Glamour

[Manuk]

Glamour unit ability:

[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Martini.gif[/img]

In combat: Mirror images like Mirror image spell
On land: inetectable on self provinces and helps sneaking in someone else�s land (it�s supposed to shape change to look like common people).

So... Why is that ability called glamour???

[Alneyan]

Glamour would be, I think, a fey appearence of sorts, quite appropriate for the Vans (Elvish beings according to their description), Faerie Queens and Sylphs, among others. Not strictly mundane glamour, but more of an otherwordly charm, mysteriousness, and so on.

[RonD]

Common usage today restricts the word to mean some sort of Hollwood high-fashion beauty. But the real definition is:


glam�our also glam�or n.

1. An air of compelling charm, romance, and excitement, especially when delusively alluring.
2. Archaic. A magic spell; enchantment.

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

For the longest time I thought the term the devs were looking for was glamer but I just looked in a couple of the dictionaries I have lying around... and it wasn't there. (whoa how weird is that... imagining a term that means "something that messes with your imagination"?) I imagine the effect is sort-of a reverse hallucination (instead of seeing what isn't there, you are specifically NOT seeing what is).

[Chazar]

I'm not a native english speaker, but my dictionary lists 'bewitch' and 'enchant' as synonyms for the verb glamour in addition to what has been said before. Seems alright then.

Nevertheless, the same question as the original poster bugged me before as well. So what would be a better word? While archaic words are usually fine and thematic for use in a fantasy setting, the problem with the word 'glamour' probably is that it has a modern meaning which has dislodged a bit too much from the original meaning...

[Alneyan]

I don't see a problem with glamour here: use this word as a verb is definitively archaic, but the noun is still used widely today. While that modern usage is around, it is by no means the only one (in English at least), and it is not really a new meaning per se.

Dominions is not the first game to use glamour in this meaning either: at least a few fantasy roleplaying games (pen and paper) use the word in relation with Fey beings (and assorted creatures). And glamour is a much more common word in "plain" English than D&D cantrips.

[Graeme Dice]

Chazar said:
So what would be a better word?

Illusion perhaps.

[deccan]

Alneyan said:
Dominions is not the first game to use glamour in this meaning either: at least a few fantasy roleplaying games (pen and paper) use the word in relation with Fey beings (and assorted creatures).

White Wolf's Changeling most conspicuously.

[Arralen]

Chaosiums "King Arthur Pendragon" .. around 1980 or something.

And they "borrowed" it, too, since it is the "historically correct term".

Actually, this sidhe/fay/fomorian ability is more than mere illusion, it's something about altering reality, or switching reality (they're all from some "otherworld", after all)

E.G.:
You meet some nice folks on a clearing.
You sit down with them and have a meal 'til late in the evening, lets say some really gorgous looking, smelling, tasting bread.
After that, you fell asleep.

Upon awakening the next morning, you find out that the strange folk is gone .. and that the bread has turned into stone - again.

Obviously, you wouldn't have been able eat stone, even if it looked like bread. So, under glamour, it must have had different pyhsical properties.

Another example:
There's a story about Merlin marching Kin Ban's army over 165 miles within two or three days, supposedly through some misty "otherworld" what shortened the length of path considerably.


Mmmmhhmm .. thinking about it - today's use of the word doesn't seem to be to much "off" - it's just that most people do not understand it anymore:

Glamour still is an enchantment/bewitchment which changes the laws of physics and logics in a limited place for limited time, beyond the comprehension of mere mortals, isn't it?

[Agrajag]

Just for fun, I ran "Glamour" through an English-Hebrew online translator.
What did I get?
In translation to english it will be:
Glow\Glamour(The hollywood style), Magic.
Interesting, don't you think?