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Tetrasodium
2013-11-05, 08:13 PM
Take the following hypotheticals about my npc & help me come up with a good name for his position's title please?

criminals who would normally be sentenced to death are more likely to be sentenced to undeath as a mindless ghoul under a necromancer type's control
terminally ill & others with no hope might occasionally sign up for a screening process that results in promising candadites being selected to become a ghoul in exchange for a large amount of money to leave behind for whatever reason.
this npc is employed by the government (standard medieval king/duke/earl/etc type things) with a prestigious position tasked with performing the screening, conversion of selected living into to undead creatures like mindless ghouls, & ensuring that the crown/military owned ghouls & tending to their needs through legal means (i.e. necromantically treated pig/cow meat/blood)

What would you call this guy's position title? stable-master, or whatever the rookery equivalent is feels similar to the position, but this feels different than any old stablemaster & should probably allude to some sort of semi-nobility title feeling

Macrovore
2013-11-05, 08:17 PM
I would go with something bureaucratic and noble, like the Minister of Undeath, or the Minister of Necromancy.

Ravens_cry
2013-11-05, 08:18 PM
Overseer.
Seneschal.
Steward.
Judge.

GoblinArchmage
2013-11-05, 08:21 PM
Public Necromancer, perhaps.

Ravens_cry
2013-11-05, 08:29 PM
Minister for the Reverently Returned*
*As opposed to the dearly departed; the dead-dead.

Anxe
2013-11-05, 08:32 PM
Undertaker? Coroner? Mortician?

I liked the Minister titles. Minister of Death? Minister of Ghouls?

Kaveman26
2013-11-05, 08:39 PM
Keeper of the eternal peace?

After-Life Coach?

Rama
2013-11-05, 08:47 PM
Minister for the Reverently Returned*
*As opposed to the dearly departed; the dead-dead.


I love this one and may have to steal it for my campaign.

TuggyNE
2013-11-05, 09:25 PM
Keeper of the eternal peace?

Extremely disturbing, but probably a very good title for that bit of cognitive dissonance.

Kane0
2013-11-05, 10:01 PM
Keeper acolyte?
Renewer?
Reckoner?

Edit: Seneschal sounds good.

Tetrasodium
2013-11-05, 10:17 PM
Keeper acolyte?
Renewer?
Reckoner?

Edit: Seneschal sounds good.



Hmm, I'm thinking "Lord Keeper so & so" might work well.

KillianHawkeye
2013-11-05, 11:07 PM
Public Necromancer, perhaps.

I'm thinking Royal Necromancer myself.

dps
2013-11-05, 11:14 PM
Minister of Reckoning.

ryu
2013-11-06, 12:39 AM
Necromantic Recruiter? You did say he was basically in charge of offering the deals or otherwise picking who was to be raised.

WeLoveFireballs
2013-11-06, 12:53 AM
Pontiff of Blight
Blood Scrivener
Last Confessor
Envoy of Ghosts
Patriarch of Bones
Autarch of Unlife
Deathpact Seneshal
Minister of Exhumation

The Orzhov guild in M:TG does exactly this. I mixed and matched a few good keywords.

Slipperychicken
2013-11-06, 01:00 AM
Death Warden?

Berenger
2013-11-06, 04:32 AM
Conservator.

SassyQuatch
2013-11-06, 04:58 AM
You call him the (Evil) Ash and the ghouls are referred to as Deadites.

Brookshw
2013-11-06, 05:50 AM
Director - Department of Necromantic Affairs

mig el pig
2013-11-06, 08:17 AM
- Mortiärch
- Teuts-Diaken
- Cadavrinal
- Counter of the Corpsecrop

Tylorious
2013-11-06, 08:23 AM
Eternal Sentancer
Hell's Liason
Afterlife Liason
Silent Plague

SethoMarkus
2013-11-06, 08:56 AM
Royal Re-animator

lytokk
2013-11-06, 09:28 AM
Director and Advocate of Necromantic Groups (or DANG for short)

Jay R
2013-11-06, 10:22 AM
The job involves putting prisoners to death, making judgments for the ruler, and using unnatural and evil powers to defile corpses in ways that are an abomination to men and gods.

The traditional title is "Vizier".

TheStranger
2013-11-06, 11:50 AM
Hmm... responsible for turning people into soulless drudges, and the people go along with it because it's marginally better than the alternative?

Director of Human Resources?

Edit: While I meant that as a joke, it has a disturbingly literal quality that I kind of like. I think I would actually use it if it were my game.

lytokk
2013-11-06, 11:56 AM
Hmm... responsible for turning people into soulless drudges, and the people go along with it because it's marginally better than the alternative?

Director of Human Resources?

Edit: While I meant that as a joke, it has a disturbingly literal quality that I kind of like. I think I would actually use it if it were my game.

I can't like this enough. It fits the whole idea.

nedz
2013-11-06, 12:31 PM
Guardian of the Royal Ghoul

Keeper of the Royal Cadavers

Companion of the Grave

TheStranger
2013-11-06, 12:41 PM
I can't like this enough. It fits the whole idea.

Glad somebody likes it. As an added bonus, trials would be hilarious:

Judge: "I hereby find you guilty of arson, murder, and jaywalking. The law allows only one penalty for these crimes. The defendant is sentenced to report to the Director of Human Resources at noon tomorrow."

Ravens_cry
2013-11-06, 12:54 PM
One trouble is it feels a little too Dilbert, which doesn't fit with the mediaeval-esque aspect.
The Warden of the Returned, Returned being a euphemism for the undead.

Slipperychicken
2013-11-06, 01:01 PM
One trouble is it feels a little too Dilbert, which doesn't fit with the mediaeval-esque aspect.
The Warden of the Returned, Returned being a euphemism for the undead.

It can work as a gag. Like you search for the evil reanimator and find some tired-looking nerd in a black robe sittjng behind a desk in an office labeled "Director of Once-Human Resources", who tries to direct your complaints to customer service.

Ravens_cry
2013-11-06, 01:11 PM
It can work as a gag. Like you search for the evil reanimator and find some tired-looking nerd in a black robe sittjng behind a desk in an office labeled "Director of Once-Human Resources", who tries to direct your complaints to customer service.
I personally don't like 'gags' that are only funny OOC in an otherwise serious game.
What next, a mug on his desk that says 'You don't have to be dead to work here . . . but it helps" and a "hang in there kitty" poster that shows a dessicated corpse?
If you are going for a funny game, oh sure, (though even then it can get old, fast) but otherwise?
Do not want, thank you very much.

Slipperychicken
2013-11-06, 01:18 PM
I personally don't like 'gags' that are only funny OOC in an otherwise serious game.
What next, a mug on his desk that says 'You don't have to be dead to work here . . . but it helps" and a "hang in there kitty" poster that shows a dessicated corpse?
If you are going for a funny game, oh sure, (though even then it can get old, fast) but otherwise?
Do not want, thank you very much.

I completely agree. It depends on the game's seriousness and humor level.

Jacob.Tyr
2013-11-06, 01:26 PM
It can work as a gag. Like you search for the evil reanimator and find some tired-looking nerd in a black robe sittjng behind a desk in an office labeled "Director of Once-Human Resources", who tries to direct your complaints to customer service.

That's taking Lawful Evil too far man, way too far. *shudders*

Tetrasodium
2013-11-06, 03:24 PM
That's taking Lawful Evil too far man, way too far. *shudders*


Hmm... responsible for turning people into soulless drudges, and the people go along with it because it's marginally better than the alternative?

Director of Human Resources?

Edit: While I meant that as a joke, it has a disturbingly literal quality that I kind of like. I think I would actually use it if it were my game.

This seemed relevant to both comments :). The campaign is fairly serious withgood & ervil being rsather dependant on your point of view. In the setting, we wanted undead to be more than "quick kill it for being evil!" and allow human motives (along with their depth of plot potential) to undead. Th e campaign is fairly serious withgood & ervil being rsather dependant on your point of view. This was done by making the following things true about undead across the board
* left to themselves, they are indeed quick kill it mindless monsters that will feed/devour whatever they need until they are killed or run out of suitable sources of food.
* as an extension of the last point, they are basically mindless & somewhere around a typical ooze/cockroach making them perfect for necromancer types to metaphorically hop in the driver's seat & control them like a remote control car at a distance.
* We thought about this and decided something special needed to happen for intelligent undead like the lich we had already placed in the game at that pioint ;).
* The specific special thing was to do nothing at all. The lich still has a phylactery like traditional fantasy tropes suggest. The difference is that the phylactery actually contains all of their intellect/being from which they control a mindless ghoul/zombie type.
* we decided that some of the things a lich needs to do in order to sustain themselves are likely to be a bit 'dark' & failin g to properly sustain themselves starts eating into their sanity over time.
* having come up with the (we felt) cool lich types, we decided that intelligent items should be similar since it would nicely explain 'cursed' ones. in order to simulate the common trope where an intelligent item could attempt/succeed in taking over the will of it's user, we decided that rather than needing the rather unpleasant requirements that a lich needs in his phylactery to remain constabntly sentient, intelligent itwms instead share the mind of the one using them and the user shares in the skills/experiences of the person/creature that was placed in the item in return, but the being in the item is effectively dormant/inert otherwise.
* The world itself draws heavily from ebberon but is set prewar/pre-elemental craft/pre-lightningrail/pre-etc on the border between cyre & thrane because they are a blank slate & fairly generic/traditional d&d-like setting. It does however take the dark6's PR stuff celebrating the good in those gods to another level & start it hundred(s)/thousand(s) of years ago & set the silverflame's purge a generation or two ago to leave 1960's south style jim-crow type hanging's on that are just not quite accepted as clan-type behavior out in the open.


The specific system being used is fate accelerated

tomandtish
2013-11-07, 08:14 PM
Glad somebody likes it. As an added bonus, trials would be hilarious:

Judge: "I hereby find you guilty of arson, murder, and jaywalking. The law allows only one penalty for these crimes. The defendant is sentenced to report to the Director of Human Resources at noon tomorrow."

"Can't I just be hung, drawn, and quartered instead? Please?!?" :smallwink:

Soylent Dave
2013-11-07, 11:17 PM
stable-master, or whatever the rookery equivalent is feels similar to the position, but this feels different than any old stablemaster & should probably allude to some sort of semi-nobility title feeling

"Constable" is the noble version of stablemaster (Comes Stabuli; Count of the Stable)

Which lends itself to Comes Mortui (Count of the Dead)

If you don't want to mess about with Latin, Count also translates as "Lord Companion", which connects with some of the other ideas - I like using Latin as a starting point at least, as that's where many of our actual Lordly titles came from (and especially if you're using things like 'Duke' (although 'Lord' and 'Earl' are via Scandinavian, so we're used to mixing it up a a bit anyway... I'm digressing))

Comes Inquietum Mortui (Lord Companion of the Restless Dead)

NB my Latin is a bit rusty, so if anyone corrects the grammar, they're probably right.

nedz
2013-11-08, 05:43 AM
"Constable" is the noble version of stablemaster (Comes Stabuli; Count of the Stable)

Which lends itself to Comes Mortui (Count of the Dead)

If you don't want to mess about with Latin, Count also translates as "Lord Companion", which connects with some of the other ideas - I like using Latin as a starting point at least, as that's where many of our actual Lordly titles came from (and especially if you're using things like 'Duke' (although 'Lord' and 'Earl' are via Scandinavian, so we're used to mixing it up a a bit anyway... I'm digressing))

Comes Inquietum Mortui (Lord Companion of the Restless Dead)

NB my Latin is a bit rusty, so if anyone corrects the grammar, they're probably right.

So Conmortal or Comortal perhaps ?
The stress being modified for Modern English speakers.

Marcelinari
2013-11-08, 01:17 PM
Comes Inquietum Mortui (Lord Companion of the Restless Dead)

NB my Latin is a bit rusty, so if anyone corrects the grammar, they're probably right.

The Latin would be 'Comes Mortuorum Inquietorum', but the logic here is sound.

Can I suggest the 'Comortorum'? The only problem would be the 'co' at the front, which suggests the suffix 'con' - which implies the meaning 'with', in that this position is 'with the dead' or one of the dead, perhaps. The again, a little vagueness on that front could be desired.

molten_dragon
2013-11-08, 03:59 PM
Make it something vague and meaningless so that it's that much creepier when people find out what's really going on.

Minister of Public Works
Selection Coordinator
Director of Public Service
Labor Resource Coordinator
Etc.

malmblad
2013-11-08, 04:22 PM
Thrallbinder
Regent to the Succumbed
Ambassador of the Veils

Echobeats
2013-11-08, 04:24 PM
Director of Human Resources?
IMO this is too good not to use.

Soylent Dave
2013-11-08, 10:07 PM
The Latin would be 'Comes Mortuorum Inquietorum', but the logic here is sound.

Told you I was rusty :smalltongue:

(I like Comortorum as well)