Okay, I've got good alternatives for most cuss words, but the one I'm having trouble with is taking the lord's name in vain. If some tragedy befalls your character, say your best friend got chewed on a little too much by a gwoshi, you might drop to your knees and say "Oh God! Why?!" However, this does not work, since most characters don't believe in God(s). So what do you say instead? I know some of you will say to use krath, but I've come across situations where this just doesn't feel right (to me the word krath is closer to the word fuck, not god).
Pick an element. Any element.
"By Viv's watertight hiney!"
"By Whira's airtight (fill in gratuitous mention of genitals)!"
"By Ruk's rock-hard dung!"
"By Krath's burnin' sensation!"
"Oh my fekkin' Drov, run for yer mother's life!"
And so on...
Oh man, I just can't agree with you that Krath = Fuck.
Feck = Fuck and, well, Fuck=Fuck.
Krath is more like Jesus Christ (Oh, Krath!) or God (Krathdamn Elves) for me since it has some sort of mystical implications.
See..."Oh Krath!" sounds right to me, but "Krathdamn" just seems too
awkward in common parlance.
"Oh God" is a profanity because you're taking the Lord's name in vain.
The direct Zalanthan translation would be "Oh Tek" or Muk or Utep or whatever those silly northerners would say.
Don't know what to tell you for non city-state affiliated PCs.
Red Storm takes the name of "spice" in vain.
I pretty much can't refer to elements, sorcerer kings, or powerful animals, because I always slip and say some variation of "God dammit." In the old northern days I might exclaim "Light!" on a rare, hastily forgotten ocassion. Now I just say fuck and shit. And sand. And that's about it.
Fuck, shit, and sand, baby.
The presence of dieties on Zalanthas is played down for a reason.
"Oh, sands!" is a good one, as is Krath for 'wow, shit'.
"Highlord!" or "Light!" as DAAMN.
If your character is more superstitious, you can also refer to Lirathu or Jihae. Remember that Jihae is the 'bad' moon and Lirathu is the 'good' one.
Other than that, people would usually refer to Krath, Drov or Whira, which is more associated, with luck as profanity-related elements. Vivadu is still water, Ruk just lacks any conotation (the RL equivalent would be - oh tree!), Elkros is probably just not understood by most as a concept, and Nilaz is far too scary for anyone to want to mention ever.
Quote from: "LauraMars"
Fuck, shit, and sand, baby.
Thank you, LauraMars, I'm now officially making that one line my new parting shot to all friends and family. :twisted:
On topic, I usually stick with "Krath" when trying to use what we would use for God. Though using "Tek" or "Muk" would see proper to for city PCs, at least in my opinion. Of course, there's always "Kankdamn", just for fun.
Quote from: "razorback"Of course, there's always "Kankdamn", just for fun.
THAT IS GREAT.
I think my favorite exclamation I ever saw IC was "Tektolnes's hairy steel balls, man!"
but eh. ymmv.
Mine was "My testicles would be all over you like a Pit Gortok on a Tregil."
Here's a file (http://www.armageddon.org/cgi-bin/help_index/show_help?curse) on cursing. The ones that haven't been said here are "Utep's teeth", "Utep's/Tek's balls" (not as much of a mouthful) and "Tek's whiskers." I'd say they're all similar to taking the christian god's name in vain.
"Krathdamn" seems strange to me, but not "Krath damnit!" as separate words.
(My favorite was saying..
"I'll be on your ass like elves on a coinpurse."
.. even though it isn't a 'curse'.)
Quote from: "flaran""Krathdamn" seems strange to me, but not "Krath damnit!" as separate words.
(My favorite was saying..
"I'll be on your ass like elves on a coinpurse."
.. even though it isn't a 'curse'.)
krathdamn is pretty common in nak, you just gotta get used to it =P
Rolls off your tongue nicely, just imagine being all savvy when you say it. KraaathDamn!
QuoteSee..."Oh Krath!" sounds right to me, but "Krathdamn" just seems too
awkward in common parlance.
I use "Krath-blasted" as a work-around for "Krathdamn". It's always worked well for me. Sounds more natural.
Umm....this doesn't quite help me guys, but I appreciate the effort. :) ...let me see if I can put this a little more clearly. If something really bad happened to you IRL, you might make a plea to God(s) saying something like "Oh God(s)! What am I going to do? Please help me!" right? Krath just doesn't seem to work here as a replacement for God(s). "Oh krath! What am I going to do? Please help me!" -who is your character praying to here? There's no God called krath! What I'm looking for is a word that has similar connotations to this, not like a lot of the examples listed so far which seem to be more alternatives you would use IG if you pissed-off/annoyed/irked/joking around/etc. Something more meaningful and serious. Like you would use in a desperate prayer. Does that make more sense?
I don't think many Zalanthans, aside from elementalists, believe in any powerful yet benevolent beings that they might pray to and ask for things. Maybe some of the better-off citizens and highborn might pray to their respective highlords, but I'm not sure that many others would see them as kind and loving gods.
What Moe said. You could always believe in the "Fates", where it can just be a force of nature that causes your life to go a certain way. But yeah, the gods are fairly lacking, and I doubt the Highlord or Sun King would be called upon for mercy. You can always have the odd character or two that has religious ideas about an animal or element. But I don't think every character of yours should be like that.