserys. I think this method gives weapons so much power in terms of how they're passed along from wielder to wielder over the ages.

In one of my books, I have a sword called "Kinslayer." Its current wielder is a traitor who overthrew and killed someone close to him so he could take the throne. Kinslayer got its name from its first wielder centuries ago who did pretty much the same thing but under different circumstances. I also have a dagger called "Nightwalker" whose first wielder was an oracle who traveled the realm at nighttime delivering prophecies under the cloak of darkness.
 
D

Deleted member 12824

Guest
I love when some old relic weapons have special names to them, and a special meaning for each of them. This reminds me of the times when I played RPG games and found some special old sword or any other kind of weapon. And then I am always curious why it was called that, but there must be some kind of unknown lore behind it and that makes me even more intrigued. I always loved the fact weapons had any kind of names. It gives them history.
 
I do name weapons off and on in my writings. And it's mainly because of some sentiment or a legend stemming from it. Current writings really don't have much on the naming level though. It may change.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
:ROFLMAO:

Thank you for that. It's early on a monday morning, and that got a good laugh. I love it.

Have you considered writing Discworld-esque comedic fantasy?
I've got to admit, while hiding my FantasyAuthorCard before they come for me, that I haven't read any of the Discworld books, and I really should because they sound awesome.

I can't wait to get further into Binding. Most of the humor is really natural and the result of asking, after spending screen time on Winter's eccentric toaster, what would the dwarves want to give her? And... we have babies. We are going to have babies for days, because we're following this family for a couple of generations. We're planning to go about 60 years out, and to see what a small but dedicated group can make a difference in the world.

So, we've got Alerich in his office doing politics with a couple other preternatural leaders, and he stands up to shake on the deal...

...and from under the wide desk we hear a little voice pipe, "Good jobs! Coo' beans, man!" :D
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
I love when weapons have names! GRRM does it best: Dark Sister, Longclaw, Oathkeeper, Lightbringer. I like how it seems that most of his weapons are named after something significant to their first wielders. For example, the sword is called Dark Sister because its first wielder was Visenya Targaryen, the conqueror's sister who fought by his side during the conquest of Westeros. This is also kind of symbolic/ironic for its other well-known wielder, Daemon Targaryen, who was known for being the 'darker' counterpart to his brother King Viserys. I think this method gives weapons so much power in terms of how they're passed along from wielder to wielder over the ages.

In one of my books, I have a sword called "Kinslayer." Its current wielder is a traitor who overthrew and killed someone close to him so he could take the throne. Kinslayer got its name from its first wielder centuries ago who did pretty much the same thing but under different circumstances. I also have a dagger called "Nightwalker" whose first wielder was an oracle who traveled the realm at nighttime delivering prophecies under the cloak of darkness.
I've got to admit to a long and dedicated infatuation with the idea of named weapons. We have Keeper up there, we also have Courage, who waited in silence for untold centuries until the Hero she wanted drew her from a stack of weapons as he tried to save a damsel. Courage talks. Not all of our named weapons talk, but I think, with Courage and a new weapon, a semi-automatic Glock-style handgun named Peace of Mind, can also talk - shutting him up is the real trick - I think only their wielders can hear them.

Named weapons can also be stolen. We have a bow named Splendid that a faerie queen stole from her sister. We try to leave possibilities open, because different, outrageously skilled, smiths are making these weapons one at a time. They're all unique, all capable of forging legends, and not terribly common, and that gives much room for hijinks and tasty, tasty conflict. ;)
 

LostName

Dreamer
I don't trust my naming sense much. Either I use matter of fact descriptive names like e.g. Golden Blade or whatever I make up on the spot or I just describe it whenever it comes up (I'm a fast typer so the extra words don't matter to me) because I cringe extremely hard whenever I think about using proper names like Grospolina or Zabimaru or whatever.

Same with just about everything else like characters and places. Probably makes it hard to read through my nots but if I ever publish any of this stuff I will have to do a massive overhaul and rewrite anyway.

Also in general I avoid getting caught up in minor details like names, military ranks, flags, precise geography, etc., etc. it's unless important for some other reason and just focus on the meat and potatoes of how a world works.
 
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