#barsoomian

Today we continue with introductions to our Kopikon presenters with Paul Frommer!

Paul is a conlanger and professor. He is best known for creating the Na'vi language for Avatar. It was also used in the recent sequel Avatar: The Way of Water. He also created the Barsoomian language for Disney's John Carter, and also maintains a blog about Na'vi called Na'viTeri. In 2017 Paul worked together with me, Marc Okrand, David Salo, and others to put together the documentary Conlanging: The Art of Crafting Tongues.

Paul will be presenting at 2:00 p.m. via Zoom in Copley Formal Lounge at Georgetown University, September 23rd, 2023. To register, go here. The full schedule is listed below:

10:00 a.m. Opening remarks by David & Jessie

10:15 a.m. Sally Caves

10:45 a.m. Carl Buck

11:15 a.m. Break (20 minutes)

11:35 a.m. Sylvia Sotomayor

12:00 p.m. David Peterson

12:30 p.m. Lunch (90 minutes)

2:00 p.m. Paul Frommer

2:30 p.m. John Quijada

3:15 p.m. Break (30 minutes)

3:45 p.m. Music (Jillian & Andrew Aversa)

4:15 p.m. Jessie Sams

4:45 p.m. Break (15 minutes)

5:00 p.m. Biblaridion

5:45 p.m. Marc Okrand

If you’re reading this, then you must be wondering “What the heck is this?”

Eclipse phase is a Sci-fi RPG system that uses d100′s and has a FASCINATING background and lore that I just adore. It’s also 300 pages long, 1/3 of which is dedicated to the universe, 2/3rd of which is decicated to mechanics. I’ve never played it, only read it, but goddamn is it interesting. Expect to see some characters from me that use the background at some point! My current favorite is Barsoomians with their “Ruster” morphs. 

I'm not going to blog about politics on this page at all, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Deputy AG in the Trump administration, Rod Rosenstein, is married to a genuine Barsoomian (his wife is former US attorney Lisa Barsoomian)!

His daughters, who live in my hometown of Bethesda, Maryland, are therefore the first identified half-Earthling, half-Barsoomian since Tara and Cathoris, back in the 19th century.