Mage names

So, I'm a little confused what kind of language is used for naming the various character types? Well, I've fired up my old latin dictionary and found no meaning whatsoever. Then I noticed that the word "xeno" in "xenomancer", which is greek for stranger.

So, I tried google and found this handy little thing:

http://www.babylon.com/define/105/

Mancer = ?

Helio = (greek) sun, referring to Helios the god of Sun

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n. (Greek Mythology) god of the sun who drove his golden chariot across the sky every day

Eomancer

Eos:

Quote :

n. ancient Greek goddess of the dawn (Mythology)

Nycto = ? (my guess is "night")

Exo = "out", "outside".

Oh, and "astro" = "star", "heavly body",

The suffix "-mancer" is derived from the Greek "manteia", meaning divination. It's essentially "one who divines the future". Adding a prefix like "geo-" or "astro-" means "one who divines the future through the earth".

Yeah, ancient "magic" was pretty crappy. All you get is a bunch of guys looking at dirt and saying "hay its gonna rain".

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The suffix "-mancer" is derived from the Greek "manteia", meaning divination. It's essentially "one who divines the future". Adding a prefix like "geo-" or "astro-" means "one who divines the future through the earth".

Ah. What about the others?

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Yeah, ancient "magic" was pretty crappy. All you get is a bunch of guys looking at dirt and saying "hay its gonna rain".

What's sad is that there are still people that believe this sort of crap.

What most people don't like to think about is that "magic" = "con" (as in trick). Most ancient magic was a running con (or at least some of it, some of it was superstition).

What was really hilarious was the Oracle of Delphi, just to note a popular example. Basically, the Oracle was in Delphi because there were gases in there, that drove anyone nuts. What was the prophecy was that they thrown some poor chick in, had her sprout nonsense and the priests interpreted the massage to anything they thought was the right answer.

So, yeah, people relied on a stoned chick to make big decisions.

Zixinus wrote:

What's sad is that there are still people that believe this sort of crap.

While you have the right to your opinion, please do not belittle anyone's belief systems in this forum.

Glisten Images wrote:

Zixinus wrote:

What's sad is that there are still people that believe this sort of crap.

While you have the right to your opinion, please do not belittle anyone's belief systems in this forum.

Strange that you are talking about religions, I was referring to scams.

You were referring to divination, which is not a scam unless lied about by people who don't have a clue what they are doing. Many paths, religions, faiths, whatever you want to call them, include forms of divination as part of their practice. Therefore, referring to it as "believing in that crap" is offensive.

To nudge the thread back onto solid ground...

I freely admit a level of ignorance, when it comes to putting together scraps of ancient languages. In the modern era, the "-mancer" suffix has come to be associated with any sort of mage, not just a diviner, so I'm jumping on the bandwagon of that particular conceit. I think the only greek-derived title that you haven't got listed there is "hylomancer", intending to translate something along the lines of "matter mage".

Hur hur hur, woodmancer </beavisandbutthead>
(the Greek hylē (from which hylo- is based) can mean "matter" or "wood", depending)

Why yes, I do enjoy multilingual sophomoric puns.

I have never been prouder of a forumite.

Yeah, knowing anchient greek words can be pretty impressive.

What I'm curious about what does "Nycto" mean?

Oh I don't actually know ancient Greek, I just know modern Google.

Anyway, nycto- means night. Nyctophobia, for instance, is a fear of the night.

Seriously, you can get most of these within the top five Google results, and if not add "prefix" to it.

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Oh I don't actually know ancient Greek, I just know modern Google.

I tried that too, but appearently not with the right keywords.

Well, you did good work either way.