Culture, Names and Accents - Allanak

[Kavrick]

So this is something I felt had been potentially missing from the culture/details help pages on different cultural areas of the game, and that's the distinction of names, accents and stuff like this. I feel like it really helps getting into character when you know these things. Whilst you can sort of learn the culture of these different places, the help pages feel like they're missing some gaps on what the average person raised in a particular part of zalanthas would be like, particularly Tuluk and Allanak. Even things such as asking the question of 'how would you stereotype someone from allanak', or the same question towards any other region of the game. I can't really tell how old the helpfiles are but I also noticed that the Tuluki help files seem a lot more thorough than the allanaki ones, if the up-and-coming season is going to be focused on Allanak, it would be nice to get a bit more of a 'pictures' of what staff would like to consider someone thoroughly 'Naki'.

So to go with this, I thought I'd ask a few questions to anyone who reads this to get an idea of what the general consensus would be when it comes to Nakians in general.

1. How do you think the southern/allanaki accent sounds?

2. Could you give five names that you would consider 'Allanaki' in scheme?

3. Could you give both three positive and three negative stereotypes you would consider generally 'accurate' to Allanakis?

[MarshallDFX]

I feel like this needs some veteran input.  I'm far from an authority but I'm just going to give what I remember being told when I was a newb prancing around like it was forgotten realms.

1. I've always seen southern typed with a Texan drawl to it.  It's obviously more cowboy than high medieval fantasy. But I'm not sure I want to commit to it being deep south either.  So I'm going to go with light-Texan, with a preference simple, straightforward expressions.

2. Again just me, but I've always thought about shorter, sharper names, maybe with a slight middle eastern flair.   Some ideas: Grik, Ves, Verik, Lorl, or Mayz.

3. I'd think negative stereotypes might be associated with violence and lack of appreciation for fine things.  Maybe positive stereotypes might be in contrast to Tuluk, such as common folk being straightforward dealers

[Riev]

I've long felt that culturally, Allanak was Middle East/Arabic in nature, while Tuluk was Egyptian. Allanaki accents always 'sounded Texan' because some people started using apostrophes instead of letters and that led to a lot of ya'll and ain't nothin' style typing.

I have always felt that Allanaki and Rinthi names would follow arabic stylings and often will pick a trait or 'common name' from an arabic dictionary. Wahid. Walid. Khawar.

[Kavrick]

I've long felt that culturally, Allanak was Middle East/Arabic in nature, while Tuluk was Egyptian. Allanaki accents always 'sounded Texan' because some people started using apostrophes instead of letters and that led to a lot of ya'll and ain't nothin' style typing.

Arabic/Middle-eastern is what I'd imagine, specifically pre-islam Persian stuff, as allanak doesn't do the whole religion-thing and religious-inspired names and culture feels like it might be strange perhaps?

[flurry]

I would love to see documentation on naming conventions. Similar to other cultural documentation, I'd look at that as adding more texture rather than limiting people.

1. I think the word choices would tend to be simple and direct.  Not sure about how it sounds.  I guess I don't think about that much.
2. As a generalization, I'd expect fewer syllables and perhaps more harsh sounding names.
3. Tough, loud, stubborn, crass, blunt, violent

[Usiku]

Everyone imagines the accents in their own way I think, it's not something we have ever dictated. But I personally find the idea of any American accents in the game incredibly anachronistic. I agree with Arabic/Middle-Eastern vibe for Allanak.

[Lizzie]

I don't really "hear" accents at all. In real life, I have a slight New England nasal twang, but it's not pronounced (not New York/Jersey/Boston/Maine). It's more like Ohio. A non-accent sort of accent. My vocabulary and use of slang and "lazy speech" and enunciation depends on the topic, my mood, and who I'm talking to.

I imagine in game, everyone talks like I do, in the same way.