Just another thought on this one. Not ONLY elves use elven titles. Half elfs, humans, anyone who hugs a tree or thinks they're better than your average human does.
So okay. Do these people have GM elven IC? Because hey, I sure in hell do. So why I am I spending my time looking when their character could potentially not even know it themselves. "Well, my character is expert so they know most of it." That's great, and so it just happens that your character who likely only speaks elven to elves IC found out just those words? How far is too far here?
Do you really have to understand them though? I mean, when it comes to writing (especially role-playing) I'm a big believer in 'style before purpose'. If they know what it means and think it suits their own character why should it really matter? It is THEIR character and this is a game based around words. The only way to improve your character --to really set it apart-- is with words. The more well-written your descriptions or esoteric your choice of words then the more interesting your character becomes. Good on them for being out there. If it really frustrates you I recommend healthy stress management solutions such as the adult beverage of your choice
Did you read my post? :\ I VERY MUCH think titles are NOT for yourself. Titles are the one place to give a little interesting IC info about your character to everyone else. THEIR character should just be using the coded elven language as it is IC so why I am looking at noncoded elven on the who list? You're right, the only way to improve the character is with words So hey. Go GM elven on your non elf and be elf snobbing IC. Make my CHARACTER frustrated with the CODED elven they may not understand, not the tranlated elven that my character WOULD understand but I can't. So why is it that there are so many words in the english language and you feel the only way to be interesting is to use words that - aren't even a real language! The main problem with this is there are so many translators all over the place for so many types of this language no one has ever used in history that you can never find the precise meaning of a word. You look at a title you don't understand and think "Wow, that person has great character!" without knowing what it means? I mean in all seriousness it could mean like "killed your dog" or something. And even more seriously, the halfelf/human end of people that use it may not even be GM elven IC.
I never said it was elven snobbery. Why? Because most times it's people trying to prove their non elven character is omgsoelven. The problem I'm seeing here is not - "Ranger of Corellon" - that's three words. I can spend five minutes looking for that. That's not a big deal. What is is things like "ate cereal for breakfast and loved it". That's HARD to find. It's ANNOYING to find. Okay, so, you think, I shouldn't care what your title is if I don't know your character and it's really none of my business because you introduce it ic. Well, crap. Call me crazy, but if your title is none of the who lists business... why use one more than your sirname in general? Because you make a title for everyone who sees the who list. It's not just for who knows you.. they ALREADY know you. Or, here's an even bigger concept. They don't know you, but perhaps just maybe you rp so well, with so many people they've heard of you. Or even, they do know you though someone elses introduction so no, they never got the meaning of your pretty looking title.
Titles are IC info. I shouldn't -have- to ask ICly what your title is when I have GM elven. A non elf spends hours roleplaying and working on their elven. I remember with Lunette all of the time I put into working on elven with Lorelie and her laughing at Lunette's accent IC and such. So at the end of the day all of that work for Lunette (AND her teachers) and so many other non full elves who worked on elven is.. "Too bad send an otell they're interesting!"?
Let me just make this extra clear here. "Priestess" "Ranger" - easy for people to type who say huh.. search and find. I have no aggrivation with that whatsoever, even when it comes to non GM elven people. They're simple words. But "My cat has black fur" "I'm in love with this person" "I hate cheerios today" - Yes. I have a personal issue of aggrivation with these titles.
I didn't bump this into the thread stated because it's not about elves. It's not about elven. Elven is the most commonly used and easily used as example hence it's focus here. But this bump is about all titles in all languages that are not common. And that thread went big into elven snobbery, that's not what I'm getting at here.
Bald is the new brunette
Danica