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[Emilovich]

The Language Overhaul
Steam Workshop page
Dwarf Fortress File Depot Page

Say goodbye to Astesh Clasptreaties and all the other randomness of vanilla Dwarf Fortress naming schemes! This mod aims to make names less gibberish, more memorable and more distinct and epic-sounding. It does this through a complete rework of the game’s vocabulary and symbols as well as adding more distinct translations for the languages of the dwarves, elves and goblins (humans are still WIP).

New Vocabulary
This mod completely revamps the vocabulary of the game, meaning that it adds new words that are aimed to fit the fantasy setting and specific context in which they appear. This means that names will be more memorable and sound less like gibberish than in vanilla dwarf fortress. Instead of dwarves and settlements having random names like Clasptreaties, Girdergrove and Faceearths, they will now have names such as Goldenmark, Castlecrown and Magmabury.

I have also changed how words are used in epithets. Instead of vanilla’s ”the X of X” naming scheme, where most words could appear in both positions making for very random outcomes, this mod uses a ”X of Y” approach, where X tends to be an object or symbol, and Y tends to be a more abstract concept. This makes for more meaningful names. With this mod, you will encounter forgotten beasts with menacing epithets such as ”the Child of Night” or ”the Venom of Reckoning” and your dwarves will create great artifacts with names such as ”the March of Heroes” or ”the Defender of Creation”.

I have gone to great lengths to make names fit the context they appear in. Civilizations will have names that sound like states and kingdoms, taverns will have more typical tavern names and you will be able to easily determine whether you are looking at an Elven or Goblin entity just by looking at the name. For instance, an Elven kingdom will tend to have a poetic name such as Burniel Loril ”the Pact of Songs” while a Goblin civilization will have a menacing one such as Sultozh ”the Gruesome Empire”.

New Languages
The mod also revamps the game’s languages (or ”translations”) to make them more unique and recognizable. The new dwarven language is inspired by Old Norse, the language of Elves by Tolkien’s Elvish languages and goblin language by Tolkien’s black speech. Human language is a WIP and currently they are using dwarven language as a placeholder. This change aims to make the different cultures feel much more distinct.

Compatibility
This mod should be loaded before any mod that makes changes to entities.

The mod replaces the vocabulary of vanilla, so any mods that add new translations based on vanilla vocabulary (such as new races) will cause problems. Creating a language based on this mod is not difficult, but if you need help, feel free to throw me a message at the forum.

Feedback
Please leave any suggestions or bug reports in the comments!

If any of you encounter an awesome name in-game, feel free to send me a screenshot here or on the forums. Then I will add it to the screenshot section above!

Changelog
0.1 - first release - Dwarven personal and site names
0.2 - Human personal and site names
0.3 - Elven and Goblin personal and site names
0.4 - Civ and government names + more of the above
0.5 - Fixed bug with bad group names
0.6 - Bugfixes, added forgotten beast names and more
1.0 - First release for Steam! Vanilla vocabulary now completely replaced. Dwarven, Goblin and Elven languages are pretty much finished, Human is still WIP.

[Deon]

This is actually brilliant. Many times I was planning to do something similar, but the closest I got to my dream of cool fantasy names is my latin language mod.

I haven't thought about simply making a special symbol for names... Bravo.

P.S. Your link is backwards ("this" in the link, and the link as the text).

[Emilovich]

Thank you, and fixed! 

[Sver]

I love this. Somehow, despite playing DF for 8 years, me and Mebzuth Paddleorgans could never really be friends 

Will certainly try this out in the future

[Phaseus]

This is exactly what I've been looking for. Part of the reason I hate micromanaging dwarves is because their names aren't easy to remember, and I only nickname them when they've done something interesting. Does this mod affect other civs, or just Dwarves?

[Emilovich]

Only dwarves so far, yeah 

[TomiTapio]

That reminds me...
*uploads DF 47.xx compatible FINNISH language files*

One version with ÄÖ äö for ascii users, one version for graphics tile users with AO ao. Hyvää päivää!
http://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=14884

[Deon]

I've used your idea in my Dwemer Fortress mod (it's not plugging, the mod is 1 thread above ), it works WONDERS. Finally I can have argonians and khajiit with appropriate names.

Thank you SO MUCH for the awesome idea.

[Emilovich]

Well, the way I've done it now isnt perfect. I need to do something with the translations because the names keep showing up in epithets and other places

[Emilovich]

Human settlement names are well underway! I'm very open for suggestions for what human first names should look like!

[Meph]

http://www.infernaldreams.com/names/Europe/Medieval/England.htm

For the humans. Regular medieval human names.

[TomiTapio]

Also 13th century Scottish names:
https://heraldry.sca.org/names/Namesfrom13thCenturyScottishParliamentaryRecords.html

[Meph]

Could you please upload it to Dffd too? Too often have I stumbled over mods with dead links after the owner stopped coming around. Wouldn't want this to get lost, since you seem to be the first person to make something like this.

[Emilovich]

While I agree with the medieval English theme for humans, the problem with using actual medieval names is that you can't assign names based on whather a person is male or female, and meeting Queen Arnold just doesn't feel right. I'm contemplating giving them Old English occupational names such as Webbe (weaver) or Gethaca (Thatcher), or maybe animal names like Hraefn (Raven) and Eofor (Boar). Or perhaps some Old English-style names where the gender wouldn't be quite clear for most players (such as Beorhtgar, Elfbrand, Eadwig).

Anyways, the human settlement names are mostly ready. They will initially be named after fortifications, domestic animals and the bodies of water they're often located nearby, but more will come. Human language will be inspired by Old English and so far I've gotten names like Buccaburne (Buckbourne), Caerdenu (Fort Vale), Burhscield (Buroughshield) etc.

And I'll make sure to upload the next version on Dffd!

[TomiTapio]

What if used medieval English/Scottish/Gaelic first names, but reversed? Or syllables shuffled?