GB Feature: The Witcher Week, Day Two

[GameBanshee News]

Our second day of The Witcher festivities includes a full bestiary profiling all of the game's creatures, details for all five Sign ability trees, and 180 sketches (here, here, and here) that were drawn during the game's development. The Golem:

Occurrence: A golem is a creature made of stone or wood, brought to life by a mage and animated with the use of magic.

Immunity: Its tough body is immune to sword blows and most effects.

Susceptibility: A golem can be stopped by its maker; usually the giant is set in motion by a lightning bolt, so a major electric shock might incapacitate or even annihilate it.

Tactics: A golem uses its superhuman strength to knock down, stun and crush opponents.

Alchemy: Golem’s obsidian heart.

Once an absent-minded mage created a golem, animated it by casting Alzur’s Thunder, and ordered his new servant to fetch water, before burying himself in his scholarly books. The golem kept carrying water day and night, without pause, and ultimately flooded not only the mage's house, but the whole city. As you can see, my young students of the Art, improper use of tools and a lack of elementary training may cause a tragedy.

- Anabelle Radfind, Lectures on Security and Hygiene in Magic

[Brother None]

Great features! There're some interesting animals in the bestiary, along with a lot of RPG standards

Can't figure out the bloedzuiger. That, for clarity, is Dutch for leech, which is Egel in German. But why "bloedzuiger"?

Rock @ cockatrice. Always nice to see those fantasy creatures somewhere.

Also, Dagon?

[fable]

Originally Posted by Brother None

Can't figure out the bloedzuiger. That, for clarity, is Dutch for leech, which is Egel in German. But why "bloedzuiger"?

Because of the sound of the word. With a largely non-Dutch audience for the game, Bloedzuiger sounds more impressive than "leech." But hey, "scum of the earth" just doesn't cut it next to the German Abschaum der Menschheit.

[Tricky]

How would you go about pronouncing bloedzuiger then, Fable? And how did those crafty Polish know English people would like it so much? And I had no idea egel was German for leech. It means hedgehog in Dutch.

Somewhere Johannes Gutenberg is having a good deal of fun over all of this.

[fable]

Originally Posted by Tricky

How would you go about pronouncing bloedzuiger then, Fable? And how did those crafty Polish know English people would like it so much? And I had no idea egel was German for leech. It means hedgehog in Dutch.

According to a few company reps I've spoken with over the years, the biggest market for RPGs remains the US. Stands to reason a developer would simply use a word that seems sonorous in both English and a variety of other languages to describe a monster. Lord Dunsany, the pionnering fantasy writer of the early 20th century, did this sort of thing all the time. So did Tolkien, whose use of language derived from him.

As to what makes it impressive: three syllables, a pair of "heavier" dipthongs, a glottal stop, and the use of a partword that looks to English speakers like "blood."

Somewhere Johannes Gutenberg is having a good deal of fun over all of this.

Out of curiosity, why Gutenberg? He was only the first European to "invent" moveable typeface. He had no interest in language as such, and was preceded in the invention he's normally associated with by Bi Sheng, around 1000 ACE.

[Tricky]

Originally Posted by fable

Out of curiosity, why Gutenberg? He was only the first European to "invent" moveable typeface. He had no interest in language as such, and was preceded in the invention he's normally associated with by Bi Sheng, around 1000 ACE.

I know, it was the first name that crossed my mind. Forgive me for not knowing who invented language.