Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 havard Feb 24, 2007 13:11:20	Well, there is King Stefan, Etienne d'Ambreville (aka Stephen Amber) and Saint Stephen "The Rock" Rocklin. Three central characters, all with the same name. Coincidence or conspiracy? ;) Havard
#2 agathokles Feb 24, 2007 14:06:03	Well, there is King Stefan, Etienne d'Ambreville (aka Stephen Amber) and Saint Stephen "The Rock" Rocklin. Three central characters, all with the same name. Coincidence or conspiracy? ;) And there's a Stephan in Rhoona and one in B11... it must be the most common name in Mystara.
#3 olddawg Feb 26, 2007 11:17:17	And there's a Stephan in Rhoona and one in B11... it must be the most common name in Mystara. For this one, an answer is forthcoming. ;) -OldDawg
#4 havard Feb 28, 2007 8:34:57	For this one, an answer is forthcoming. ;) -OldDawg IMC Rhoona is originally named Runagard. Duke Stephen is actually a Jarl and probably originally had a Viking-style name originally. However, as is described in the gaz, the Duke is sort of a Renaissance man and has changed names and titles to make himself sound more like the forreign nations he admires. IMC much of this is a mere fascade though. Rhoona is much more a traditional viking village than what one can get the impression of from reading the gaz. Havard
#5 agathokles Feb 28, 2007 10:23:00	IMC Rhoona is originally named Runagard. Duke Stephen is actually a Jarl and probably originally had a Viking-style name originally. However, as is described in the gaz, the Duke is sort of a Renaissance man and has changed names and titles to make himself sound more like the forreign nations he admires. IMC much of this is a mere fascade though. Rhoona is much more a traditional viking village than what one can get the impression of from reading the gaz. Ok, but couldn't he choose a better role model than Duke Stefan? No wonder then that he fell under the curse of Ethengar priest... he clearly took on Stefan's legendary sitxth sense for bad guys in addition to the name and title! ;)
#6 Cthulhudrew Feb 28, 2007 10:48:13	Vestlandic names- at least prior to Gaz7- have always been more English than Nordic. (Which is kind of an odd statement, since the names are all largely Germanic in origin- what I mean is more later period English, as opposed to Anglo-Norman... err. I'm not sure if I'm being clear on what I mean, so maybe I should just get on with things.) From X3: Curse of Xanathon, we have: Stephen Rhoona Eric Rhoona (founder) Eric of Forsett Draco Stormsailor (okay, Latin, though his surname seems somewhat more english) In X13 there were a bunch of barons and dukes and such that had English/Welsh names (don't have it in front of me atm, so I can't recall specifics offhand). The sense I got from those early modules was that Vestland was more like Anglo-Saxon England than the later, more standard nordic culture that Gaz7 seemed to present it as.
#7 gawain_viii Feb 28, 2007 16:12:11	The sense I got from those early modules was that Vestland was more like Anglo-Saxon England than the later, more standard nordic culture that Gaz7 seemed to present it as. This also makes sense, in that, the brief description (pre-Gaz) we understand that Vest-(west)-land is more modern than the east... sounds like RW Europe... Soder-(southern)-fjord is chaotic and ill-organized, much like the RW southern German tribes between 300-800 CE... Ostland, I'm unsure if it is intended to mean East-land or Our-land (I'm not a Teutonic speaker in any sense)... If the latter, it might allude to the more typical roots of both RW German and Anglo people--the archetypal Norse Viking... Thinking on that, perhaps Gaz7 should be construed as an oversimplification of the region, as a whole, for a "civilized" point-of-view? Maybe the "reality" inside the Reaches is closer to the original pre-Gaz descriptions? Just some thoughts, Roger
#8 zombiegleemax Feb 28, 2007 19:00:37	Ostland, I'm unsure if it is intended to mean East-land or Our-land (I'm not a Teutonic speaker in any sense)... I'm quite sure Ostland mean "East-land".
#9 gawain_viii Feb 28, 2007 19:35:46	I'm quite sure Ostland mean "East-land". I figured as much--but it didn't fit into the motif of real-world analagies.
#10 havard Mar 01, 2007 7:23:38	From X3: Curse of Xanathon, we have: Stephen Rhoona Eric Rhoona (founder) Eric of Forsett Draco Stormsailor (okay, Latin, though his surname seems somewhat more english) Eric (okay it should be Erik or Eirik) was a common name among Vikings though. Stephen and Draco I agree are clearly non/Germanic. If anything it should be Stefan. The sense I got from those early modules was that Vestland was more like Anglo-Saxon England than the later, more standard nordic culture that Gaz7 seemed to present it as. I think that is an interesting idea. Maybe Dane-law England could be a useful comparison? Or, since the individuals mentioned so far are nobles, perhaps the ruling class is of Anglaise origin, making it sort of like a reversal of the Dane-law? Havard
#11 havard Mar 01, 2007 7:28:08	I'm quite sure Ostland mean "East-land". Yeah. It means East-land Similar terms are used to describe the geographic regions of Norway. Ostlandet and Vestlandet anyway. Havard