[Scoop?] Libris Mortis: The Book of the Undead, from WotC

[fourmyle]

Looking at the whole title of book, which I believe is:

Libris Mortis: The Book of the Undead

It makes pretty good sense that Libris is using its case to assume the pronoun 'ex' and as such, means 'From the Books' allowing the title to make perfect sense...

From the Books of Death: The Book of the Undead

Yeah?

 

[tarchon]

Looking at the whole title of book, which I believe is:

Libris Mortis: The Book of the Undead

It makes pretty good sense that Libris is using its case to assume the pronoun 'ex' and as such, means 'From the Books' allowing the title to make perfect sense...

From the Books of Death: The Book of the Undead

Yeah?

Nah, no amount of hopeful apologetics can make sense out of it.
The way Latin works, the prepositon tells you why the noun has that ablative case marking. The lack of the preposition actually indicates what the grammatical function is, so dropping it distinctly changes the meaning. Usually if you see a bare ablative like that on a generic noun, it's some kind of instrumental, so the default interpretation is "with books" or "with books being present" or "by books" or something like that. The ablative usually only indicates fromness (strangely enough) if you have one of the "from" prepositions, like ex, de, or ab.

 

[AdvntrGuy]

it just sounds good...

As much as I think it would be cool for the title to make sense in latin as well, the full title still sounds good.

In my current game, I'm translating all the cleric spell names into latin by just looking at a dictionary with no consideration for grammatical accuracy. I use these as my verbal component when I'm casting a spell and the gang loves it, even the DM who actually knows latin. Sometimes he just laughs because it's so bad. When I can find the exact word, or I don't like the sound of the word, I just look for another that sounds good to me.

Let's have fun out there...

AG

 

[X-Marks!]

Fey, not Foul

Personally, I've always seen that a truly beautifully realized (Draconomican-esque) Book of the Fey would be an excellent addition to the game. Considering the depth of the historical/mythological source material out there, there's plenty to draw upon. Every time I look through a book like "Good Faeries, Bad Faeries" or the various books by Brian Froud, I always think to myself "Man, I wish we had stats and abilities for these guys." I mean some are just so alien-like! I was very pleased to see the boost to the field that the FF brought to the fey, which really just made me want more info, not less.

However, all that being said, I doubt that WotC's going to be giving me that book anytime soon. I recall reading an interview with one of the Designers (wish I could recall the source -- probably re: Ghostwalk's history) where they said that at one point they were all asked to submit their best ideas for new projects for the next few years. And, it wasn't long after that that "Fey Feature" showed up on the website as a regular column, so I assume the project pitch just sort of got an amber-light, instead of a green-light.

I think it's a wonderful idea and column -- the two authors do a great job of adding extra ideas, and making cool historical and artistic references. I just want it all put together in a more cohesive, collectively useful format ... with gloriously colourful, original artwork.

Sigh, just faerie-dust dreams perchance. ~ALX~

 

[BOZ]

libris is the ablative or dative plural of liber, a book.

mortis is the genitive singular of mors, death.

It... doesn't really work.

liber mortis would be the Book of Death; liber mortuorum would be the Book of the Dead, or the Book of Dead People.

-Hyp.

that reminds me of that scene from Life of Brian where he's writing on the wall...

 

[Wolffenjugend]

On the topic of the name we can only hope that WotC reads this and decides to change the name. I'd buy the book regardless but somehow I'd be more inclined the like it if the name felt... wel right . And to me either Liber Immortuus or Liber Mortuorum sound better than Libris Mortis .

But Libris Mortis has a much better ring to it and, really, that's all that matters. At least from a marketing perspective (and WotC is a business, afterall). The VAST majority of gamers don't read latin and could care less if the title isn't 100% accurate.

 

[spunky_mutters]

At least they used latin. It is, after all, a dead language.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

At least they used latin. It is, after all, a dead language.

But the book is about undead!

 

[Gez]

They should use an undead language, then. Maybe Hebrew -- wasn't it a dead language before the creation of the state of Israel, and its adoption as the official language?

 

[Zappo]

The undead suck at latin - it's, after all a dead language, not an undead one.

Back in mid school I used to describe latin as an undead language, seeing as it's extensively taught despite having been dead for centuries.