Nation names ??

[Psitticine]

Arch as in the "arch of the heavens", perhaps? Arcocephale = mind of the heavens?

As for Man, well, the Isle of Man is considered one of the Celtic nations. I guess that's the best guess I have as to why the Celtic race is named Man.

[ March 12, 2004, 23:33: Message edited by: Psitticine ]

[lonewolf]

Here's a quote from parole.aporee.org:
The term Arcology comes from Paolo Soleri's book Arcology: The City in the Image of Man. In this book, Soleri posits a theory of social evolution and discusses the impact of this theory on future human civilization. The term is a portmanteau word formed from the terms \"Architecture" and "Ecology".

I guess Arcoscephale means 'Mindlords' if you want a non-literal translation in keeping with the theme...

[Murph]

Another interesting note about Pythia is that the Pythian Oracles of Apollo are thought to have kept sacred snakes under the temple. Also, in one of the myths about Apollo, the god had to kill a gigantic serpent or dragon who guarded the oracle at Delphi before it became a sacred place.
I do find it a little strange that they have legionares and the like, though. I would have thought that an armyset like Arcoscephale's would have been more appropriate, given that Pythia is much more related to Greek than Roman mythology.

[Zurai]

Originally posted by quantum_mechani:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wauthan:

Muspelheim - The worldpyre. The opposite of Neifelheim. Not featured in the game but a possibility for a mod perhaps. Would love to see Surt and other giants of fire.

Actually, there is a spell 'Warriors of Muuspelheim', gives fire resistance to your army IIRC. Still, it does sound like a good idea for a mod.

---

When/if we get the ability to mod themes, that's one that I'm planning to make. Would definately make Jotunheim a lot less predictable in MP.

[Agrajag]

Endoperez said:
Pythium comees from Pythia, which was some kind of a god/dess, IIRC. Also I think it means snake.

Just wanted to point out that peten is a type of snake in hebrew, a "Cobra" or a "Mamba" when translated into english (atleast according to the dictionary

[Vicious Love]

Actually, it's an adder. I believe the correct phonetic spelling is "pethen", but a soft "t" and the "th" dipthong are almost completely indistinguishable in Hebrew, except in special cases.
Then again, the exact pronunciation of the more ancient forms of Hebrew has always been a point of contention for linguists.

[Agrajag]

Vicious Love said:
Actually, it's an adder. I believe the correct phonetic spelling is "pethen", but a soft "t" and the "th" dipthong are almost completely indistinguishable in Hebrew, except in special cases.
Then again, the exact pronunciation of the more ancient forms of Hebrew has always been a point of contention for linguists.

Hmmm...
Coming from a man who lives (and was born in) Israel I can tell you its pronounced at Peten.
HOWEVER!
In ancient Hebrew (more like Aramit, however you write that in english) it was probably pronounces Pethen.
You see, in those ancient times the letter "Taf" (as it is called today) could be pronounced either as T or as TH, depending on special punctuation, that punctuation still exists in "Modern" Hebrew, but it is disregarded and unpronounced, so it IS a Peten.

[deccan]

ywl said:
Tien does sound likes sky or heaven but the right PinYin for that should be Tian. Chi sound like many things but earth... The closest thing I can think of that sounds like Tien Chi is something like the Lake (or Pond) of Heaven. Or the Dynasty of Heaven - if you pronounce Chi in a funny way...

Hmm, closest phonetically is 天气 but I really doubt they wanted the word for weather.

天地 would be meaningful but sounds nowhere close. 天子 meaning "Son of Heaven" might be a good bet.

ywl said:
Non-Chinese might not feel it but it actually feels weird for me to have a general called Lui-Bei under you - imaging having one of your knights called King Arthur...

Worst for me was having an eunuch named "Kwan Yin".

ywl said:
The three immortals are three of the eight mythical figures in legends, or more exactly fairy tales. The pronounciation there is not Pin Yin though.

Good catch, I didn't know that.

Sorry about the formatting. UBB doesn't like Chinese.

[MikeH]

Taqwus said:

Edit: As for Man, well, there's actually an Isle of Man, which IIRC has some Celtic heritage and related legends.

Yes it's a small semi-independent island in the Irish Sea

http://www.isleofman.com/factfile/ for more details than you probably want to know ,

[jarenko]

If I may inject my opinion here..

Man to me represents a mixture of the cultures of the British isles.

As has been said, there is the Isle of Man. But also, we can't forget the contribution of the longbow to the Hundred Years War, and how deadly that weapon made the English armies in that time period.

and of course King Arthur himself is supposedly interred on the isle of Avalon.

I believe Lord Warden was also a title in England. (or maybe still is ) A lot of similarities.

Pythium in my opinion is representative of the Eastern Roman Empire(BYZANTIUM). Both tried to (rather unsuccessfully) pick up the pieces of the greater fallen empire. Although Pythiums armies are a bit more traditional roman than the greek armies of the east, I think it is overall a good fit. On top of that, its nice to see the purple standard. Very Byzantine.

Maybe their priests could have been eunachs though. That'd be kinda neat.

Other than that the way I interpreted the nations to be are:

Abysia - not sure. HELL?

Atlantis - I guess Atlantis

Pythium - Byzantium with a pre-christian Rome element

Man - British

Ulm - medieval germans

C'tis - no idea

Arcosscephale - reminds me of ancient greece

Caelium - not sure. HEAVEN?

Ermor - Roman empire.. though maybe later Rome when it began using a lot of foreign mercenaries when manpower ran short. Replace undead with barbarians and it works out pretty well.

Marignon - reminds me a lot of inquisition era spain. It could nominally represent the papacy too, though I dont think they wield that sort of religious authority, it helps me fit them better into the disintegration of Ermor.

Pangaea - Not really sure. It is sorta mythological in a greek way. Not really a greek theme to it, but the creatures I remember from reading old greek myths, but they could be borrowed from wider mythology.

Vanheim - To be honest, with their ships and some of their units, they somewhat remind of me of the vikings. But I havent played with them enough to really make any firm judgement.

Jotunheim - I guess another scandanavian realm. But more related maybe to a mythological era. Someone before gave a good analysis of it, I'm not really too sharp on Scandanavian lore.

R'lyeh - Not sure.

Mictlan - Aztec empire , or at least mesoamerican.

T'ien Ch'i - some chinese or oriental empire. Kinda Ming dynastyish.

Machaka - Not really sure what these lads are, but since we don't have anyone yet from Africa I'll make it a african tribal state. That's my guess since thats what pops into my head when I hear "Witch doctor"