Saturday with Sach: Whats In a Name
NAMING - IN THE BEGINNING
I had the curious privilege of seeing the internet as we know it form into what it is today from my childhood. There was a dark time, a scary time, when the internet wasn't really a thing people knew about, or used. We had to do some scary stuff to get information back then. DARK things. Things like, "asking people questions in real life". Who even has time for that, right? How did we live?!
When it came time to have a presence on the internet, I went through a lot of names. The one I probably had the longest (before Sacheverell) was "Pretzel", a handle I used in a lot of MMOs and FPS games. What made me choose that name? I was probably hungry. Who knows. What mattered was that people knew me by that name, and it became a part of me. Our in-game names are, in a sense, who we are; it's not even what the name implies, or where it came from, but the association we bring with it. When someone sees our in-game name, they immediately think of us, the person - what we're like, whether we're friends or not, games we play together, all that good stuff. The nature of an in-game name isn't exactly rocket science, but there is one part of it that fascinates me to no end: the origin of a name.
WHO WE ARE TODAY, AND WHY
I would never ask of you anything I wouldn't do myself, so let's start with the origin of my in-game name, "Sacheverell". In short, it came from a love for tabletop games. Without getting into all the boring details, it was the name of an entity in a particular game that I thought sounded neat, had a neat theme, and it was fun to say aloud, besides. In my voice-acting work, it was handy to have a name that resonated in a catchphrase, and it serves that purpose well. If I had to name one regret over it though, it would be how much trouble people seem to have with it, both in spelling and spoken aloud: I've seen Sacherevell, Sachaverall, Suchaverel, and countless other variations. Out loud, it gets even sillier. A wise man once told me that I should've picked an easier name, and in many ways, he was right. If I had stuck with something simpler - say, Pretzel - there would be a lot less confusion. To be fair, I've seen a lot of people mistakenly call him "criticsquid", which seems to bother me a lot more than it bothers him. Though, the idea of replacing a citrus-based descriptor with the image of a film critic still makes me giggle a little.
WHO ARE YOU, AND WHY
Forget me for a minute, let's talk about you! What made you choose your in-game name? Is there a cool back-story, with some deeper personal meaning? Did you take it off a cereal box? Smash the keyboard with a hammer? No story is too awesome or silly! Let's hear about your in-game name!
Sarthon was a lonely prince who never really got out much, due to his father's paranoia of assassination. To keep things short, one thing lead to another and the his home Kingdom Aryl was decimated by the the court Mage. Noone suspected she was a Necromancer, and thus succeptible to possession by Ancient spirits from the dawn of time, before the world was shaped and men had bodies.
She went about in a craze draining the life force from the bodies of all the people in the kingdom. Yes, the entire kingdom turned on her, and they destroyed her body with swords and arrows, but that didn't slow the spectre posessing her at all. He had already started draining souls, and gaining power. He only needed to entrap The Mage's spirit, and use it a means of transportation.
Sarthon, seeing this was happening, Locked himself into The Below, a secret shelter underneath the castle, as old, or older than the castle itself. Only the royalty used it in times of war, or other such emergencies. Many wards and three hand thick door of Dragontooth Steel made it undoubtedly the safest place to find yourself trapped in all the Kingdom.
He sat there, trying to blot out the images flashing through his mind of the people he saw being destroyed, their bodies crumpling as the life force was drained. He was terribly afraid for his Parents, too. Why was he the only one in the Below? Why were his Father and Mother not there? He wondered. after a few hours he noticed he couldn't hear the Belltower ringing it's alarm anymore. In fact, he didn't hear anything. It was eerily quiet, and it stayed that way for hours. Eventually he fell into an unfitful sleep, plagued by dreams of what had happened, and of his father and all that he loved being drained, and slowly dying.
He was jolted awake by a blood curdling scream. He was suddenly terrified for his mother, the only woman that knew of the Below. Had she been attacked while trying to escape to the Below? he rushed to the door, and just as he was struggling to push it open, and help his mother, a hand pushed through the door, and through his chest. It looked as if it were somehow made of steam. He suddenly heard the scream again, but clearer. It was the Court Mage! "No! Gods, no! Please, not him! You can't kill him! Please, stop! I beg you, spare him!" Suddenly Sarthon felt something in his chest grow cold, and he felt as if he were being crushed by a massive weight. He was weak, and could barely stand. "No! You can't do this! YOU CAN'T DO THIS! STOP" The Court Mage then said to Sarthon "Sarthon, you've got to stop him. He'll rip the souls from the entire WORLD if you don't stop him. Sarthon, I'm so, so very sorry, but you have to stop him. It will mean watching everyone you love die. You will see beauty in this world, and you will watch it wither and die many times over, but it's what has to be done. Sarthon, my consiousness will fade soon, and it will just be the spectre. I'm keeping him from ripping your soul. If you are to ever beat him, you'll need this. He cannot have the power he has taken from the souls of this kingdom."
Sarthon suddenly realised what she was doing. he had studied these things in the castle's Arcanum Library. Researches and theories of transporting souls from one catalyst to another, infusing bodies with multiple souls. Of course it was said to be impossible in the books, and completely inhumane, but such things he found himself reading in his many board hours in the castle. "No, You- You can't! It would destroy me!" Sarthon pleaded "Chances are it will, but it's our only hope. I brought this into the world, and I have to at least try to do something about it" The grasp on his chest got tighter, and he realized he was shivering violently. "Sarthon, Whatever happens, do not let yourself become bitter there will be more pain than you could ever imagine. It will leave you scarred, and broken, but you have to keep pushing on. Walk the lands, and find the Spectre. Avenge me. Walk the lands until you walk the Void. When I do this, I'm going to die. He will be dispelled for a few hundred years, but he will keep my spirit, and use it to pass back into the world. When he does, you must be ready."
Suddenly the cold was replaced by a warmth that flooded through him, and there was a warm light that started to cloud his vision. Soon, everything was tinted gold, and then the tint became so thick he couldn't see. Sarthon had no idea what was going on. he was still in the Below, scared to come out, and eventually he wept.
While he was sobbing, after a while, he started to hear screams, and things like "No" or "Please no" over and over again. The souls. It was the final actions the souls had made. It was the kingdom's last words. After a while he heard his mothers voice, "Please, I beg you, spare us, we have no quarrel with-" and then it cut off. More sobbing. Later, I heard my Father's voice. More of the same. Sarthon was, after all, a fifteen year old boy who had just been infused with seven thousand, five hundred and sixty three souls, as of the last census.
After a while, Sarthon opened his eyes and realised he could see again. He could see perfectly fine. He looked down at his hands, and saw that they were covered in what appeared to be droplets of liquid gold, but that couldn't be. It wasn't hot to the touch. He eremebered that he had been crying on his hands, and was suddenly alarmed. He had read of the many diffenrent and terrible things that happens to the body when infused with magic. He bolted to his feet, and ran to a dusty old mirror on one of the walls of the Below. When he stood in from of it, he saw his suspicions were true. His eyes had been turned into what appeared to be gold. How am I able to see? What had happened? Am I going to die? He wondered many things, his mind a flurry of thoughts, questions, screams and emotions. He finally decided he'd risk coming up out of the Below. He needed to find someone he could trust, and someone who could tell him if he was going to die.
Anyway, I sort of base different things in minecraft off of that story. There's much, much more, but I suppose I could say that's the end to chapter one of the dream. Oh, and yeah, it's a bit dark at the beginning, but for those of you wondering, there is happy parts too, and many triumphs, etc. It's just that the beginning to the story is tragic. Also, for those others of you who are wondering, Yes, I do have very interesting dreams, and I am always very happy when I remember them, as they are usually adventures and things like this.
Y'know, these guys:
-Samakin
My usual username is Codebracker, and I've been using it since I was four.
English is not my fist language and I just started learning it (from pokemon cards),
I was making an account for the bionicle page and wanted a username that sounded cool, so after a week I decided to go with Code breaker - as you probably guesed I didn't learn to spell yet.
The username stuck and I've ben using it for any and every game so far, turns out that a misspelled username is rarely taken so I never had to change it.
The story behind the 0 is kinda silly, I managed to steal my own username.
When I decided to buy minecraft I created an mojang account and found out you can reserve an username before you buy it, I thought why not and put in Codebracker.
Imagine my surprise when I bought it and I got a "this username is already taken" message, and my reserved username was empty .
Apparently you ran from grammar class.
<.<
>.>
so, you ask what the heck is that?
well, back when the interwebz were 3p1c, and Usenet was king, I would spend a lot of time trolling newsgroups and generally ragging on WebTV users. I posted some dubious "poetry" in alt.arts.poetry_comments, and was flamed by some self-important poetaster, one Gary Gamble (possibly the Canadian radio personality, but certainly a henceforth known plagiarist).
In respons to my offering, he droned:
lel
I had never heard of "delete key editorial", nor was I aware that i reeked of its ghost.
I misread read it as "ghost of delete key" editorial...
Once i figured out what he was on about, I still thought the other way of reading it was far more interdasting... so I claimed it for my internet presence. In roughly 14 years, I'm the only ghost of delete key running around the web, so it's suits me fine. I use "godk" where space wont permit the full name.
I'm sure that was so interesting, and I'm hardly surprised you didn't tl:dr.
/sarcasm
I got that name from an old game, a long time ago, called MagiQuest.
in that game, there are ranks, (Beginner Magi, Magi, Senior Magi, and Master Magi.)
once the game went out of buisness, i named myself Mastermagi because i wanted to remember the game, and to honor my amazing feat of becoming a Master Magi, the highest rank in the game (it was really hard. trust me.)
*le funny story*
when i was five or so, i had a Club Penguin account, and my username was jeveuxjouer, which means "i want to play" in french (and yes, i speak french fluently) because all the usernames that i wanted where taken.
I was 9. I was gearing a catchy song, and I was greatly inspired by it, like all other 9 year olds. I smashed a combo in my mind, and since I was inspired by video games and ninjas (like all other 9 year olds), and since as a 9 year old, I thought numbers were the coolest username trend back then. So, when the majestic combo had finished, it came out as "ninjatwist321". Now that i'm older, and things have changed, that i realize numbers are unoriginal, I'd change it to Ninjatwist or Ninjatwist_, but the downside is that my old friends, such as bmxer2001 or ARavinMadMonkey won't recognize me, which is why I'm forced to stay as ninjatwist321, a childish, unoriginal username. On any MMO with a medieval theme, you'll see me as Brutishace. However, on any other game, I am, as almost always, ninjatwist321 or Ninjatwist, since the name rang out in my head.
PS: If you see bmxer2001, or ARavinMadMonkey, tell them I have my greatest condolences.
It started a long time ago. Maybe when I was 8. Not sure. I joined my first ever online community. Neopets. As I had to think up a good username to join, I jumped to the first thing that popped into my head.
Supercute.
Of course, my brother was aiding me in creating my account, and I understood the wisdom when he said I might be mistaken for a girl with that username. So I chose instead something long enough to remember, but easy enough to say. Thus, on neopets, I am now Hereicomenow.
A few years later, we discovered a fan site with a great community on it's forums. As I know some forums are rather touchy about mentioning other forums, I shall not name the site. Regardless, the community was great, and it was my first taste of roleplaying. Naturally, my name, still being hereicomenow, was rather long, so it got abbreviated time and time again. Comenow was the most common one. I believe sometimes it got abbreviated as Here, HICN, and some others. But then, one member abbreviated it in a way no one had before.
Heric.
This name had a nice ring to it. Short, yet cool. Thus, after promptly thanking them for the new name, I switched mine to...Dark Heric. While everyone still called me Heric, I use Dark Heric, or Lord Heric, as an alternate name when my five-letter persona is already taken. Which I'm pretty sure it hadn't been taken, but still...(The Dark/Lord prefix was more a representation of preferring the dark side when it came to fantasy)
I don't remember who called me it first. It may very well have been my best friend on that forum, who addressed herself as 'Moogi'. Might have been Raven/Valka. Maybe even _johnpaul, an old RPing buddy.
If anyone recognized me anywhere else, feel free to give me a holler here or there. Also, if the place has a searchbar, just type in 'Heric'. Heck, I bet you could google my name, and find my material(Albeit mostly here.)