What's with the herb names?

[Blaze The Movie Fan]

This isn't really a question regarding the game play, but something I find odd that I don't understand.

 

That's the names of the herbs. I have a question. What do the herb names even mean? No dictionary recognizes the names of the herbs, so I just wanna know are the names even in English?

[Gradeskip]

Are torva or chinchompa in the English dictionnary? This is a fiction game, what's the problem with fictive names? :P

[Blaze The Movie Fan]

Since this is a discussion that's not relevant to the gameplay, I have a feeling I should have posted this thread in general discussion rather than here in the help & advice forum.

 

Also come to think of some of the monster names are also non-English words. (Nechyearl and jogres are two examples.)

 

But at least nechyaerl sounds demonic and jogre is a combination of jungle and ogre, but what's the reason behind those strange herb names?

[Naive]

They made them up

[Star.]

A lot of the names are taken from real life plant names. I remember because I googled snapdragon once and it came up with the actual flower.

[Vezon Dash]

Imagine making an Overload potion with... Oregano, Thyme, or maybe Parsley. Torstol sounds much better.

[Sy_Accursed]

A lot of the names are taken from real life plant names. I remember because I googled snapdragon once and it came up with the actual flower.

 

This, among other things

A lot of them come from foreign/non-official plant/nature names. We had snapdragons in our front garden for years.

I believe toadflax is another name for frogspawn, vaguely recall that from somewhere.

Guam is a country.

 

They probably draw on latin and obscure mythology too, there's a lot of things like that in-game. Wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the herb names have some linguistic/cultural reference to the original potion they made either.

 

Also Nechyrael draws on many real words like necromancy and necrosis and probably a bit of a draw on old school WoW games Necrolyte dark mage class stuff.

 

And as mentioned all the Orges are pretty standardised Jorge, Skorge, Zorge, Morge for Jungle, Skeleton, Zombie and Marine Orge

[Blaze The Movie Fan]

A lot of the names are taken from real life plant names. I remember because I googled snapdragon once and it came up with the actual flower.

 

This, among other things

A lot of them come from foreign/non-official plant/nature names. We had snapdragons in our front garden for years.

I believe toadflax is another name for frogspawn, vaguely recall that from somewhere.

Guam is a country

 

Thanks for telling me this. This seems very interesting.

 

Of course herbs are plants of some sort, so obviously it's they're based on plants.

 

EDIT: This IS the wrong forum. I thought because I had a question it belongs here. But this is more of a discussion thread than it is a thread where I'm asking for help. I think it belongs on the general discussions forum more than it does here. But the mods and admins get to decide if it belongs there or here.

Edited June 4, 2012 by BlazeTheMovieFan

[Boris5000]

Tbh the Herb names are nice, I like them.

 

Although many herbs actually have stems e.g

MarrenTILL

LantaDYME

AVANtoe

 

Although I am fairly certain they were just made up and the stems are just coincidence.

[Blaze The Movie Fan]

Wait, if this was the wrong forum I think this thread would have been moved by now as I'm sure some mods have come across it.

 

Well, I have something else to say. Yeah, there is nothing wrong with the name being strange. It isn't just the fact that the names are made up, it's also the fact that I find the names of the herbs to be very odd. They're probably supposed to be, after all, RuneScape takes place in a fictional world, and it's common in fiction that name of things in the universe are made up.

[Ketchup2209]

Are torva or chinchompa in the English dictionnary? This is a fiction game, what's the problem with fictive names? :P

 

Just pointing out: Torva isn't in the English dictionary because it is Latin. There are a good number of things in Runescape from Latin in relation to Zarosian phenomena and objects.

[ilovecuttingyews]

A lot of the names are taken from real life plant names. I remember because I googled snapdragon once and it came up with the actual flower.

Yeah, I planted over 300 snapdragons last week at work :P

[Quyneax]

Dungeoneering (puzzle room) herbs are plays on existing herbs, e.g. parslay, slaughtercress etc. all with a horror twist :P.

[Star.]

Wait, if this was the wrong forum I think this thread would have been moved by now as I'm sure some mods have come across it.

 

Well, I have something else to say. Yeah, there is nothing wrong with the name being strange. It isn't just the fact that the names are made up, it's also the fact that I find the names of the herbs to be very odd. They're probably supposed to be, after all, RuneScape takes place in a fictional world, and it's common in fiction that name of things in the universe are made up.

Nah, it's still a question and it doesn't really have enough discussion value to be put in General Discussion. I mean if you expanded the subject beyond herbs and perhaps to Runescape as a whole then that would warrant its place in GD.