Picking a Character Name

To participate in Belegarth you will need to have a persona name. This name can be whatever you want it to be with the expectation that you need try to make it sound either historically period or from a fantasy genre. If you are having trouble thinking one up on your own there are several places you can goto for inspiration. You could choose the name of a character you like from a movie, book, or television series. If you choose to do this, however, try to pick a lesser-known character so you do not create an expectation of greatness that you probably will not live up to. You should also keep in mind that many famous character names have already been taken. Another place to go if you are seeking names is an online name generator. There are several of these around for online games, roleplaying, etc. and many of the names they suggest would be appropriate for Belegarth fighting. You may also wish to construct your own name that has significance from a fantasy language. For example, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote a book called “The Silmarillion” that contains an appendix with a complete dictionary of Elvish words for his fantasy world. Many people have used this to construct their own Elvish sounding names. Another common way to select a name is to use a nickname that you already have that sounds appropriate. If your nickname is Bubba, it is probably not a good choice. These methods have worked for many people to select their names, but they are not the only ways to do it! If you came up with a name for yourself by another means, that’s great!

Once you have found a name that you think sounds good there are a few things you should consider before deciding if you want to keep it. First, you want the name to be fairly short or easily shortened. When fighting it is often necessary to yell someone’s name quickly to get their attention. If your name is too long to be shouted quickly, you may find that people either do not call you by it or that they cannot warn you of danger quickly enough in the thick of battle. Another thing to put some thought into whether or not the name can be easily mutated into something you would not want to be called. For example if you wanted to play a Roman character it would probably be a bad idea to name yourself 'Gayus Maximus'.

After you have selected a name that you like, is not too long, and cannot be mutated into something you do not want to be called, you may want to look around to see if anyone else is using your new name. The best way to do that is to check the list of People on this wiki, or ask the veterans in your realm if they know of anyone else using the name you would like. Even if there is someone else using the name you want, there are no rules regarding duplicating names. Obviously this may cause some confusion and the person who had the name first may ask you to change yours so it is best to pick an original name if you can.

Titles

Something many new people like to do is pick a title to go with their spiffy new name. Depending on what title you want to use this can be good or it could cause you some grief. If you want to select a more obscure title that does not have much meaning to most people you probably will not catch any flak for it, however a common mistake is that many new people wish to role play a knight and call themselves “Sir.” The problem with this is that in Belegarth there are several prestigious knighthoods, all of which require extensive squiring and training before granting the title of “Sir.” There are no rules regarding titling yourself whatever you want, but be aware that many people that choose to call themselves knights without extensive preparation often are met with resistance and disapproval. If you are interested in becoming a knight, seek one out and talk with them about what requirements they had to go through to earn their title. In time, if you put forth your full effort, you can become a sanctioned knight.