Renaming MWEs?

[Zephyra]

I would love something like Faeborn, Fae-kin or Forestborn, I geek out on my race because of it's connection to the fae realm and the classical look at faeries so I'd be totally happy with something surrounding that.

*Glares at Siegart* Stop trying to bogart my forest!

 

[Inaryn]

Sylvari?

 

[Sspyndel]

Agreed, yes, a change is a great idea.. not Elves, but also not the only forest or fae folk, as the lovely Foxkin says. I'm also used to Tari Nor, but Nor.. almost sounds like North.. so maybe just Taari, and drop Nor? T 'aari? (t-ar-ee noor )

 

[Avaran]

I can't read tone over forum posts so I'm not sure if this is a serious suggestion or just criticism to this unexpected, and as some feel unneeded, change. Could you clarify for me?

Of course, I would be happy to.

It was a serious suggestion. I'm actually kinda tired of "humans" being a thing, and I think since so much is changing, why not that as well?

I will say that I don't feel the MWE change is needed/necessary, but I don't think my opinion on that matters. Or the Human thing really.

As a side note, I thought MWE were a cross-breed between Fae and Elves...so never saw (and still don't see) a problem.

Further, since we changed the names of Gypsies because of certain sensitivities, why aren't we changing Dark Elves? Black Face anyone? And Stone Elves! White Face is pretty freaking offensive too.

 

[Sspyndel]

Being that Dark elves are completely mythical, both as elves and black skinned, white haired, red / purple eyes.. I have seen many Dark Elves at our Comic expo in Calgary, and I have also done it for several Halloweens.. and got nothing but compliments, from everyone, including Blacks, Natives, and Asians. Black face refers more to what some actors did in the early eras of tv and movies, just the face, and a terrible job of it. It was a purposeful dig at them.

 

[Katie]

I like Sylvanborn or Faeborn. Maybe Sidhe (pronounced "Shee")?

 

[Sspyndel]

Sidhe is the whole group of Fae.. including Elves, Kyn, Satyrs, Faeries, Dryads.. and the dark ones, like Red Caps.. a touch too generic, for a single "race". hm, but what about Taari-Sidhe?

 

[Krow]

Being that Dark elves are completely mythical, both as elves and black skinned, white haired, red / purple eyes.. I have seen many Dark Elves at our Comic expo in Calgary, and I have also done it for several Halloweens.. and got nothing but compliments, from everyone, including Blacks, Natives, and Asians. Black face refers more to what some actors did in the early eras of tv and movies, just the face, and a terrible job of it. It was a purposeful dig at them.

I actually agree that dark elves should change, besides historical evidence there is a lot of subtle racism associated with dark elves, they're usually seen as evil or domineering as a racial stereotype for one.

However I can't speak to its offence or not as in that argument I'm coming from a place of privilege, what I can say is we've had more then one instance of a person of color making a negative comment about someone that was in dark elf makeup. I'd honestly love to see them phased into grey elves or something more neutral.

 

[Avaran]

Being that Dark elves are completely mythical, both as elves and black skinned, white haired, red / purple eyes.. I have seen many Dark Elves at our Comic expo in Calgary, and I have also done it for several Halloweens.. and got nothing but compliments, from everyone, including Blacks, Natives, and Asians. Black face refers more to what some actors did in the early eras of tv and movies, just the face, and a terrible job of it. It was a purposeful dig at them.

I'd prefer to see a name - if it is changed - to something that is easily pronounceable.

See, I'm not looking at it from the perspective of people who are already 'in the know' about Dark Elves - people who know about them generally don't care. I'm talking about Everybody Else. Frankly, I don't give two coppers about what we - as gamers and larpers - think about this.

Hasn't it always been about outside perception? That's primarily why we changed Gypsies, right? Too close to the real thing; too afraid people will be offended.

The bottom line is, we either set the standards we want to and have people accept them, or we can try to conform to every single socially sensitive issue that some random "I feel oppressed" person decides is an issue.

However I can't speak to its offence or not as in that argument I'm coming from a place of privilege

You can speak about its offense all you want. This "privilege" garbage is just a way for one group of people to make another group of people feel bad about themselves and to try to get to a position to where they can turn the tables and do what was done to them. Or something.

Just respect people because they are people, and deal with them as they act toward you and your friends/family/social circle. Anything beyond that is hate mongering prejudicial bull crap.

 

[mythic]

I think we are straying from the original topic folks. If you want to split this off to chat about other races/names then please do so.

Let's go back to brainstorming names to replace MWE.

 

[Krystina F]

I know it's less creative, but there is 'wodewose,' which is a mythical Wildman of the woods. We can can look back to our own (global) for some other insights too.

Or just use a phrase in an "obscure" to us in the US language... Like o'rmon in Uzbek roughly translates to 'of the forest.'

I personally feel some of the sylvan and Fae based words get over used in world creation, but then again world creation is not an easy task by any means. I won't complain either way of what we end up being called, because honestly, this is news to me that MWEs aren't actually elves. The information that got passed down to me was soooo not anything like what is written out.

 

[norman b]

2. They're not even elves! Renaming may help that.

They share some similar racials as elves (resist command, -1 body to start) and racial make up (pointed ears). They also have long life spans (RP) just like elves. I don't see a problem with them being Wood Elves.

 

[Jim]

I'm not wild about changing it, but I fear that might be more anchored in the fact we are changing so much and in the simplicity and streamlining losing a lot of the cool factor of the game. I worry that the change would result in a name that isn't very cool. I'll be honest, I abhor MeeWee (or any variation), but I also understand that what is cool is very subjective.

A few options I'll toss in:

Arbaranoj - Esperanto for Forest People

Dáskaloi - Greek for Forest People

Esigodini - Zulu for Of the Vale

Gayevoi/Gajowy (Slavic and Polish spellings respectively) "[he] of the grove" From Slavic mythology it is an alternate name for the mythical creature the Leshy. I like in particular that it is "of the grove". Of the vale would have, of course, been perfect.

Metsästä - Finish for Forest People

Mezhsargs (Slavic) Again another name for the Leshy, but just means forester which feels more gender neutral. I'm not particularly fond of this one, though.

Panisc - in mythology they were the servants of Pan. I'm not overly excited about this one, either.

Senlinren - Chinese Pinyin for Forest People

Sileni - Another term for satyr, though some accountings have them as centaurs instead of fauns.

Skovfolk - Danish for Forest People


Tanino - Japanese for Of the Vale

Údolí - Czech for Of the Vale


Shatans look like Mystic Wood Folk, but are a lazy, useless race of beings so I rejected it.

I also like the previously suggested Sylvari and Sylvanborn(e).

 

[Jim]

They share some similar racials as elves (resist command, -1 body to start) and racial make up (pointed ears). They also have long life spans (RP) just like elves. I don't see a problem with them being Wood Elves.

The problem I see here is that in traditional sword and sorcery wood elves don't typically have horns.

 

[markusdark]

I agree that the name should be changed, both because it is derived from a location that was created in another game when it was a singular chapter (IIRC). They also do not have/share in the elven traits of other Elves (such as the half cost for Archery) In addition, I have always hated the term Mee Wee - even though I had called them such in game at times.

I'm also a type who likes to keep things simple. Never been big on the grandiose style of names that are such things as "Faeborne". I think that "Woodfolk" works just fine. It is generic enough to apply to the group and differentiate them from the other races while leaving chapter specific naming options available to the creativity and flavor/preferences of the local chapters.

If you want a completely original name, there are a literal plethora of choices. For me, I'd go with a simple play off of Latin for "Forest Person" - Silvamir (sil-va-MEER). It contains a bit of the Sylvan/Fae reference, not overly complex in the writing, works both as a singular and plural reference. I'm not keen on the 'i' ending names as we've just introduced the Selunari and having another 'i' ending I feel would be too repetitive. And as stated and as in current practice, regional names for the various races are already in production.

 

[MaxIrons]

I personally use "Wood Folk", it's simple, descriptive, yet still gets forest and fey out quickly.

Edit: It is also close to M.W.E. enough that it can be explained away as a preference change like scavenger to wylderkyn as the previous term being somewhat... Insulting.