Are Surnames Compulsory?

Kestrel

It's been mentioned that you can preselect a surname for your character from a list of suitable names for your race.

However, what if you want your character to not have a surname? Maybe they're a street-rat, an orphan, or just like to keep their personal life on the down-low. Is there an option to either not have your surname visible as part of your title, or to just not select one to begin with?

Tecton

We changed things up with surnames, they're now tied to Dynasties, rather than just a selection of racial surnames that you'll pick from. Even if you do join a Dynasty, you won't necessarily be forced to take on a surname, but you have the option to.

Xiru

How early on can you join a dynasty? 

Tecton

Dynasties will be in the game from day 1, so players will be able to form them from the get-go. Joining dynasties is currently unrestricted by level. We may tweak the min level to induct someone in the future though if people just blanket invite and otherwise pester newbies.

Traveler

What if you would rather select your own name and not join a Dynasty? Will there be that option?

Tecton

Traveler said:

What if you would rather select your own name and not join a Dynasty? Will there be that option?

Dynasty is the only way to get a surname, I'm afraid. There's nothing stopping you from forming your own Dynasty though!

bairloch

Does the dynasty concept even make sense for Decheerans? Maybe it is the name of their Grove, if they have one?

The proto-Decheeran roots itself to the ground, and that's the last intentional contact a Decheeran has with its "children." They don't recognize or care later who spawned them, or whom they spawned. 

...the Decheerans place no importance on parents - indeed, they don't have them 

They don't have families or any concept of one. What they do have are groups of Decheerans called 'Groves.' These are completely voluntary associations of Decheerans who bond with each other by rooting in a group together for a period of time, after which they are closely allied and can very vaguely feel the emotional state of other Grove members. 

Quean

bairloch said:

Does the dynasty concept even make sense for Decheerans? Maybe it is the name of their Grove, if they have one?

The proto-Decheeran roots itself to the ground, and that's the last intentional contact a Decheeran has with its "children." They don't recognize or care later who spawned them, or whom they spawned. 

...the Decheerans place no importance on parents - indeed, they don't have them 

They don't have families or any concept of one. What they do have are groups of Decheerans called 'Groves.' These are completely voluntary associations of Decheerans who bond with each other by rooting in a group together for a period of time, after which they are closely allied and can very vaguely feel the emotional state of other Grove members. 

That would make sense. In my perfect world, awesome racial elements like Groves would have small, separate mechanics around them, but actually, having a Dynasty comm channel flavoured by Players around sending each other emotional signals could also work

Tecton

Quean said:

bairloch said:

Does the dynasty concept even make sense for Decheerans? Maybe it is the name of their Grove, if they have one?

The proto-Decheeran roots itself to the ground, and that's the last intentional contact a Decheeran has with its "children." They don't recognize or care later who spawned them, or whom they spawned. 

...the Decheerans place no importance on parents - indeed, they don't have them 

They don't have families or any concept of one. What they do have are groups of Decheerans called 'Groves.' These are completely voluntary associations of Decheerans who bond with each other by rooting in a group together for a period of time, after which they are closely allied and can very vaguely feel the emotional state of other Grove members. 

That would make sense. In my perfect world, awesome racial elements like Groves would have small, separate mechanics around them, but actually, having a Dynasty comm channel flavoured by Players around sending each other emotional signals could also work

Dynasties don't need to be a biological family, they can be any grouping of people really. So yes, they could be a grove or a named player-run business empire.

Qitorien

Tecton said:

Dynasties will be in the game from day 1, so players will be able to form them from the get-go. Joining dynasties is currently unrestricted by level. We may tweak the min level to induct someone in the future though if people just blanket invite and otherwise pester newbies.

Can't remember seeing this anywhere...Will Dynasties get their own chat channel? Please, say yes. ^.^

Tecton

Qitorien said:

Tecton said:

Dynasties will be in the game from day 1, so players will be able to form them from the get-go. Joining dynasties is currently unrestricted by level. We may tweak the min level to induct someone in the future though if people just blanket invite and otherwise pester newbies.

Can't remember seeing this anywhere...Will Dynasties get their own chat channel? Please, say yes. ^.^

Yes, they'll have their own channel/news etc.

kay

Tecton said:

Dynasty is the only way to get a surname, I'm afraid. There's nothing stopping you from forming your own Dynasty though!

What are the requirements for making a Dynasty? If someone just wants one for themselves so they can have exactly the surname that they want or whatever, can they pay a price in marks then register it for themselves alone? Or will there be a minimum number of people required to start one up?

Tecton

You can form one yourself if you have the funds to do so. There's a relatively low membership count required to unlock the ability to set/use a surname.

Qitorien

Tecton said:

You can form one yourself if you have the funds to do so. There's a relatively low membership count required to unlock the ability to set/use a surname.

Will there be some system-set (or Admin-) or newbie Dynasties? Can you leave a Dynasty or is it permanent? This is in the context of families, which makes me think of other questions...should family Dynasties be thought of in terms of adoption/legal family bonds or is that over-thinking it? 

Tecton

Qitorien said:

Tecton said:

You can form one yourself if you have the funds to do so. There's a relatively low membership count required to unlock the ability to set/use a surname.

Will there be some system-set (or Admin-) or newbie Dynasties? Can you leave a Dynasty or is it permanent? This is in the context of families, which makes me think of other questions...should family Dynasties be thought of in terms of adoption/legal family bonds or is that over-thinking it? 

No plans for any system or admin controlled dynasties, they're all in the hands of you guys, the players. 

You can leave a dynasty, but you'll forsake your surname if you do, and there will be a cooldown before you can join another one. 

We're not putting any restrictions or enforcements in that arena, will likely vary from dynasty to dynasty.

Xiru

I will say I like the mechanics of this, but I liked the idea of having to choose a surname at the outset as well. Especially on day one, so I'm sad that's no longer a thing. (Especially with surnames giving you an idea of racial-based language cues.)

Quean

Syaja said:

I will say I like the mechanics of this, but I liked the idea of having to choose a surname at the outset as well. Especially on day one, so I'm sad that's no longer a thing. (Especially with surnames giving you an idea of racial-based language cues.)

Fully agreed. In contrast to Achaea, the language patterns will not be evident for us, which can lead to some mishmash; there will be no option to use an elven name generator for Tsol'aa. I was hoping that the surnames could help.

Qitorien

Will surnames still come from a preset list? If not, is the plan to have to get approval for all surnames? What I mean is that I figure you can't choose just anything because of issues with inappropriate names, but beyond that until yall introduced the concept of dynasties and surnames being tied to them, it was going to be a preset list and relatively limited.

Tecton

Qitorien said:

Will surnames still come from a preset list? If not, is the plan to have to get approval for all surnames? What I mean is that I figure you can't choose just anything because of issues with inappropriate names, but beyond that until yall introduced the concept of dynasties and surnames being tied to them, it was going to be a preset list and relatively limited.

No, it's relatively free choice. Usual name restrictions apply, we'll likely dissolve any dynasties that have names that try to get around restrictions.

Qitorien

Thanks for the response!

Maygon

Wondering if dynasties are going to be restricted to one city/org or can members be from any walk of life?

Kaedok

Can you give yourself a pseudo-surname with a title mechanic similar to other IRE games?

Tecton

Maygon said:

Wondering if dynasties are going to be restricted to one city/org or can members be from any walk of life?

No mechanical restrictions, no. Up to the people in the dynasty.

Tecton

Kaedok said:

Can you give yourself a pseudo-surname with a title mechanic similar to other IRE games?

Nope, free-form suffixes have a comma after the proper name, so <earned title> Kaedok <surname>, <freeform suffix>