rounser said:
I've already said that mythology should preferably be the basis for stuff in the core, and where else are you going to get your mythology? Mars?
You said that things shouldn't used if they sound like they're from a particular world. A good deal of things are from our particular world, and thus fall under your descriptor of "bad names for D&D."
Where did swords and chainmail come from - Jupiter?
Are you saying that swords and chainmail are mythological? Because if you are, that's stupid.
Where did "Eladrin" come from in mythology?
Where did halfling come from in mythology? Nowhere. Tolkein made them up and Gygax pinched them and changed the name. What about yugoloths, planetars, solars, devourers, girallons, gray renders, and all those others? No source in mythology, because they are simply D&D creations. Oh noes, D&D actually creates it's own stuff (beholders, mind flayers) because it doesn't just cleave simply to mythology (and where it does, it usually get things horribly wrong anyhow).
Nowhere - it's a contrived, made up word, and looks and sounds like one, even if it is Tolkien-inspired.
So is drow. It's derived from
trow. So, it's a contrived made up word, even if it is myth-inspired. There's tons of stuff in D&D like this. That's why it's D&D and not just "Generic Mythology Simulator RPG."
That would be okay except the core should preferably have fidelity to mythology, else it becomes useless in representing fantasy that's outside the scope of WOTC's particular taste in it.
That is how it has always been. That's why there's been no goblins or orcs or any other common fantasy tropes in the PHB: because the company in charge of D&D didn't want to add them. Get over it.
That'd be okay if they just named it right.
In your opinion.
"Eladrin" is non-intuitive, doesn't explain itself and will not stand the test of time...
The same could be said about baatezu and tanar'ri, which have zero grounding in real world mythology or beliefs. Yet, somehow, despite being non-intuitive, not explaining themselves, they still stood the test of time.
and "warlord" is ridiculous.
Nothing you have proposed is more fitting in any regard.
Adventurers sitting around discussing where they're going to get a new warlord after the other one died just doesn't read.
Do you often sit around throwing around game mechanical terms in character?
As an aside, cambion is a better fit than that term anyway.
If you want something a name from a particular setting, in this case, medieval Europe.
