D&D General Yan C Bin is the worst name in D&D

[cbwjm]

I dunno, I'm not too fond of flind. I still don't know if it rhymes with wind or wind.

 

[Voadam]

Juiblex is one that never seems to get pronounced right. People read it and subconsciously transpose the I and the B.

I did appreciate the writers of Rime of the Frostmaiden for including a pronunciation guide for all major NPC names at the start of the book.

The OGL one from Tome of Horrors is Jubilex.

It is good they had it in the beginning. I read a 300+ page novel about the Celtic hero Chuchulainn and got to the pronunciation guide in the back where it says the name is not pronounced Chew Chew Lane as I had read it phonetically, but as Coo Hay Lin.

 

[Zsong]

The OGL one from Tome of Horrors is Jubilex.

It is good they had it in the beginning. I read a 300+ page novel about the Celtic hero Chuchulainn and got to the pronunciation guide in the back where it says the name is not pronounced Chew Chew Lane as I had read it phonetically, but as Coo Hay Lin.

Koo ka Lin

 

[Demetrios1453]

Manual of the Planes came out in July 1987, as did the 1e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting boxed set.

To my knowledge Akadi and the other three elemental gods have never been referenced in a Greyhawk book. I checked 2e From the Ashes, the 3.0 Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, and the 3.0 Manual of the Planes and could not find any references. Just the 1e Manual of Planes, a Planescape reference in the Inner Planes book, and FR stuff. Also in the late 4e era Heroes of the Elemental Chaos Akadi is listed for the world axis cosmology as a primordial elemental lord who is worshipped as the goddess of air in Toril.

Greyhawk has their own air and wind gods.

Greenwood apparently used Moorcock's Melnibonéan elemental gods from the original Deities & Demigods for the Realms (in this case, Misha for Akdai). Since Jeff Grubb authored the Manual of the Planes and co-authored the FR Gray Box, I have a sneaking suspicion that Akadi and the other FR elemental gods were his doing.

 

[see]

Yan C Bin featured in a previous campaign and we called him Yancy the entire time and joked that the C probably stood for something embarrassing like Clarence or Clementine. I wonder if there's an interesting history behind this strange name choice.

No idea, but you (or somebody) could try asking Lewis Pulsipher, the guy credited in the original Fiend Folio as the creator of the Princes of Elemental Evil.

 

[see]

Greenwood apparently used Moorcock's Melnibonéan elemental gods from the original Deities & Demigods for the Realms (in this case, Misha for Akdai).

As can be seen in "Down-to-Earth Divinity" in Dragon #54 (October 1981, p.9). And the editing error on p.18 of the Cyclopedia of the Realms in the Old Gray Box where sailors were still listed as placating Straasha and Misha instead of Istishia and Akadi. And why CN, but only CN, magic-users and illusionists on that page are listed as often following Kossuth; while Kossuth is N, his Melnibonéan predecessor Kakatal was listed in Deities & Demigods as CN.

 

[Helldritch]

Lots of stuff are reviewed and adapted to please editors from original stuff to what actually see print. A novel might go over a dozen review before being accepted and in the process, sometimes, an inconsistency or two will sneak in. It is not such a big deal IMHO.

But the names... they could gave at least try to put something that we can actually pronounce or a phonetic help. Yep, a phonetic help like we have in dictionaries would have done the trick (and saved us a lot of headaches and tongue twisting)

 

[Zsong]

Greenwood apparently used Moorcock's Melnibonéan elemental gods from the original Deities & Demigods for the Realms (in this case, Misha for Akdai). Since Jeff Grubb authored the Manual of the Planes and co-authored the FR Gray Box, I have a sneaking suspicion that Akadi and the other FR elemental gods were his doing.

And the animal lords come from the Elric saga too

 

[Al'Kelhar]

D&D Beyond has Critical Role members offering the official pronunciations of many things, including points of contention like drow, bulette, couatl, thri-kreen, etc... So, it is still something they think about today.

Yeah, this is the bunch of "nerdy-ass voice actors" who continually pronounce the word "quay" as "kway". Even after one of their own number corrects them. Maybe their strength is less in the pronunciation and more about doing 3+ per hours per session of deep roleplaying about interpersonal issues like angsty teenagers!

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Manual of the Planes came out in July 1987, as did the 1e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting boxed set.

To my knowledge Akadi and the other three elemental gods have never been referenced in a Greyhawk book. I checked 2e From the Ashes, the 3.0 Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, and the 3.0 Manual of the Planes and could not find any references. Just the 1e Manual of Planes, a Planescape reference in the Inner Planes book, and FR stuff. Also in the late 4e era Heroes of the Elemental Chaos Akadi is listed for the world axis cosmology as a primordial elemental lord who is worshipped as the goddess of air in Toril.

Greyhawk has their own air and wind gods.

Akadi is also in On Hallowed Ground.

Basically, they are Inner Planar elemental deities in the multiverse, that happen to have human/demihuman followers on Toril for some odd reason. Conceptually the 4e Primordial concept is a perfect fit. On the other hand, Greyhawk air and wind deities, like those everywhere else, are more regular anthropomorphic deities that are part of human pantheons.

The reason they are associated with the FR is because they've only been published in Planar supplements and FR supplements, and more people are familiar with the latter.