Here you can speculate on the game’s plot, discuss its characters, and compare notes with other players.
Why do most characters not have names?
Lightning
Posts: 5
10/16/2014
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Is that a trait of fallen london or a narrative device? Do people forget thair names? Do they sell their name on the bazaar? Most characters go by their title like "The Duchess" "The Sardonic Music Hall Singer" "The Merry Gentleman" or "The Traitor Emporess" rather than Queen Victoria.
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dismallyOriented
Posts: 215
10/16/2014
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There are many reasons not to take a name. It's far harder to find somebody without one. Especially if they have a common title--there must be at least 37 "Erudite Scholars" in the University, and suchlike. And names just aren't fashionable. The Traitor Empress herself has no name. Who wouldn't wish to emulate her Enduring Majesty?
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Owen Wulf
Posts: 715
11/3/2014
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What's in a name? A Rose would smell as sweet if called a Petite Thorned Flower. Coming up with unique names for dozens of chracters in a game is a mind-numbingly onerous and difficult task. The naming systems purpose is useful for informing of the character's nature while avoiding the need for confusing verbal clutter al in one go. We know the Wry Functionary is a dry diplomatic type working around the Palace, but would this same image be conjured if his name were Sir Herbert Ford?
Of course there are named characters, they abound in the Ambitions. Another useful feature is that the player can interact with said characters, be it through marriage or murder, and it would not be odd to hear that your friend had different dealings with the same character. Why? Because they are not tagged by names but descriptions, descriptions that can be used by multiple people.
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edited by Owen Wulf on 11/3/2014
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Avian Overlord
Posts: 62
11/3/2014
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Uh, people have names, they get mentioned as existing, just not by the narration. Usually, some people are actually given names. I suspect it's just a concession to the MMO nature, giving everyone their own versions of the NPC's.
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The Principled Dectective-http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/Corvidae
Open for social actions of all sorts.
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Diptych
Administrator
Posts: 3493
10/16/2014
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There's certainly some in-story reason for it - we're explicitly told that no-one is allowed to use the Traitor Empress's name anymore. Ditto the London Magazine, and, one presumes, all the rest of the people, locations an institutions that have suffered a rename.
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Sir Frederick, the Libertarian Esotericist. Lord Hubris, the Bloody Baron.
Juniper Brown, the Ill-Fated Orphan. Esther Ellis-Hall, the Fashionable Fabian.
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