Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Choosing my SWTOR legacy name

I finally powered through Alderaan with my Consular to unlock my Legacy, but now that I've done it I'm paralyzed by indecsion. Legacy is a feature in SWTOR that, once unlocked by finishing Chapter 1 with one of your characters, allows you to choose a surname that will be shared by all your characters on that server. In the future, other benefits for gaining legacy points will be available, but for the moment, it's just the simple name. If only it were actually simple.

I didn't have too much trouble thinking of first names for the various characters I've created in SWTOR. After so many years of playing games, I have some favorite old standards, plus I made up a few new names for this game. But a last name that will be shared by all my characters? That's not something I've had to think of before. The fact that it's permanent and all my future characters (on that server) will bear the name as well makes it rather intimidating.

What sort of name do I choose? Names from Star Wars canon are forbidden, though many will make it past the filter and then it's just a matter of whether or not you get reported or caught. I saw someone walking around with the last name Onasi, a clear reference to KotOR's Carth Onasi. I wonder if that person had to change it yet. It could be kind of fun to effectively write yourself into a Star Wars lineage, be either an ancestor of someone from the movies or descendent of someone from KotOR, but I don't think I'd want to risk being reported and forced to change it (or, worse, reassigned some other name without any say in it).

How about references to other fiction? Maybe a last name from another sci-fi franchise? I've seen a Greyjoy walking around the space station, plus someone named Zoey Washburne (sic). Names from popular culture or media are also forbidden by the Rules of Conduct, but I don't know where they'd draw the line. Is Greyjoy somehow obscure enough that no one cares? Zoey Washburne is obviously a reference, but the last name Washburne itself probably wouldn't be ruled out if used alone. It's a real surname, after all.

I could always make up a name. But would I go the "Nounverber" route, a la Skywalker? It's right there in Star Wars canon, but it can also seem cheesy. In general, I look down on this option as the cheap way out, but I can't deny that sometimes, it just sounds really cool. Or should I just completely create my own made-up name, one that's gibberish but sounds good?

This is what my brainstorming has come up with so far: If I go with a sci-fi reference, I might choose the name Serra. It sounds good with the various first names of my characters, and as long as I don't name any of them Inara, it's not an obvious reference--it's a real surname. Another idea that at least amuses me is the name Schwartz. A legit last name that has special meaning for Space Balls fans. Unfortunately, it doesn't really suit my characters, somehow. It would seem out of place. If I want to do a nounverber, I kind of like the sound of Stardiver*, combining a space-related word with something ocean related, which suits me. And if I completely make up a name... Well, I'm still thinking on that!

Of course, legacy names are unique in each server, so if someone else from my server already has any of these names, then I'd have to adjust accordingly. I should also mention that legacy names can be displayed two ways: as a last name (e.g. Master Eleni NAME), or as a subtitle under the name (e.g. Master Eleni/The NAME Legacy). So if I chose Serra, I'd probably use it as a last name. But I'd probably choose the second option for The Schwartz Legacy.

Anyone have any suggestions? If you're a SWTOR player, what legacy name did/will you choose?

* Edit: Stardiver has already fallen out of favor. I realized it might make me sound like an Olympic diving champion or something. Didn't like that. Need a new idea now.

Update: I finally did choose a legacy name, and I actually went with an old standard naming method of mine that I didn't mention in this post. I won't say what it is, but it is related to my name "Eleni" and is meant to translate (sort of) to "Star Fire".

1 comment:

Tara said...

Haha this is why I just gave my main character a super long first name - She's Sansaclegane, a smuggler. But I have a secondary character (a Jedi Knight) with a more normal name, Tarilyn (combo of my first and middle names). I know I'll rue the day I have to choose surnames for them!