There are two things in life of which Mr. J. Egbert is absolutely certain; first, that one can never be overdressed for any occasion, and second, that it always pays to be polite.
These are two beliefs which are serving him well in his current situation.
He steps back from fixing the tie and gives the centaur lusus another once-over. A few fashionable purchases, including a pristine pressed suit, a silk bowtie, and an elegant tophat, have transformed an already awe-inspiring visage into a truly austere visage.
Wordlessly, he offers his arm. With a polite nod, Aurthour accepts, and together, they walk out.
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eraofstories replied to your post: do i lean into the weebiness and call the...
consider: you could make your own word (I know how much fun you have with con langs!) and then just describe their traits to define the word?
hm. interesting thought? i’ve lately come to the feeling that unless it’s a really specific concept with no real-world analogue, i should just use the real word for it (i.e. trying to avoid the “call a rabbit a smeerp” trope)
this got....... super fucking long because i’m basically thinking out loud sorry it’s under a cut
on the other hand...... i’ve been debating a lot about using actual japanese words in my narrative in the first place for concepts that are exclusively japanese. for a potentially plot-relevant example, one of the characters wears a jinbaori, or at least a fantasy version so similar as to be basically indistinguishable from the japanese one (except that the rank/nobility thing isn’t a factor in him getting to wear it...). do i call it a jinbaori? do i call it a haori? do i call it a surcoat?
or do i make up a fake word, and then describe it?
the problem of knights and samurai in this setting is actually.... the problem of feudalism. i’m not sure what the actual structure of this society is, and whether it resembles real-world feudal(ish) societies like 8th-14th century England and Tokugawa shogunate Japan. i do know there’s an evil overlord - he could very well be a shogun- or king-like person. on the other hand, positing my MCs as samurai or knights in this kind of society introduces a political element i’m not necessarily eager to portray - namely that it would make my character necessarily a form of intermediary ruling class that i don’t necessarily want!
in the modern world the ideas of knights and samurai have for the most part (especially in Western media) both been divorced from the idea of ruling nobility while retaining the idea of a code of honor (which for both cultures is probably a later re-interpretation of the behavior of centuries past glamorizing the ancient ruling class to the disfavor of the modern ruler, but that’s its own kettle of worms)
the characters i’m writing are ideally separated from the idea of nobility, but have a code of honor - in other words, leaning heavily into the high fantasy knight/paladin archetype and just as equally leaning into the noble samurai/ronin. and like. people writing high fantasy often use accurate words to describe pieces of medieval knight armor and clothing (when they’re not doing the d&d thing and making up basically perfect nonsense that sounds good) so why not do the same with the japanese clothing and armor if i’m going to be using them in my story anyway?
and if i’m doing that, why not just call them fucking samurai?
on the OTHER other hand i’m very definitely absolutely not japanese. and like. i’m trying not to let myself freak out/think too hard about cultural appropriation at this stage in the game because FUCK IT IT’S A NANO but also at what point do i need to say “okay this is going too far?” and at what point do i say “calling characters that are clearly samurai “knights” might actually be the worse option”?
on the other other OTHER hand. “dragon samurai” sounds vaguely heroic and “dragon knight” sounds slightly more ambiguous (at least in my mind) and the character is supposed to be evil so.............. idk what i’m going to do
(and.... yeah, i could make up a made-up word, but then i’d have to define it, and the world already has a relatively useful concept of what a knight or a samurai is which maps pretty closely onto what i’m doing, especially since the vast majority of the world really doesn’t care what having knights in your setting implies about the feudal structure of the society whatsoever and i just have stupid hang-ups because one of my best friends is a feudal history buff so long story short @rfkannen i blame you for this dilemma)
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The Doppelgang - a collaborative comic in the style of Dell Funny Animal comics. Created with @rfkannen-art, Dan Nott, and Daryl Seitchik for the Center for Cartoon Studies!
[Image ID: A stylized, cartoony depiction of four rats in pink, grey, green, and yellow. Each rat is successively smaller and standing on top of the previous rat’s head. The grey rat is wearing a tiny business suit. End ID]
