Random Questions Thread

About the language barrier: If they travel in the Middle Ages (or actually at any point until the 18th century) they will find everywhere someone who speaks Latin (at the very least, religious men).

Plus the various early dialects of Italian and Romanian spoken in this period were all Romance languages descended from Vulgar Latin. If they're sharp, already educated in Latin and have the time and resources, it should be possible for them to learn on the go.

Eh, no. That´s how it looks in paper but in that era the Romance languages were already very different, and with even more dialects and local accents than now.

I live in a country where we still have 4 of them, and I guarantee you that learning one does not mean you will understand the others, something relevant these days as many students demand their tests written in the only one they can read.

As Your Bloody Valentine has mentioned, there were Latin speaking priests in important cities, and many rich people around the Mediterraneum could speak it too, but even most little town priests had a very limited knowledge of it.

Edited by Oculto on Jun 15th 2021 at 4:20:20 PM

If they were on the run, shouldn't they be staying off roads and cities all together?

@ Your Bloody Valentine:

The way I had it planned, whichever way they arrived at their final destination, they had worn out whatever resources they had that made them distinguishable from common people. They would definitely still stick out but the gossip might not be as intense. On the other hand...that gossip could also be the explanation for why they were eventually discovered and attacked. It would take a while but those who wish them harm could piece together gossip from the populace and figure things out from there. Plus their enemies have an inordinate amount of time, so they could feasibly take generations to make the discovery from local legends.

I don't know why, but for some reason I had to keep reading that over and over since it sounded like you were giving advice on traveling and it took me some time to understand what you meant. I definitely plan to do research on it, since this part of the story is important to the events that happen in it's modern era and form a foundation for its events.

@ Oculto and everyone talking about the language barrier:

Thanks for bringing that up and for discussing the Latin "option" since I was going to ask about any "bridge" languages that could be used to get around the language barrier issue. I've rarely been so happy to be 'd.

Speaking of 'd.

@ Titan Jump:

This was actually something I thought of for the first time and kind of brought up with Oculto. It occurred to me that since they are a family of werewolves, I could just have them transform and run all the way to Romania (or at least somewhere far away and then end up there eventually).

All they'd have to do is just avoid cities and roads and turn back to human form every now and then to avoid regressing into mindless monsters forever. But I wanted this to be done "human style" and accurate to the times so...here we are. There's something just fascinating about inserting a historical fiction aspect into this story, and since I've already done it via World War 1 I figured why not continue backwards into the middle ages?

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Jun 15th 2021 at 11:23:47 AM

If your characters are from the lower nobility or the merchant middle class, is likely one of them will speak Latin, Greek or a mix of both that was the "common language" of many traders around the Mediterraneum as Constantinople was the central trade hub of the Western World.

Edited by Oculto on Jun 15th 2021 at 4:31:34 PM

@ Oculto:

I was aware that at least someone in the family would be able to speak Latin due to their class/status but I wasn't aware of how many could possibly speak it. I'd imagine there would be varying levels of fluency which could be useful or disadvantageous.

Well, it can be the head of the family... but also an advisor or one of the sons that started studying but now has had to come back to the family.

As long as you find a reason for that person being the one that speaks it, it will work.

@ Oculto:

Those are some good ideas. I originally would have had it be the family head and a few sons/uncles but I can definitely think of a good reason that every male member of this family who is of age can speak it fluently as long as one is capable, no matter who that "one" is.

Thank you everyone who gave their input! I really didn't expect this to take off and am very grateful for that .

Well, they can have hired a student from an university (Oxenford and Cambridge were alrady famous) to teach all their children. Most students were so poor in 14th Century that they had a legal license to beg, so it´s not they will need a lot of money to convince one.

Edited by Oculto on Jun 15th 2021 at 5:02:57 PM

@ Oculto:

I don't know whether to feel sad about that or just incredulous to the brink of amusement. That takes being a poor student to completely new levels.

Anyway, what I was trying to say was that in this case, as long as one member of the family was fluent in Latin, then they have a supernatural way to share this knowledge among all of them. Going from attitudes of the times, this knowledge would only be bestowed upon the sons/male members of the group who have to interface with society at large in their travels.

Edited by Swordofknowledge on Jun 15th 2021 at 1:05:23 PM

Do we have any non-binary tropers here? I have some questions I'd like to ask about a non-binary character that I'm writing.

Oh interesting...

Go ahead, ask your questions.

So this character is a Gentleman Thief, and their civilian identity is female-presenting and uses she/her pronouns, while their secret identity (the Gentleman Thief one) is male-presenting and uses he/him pronouns, and both of these identities are real to them, as in they feel comfortable in both. So I want to ask, does this sound okay to you guys?

Edited by Nightwire on Jun 16th 2021 at 4:41:57 AM

That's propably genderqueer. I'm not sure how okay it would be for a genderqueer character to split their gender into a secret identity, at least exclusively.

Impressions on the name "Dragoslava Dordevic"?

Edited by Nukeli on Jun 16th 2021 at 2:55:15 PM

Sounds more like a DID-case (Multiple-personality) than anything else...

...

"Vampire"

No, it's definitely not multiple personalities. Not even close.

Well, she is Serbian.

Does it sound otherwise good?

Edited by Nukeli on Jun 16th 2021 at 3:44:12 PM

Then be who ever you want to be.

Identity is not a rock, but pure "clay" in the hands of each and every one of us.

What we do with it is up to the individual, and not anyone else.

...

What will that name be used for?

I had a really hard time trying to "explain" this question so please let me know if what I'm asking is unclear.

So, there is a situation in which my teenage main protagonist, prior to the start of the story, gets into a heated argument with his mother while she is in labor. There are two other people present in the house, his father and his aunt (his mother's older sister). Now both of these characters are people my protagonist looks up to—-his father who he obviously respects and loves, and his aunt is of the awesome and cool variety.

Now then, one of these two immediately explodes on him when they catch the argument brewing and instantly scold him in such an intense and uncharacteristically ugly way that it takes him aback and changes his relationship with them for the worse, at least temporarily. More than the words themselves, it is the attitude both candidates project—-there is a sense of protective anger towards him (Don't speak to my wife/little sister like that!)

It's wholly different from the usual "Don't speak to your mother disrespectfully" type of thing one would get in that kind of situation, and it shocks him.

Who would be the one to better demonstrate this sort of uncharacteristically vehement reaction, the father or the aunt? It affects the plot in different ways depending on which one explodes but I'm kind of stuck on which one makes the most sense.

And yes, I know my protagonist getting into this argument is pretty bad in itself. He's definitely not at his best in this scenario.

What is the argument about?

And why when she is in labour of all things!?

@ Titan Jump:

The protagonist was supposed to do something involved in helping set up his sister's nursery. He didn't do his part and only mentions it when his parents and aunt are preparing to go to the hospital. It sets off a large argument between them that only snowballed from there. It came up since they're all talking about what will happen when his sister is born and then brought home from the hospital, resulting in her yelling at him and him snapping back.

I would suggest whichever is more uncharacteristic of, I think. (As it increases the impact—both on the character and to some degree the reader—I would imagine.)

Which of those it is will depend heavily on the characters involved, including their personalities and perspectives.

For example, if the protagonist sees women as gentle and loving, then it might be more shocking to have this come from the aunt.

Conversely, if they associate their parents with loving support, then it might be more shocking to have this come from the father.

And so on and so forth.

Edited by ArsThaumaturgis on Jun 16th 2021 at 4:37:40 PM

The dumbass deserved that blame and rage aimed at him.

(And depending on how violent his mom is, getting locked up in a chest for a couple of hours as well...)

There are two things you don't dare in this reality.

Fate... and a mother's patience.

Have both of them chew him out.

Edited by TitanJump on Jun 16th 2021 at 4:40:24 PM