The name "Xi"

[Merkuri]

What would you think if your DM introduced a culture named "Xi", pronounced "she", into a standard fantasy (not oriental-based) campaign?

Too weird? Would the pronunciation provide too many potential jokes ("that's what Xi said!") and derail the game? Are the spelling and pronunciation too different from each other for your average English speaker? Does it help that I didn't make up the name or its pronunciation (Xi is a Chinese surname and a Manchurian people), I just borrowed it?

I've got a campaign idea bouncing around in my head, and it involves the ruins of a long-dead culture scattered all over the landscape. For some reason today I got struck by the idea of calling them the "Xi", and while it sounds cool in my head I don't know how well it would work out at the table. I wanted something that sounded foreign, but short and easy to remember or recognize.

 

[JakeJekel37]

Go for it

I don't see a problem with it. There's always a potential for anything you do to become a derailment for all sorts of reasons. If there's even a shred of maturity with the group, I don't think there will be a problem. Can you expect a "That's what Xi said" joke, sure, but as long as it happens only once, gets its laughs and the group moves on, then your golden.

If you're that concerned, you could always change the pronunciation ever so slightly. Instead of straight up "she" make it "zhe" like the sound you hear when saying Zsa Zsa Gabor's, only with a long "e" instead of soft "a".

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Morrus]

I'd pronounce it "gZee", but that's not really relevant.

I'm not familiar with the "that's what she/Xi said" reference so I don't think it would be an issue in my game.

 

[Merkuri]

I'd pronounce it "gZee", but that's not really relevant.

How do you pronounce "gZee"?

 

[NewJeffCT]

What would you think if your DM introduced a culture named "Xi", pronounced "she", into a standard fantasy (not oriental-based) campaign?

Too weird? Would the pronunciation provide too many potential jokes ("that's what Xi said!") and derail the game? Are the spelling and pronunciation too different from each other for your average English speaker? Does it help that I didn't make up the name or its pronunciation (Xi is a Chinese surname and a Manchurian people), I just borrowed it?

I've got a campaign idea bouncing around in my head, and it involves the ruins of a long-dead culture scattered all over the landscape. For some reason today I got struck by the idea of calling them the "Xi", and while it sounds cool in my head I don't know how well it would work out at the table. I wanted something that sounded foreign, but short and easy to remember or recognize.

You'll probably get more jokes than just "and that's what XI said" - I ran a campaign where some of the names were a bit difficult to pronounce and had a series of jokes about it going the length of a 2 1/2 year long campaign. Any songs where the word "she" plays a prominent role - 'she done him wrong' - 'she bop' - 'she's so mean' - 'sheila take a bow' - 'she wolf' - 'isn't she lovely?' - and, then, if there is a big encounter and the BBEG dies, "that's all she wrote"

Unfortunately, many things can be made into jokes: Zhu is pronounced like "Jew"... which can lead to even more jokes when a woman with the last name of Zhu marries a guy that is Jewish, but the Chinese word Zhu translates as pig, but can also be other things depending on the tone. Xu can be pronounced like "shoe" ...and so on with Chinese names.

I guess it depends on how much your players joke around as well. I might even have an NPC introduce the name and make a small joke in-game about it... the old sage blows some dust off of an old book and cracks open a tome, and flips through a few pages, pausing a few times to read a few lines... before finally settling onto one page and reading and mummering to himself, "ah yes, of course" and then, "yes, yes" excitedly. The sage looks up at you, "this item you bring in is from an ancient, long-lost culture called the "Xi", a mighty empire that dominated the continent for nearly a thousand years... but, they were undone when their queen killed her husband, and then gave birth to half-demon triplets who later warred over the throne and nearly destroyed the world in the process. You could say 'she done them wrong'"

To summarize, I would have problem at all with the name, but would be prepared for some jokes about it.

 

[fba827]

my natural inclination is to pronounce it like Zee (well a soft Z, like in Xanatos or Xylopohone, followed by a long "e" sound).

I'd be more worried about confusion than jokes.
If you plan to use "she" as the pronounciation and if people will have the spelling in a reference sheet handy, sure, you probably won't have an issue with it. But if the people won't have access to the spelling in notes, you may have issues where someone is only half paying attention and misses the explaination the first time, or there might be some random conversation, in the future, where it isn't clear if someone said that "Xi said it" or "she said it" (referring to a different female NPC).

If there isn't a specific reason to use it, i would avoid the homonym since she is a common pronoun/word that'll get tossed around more than the name Xi leading to possible confusion..

 

[Merkuri]

...or there might be some random conversation, in the future, where it isn't clear if someone said that "Xi said it" or "she said it" (referring to a different female NPC).

That's a valid point, but I think it would apply more if I were using Xi as a person's name, not as the name of a culture.

I plan on this culture being very dead. They're a source of ancient ruins and artifacts, not of people, so the word will mostly be used as an adjective (a Xi sword, or a Xi temple), never as a pronoun. I have no plans at the moment of the party coming across a living member of the Xi culture. I would probably not call that person "Xi", anyway. It would be like somebody calling me "Massachusetts".

One of the reasons I like the "she" pronunciation is that I think it will sound foreign in the way it's used, yet be easy to say because it sounds just like an English word.

Getting people to remember to pronounce the X like the "Zs" in "Zsa Zsa Gabor" will probably be harder than telling them to pronounce it like a common "sh". It just feels odd coming out. I work with someone named "Zhi" and it's properly pronounced exactly like how JakeJekel37 suggested I pronounce "Xi". Everyone at work calls him "Zee" because saying it properly just feels awkward to our English mouths. He's just used to people in America pronouncing it like that at this point.

Anyway, I don't want my players to be afraid to say this culture's name because they don't know if they'll pronounce it right.

 

[Hungry Like The Wolf]

My mando is extremely rusty and I'm just trying to figure out how to type the pronunciation.

You pronounce the SH like J-EH but soft and end with an inflected E. So it ends up SHJ-EE and not SHE. I've heard it can be pronounced like YH-EE (which sounds Vietnamese) but I think that's a Cantonese word.

If you want it to be easy for English speakers, why not just spell it Shi which is pronounced with a elongated SH and a very E like SHHHE.

 

[Haltherrion]

I would wonder why the ref is using a chinese pronunciation but probably not voice it. If he revealed a good in-game reason, then no problems. If it is arbitrary than one could legitimately expect lots of jokes about it for a while: "my character's name is spelled 'Sam' but it's pronounced 'spud'".

 

[Grydan]

Unless your game involves a lot more written elements than anything I've ever played, how you spell something is usually going to be pretty irrelevant. It could be spelled "Arthur"; in many cases, the players won't need to know, or remember/care if told. It all comes down to how it's pronounced. You, and they, are going to need to say it far more often than write it.

In any group I play with, yes, something pronounced "She" would lead to fairly constant jokes (probably especially from the women in those groups). This may be different for some groups, especially those in which the use of the word Xi is familiar, but given your desire for something that sounds foreign, that's probably not your group.

Even if it's not a source of humour, it seems ripe with the potential for confusion. A name that sounds identical to a pronoun that will likely come up every time a female character (whether PC or NPC) is the topic of discussion? "She's Xi, isn't she?"

I'd try and find something else, that doesn't sound like a (very) common word in your players' primary language.