# What does your ENWorld name mean?



## AdmundfortGeographer (Sep 2, 2010)

Nearly everyone has a story behind their ENWorld name . . . except folks like me who use their name as their name. 

I hadn't seen a thread about this in a long while, but I enjoyed the last one. I figured folks might wish to post again to refresh everyone's memories as well as let new members regale with the story behind their name.

So, why did you choose your name for your ENWorld account, and what does it mean/what does it come from?


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## The Shaman (Sep 2, 2010)

A shaman is sometimes wise, often altered, and usually crazy.


Actually, I just liked the sound of it.


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## Starfox (Sep 2, 2010)

Mine is the last name of a character in an old variant Star Wars campaign. We were agents of the Hegemony (from the not-so-well-known game Other Suns) infiltrating and assisting the Star Wars rebellion. And it was a furry universe. My character was a Psychic noble named Stephen Starfox going undercover as a Jedi.


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## Mr. Wilson (Sep 2, 2010)

It was a nickname I picked up in high school.  

The back story is that our entire group of friends loved music, and were well known for our tastes as an alternative/punk/metal/indy rock guys.  

My friends thought it would be highly amusing to nickname me Wilson after the soft rock band Wilson Phillips (given my last name), much to my displeasure.  Given like any good nickname by friends as a playful teasing, I grew to be known as Wilson over my actual name, probably because I hated it so much.


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## S'mon (Sep 2, 2010)

I'm Simon.  A player in a PBEM I ran many years ago took to calling me "Little Devil S'mon", always whispering evil advice in his ear.


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## nai_cha (Sep 2, 2010)

All my usernames on other messageboards/forums/communities are fandom-based. I go through fandoms like candy. So I figured I would pick a username this time around that is something that I will always, always like no matter what.

I really, really like milk tea. Especially Hong Kong style milk tea. Enough that I defy my doctor's orders when he banned me from drinking it (along with other caffeinated beverages) for some time. Enough that when I was in Hong Kong, it was the only beverage I ever ordered, risking the wrath of an angry restuarant proprietess the first time around.


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## LuckyAdrastus (Sep 2, 2010)

Adrastus is a semi-historical figure described by the classical greek historian Herodotus.  He was extremely honorable, but as unfortunate as it gets.  He kept accidentally killing people close too him (well his brother, and then a prince he was bodyguarding).  Others kept forgiving him for his accidental sins, but he eventually took his own life in frustration at his cursed luck.

Anyway, he seemed like a nice guy to me, and deserves a second chance (well third, actually) with better luck.  So that's the name.


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## Kaiyanwang (Sep 2, 2010)

It's my usual nick I use in teh internet. It's the main villain of a manga I loved, 3x3 eyes.

I choose it in a moment where I had to do the same thing of the villain (destroy everything to make the world anew) on a personal level (I had troubles with several friends and stuff).

Years later, things slowl got better and better, and now are alright. But the name remained.


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## Longtooth Studios (Sep 2, 2010)

Yeah, I am always working...


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## nai_cha (Sep 2, 2010)

Mr. Wilson said:


> My friends thought it would be highly amusing to nickname me Wilson after the soft rock band Wilson Phillips (given my last name), much to my displeasure.  Given like any good nickname by friends as a playful teasing, I grew to be known as Wilson over my actual name, probably because I hated it so much.




Hated it enough that someday, somebody made you wanna turn around and say goodbye? 

Sorry, just wanted to tease a bit because after reading your post, I couldn't stop hearing "Hold On" and flashbacking to elementary school


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## Goonalan (Sep 2, 2010)

I was making a film about a bunch of skaters who were far too cool to be seen with me, every time they completed some trick-

50/50 pop-shove-it fakey-whatever

This one guy would shout 'Go on Alan', after about thirty minutes of this I was fool enough to ask- 'who's Alan?'

Twenty-two years later and I'm still stuck with it.

Goonalan


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## Oryan77 (Sep 2, 2010)

It was 1977, somewhere in middle California. A child was born. His beauty was astounding and made doctors envious and the nurses swoon. Being the smartest baby alive, this child sat up immediately after birth and greeted everyone in the delivery room. He introduced himself as Oryan and announced that he has arrived for one reason and one reason only; to watch Star Wars on opening day!

Years later, as Oryan and Al Gore invented the internet, Oryan decided to post on a forum. To his surprise, upon registration Oryan found out that someone dared to steal his identity and called himself by the same name! How could he distinguish himself from this impostor? The only thing he could think of was to use the coolest name ever created along with the most important year in the history of man. So it only made sense to add on the number 77 to represent the year that the greatest movie & the greatest baby were introduced to the world.


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## pukunui (Sep 2, 2010)

Pukunui is a little Maori boy from an old series of New Zealand children's books. My avatar is a picture of him. The name means "fat stomach" in Maori. I'm not entirely sure why I chose it: I am not Maori and I wasn't particularly pudgy at the time. I think I just liked the sound of it. Plus, it's pretty unique; I've only ever come across one or two sites where it was already taken (in which case I used pukunui81 instead). As for why I do it all lower case? That's cos I wanna be just like e e cummings ...


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## Lanefan (Sep 2, 2010)

Rolled up in early 1984, Lanefan went on to become my iconic character over the next many years of play.  He's in fact still out there in a currently-active world, just waiting for the main played party to catch up to his level before inflicting himself on the masses once more.

Further, in the language I was trying to dream up at the time Lanefan (as "la nefan") literally means "man of [the] moon"; as I have since become Wiccan, it just plain fits. 

La-"man of the moon"-nefan


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## Rabbitbait (Sep 2, 2010)

Even I don't understand my own subconscious. I have no idea where my name came from - even though I have a clear memory of the first time I used it.


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## Wepwawet (Sep 2, 2010)

"Opener of the Ways"
Wepwawet is an ancient egyptian wolf deity, used to be a war god, but in later times becaume associated with the afterlife, guiding the deceased into the netherworld.


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## Matrix Sorcica (Sep 2, 2010)

The arch nemesis of my players from an old (and the most successful we've had) campaign.

They never defeated good old Matrix Sorcica, one day he will return MWUAHAHAHAHAHAH!


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## DragonLancer (Sep 2, 2010)

When I signed up a few years back I was big into Dragonlance and so the name kinda fitted.


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## DumbPaladin (Sep 2, 2010)

It's an apt, albeit mean, description of my current 3.5 character, Phelan.  He's got an Int of 8, but is an otherwise kind, generous friend and not a bad leader.  His above-average wisdom and charisma, status as moral compass of the party, and propensity for not falling into villains' traps, have solidified him as the glue that holds the party together.  But he isn't bright. 

One of the other members of the party, a female halfling rogue who was throwing a fit, called him a dumb paladin once, and he was so glum about it afterward that she felt awful for days.  When I needed a name for EN World, this one came to mind.  

Also, it's handy for when I'm posting questions that are obvious and easily answered by others.


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## Plane Sailing (Sep 2, 2010)

The expression "Plain Sailing", taken to mean "simple, straightforward, unobstructed progress" is a derivation (via mishearing?) of the original term Plane Sailing  - which was a technique for navigating at sea assuming the Earth was a flat plane, which made navigation much more straightforward.

So essentially it comes from a term from planar geometry, and one of the things I've always loved about D&D was the concept of other planes of existence and the astral plane.

Thus, when I signed up and I wanted to have a distinctive screen name and icon, I thought of the image of a boat sailing through the planes, and it brought together a fantasy theme with my love of Etymology.

Cheers!


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## Shemeska (Sep 2, 2010)

It's the name of an arcanaloth from 2e/3e Planescape.

I originally snagged it as an online handle when I was posting heavily over on the WotC boards on the Planes (later Planes & Deities) sub-board where most of the content was Planescape and the 3e MotP. Around that time several other folks were using the names of characters from the setting and posting in-character every so often, so I snagged the Marauder and ran with it. It stuck, and I've been using it on a number of boards ever since.

Though since I've started writing for $, I've been using either my name, or characters that I created when I start a name somewhere new; just feels more appropriate. But I've been using it long enough, and have written so much storyhour/fiction that involved the character, it might be difficult to shake it. When you get mentioned by online handle on 4chan first, then by real name, you know you're probably stuck with it in some capacity.


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## Hand of Evil (Sep 2, 2010)

Mine is from the early days of the internet, when browsers were basic.  Was playing a computer game at that time called Dungeon Keeper (wonderful game) and needed a log in to get content from their site; I used my handle because it was the cuser used in the game to slap and pick up your monsters. When I found Eric's site and registered, the handle filled in itself, so I kept it.


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## Peraion Graufalke (Sep 2, 2010)

(cross-posted from an old thread on the WotC boards)

*Peraion* is from a name generator in a CRPG (Drakensang) and also happens to be the name of an ancient town in Greece. According to some websites, peraion means _carrying across_.

*Graufalke* is German for _Greyhawk_. That's my shout-out to Gary Gygax and one of the 2e settings I owned but never got to run or play in.


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## Gulla (Sep 2, 2010)

I for once remembered that a name should be with a capital letter, and as I said when I married: "I may change my name for you, but my user name is mine forever."  

So it's the name that has been mine since the old BitNet days.


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## Crothian (Sep 2, 2010)

Crothian is name of my second Rifts character who I played for a close to a decade.  I alwaays liked the name, not sure why.


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## Bingle (Sep 2, 2010)

One of my many nicknames.  Plus, all the good names were taken.  _They always are._   Fiddlesticks.


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## Morrus (Sep 2, 2010)

Mine is quite boring - the first three letters of my surname, followed by the first three letters of my first name.


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## Goblyn (Sep 2, 2010)

When I got my very first email address with hotmail, I was able to get 'Goblyn'. I thought that was pretty impressive that i got a hotmail address that was just a word with no numbers attached or anything and I've still got that address.

That and 'Goblin' was taken.


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## Barastrondo (Sep 2, 2010)

Most of my professional work was on the World of Darkness, but I was also a  participant in the Scarred Lands, and signed up for ENWorld while that was going on at White Wolf. One of my bigger contributions to Scarn was Hollowfaust, the City of Necromancers, so I took the name of one of the city's seven founders as my "D&D work persona."  

At one point (contact) read the book and gave me a little hell for naming myself after a founder who gets killed off. These things happen.


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## R-Hero (Sep 2, 2010)

Stolen from an old Atari game. 
(H.E.R.O. Helecopter Emergency Rescue Operations I think was the name, Its been almost 30 years ago)

I had origianlly borrowed the name for a AD&D cavalier that was loads of fun playing because he was a little self centered and arrogant but with the polish and regalness of the upper crust. 

_"Hello, I'm Roderick Hero or R.Hero to my close personal freinds"_

(R. Hero = Our Hero Get It??)

Its just stuck as a screen name ever since I got online.


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## Deuce Traveler (Sep 2, 2010)

That request is beyond your clearance, citizen.


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## Gilladian (Sep 2, 2010)

My first name is Gillian (hard G like Gilbert, which is my dad's name). When I was around 11-12 he took to calling me Gill-lady-an.

That's also when I started playing DnD. My third character was a dwarf fighter named Gilladian. He became my favorite character to play, with his 6 Int and 4 Wis but 15 Cha. When I went online, it just seemed natural to use it. I think it was my first AOL handle in the late 80's.

It's nice because nobody else ever uses it, so I'm "me" wherever I go.


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## IronWolf (Sep 2, 2010)

I stole Morgan's last name.



i.e. Morgan Ironwolf from the Moldvay Basic set.....


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## FreeXenon (Sep 2, 2010)

Free Xenon comes from my days in the military. I was a part of Reactor Controls Division 22 (RC-22) who were a bunch of bitter and jaded sailors on board the USS Enterprise. The USS Enterprise was the first nuclear carrier and bears 8 nuclear reactors in 4 groups, and is the only ship in the US fleet with this many reactors. Pretty much all other surface ships have only two reactors. If you can imagine the types of things that are talked about and imagined by a bunch of embittered sailors while at sea for 6 months with a bunch of other embittered sailors then perhaps you can already see where this is going to go….

Xenon is a fission byproduct that builds up to an equilibrium concentration during prolonged periods of reactor operation (>70 hours). Xenon is call a poison – meaning that its presence in the reactor core inhibits the fission process. While our reactors are operating we will see coolant temperature go down a degree or two and then we will have to pull out the rods a little bit to bring the temperature to its median normal range. This a normal occurrence during a reactor's operation.

So, our embittered and lonely sailors are sitting tiredly on their 10-2 (22:00 to 02:00 or 10:00pm until 2:00am) watch, and as the plethora of gauges and meters sit unmoving, they start to envision Xenon as this little gnome or other spritely thing trapped in the malign reactor vessel as its prisoner. So my shipmates started to crusade for the freeing of Xenon from the evil Reactor Vessel. They created signs and set their desktop screen savers to say ‘Free Xenon! Free Xenon!‘. One day our division had a cake to celebrate something they arranged for one that was black and had a skull and cross bones on it which said ‘Free Xenon’ on it.

At least that is how I remember it. =)


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## Rykion (Sep 2, 2010)

My screen name was inspired by General Rieekan, the commander of the base on Hoth in _the Empire Strikes Back_.  I made up the spelling so that it'd be unique.  I've used the same name on just about every board I post on.


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## Plane Sailing (Sep 2, 2010)

Morrus said:


> Mine is quite boring - the first three letters of my surname, followed by the first three letters of my first name.





That algorithm would have made mine Whinev.

Looks too much like Whine-y!


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## Camelot (Sep 2, 2010)

Mine is my last name.

What?


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## Scurvy_Platypus (Sep 2, 2010)

I have a somewhat unusual background, in that I'm an adopted kid. Not that being adopted is particularly unusual, but that I was adopted twice. First time I was 6 years old and then I was put up for adoption again at age 9. 

When I first learned about the platypus all those years ago, I was quite taken with it; while others might pick wolves, eagles, or bears as their totem animals, the platypus always seemed far more appropriate for me. And no, I'm not an Aussie either. 

Fast forward to 16 years ago and I'm starting to get into LAN parties and doing a lot of online computer games. After some careful thought, I settled on Scurvy Platypus as my primary identity online. It had some symbolic meaning for me (Platypus), I always thought "scurvy" was one of the happier sounding illnesses, and the combination was unusual enough that I'd likely never have to worry about "sharing" an identity with anyone else. And it sounded kinda playful too.

I've kept it ever since, across games and message boards. If someone thinks I'm groovy, it shouldn't be too hard for 'em to remember me/keep in contact; for those that dislike me, it shouldn't be too hard to avoid me either.  

Funny thing about my name these days, is I moved to New Zealand in 2009. So I get a chunk of folks that are confused and think there's platypuses in NZ (there isn't), the usual folks that assume I'm an aussie (no aussie blood that I'm aware of), and a chunk of Kiwis that figure I'm a stupid/confused american.


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## Festivus (Sep 2, 2010)

Mine goes back to when Everquest first came out.  I wanted to play a bard in the game, but was struggling to find a name that would be fitting of a bard.  As it would happen, as I was creating my character... Seinfeld was on, and it was the Festivus episode.  That name has pretty well stuck as a handle for me ever since... geez that was more than 10 years ago.

Now, why do I have a picture of Go Dog Go?


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## El Mahdi (Sep 2, 2010)

Even though mine is a name with historical context in Islam, I used it for it's relationship to Frank Herbert's _Dune_.

El Mahdi, or "_the Mahdi_" (also can be spelled Maudi), is the concept that inspired Frank Herberts' ideas of the Kwisatz Haderach (along with other messianic figures) and was the root of the name he made-up, Muad'dib (Mahdi, Maudi).  (His Fremen were supposed to be descendents of terrestrial Arab Bedouins with a morphed religious combination of Islam and Zen Buddhism...thus the _Zensunni Wanderers_.)

The very first time I played D&D (2E AD&D in 1994), when faced with coming up with a name and backstory for my first character, I fell back on my favorite book (which I had just happened to be re-reading that same day).  Since I didn't want to be overly obvious and tacky, and use Mauad'dib for my characters name, I used the reference root instead.

As far as using it for a screen name, Muad'dib is almost always taken on just about any site...but El Mahdi is almost never used, so...

There it is.


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## Primitive Screwhead (Sep 2, 2010)

I started using my name years ago on a CP2020 board.. a callout to the DMs handook of the same name, which is of course a reference to Ash in the Army of Darkness.

I brought it over here as to not confuse the handfull of other migrants.

I kept it as the name works welll to remind myself to not be overly serious and avoid personal attacks... after all, how can you be mad at someone who calls himself this?  

Sent from my SPH-M900 using Tapatalk


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## El Mahdi (Sep 2, 2010)

Plane Sailing said:


> That algorithm would have made mine Whinev.
> 
> Looks too much like Whine-y!




You could have used Winnie...


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## Mark (Sep 2, 2010)

Eric Anondson said:


> What does your ENWorld name mean?






Target of con men.


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## Horatio (Sep 2, 2010)

Horatio is name of my first "real" (rich backstory, complex personality, etc.) character I played back in the eighties. Character so memorable, that I got called by his name instead of mine, that the way he behaved was henceforward called "horatioing" in following campagns and still is, that the miniature I was using was called Horatio and after almost 20 years still is, that various people tried to copy him, that he became some sort of archetype. "Commiting acts of goodnes" was great fun those times. Sigh, memories...


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## YourSwordIsMine (Sep 2, 2010)

My name stems from back during my first game session (1992) with my current gaming group. My character was being introduced to the party several sessions in and so my character had been tossed in jail. One of the other players was playing the Defender (a royally appointed troubleshooter of sorts) and so had asked for my release on terms that I swear allegience to him and the king. When my character had been hauled up out of the dungeons he'd been given his sword back so I decided to make a show of it. I described my character on bended knee offering my swordhilt to the Defender and promptly said "My sword is yours"... At which point the room burst into laughing... 

Being a normally shy person I of course turned beat red and was completely confused as to why everyone was laughing at me... I normally didnt go into this much characterization or roleplaying because of the shyness... And so I was slipping into trauma territory with all the laughter... So after 45 minutes of being laughed at I started to pack up my stuff and leave... I was livid and mortified and near to tears... Ron (playing the Defender) finally realized something was wrong and had calmed down long enough to explain what had happened.

In my mind I had said "My sword is yours" but what actually came out of my mouth was "Your sword is mine"...

It's kind of stuck with me all these years as a running joke... At the time it wasnt all that funny but eventually I just made it my own.


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## Klaus (Sep 2, 2010)

Klaus was a Ravenloft character I played (I usually DM, so he's one of the few characters I ever played). The first message board I joined was the Secrets of the Kargatane, the official RL fan site, so it was fitting that I used Klaus as my username.

Klaus' full name was Nikolaus Gunther Nakzinsky, which is the real name of German actor Klaus Kinski (father of Nastassja Kinsi).


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## LurkMonkey (Sep 2, 2010)

Although a long-term gamer, I didn't realize until fairly recently (Late 2007ish) just how vibrant the online Pen and Paper community was. Although I had kept buying D&D materials out of nostalgia and a hope of eventually playing (There aren't a lot of resources in my area), I descended into the MMORPGsphere for most of the past decade: First Everquest, then WoW.

When the announcement came out about _Dragon_ and _Dungeon_ becoming online instead of dead tree, I was at a point where I was very tired of the MMORPG scene and the constant demands of online guildmates for assistance (anyone who has risen to the higher character levels can sympathize I am sure). I went online to find out what was going on, and got involved in several sites, mainly Paizo. 

In 2008 I signed up here, but I was nervous, because of the then-raging Edition War, and since I was a fan of Pathfinder, I guess I didn't want to get involved in any contentious arguments (there was enough of that crap going on on my 'home' board of Paizo.com that I didn't want to inadvertantly get involved). I figured since I would be reading and not contributing, 'Lurkmonkey' was a good fit. That and I use 'monkey' in many of my online aliases.

Lately I have been swinging over here more and more. But LurkMonkey I shall stay =)


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## Herschel (Sep 2, 2010)

Mine's just my nickname from high school that I used also as a moniker on a local social group site and a number of people still call me it.


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## HalfOrc HalfBiscuit (Sep 2, 2010)

I am 50% ugly humanoid and 50% chocolate digestive.


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## tuxgeo (Sep 2, 2010)

'tuxgeo' is a truncated version of 'tuxedo george' -- my name isn't George, but I'm a fan of the 1960's cartoon "George of the Jungle" (for the horrible puns), and of the 1990's anime "Sailor Moon" (Tuxedo Mask is a stick, but the show has memorable music). 
I use an avatar showing a cobbled-together version of Geo and Tux. 

The handle is from the 1990's, when I posted in a.f.s-m on usenet; lots of the women there used screen names calling themselves Sailor (whatever), and several of the men called themselves Tuxedo (whatever), so I joined in.
I even contributed to [OW!] (Otaku Wars!).

Conveniently, the name "tuxgeo" remains unused by others everywhere I go on the 'web. (Not that I ever wonder why, of course.)


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## lutecius (Sep 2, 2010)

mine's not very creative.

Lutetia (French Lutèce) is just the ancient name of Paris, Lutetius was my old Pendragon character and i thought "Lutecius" looked better and was less common (but some guy in the Czech Republic keeps using it on several sites )


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## Peskara (Sep 2, 2010)

My screen name has a super nerdalicious origin.

It's the name of one of my character's raccoon familiar. It means "mask" in a dead language from Barastrondo's homebrew setting (Vedan, a.k.a. "The Sorcerers' Tongue", basically the wizard equivalent of Latin).

A word in a made-up dead language from an imaginary place. I don't think I can get any nerdier than that


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## Hella_Tellah (Sep 2, 2010)

Tellah is a character from the Super Nintendo game _Final Fantasy II/IV_. He's a white mage/black mage, pictured to the left there, and he is most famous for uttering the phrase, "You spoony bard!"

Hella is late-90s West Coast American slang for "very", as in "Hella nice rug you've got there, dude; really pulls the room together." Or: "Do you enjoy obscure bands and expensive coffee?" "Hella."

It also helps that I'm from a small town in Washington State called "Walla Walla," so I'm Hella Tellah from Walla Walla.

Thanks for starting the thread! It's been fun learning the Secret Origins of posters I've been reading for a few years now.


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## Bluenose (Sep 2, 2010)

Mine is a physical description.


Possibly.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 2, 2010)

I do some writing (never published...because I've never submitted anything for publication).

"Danny Alcatraz" is the street-name of the main character in a cyberpunk story that I have yet to perfect.  It comes from the name of a waiter who worked at a California Pizza Kitchen.  They had (and may still have) a policy of having people's name badges consist of their real first name and their hometown as a fake last name.

While Alcatraz is not really a town, he thought it sounded better than "Danny San Francisco."  As he put it, that would have been the "gayest name ever."

So I told him that I write, and the name would be perfect for a character...he said "Go for it, dude!"

Now if only I could actually satisfy myself of the story's quality...


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## Garthanos (Sep 2, 2010)

My name started as Garthan in a Dragon Language I made up during high school(over 30 years ago inspired by Tolkein) it meant Straight or True One... the -os on the end is a greekification of it.

In my youth I had a truthfulness obsession.

It was also a D&D character name of a Dragon Master character.


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## ArmoredSaint (Sep 2, 2010)

"Armored Saint" was a 1980s metal band whose name I found evocative; it neatly encompasses both my primary hobby interests in life:  medieval armour and church history.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 2, 2010)

ArmoredSaint said:


> "Armored Saint" was a 1980s metal band whose name I found evocative; it neatly encompasses both my primary hobby interests in life:  medieval armour and church history.




Hey, with Anthrax's classic lineup on tour with Megadeth, Metallica and Slayer, is John Bush back to recording with Armored Saint?


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 2, 2010)

S'mon said:


> I'm Simon.  A player in a PBEM I ran many years ago took to calling me "Little Devil S'mon", always whispering evil advice in his ear.



And forcing him to touch random colored panels?


Morrus said:


> Mine is quite boring - the first three letters of my surname, followed by the first three letters of my first name.




I would have been Aubant.

Hmmm...that would make a nice PC name...or it may become my tertiary online name.

To explain, I have never encountered a website where "dannyalcatraz" was in use by someone else, but just in case, I have a secondary name waiting in the wings, "BubbaIMHOtep."

But Aubant has a nice sound to it.


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## Joshua Randall (Sep 2, 2010)

Mine is the name of some bounty hunter played by Steve McQueen.

More or less.


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## Vanifae (Sep 2, 2010)

Mine is my World of Warcraft character's name.  I like it so I use it.  She is a sexy little blood elf paladin.

Yeah not that exciting.


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## UngeheuerLich (Sep 2, 2010)

A little pun.*

After TPKing my group with a Lich - they "killed him" and put his phylactery in their bag of holding, getting killed when they wanted to take it out and identify it - using words with "lich" at the end was funny.

Like "SchreckLich" "JaemmerLich" "FeindLich" "FreundLich"... we then created warcraft3 names, reminding us of this "funny" and "dramatic" ending of the campaign. Some of them still use them for that regularly, I just took this name and made it my regular Forum/Game name.

edit: actually it was no TPK... the barbarian, who survived the blasphemy, drank a haste potion, enraged himself, and... turned is tail and ran... 

*edit2: for those not speaking german:
both words make sense seperately and together: "Ungeheuer" = "Monster", "UngeheuerLich" = "outrageous"
So I am the "outrageous monster lich" who killed nearly the whole party...^^


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## Fifth Element (Sep 2, 2010)

When I started publishing d20 stuff I needed a name, so I picked Fifth Element Games because....well, you got me. No idea. I think I was researching alchemy at the time, and I liked the sound of it. The fifth element is aether, of course, if you haven't checked my status.

So when I started posting on RPG messageboards I figured the username would be a cheap and easy way to pimp my crap. So there you go.

It doesn't have anything to do with the Bruce Willis film, although I do enjoy that flick immensely.


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## Mallus (Sep 2, 2010)

Mallus was my old 3e gin-swilling, lost-love reuniting, city-slicker kinda-knight PC. The name's supposed to suggest both 'malice' and 'malleus/malleable', which fit him to a tee, being a not-so-nice bastard son of gold and silver mine-owning nobility. 

He and I share a love of gin and cities.


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## Abraxas (Sep 2, 2010)

Abraxas is the first 1st edition Paladin I ever played - because getting a 17 in charisma with 3d6 rolled in order doesn't happen very often. I have recreated him twice - once each in 2E and 3E. He was/is a two weapon fighting, light armor wearing paladin of a vaguely Egyptian origin.

It is also the name of a God-like or Demonic being in Herman Hesse's novel Demien and Seven Sermons to the Dead by Jung, part of John Sheridan's password to arm the nukes on his ship in Babylon 5, the title to Santana's second album - all of which entertain me as does the name.

Unfortunately - it is often already in use and I have to use Saxarba instead...


----------



## Pyrex (Sep 2, 2010)

Back in the day one of our games featured a wizard/alchemist with a fondness for collecting glassware.  I've been using it as a screen name for ages now.


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## Nifft (Sep 2, 2010)

"Nifft" is the protagonist of a Sword & Sorcery book that I liked.

http://www.amazon.com/Incompleat-Nifft-Michael-Shea

Cheers, -- N


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## Mercutio01 (Sep 2, 2010)

Mercutio - My favorite character from Shakespeare. 01 because "Mercutio" was taken and because it's the year I graduated college.


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## Philosopher (Sep 2, 2010)

Quite simply, I'm a professional philosopher.


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## Twowolves (Sep 2, 2010)

Twowolves Howling was the name of my barbarian shaman in Everquest back in 1998. He was a founding member of the original guild The Bears of Oboo, and would announce his presence in a zone to all by /shouting "HooOOOooowwLL!!", to which the other guildmates (and many allies) would reply /shout "OBOOooOOOOooOO!!"

He eventually became guildleader, and as other members pealed off into other MMORPGs, the Bears of Oboo (or BoO) spread like Kudzu to every other online game imaginable, and most all use "OBOOoooOOO!!" as a rallying cry.

Twowolves (aka: "The Old Man") has been my username for every online board I've joined ever since.


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## Nifft (Sep 2, 2010)

Philosopher said:


> Quite simply, I'm a professional philosopher.









"He thinks for a living?"

"Well, he thinks we're paying him!"

"Do-ho-ho-ho-ho!"


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## Jeff Wilder (Sep 2, 2010)

My screen name is the name of the character I play.  Everywhere.


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## El Mahdi (Sep 2, 2010)

Morrus said:


> Mine is quite boring - the first three letters of my surname, followed by the first three letters of my first name.






Plane Sailing said:


> That algorithm would have made mine Whinev...






Dannyalcatraz said:


> ...I would have been Aubant...




Mine would have been *Armmar*...a natural palindrome! And it rhymes with Armor. I'll have to remember that for a character some day. I'll make him a Knight and call him the _"Palindrome Paladin"_...



edit: Not a palindrome...just a tad dyslexic today  I guess I'd have to call him the _"Almost Palindrome Paladin"_...


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## Jacob Marley (Sep 2, 2010)

Mine is a reference to a character in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. I have used this name (or variations of) on other message boards that I have belonged to. It also happens to be a subtle reference to what I do for a living (i.e. banking & investments).


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## Wednesday Boy (Sep 2, 2010)

*You wanted the best! You got the best! The hottest name in the world! Wednesday Boy!*

It's a line from the KISS song, "Let Me Know" and as we all know KISS is the greatest band ever.

Plus it'll synergize well with my fledgling superhero career as soon as I get bitten by a radioactive Wednesday.


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## jonesy (Sep 2, 2010)

El Mahdi said:


> Mine would have been *Armmar*...a natural palindrome!



*tilts head to the left* *tilts head to the right* *stands on his head*

I don't get it.

What's a natural palindrome then? And why doesn't it resemble a palindrome?


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## El Mahdi (Sep 2, 2010)

jonesy said:


> *tilts head to the left* *tilts head to the right* *stands on his head*
> 
> I don't get it.
> 
> What's a natural palindrome then? And why doesn't it resemble a palindrome?




Crap! You're right...I must be a bit dyslexic today...

edit: I guess I'd have to change it to *Armmra*...which just doesn't work the same. Sounds like something Godzilla would have to fight...Oh well...


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## jonesy (Sep 2, 2010)

Mine by the way is my real life nickname merged with my initials. Nothing fancy. Plus the end result comes out as Ripley's cat.


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## El Mahdi (Sep 2, 2010)

Wednesday Boy said:


> ...Plus it'll synergize well with my fledgling superhero career as soon as I get bitten by a radioactive Wednesday.




Would your nemesis be _Monday Man_ (with his depression inducing powers...)?


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## Joshua Randall (Sep 2, 2010)

Nifft said:


> "Nifft" is the protagonist of a Sword & Sorcery book that I liked.



I always thought you were named after that herb that you use in the old game Bloodstone (? I think), but a search suggests that is actually spelled with only one "f".

And the only reason I know that is ages ago on AlexMUD, someone had a bunch of characters named Nift, Gonshi, Mergit, etc.



Jeff Wilder said:


> My screen name is the name of the character I play.



I've heard he's a real bad-a$$, too.


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## Steel_Wind (Sep 2, 2010)

_The name is Wind, Steel_Wind._ *queue 007 theme music*

Ah well. If only life were really like that!

"Steel Wind" is from a Japanese haiku ca. 1944-45, where "steel wind" is a reference to shrapnel in the air resulting from allied bombs.

I liked the phrase for use as a nickname and in the past have used the underscore bwtween the two words as a connector so that a two word term can be used on a "one word" systems.


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## Remathilis (Sep 2, 2010)

Remathilis was the second PC I ever rolled up; an elf thief who I played from 1996-2008 off-and-on. Got him to 20th level (starting in 2e and finishing in 3.5). He's been my handle on various things across the interwebs.

His name actually came from "Remy" which was the real name of the X-Man Gambit (a thief and the original inspiration behind the character). The rest of it is "elvenization" to make Remy seem more Tolkien.


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## Thornir Alekeg (Sep 2, 2010)

Thornir Alekeg was a memorable dwarven cleric I played in a D&D campaign in college.  After graduation I stayed in touch with some of my college friends via IRC.  The name was instantly recognizable to my friends when I joined a chat room and almost never taken by somebody else, so it became my online name for IRC and later on other internet forums.


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## crazy_cat (Sep 2, 2010)

crazy_cat comes from what my daughter (very young at the time) used to call her favourite character in her favourite bedtime story. The Cat in the Hat, or the crazy cat as he was known.

The underscore was initially there to make the ID work in systems that don't allow spaces in usernames, and has just become a standard part of the way I spell the ID now given the chance. I think my first major usage of this name was with multiplayer Neverwinter Nights, which is what got me back in to RPGs, and I try and use this ID on all RPG related boards I now frequent.


----------



## Diamond Cross (Sep 2, 2010)

I had a Magic User character in 2e that came across a cross made entirely out of red diamonds. It was a present from a gold dragon he and the party saved the life of. It was an exceptionally rare item, and I think the only one like it in the entire world. It didn't have any magical properties for it, he simply prized it for it was a symbol of friendship with a gold dragon.

However, the thief of the party was always trying to steal it from him so he eventually develop a spell called Hallucinatory Object. It was much like hallucinatory terrain, but instead it obscured objects and made them seem less valuable than they actually were.

The thief eventually stole it anyway and sold it for his own interests.

After he did that though the entire party laid the smack down and beat the thief character to a bloody pulp. That person never played with the group again.

For some reason, that player never liked me and used his thief character to steal anything of valuable from me, and only me, in order to punish me for something. I never saw him after that last time we played.

And my character finally recovered the cross a few months later when he explained that it was stolen. It led to retrieving another item for the noble from whom it was stolen and they learned it was being kept in  a small dungeon in which Orcs were hiding out in in order to raid the town. When he retrieved the item, he returned it, and the noble returned the cross.


----------



## Stoat (Sep 2, 2010)

What does my ENWorld name mean?  It's in my status.

Stoat: The common Holarctic ermine (Mustela erminea) especially in its brown summer coat.


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## jimmifett (Sep 2, 2010)

Jim, the obvious part, fett from Boba Fett, specifically the older EU version of him as the Mandalore. I like the individualist frontiersmen selfsufficiency of the mandalorian culture.


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## Klaus (Sep 2, 2010)

El Mahdi said:


> Mine would have been *Armmar*...a natural palindrome! And it rhymes with Armor. I'll have to remember that for a character some day. I'll make him a Knight and call him the _"Palindrome Paladin"_...
> 
> 
> 
> edit: Not a palindrome...just a tad dyslexic today  I guess I'd have to call him the _"Almost Palindrome Paladin"_...



Hmm... This formula yields Pozcla for me. Sounds like some Russian dirty word.


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## Someone (Sep 3, 2010)

Mine is true but uninformative. I like that kind of math and language jokes ("Do you want vanilla or chocolate?" "Yes")


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## pawsplay (Sep 3, 2010)

paws play = as in pausing or playing a movie, or as in pausing to play

paw splay = paws spread apart, or paws unusually wide

I am the only cat of my kind.


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## Ulorian - Agent of Chaos (Sep 3, 2010)

My Baldur's Gate CRPG character, and for some reason, the name of every CRPG character I've made since. Which is weird, because pre-BG, all of my CRPG characters were named Jack.


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## Bold or Stupid (Sep 3, 2010)

Bold or Stupid

It's what people call my main LARP character, he's a Fox man, the Bold bit is an obscure children's book reference (Fox Cub Bold). The or Stupid is because basically his actions are either one or the other (mostly depending on success).

International Fox of Mystery - I have travel everywhere and no one understands me.


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## drothgery (Sep 3, 2010)

First initial, last name, and what I normally use as my name online.


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## Scribble (Sep 3, 2010)

Mine's a character from one of my all time favorite books.


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## noretoc (Sep 3, 2010)

My name in a different direction.


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## mach1.9pants (Sep 3, 2010)

The top speed I ever achieved in my mighty Tornado F3 ws Mach 1.9. The pants bit was a joke from a friend about wearing my lucky supersonic undies, I said 'Yes I am wearing my Mach1.9 pants'
and it stuck


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## Pseudonym (Sep 3, 2010)

Eric Anondson said:


> So, why did you choose your name for your ENWorld account, and what does it mean/what does it come from?




I had lurked without registering a name ever since Eric's original site, but when I finally decided to pick a name I couldn't think of anything, so I tried Pseudonym and was surprised to find it available.

I was thinking along the lines of Ima Pseudonym or Ivan Alias in a Bart Simpson prank call kind of way. I've since used it on several RPG forums or if that is taken Pseudonym93, the 93 being from Crowley's writings.


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## ExploderWizard (Sep 3, 2010)

Back in the early 90's I was playing in a GURPS homebrew fantasy campaign. Our GM (S.John Ross) had written an article about unlimited mana and wanted to playtest it in his campaign. 

I created a demonologist named Kormydigar who was a bit of a nutcase. I was determined to test these new unlimited mana rules and see just how unlimited they actually were. 

Over the campaign I spent mana freely, it was unlimited after all. 

After suffering several detrimental effects, he was quite unstable both magically and mentally speaking. We were captured by some bad guys and I didn't feel like answering questions from this one guy so I decided that it would be a good time to summon a demon-instantaneously.

In the magical backlash caused by this absurd expenditure of mana, Kormydigar exploded in a most spectacular fashion killing several bad guys and blowing a hole in the wall allowing my companions to escape. 

I got to play the first character to ever blow up from the U-mana system and got a screen name out of the deal. Good times.  I am Kormydigar on some boards and EW on others.


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## samursus (Sep 3, 2010)

Mine is pretty simple too.  My first name and part of the Latin designation of my totem animal. (I am Native).


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## Nadaka (Sep 3, 2010)

My name means "Divine Wind" one Indian dialect and "far traveler" in another. It is the name of the fiery sword wielded by Lord Vishnu.

In Japanese Ashi-Nadaka is the name of a goddess Princess-of-eight-rivers-and-inlets.

It is the also the name of a really annoying Indian pop singer and a Japanese actor of unknown quality.


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## roguerouge (Sep 3, 2010)

A lot of people spell rogue wrong. Either that, or their character class is a color.


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## malcolypse (Sep 3, 2010)

Malaclypse the Younger was the pen name used by Gregory Hill to write the Principia Discordia. Unless you believe the rumors that Gregory Hill was a pen name used by Malaclypse the Younger.

The story goes that he dissapeared in 1970. His last words were, "Come the dawn, the sun shall rise in the west." And then he walked into the Pacific Ocean.

In order to avoid confusion between us, I began using an altered spelling of the name in games and online (and I don't care what you heard, it wasn't because I was drinking heavily at the time.)


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## Flatus Maximus (Sep 3, 2010)

Flattus Maximus is a guitarist for GWAR, the ultimate all-bard D&D adventuring party. I didn't like the double-t, so I dropped one.


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## Graybeard (Sep 3, 2010)

Mine is quite easy to explain. My beard does have gray in it. I also feel quite old when talking to my 20-something and 30-something coworkers. I'm just an old graybeard. It also sounds like a pirate name which doesn't hurt either.


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## TarionzCousin (Sep 3, 2010)

Erac's Cousin was written up in the original Rogue's Gallery book. I don't have my copy handy, but I think he was played by one of Gary Gygax's kids. The character never revealed his real name--and there was never anyone named "Erac" other. It seemed like a good concept for a username.


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## StreamOfTheSky (Sep 3, 2010)

My name comes from a poem.  It's used in an anime called Ronin Warriors (Yoroiden Samurai Troopers in Japan) to describe the origins of the five mystical armors the main characters wear.  Generally one line for each of the five, though my favorite character gets two:

"Floating amongst the eyes of ages,
Unmoored in the stream of the sky."

Referring to the stars/heavens.

EDIT: The full legend poem for the series:
[sblock]Torch of Spirit, sought through five,
Drinking strength from immortal fire,
Darkest prison sheds the light,
Churning beneath a swirl of salt,
Burning within a throne of rock,
Floating amongst the eyes of ages,
Unmoored in the stream of the sky[/sblock]

I cannibalize it all the time.  I use another portion of the poem for my AIM screen name, I've used EyesOfAges a few times, and the forum I made for my houserules and game info is called "Torch of Spirit."  So...yeah...


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## Noumenon (Sep 3, 2010)

Goonalan said:


> This one guy would shout 'Go on Alan', after about thirty minutes of this I was fool enough to ask- 'who's Alan?'
> 
> Twenty-two years later and I'm still stuck with it.




I don't get it.

My Morrus-name is "kovkar."

"Noumenon" is from Kant, it's the real thing in itself.  Everything else is just phenomenon, as it appears to us.  A weighty nickname for something I made up to play Wheel of Fortune online in 1999.


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## FireLance (Sep 3, 2010)

You can blame G-Force (the anime, NOT the guinea pig movie) for my username. G-Force was an old Japanese cartoon featuring a group of five people protecting the earth and stuff (kind of like the Power Rangers, but less campy). Among the vehicles they piloted was this massive airplane/spaceship that could turn into a fiery phoenix-like blast of energy. Many episodes ended with them using this ability to blast through and destroy the threat of the day.

That image kind of stuck in my mind, and when I needed to name a phoenix NPC for a 1e D&D game, I used "Firelance". Since then, every time I needed to use a phoenix in the game, I would call it "Firelance". During 2e, I started creating a homebrew inspired by elements of the Death Gate Cycle, the Dark Sun setting and the Birthright setting. The basic idea behind the setting was that the world had been split into eight pieces because of a massive struggle between good and evil. Firelance became a hero of the old world who had best embodied the philosophy of Fire. Formerly human, he had evolved into a phoenix. His weapon, also called the Fire Lance, was what would be a holy, flaming lance in 3e terms. In 4e terms, it would be a spear that could convert the damage it deals to fire and radiant damage (and in line with 4e philosophy, since there's no official magic item that does this, I decided to create my own). 

I have long abandoned that setting, but I'm still fond of the name and the (NPC) character and weapon who bore it. So, I've been using it as my user name on ENWorld and a few other forums I frequent.

And in case it isn't obvious, my avatar depicts both the phoenix and the weapon that shared his name. It was done by Sialia (also from ENWorld).


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## falcarrion (Sep 3, 2010)

I was rolling up a elven thief and needed a good name. So I took Falcon and carrion crawler, combined them and formed Falcarrion. Once I started using Yahoo so many years ago, I used it for my name. Have used it ever since.
I am the first and only true Falcarrion. any others are just bad imitations.


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## Ourph (Sep 3, 2010)

It's my real name.


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## Ahnehnois (Sep 3, 2010)

The name of my first large and in charge NPC; now a deity of my setting. The character is a particularly poignant representation of myself (as all of them are to some extent) and stands for essentially the same principles that I do.


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## TheAuldGrump (Sep 3, 2010)

It means that I'm auld and grumpy?

Actually, it a nickname that got hung on a Seelie redcap knight that I played in a Changeling LARP, and it stuck.

The Auld Grump, who, of course, _is_ Auld and Grumpy


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## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 3, 2010)

TarionzCousin said:


> Erac's Cousin was written up in the original Rogue's Gallery book. I don't have my copy handy, but I think he was played by one of Gary Gygax's kids. The character never revealed his real name--and there was never anyone named "Erac" other. It seemed like a good concept for a username.




Yep...and despite my desire to always use something along those lines for a PC of my own, I never have.


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## weem (Sep 3, 2010)

"weem" is the mis-pronouncing of the first part of my last name.

The first part of my last name (Wiemholt) is pronounced like the word "why"but many pronounce it "weem"holt. My friends called me "Weem"holt intentionally for a while and it eventually became "weem".

And so, my website (theWeem.com) is based on it as well


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## kikai (Sep 3, 2010)

while I was into karate, aikido and zen, i practiced concentrating on the kikai-tanden, i. e. the middle of your body, just below your belly button. kikai is the ocean of energy (ki).


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## Peraion Graufalke (Sep 3, 2010)

weem said:


> "weem" is the mis-pronouncing of the first part of my last name.
> 
> The first part of my last name (Wiemholt) is pronounced like the word "why"but many pronounce it "weem"holt. My friends called me "Weem"holt intentionally for a while and it eventually became "weem".




Your last name appears to be German, so it's not actually wrong to say "weem". 
(Compare with the pronounciation of _tiefling_, for example. Of course, Americans can't pronounce that correctly.  )


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## Relique du Madde (Sep 3, 2010)

A favorite rp (2e and chat) character of mine: Relique Antiquiis Stanforde du Madde aka Mad Relic the Red.


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## wedgeski (Sep 3, 2010)

Mine is of a relatively straightforward genesis. At about the time that the notion of an online identity became a reality, I was really massively into Star Wars, looking forward to the Special Editions and so-forth.

"wedge", unfortunately, was taken on whatever board I first tried it, so I did what I always do... added a bit of faux-Russian into the mix.


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## Ulorian - Agent of Chaos (Sep 3, 2010)

FireLance said:


> You can blame G-Force (the anime, NOT the guinea pig movie) for my username. G-Force was an old Japanese cartoon featuring a group of five people protecting the earth and stuff (kind of like the Power Rangers, but less campy).



I remember the American version: Battle of the Planets. There were always huge arguments in the schoolyard over who would get to be Jason and who 'had' to be Mark. I'd give you xp for the memories, but apparently I must spread first. 7-Zark-7 FTW!


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## Hella_Tellah (Sep 3, 2010)

kikai said:


> while I was into karate, aikido and zen, i practiced concentrating on the kikai-tanden, i. e. the middle of your body, just below your belly button. kikai is the ocean of energy (ki).




Do you know which chinese characters it uses? 丹田/tanden does mean the point just below the navel, but kikai could be written a few ways. Yours is probably 気界, which means "spirit world." To be honest, though, when I hear "kikai", I think of 機会 (chance, opportunity) or 機械 (machine, apparatus), which are much more common expressions, as you might imagine. Here's what Google turns up on 気界丹田/kikai-tanden:



			
				渡辺俊一 said:
			
		

> 「丹田気界」という表現は何か生命の源というか、元気の海という風にとらえられていたということが分りました。
> 
> "The expression 'tanden kikai' is something that is the origin of life, or perhaps I should say that I understand it could be perceived as the sea of stamina."




There's also a Zen poem that refers to the 気海丹田/ki-umi tanden, which more directly means "spirit sea in the point beneath the navel."

Which is a long way of saying that your name means "machine" or "opportunity" to me, but your interpretation is pretty close, too.


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## Aeolius (Sep 3, 2010)

When I was in college and researching a poem about aeolian harps (Coleridge or Emerson, I have forgotten which) I stumbled across information about the Greek wind god Aeolus. Having traveled to Greece many years before, I was already fascinated by Greek mythology.

     Weeks later, during Christmas Break in 1985, I used my brand-spanking new Apple IIgs and 300 baud modem to sign up for AppleLink: Personal Edition, which would later become AOL. I chose my screen name on a whim... Aeolius... combining aeolian with Aeolus.

     Fast forward a few years. Yes, I choose my screen name from a wind god, yet I am fascinated by the sea. Well, there's always Aeoliscus Strigatus, the striped shrimpfish, or the Aeolidiidae family of sea slugs to choose from


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## TarionzCousin (Sep 3, 2010)

weem said:


> "weem" is the mis-pronouncing of the first part of my last name.
> 
> The first part of my last name (Wiemholt) is pronounced like the word "why"but many pronounce it "weem"holt. My friends called me "Weem"holt intentionally for a while and it eventually became "weem".






Peraion Graufalke said:


> Your last name appears to be German, so it's not actually wrong to say "weem".
> (Compare with the pronounciation of _tiefling_, for example. Of course, Americans can't pronounce that correctly.  )



Yeah, [MENTION=9470]weem[/MENTION]: you're mispronouncing your own name.  To pronounce it that way it should be spelled "Weimholt." In German ie and ei combinations you pronounce it as if it is the second letter. Tiefling is "tee-fling," for example ("Teufel" is "Devil" in German).


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## Initiate (Sep 3, 2010)

When I first started joining forums I didn't know what to use. So I took a look at what I was interested in at the time for inspiration. This was before I knew about D&D or most of the neat stuff I know about now so I checked for names from games.

This was around the time that Command and Conquer: Yuri's Revenge had come out and I had become a fan of his faction. On a whim I tried the name of my favorite unit, Yuri's basic infantry the Initiate. The forum accepted it and I ended up defaulting to Initiate whenever I sign up for a new site.


----------



## Smoss (Sep 3, 2010)

Lazy college kids led to my handle...  

Everyone got email in college (It was my first ever email account.  And my first access to the internet...)

It was the same for all.  first letter of first name, then full last name.  People often had fun with them if they made a word (Poor, poor Heather O'Brien for example).  For me it was Smossman.

Of course, two syllables is WAY too many for lazy, drunken college louts...  

So I became Smoss.  I barely answer to my real name anymore it is so rarely used.
------------------------------
Smoss
Doulairen

Edit: And yes for Mahdi - I did join a frat...  And we had to be given nicknames.  My "namer" and I both already had nicknames - His was Stein.  So we were lazy and kept them.  We had better things to do anyways.  Like ROLEPLAY!


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## Vyvyan Basterd (Sep 3, 2010)

In real life I have a girl's name (not Vyvyan) and I am a rat bastard DM. I'm also rather reserved, but there is this rotten punk deep down inside of me whispering bad violent thoughts to me. I also feel much younger at heart than my age belies. I picture that persona as my favorite sitcom character, and thus my screenname. Vyvyan is the orange-haired one in my avatar in case you're too young to be a Young One.


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## Nadaka (Sep 3, 2010)

TarionzCousin said:


> Yeah, [MENTION=9470]weem[/MENTION]: you're mispronouncing your own name.  To pronounce it that way it should be spelled "Weimholt." In German ie and ei combinations you pronounce it as if it is the second letter. Tiefling is "tee-fling," for example ("Teufel" is "Devil" in German).




Some of the US German immigrants around ~1890 intentionally swapped 'ei' and 'ie' in their names to sound more English, not realizing that the English pronunciation of the letters was practically the opposite. I don't know how many did so, but I know my fathers family did.


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## weem (Sep 3, 2010)

Nadaka said:


> Some of the US German immigrants around ~1890 intentionally swapped 'ei' and 'ie' in their names to sound more English, not realizing that the English pronunciation of the letters was practically the opposite. I don't know how many did so, but I know my fathers family did.




Yea, ours was switched as well - and it was previously (iirc) Veinholdt (or something right around there).

Anyway, it's pronounced as our family has always pronounced it, so we are pronouncing it right as far as I am concerned, English be damned


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## Peraion Graufalke (Sep 3, 2010)

Nadaka said:


> Some of the US German immigrants around ~1890 intentionally swapped 'ei' and 'ie' in their names to sound more English, not realizing that the English pronunciation of the letters was practically the opposite.




Well, Germans can be crazy like that.


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## Traveon Wyvernspur (Sep 3, 2010)

Mine is the name of my favorite D&D character I played. He was a Paladin of Tyr.


----------



## JohnRTroy (Sep 3, 2010)

My ENWorld name means I don't wanna hide behind a Pseudonym or Avatar.


----------



## avin (Sep 3, 2010)

Avin is an anagram of Ivan.


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## Ed_Laprade (Sep 3, 2010)

JohnRTroy said:


> My ENWorld name means I don't wanna hide behind a Pseudonym or Avatar.



Yeah, if I sign up on something where I'm going to be expressing my opinions I usually use my real name. It tends to make for more polite conversation, I think.


----------



## Roland55 (Sep 3, 2010)

Lanefan said:


> Rolled up in early 1984, Lanefan went on to become my iconic character over the next many years of play.  He's in fact still out there in a currently-active world, just waiting for the main played party to catch up to his level before inflicting himself on the masses once more.
> 
> Further, in the language I was trying to dream up at the time Lanefan (as "la nefan") literally means "man of [the] moon"; as I have since become Wiccan, it just plain fits.
> 
> La-"man of the moon"-nefan




I'd bet this is very common.

It's where mine comes from.  Not my first character, by a long shot, but perhaps my favorite.  "Roland" was an extremely non-traditional Paladin, created just as Paladins first became a playable class.  Played him on and off and on again through many editions.  The connection with my avatar picture is more complex to explain ... perhaps another day.

"Roland" is also the name of my closest child-hood friend.  He died quite young and, yes, I adopted his name for my Paladin to keep my memories of the original Roland ever-green.  By and large, it has helped over the years.

Rollo -- still smiling after all these long years, buddy ...


----------



## Roland55 (Sep 3, 2010)

Joshua Randall said:


> I always thought you were named after that herb that you use in the old game Bloodstone (? I think), but a search suggests that is actually spelled with only one "f".
> 
> And the only reason I know that is ages ago on AlexMUD, someone had a bunch of characters named Nift, Gonshi, Mergit, etc.
> 
> I've heard he's a real bad-a$$, too.




Nifft the Lean.  Quite a roguish fellow.


----------



## Roland55 (Sep 3, 2010)

mach1.9pants said:


> The top speed I ever achieved in my mighty Tornado F3 ws Mach 1.9. The pants bit was a joke from a friend about wearing my lucky supersonic undies, I said 'Yes I am wearing my Mach1.9 pants'
> and it stuck




Always wanted to take a spin in a Tornado.

But, no, not to be.


----------



## WanderingMonster (Sep 3, 2010)

I heard all the noise, so I thought I'd come see what was happening.


----------



## jonesy (Sep 3, 2010)

WanderingMonster said:


> I heard all the noise, so I thought I'd come see what was happening.



"A monster wanders into the clearing. It stands there looking at the gathering. It looks curious."

"I say: hey monster? Do you like beer and barbeque?"


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 4, 2010)

Roland55 said:


> Nifft the Lean.  Quite a roguish fellow.




Ahem...

The XP I gave you was for YOUR story about your buddy, Roland.

Somehow, though, because I'm doing this from an iTouch and have fat fingers, electronic gremlins moved it to the post subsequent.


----------



## Roland55 (Sep 4, 2010)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> Ahem...
> 
> The XP I gave you was for YOUR story about your buddy, Roland.
> 
> Somehow, though, because I'm doing this from an iTouch and have fat fingers, electronic gremlins moved it to the post subsequent.




Understood and appreciated.

As an ancient fellow, I marvel at your ability to post from that tiny little iTouch at all.


----------



## Lord Captian Tobacco (Sep 4, 2010)

A little bit of a tale…
I have earned an appellation. 
I was a Captain in the US Army. 
I was the Captain of a Ship (and social group) in the SCA.
As you can see in my photo (yes, that’s really me) I smoke a pipe. And I do so when I game, act, philosophize, and go out in public. 

For many, this is the easiest way to create a memorable impression and others can avoid the embarrassment of not being able to remember my name. Or how to pronounce it… 
The Cat Herding is something I'm pursuing.


About the font: normally I use NTR but if it shows poorly here, I will find something else.


----------



## minitrue (Sep 4, 2010)

Mine is taken from George Orwell's 1984, the Newspeak name for the Ministry of of Truth.  Since the late 90's I've used it as my email address.  I was reading the book at the time, and I was a journalism major.

My Morrus-name is "milwil"


----------



## Ulorian - Agent of Chaos (Sep 4, 2010)

Lord Captian Tobacco said:


> A little bit of a tale…
> I have earned an appellation.
> I was a Captain in the US Army.
> I was the Captain of a Ship (and social group) in the SCA.
> ...



Totally off topic, but using a font without serifs will make reading your posts much easier on the eyes.


----------



## AdmundfortGeographer (Sep 4, 2010)

Lord Captian Tobacco said:


> . . .
> I was a Captain in the US Army.
> I was the Captain of a Ship (and social group) in the SCA.
> . . .



Would it be bad form to point out that your name is . . . um . . . mis-spelled? Captian vs. captain? Or is there a story behind that too like rogue rouge, cannon canon?


----------



## Dedekind (Sep 4, 2010)

Smoss said:


> Lazy college kids led to my handle...
> 
> Everyone got email in college (It was my first ever email account.  And my first access to the internet...)
> 
> It was the same for all.  first letter of first name, then full last name.  People often had fun with them if they made a word (Poor, poor Heather O'Brien for example).  For me it was Smossman.




Ours were all 'stu' + 'first 4 letters of last name' + 'first letter of first name'.

I still have friends whose email/username is stuxxxxy.


----------



## Dedekind (Sep 4, 2010)

Dedekind was a mathematician famous for a technique called 'Dedekind cuts.' I had to apply it in my modern algebra class and it struck me as a cool handle. I've been using it ever since.


----------



## Pbartender (Sep 4, 2010)

It's doesn't have anything to do with mixing drinks (yet), and it doesn't have anything to do with lead.

I work at a particle accelerator laboratory at first operating and now repairing and maintaining machines that make and store, amongst other sub-atomic particles, antimatter... and specifically antiprotons.

In a way I am quite literally a pbartender in the same way that someone who looks after sheep is a shepherd.

One of these days, perhaps when I retire, I have a notion to open up a little pub just outside the lab and call it the "Pbar & Grill".


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 4, 2010)

Roland55 said:


> Understood and appreciated.
> 
> As an ancient fellow, I marvel at your ability to post from that tiny little iTouch at all.




_[shakefist]_Whippersnapper!_[/shakefist]_


_(The above post took 3hrs to type on my iTouch.)_


----------



## coyote6 (Sep 4, 2010)

On whatever BBS or ISP system I first signed up for, I tried to use "coyote", but it was taken. The PCs in my all-time favorite campaign (which I was a player in at the time) were an ad hoc special ops team with the call sign "Coyote", and I always liked Wile E. & the trickster. My character in the game somehow ended up in charge, and hence got the call sign Coyote 6; thus, coyote6.

Some places additional numbers have gotten tacked on, because just 6 was taken, so I'm also coyote627 (I signed up for AIM in late '97...) or coyote670.


----------



## Roland55 (Sep 4, 2010)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> _[shakefist]_Whippersnapper!_[/shakefist]_
> 
> 
> _(The above post took 3hrs to type on my iTouch.)_




And ... you're *still* more adept than I.


----------



## Kobold Boots (Sep 4, 2010)

First campaign I ever GM'd contained some players that I had not gamed with before.  One of which had a character based on every stereotype of the old cimmerian barbarian schtick.  Great fun.

Two of his running jokes:

1. He was large because all of his people were large.  When pressed, he'd advise that they did everything large, fight, sleep and eat.  Small surprise when the horses in the party would disappear and the barbarian would be making breakfast the next morning.

2. Kobolds were waterproof, this was proven in his culture where the kobold population had been systematically wiped out due to their hides being useful for boots and clothing that would handle the harsh weather.  When he traveled and found kobolds, he'd get excited and collect bagfuls for tanning purposes.

Hence "kobold boots".


----------



## Baphomet (Sep 4, 2010)

Minotaurs = awesome. Baphomet = awesomer. One of my favorite demon princes, not much story to go with it yet but soon to be a major villian in my campaign.


----------



## Alzrius (Sep 4, 2010)

"Alzrius" is an Abyssal Lord (that is, a demon prince) whose name gets dropped in several Second Edition products (mostly Planescape), and even in the odd Third Edition book (I think Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss) but generally only when listing various Abyssal notables - he's never really gotten much press.

Alzrius is the lord of Conflagratum, the 601st layer of the Abyss. His body is a gigantic flowing flame, and he'll give a piece of himself to his servants to carry forth as a torch when his army marches. Presumably, he's also the one who lights the torch for the Abyssal Olympics too.


----------



## skinnydwarf (Sep 4, 2010)

My enworld name is my main online nickname.

I originally chose it because I wanted a unique yahoo/aim name, something that I liked but did not have an "X" or "123" after it because someone had already chosen that name.  I'm tall and thin (not as thin as I used to be... it's all the Coke & Mountain Dew going right to my stomach), and I love dwarves.  Talldwarf was already taken, so I went with Skinnydwarf.  I've googled it every so often, and most of the results are me, so it has remained relatively unique.


----------



## Olgar Shiverstone (Sep 4, 2010)

*shrug*

It happens to be the name of the character (dwarf fighter/cleric, 3.0E) I was playing when I wrote my first Story Hour and accumulated enough posts that I started to be more of a regular (I was "Shylock" before 2002).

I would have changed, since it isn't an ID I use anywhere else, but since folks here are familiar with it I've kept it the same, even after doing subsequent story hours.  Plus it's a nod to Angelsboi, who was the DM for the Story Hour -- so at this point it's sort of my tribute to keeping him alive around here, though only the old-timers will get the reference.


----------



## The Little Raven (Sep 4, 2010)

My original ENWorld handle, Mourn, was the name of a Vampire: The Dark Ages character I played in high school.

My current one, TLR, is because my first name (Brendan) is Gaelic for "little raven."


----------



## Lord Captian Tobacco (Sep 5, 2010)

Yes it is...


----------



## Zelligars Apprentice (Sep 5, 2010)

Once, uncounted eons ago, when wizards were called "magic-users" and adventures were called "modules", there was a dungeon module called B1: In Search of the Unknown.  This module describes Quasqueton, the legendary home of Rogann (a mighty warrior) and Zelligar (an equally powerful wizard).  This module also happened to come in every box of the D&D Basic Set by J. Eric Holmes (the "blue box" edition, the one before the more famous "red box").  That was the very first D&D set I ever owned.

Thus it was that I learned my first lessons on how to play and run D&D from that set, and (in a way) from the mighty wizard Zeilligar.  When it came time to pick a name, it just seemed right to honor my gaming roots in that way.


----------



## Meek (Sep 5, 2010)

I use the username "Meek" wherever I subscribe to a forum where I don't intend to actually post much. In RPG forums I tended to get into flame wars whenever I post so I just stopped posting. I take up the handle Meek whenever I intend to lurk in a forum.

My normal handle, Wyatt Salazar, was my first D&D character. In D&D 3.5, he was a Half-Elf and ended up being a Wizard5/Cleric3/Mystic Theurge10/ and I don't recall what I did the rest of the levels, I think I went back to Wizard. He was kind of frenetic and goofy, but always a kill-shot stored up.


----------



## Sammael (Sep 5, 2010)

Sammael (usually spelled "Samael," but I greatly prefer the double M spelling variant) is one of the archdevils in Talmudic and other Judeo-Christian lore, sometimes mistaken for Lucifer the Satan (though the two are separate entities). Various sources conflict on whether Sammael is a fallen angel or remains an angel in good standing (more specifically, an angel of death) - or somehow manages to be _both_ an angel and a devil. 

Sammael is the Archdevil of Venom, the Serpent (who tempted Eve, among other things), and Lilith is sometimes named as his consort. 

Dicefreaks _Gates of Hell_ (Volume 8) provides a nice (if not totally accurate, IMO ) D&D version of Sammael, as one of the original Hellspawn (like Dispater, Mephistopheles, Lilith, etc), and former Lord of the Seventh who was deceived and betrayed by Beelzebub. GoH Sammael escaped from Baator by shifting his Venal Fortress to the Gray Waste, and he is now supposedly closer to NE than LE. I think we can safely disregard that particular notion.


----------



## Turjan (Sep 5, 2010)

I had already been using "Turjan" on other messageboards before EN World. It's the name of a character in the first fantasy novel I ever read* (Jack Vance's "Dying Earth", 1950), a sword fighting mage who tries to grow people in vats and goes on a quest to perfect this. This was high fantasy as I liked it, and I still tend to use the name on fantasy-related sites.

I guess you could say that the influence on my life was even more profound. I nowadays grow stuff in vats for a living, though no people.

*by accident; I thought it was SF


----------



## Mircoles (Sep 6, 2010)

Well, if you put an "e" after the "i", it means Wendnesday in spanish.


----------



## Southern Oracle (Sep 6, 2010)

When I first joined wizards.com way back when, I chose the name Oracle.  I had it for a week before I was informed that Peter Adkison wanted the name when posting on his site, and I had to pick another.  I'd just watched _The Neverending Story_ with daughter #1, so I tacked on Southern.  It also suits because I live in Tennessee.


----------



## renau1g (Sep 6, 2010)

Mine is my University username. I got so used to it there that I use it for pretty much any registration I need to do online, because I've never had any issue with another user having it I never worry about forgetting it.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 6, 2010)

Southern Oracle said:


> I had it for a week before I was informed that Peter Adkison wanted the name when posting on his site, and I had to pick another.




Bah!  He got to take your e-nom?  What did HE ever do?


----------



## Lidgar (Sep 6, 2010)

Lidgar is a fanatical cleric of Luck. Luck being a fickle mistress, so was "Lid" - he had a reputation for harming adventuring parties he was in as much as helping them.

Lid survived the ruins of Undermountain, the Halls of the Fire Giant King, and Skullport. 

He also spent many years in cyberspace, leading armies in Myth, and spending his free time fighting the Covenant as a Spartan.

Lastly, he was also almost made a co-star in _Napoleon Dynamite_. Alas, the producers decided to go with the legendary _Ligar_ instead.


----------



## Leatherhead (Sep 6, 2010)

My name means "idiot." But if you played Planescape, you would know that by now.


----------



## FreeXenon (Sep 8, 2010)

*My Avatar*

Some way up-thread have asked about my avatar.... my avatar is from one of my favorite paintings titled "Nine Tongues and a Tear" by Luis Royo. I love his work. =)


----------



## DaveyJones (Sep 8, 2010)

my first name is David
and my mother's maiden name is Jones.


----------



## diaglo (Sep 8, 2010)

i am a good little devil. so i swapped the b for a g.

i have used this name on a number of bulletin boards, newsgroups, and fora since 1996.


----------



## UngainlyTitan (Sep 9, 2010)

Its the townland where I live. I was creating a hotmail account and all vairations of my name were taken and I did not want to create something with numbers in it as I would be liable to forget any numbers.

So I tried the townland and it was not taken.
I use it many places these days.


----------



## Mathew_Freeman (Sep 9, 2010)

I have nothing useful to contribute to this thread, sorry.

I *used* to be called Tallarn on here, and that was taken from an old D&D character. I used the traditional "mashing syllables together until it sounds like it works" technique.

About a year later I found out Games Workshop had also mashed the same two syllables together for a Warhammer 40K planet name, famed for it's Imperial Guard. C'est la vie.


----------



## TarionzCousin (Sep 9, 2010)

Mathew_Freeman said:


> I have nothing useful to contribute to this thread, sorry.
> 
> I *used* to be called Tallarn on here, and that was taken from an old D&D character. I used the traditional "mashing syllables together until it sounds like it works" technique.
> 
> About a year later I found out Games Workshop had also mashed the same two syllables together for a Warhammer 40K planet name, famed for it's Imperial Guard. C'est la vie.



So what does your *current *username mean? Don't keep us in suspense like this!


----------



## WheresMyD20 (Sep 9, 2010)

It means that I'm still not sure where that die went.  I didn't think I rolled it all that hard...


----------



## MrsFickleGM (Sep 9, 2010)

I am married to the most fickle gamemaster in the universe.  You've heard of changing characters or worlds? We change gaming systems about once a week.


----------



## Starglyte (Sep 9, 2010)

Named after a D&D character of mine.


----------



## Andramelech (Sep 9, 2010)

Was trying to join some website where all the good names were taken. I wanted some kind of scarry satanic name. Of course, belzebub, Arioch, and Demagorgan were already taken, so I found a list of ancient demon names and went through the list. Andramelech seemed to work, but I had spelled it wrong. It should have been Adramelech. Didn't realize my error untill too late. Andramelech is a song by some gay-ass black metal band as well.


----------



## NewJeffCT (Sep 9, 2010)

I had access to enworld and a few other places with an ID that was JeffCT____ with Jeff being my name and then CT being my location (Connecticut)  Not sure what I had at the end of it.  (I also used it for a few work related websites)


However, I had all my passwords stored at work, and the IDs were linked to my work email,  and when I transferred to another area of the companY I worked for back then, I lost access to my old email and passwords.  

So, I created NewJeffCT so people who knew me before as JeffCTxyz, would hopefully realize I was the same person...


----------



## Andramelech (Sep 9, 2010)

NewJeffCT said:


> Jeff being my name and then CT being my location (Connecticut)




It sounds kind of like New Jack City.


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 9, 2010)

Andramelech said:


> It sounds kind of like New Jack City.




That was my thought the first time I saw his name as well!


----------



## TarionzCousin (Sep 10, 2010)

Andramelech said:


> Was trying to join some website where all the good names were taken. I wanted some kind of scarry satanic name.



"Scarry"?


----------



## megamania (Sep 10, 2010)

A favorite comicbook character I created in high school


mega-   1000x or many times

mania-   sudden explosive mental and physical outbursts


basically a walking timebomb.


----------



## Nonei (Sep 10, 2010)

Originally on message boards and for email, I was Tamtur after the wolf in the Master Wolf Greyhawk series. But, it kept being taken... Well, at the time I decided to switch, I was playing Star Wars Galaxies and my favorite character was Nonei the tailor/riflewoman. 

(For those of you familiar with SWG, this was pre-NGE when it was still fun to play a tailor. My favorite thing was to hang out in the cantina with my little R2D2-looking droid and make clothes for people on the spot.) 

I have been Nonei ever since.

As for my avatar, when I play I often imagine my characters as some version of quiet and dangerous... like the rogue that you can't quite trust even after she's saved your life. 

I was trying to find an appropriate photo and found this pic of a 14yo girl in rags from the Depression era. I zoomed in on her face and photoshopped it slightly to make it look a little less like a photo.

My Morrus name would be the same as my real last name only with one letter doubled...

Vyvyan: Thanks  Guess it's working!


----------



## Andramelech (Sep 10, 2010)

TarionzCousin said:


> "Scarry"?




Good Job. Please go through and proofread the rest of my posts, and report back to me when you're finished. There's a good lad. Off with you now..


----------



## TarionzCousin (Sep 10, 2010)

Andramelech said:


> Good Job. Please go through and proofread the rest of my posts, and report back to me when you're finished. There's a good lad. Off with you now..



Cool. I charge $40 per hour.

I'll send you the bill.


----------



## lurkinglidda (Sep 10, 2010)

lurking: I lurk more than I post on the message boards
lidda: I posed as Lidda on the cover of Book of Challenges. And then there's that I'm a halfling rogue.
My previous boss went by the screen name of Scott_Rouse...not sure where he came up with that one.


----------



## TarionzCousin (Sep 10, 2010)

lurkinglidda said:


> lidda: I posed as Lidda .



How long does it take to do your hair that way and why do I suddenly smell bacon?


----------



## Dragonbait (Sep 11, 2010)

I always liked dinosaurs. I saw Dragonbait on the cover of the Azure Bonds novel as a kid and I knew that I had to read it.. And 



Spoiler



warrior woman cleavage really sealed the deal since I was 14 at the time


. I was always interested in D&D, but Dragonbait was my gateway drug. My first official D&D character was a saurial paladin. I owe a lot to Dragonbait.


----------



## Rel (Sep 11, 2010)

Andramelech said:


> Good Job. Please go through and proofread the rest of my posts, and report back to me when you're finished. There's a good lad. Off with you now..




Also it's "Demogorgon", not "Demagorgon".


----------



## LeStryfe79 (Sep 11, 2010)

Zosa LeStryfe was a strange hybrid character I created for a rather magnificent SWSE campaign a couple of years ago. Don't know why, but it really stands out as a good one to me. The character looked and acted a lot like me in RL (with the exception of force powers) so I guess the name kinda stuck. Plus I never see anyone else using it. 

edit - I was born in 1979...


----------



## TarionzCousin (Sep 11, 2010)

Rel said:


> Also it's "Demogorgon", not "Demagorgon".



Actually, I prefer "Demi Moore-gon." 

It would be a much scarier monster if the PC's didn't always laugh at the second head: Ashton Kutcher.


----------



## Gundark (Sep 11, 2010)

I used to be big into the Star War CCG. There was a Tie Fighter card who in the lore section of the card stated that his call sign was "Winged Gundark" because of his number of kills. Winged Gundark was too long...so thus Gundark


----------



## Dannyalcatraz (Sep 11, 2010)

TarionzCousin said:


> Actually, I prefer "Demi Moore-gon."
> 
> It would be a much scarier monster if the PC's didn't always laugh at the second head: Ashton Kutcher.




Don't you mean "Asheron Kutcher?"


----------



## Chainsaw (Sep 11, 2010)

I come from a long line of lumber jacks or Texan homicidal maniacs - can't remember which.


----------



## cignus_pfaccari (Sep 12, 2010)

I needed a name for a game, and, without any immediate source of inspiration, took two insurance companies' names and modified them.

Brad


----------



## Mournblade94 (Sep 12, 2010)

Mines Simple really...

Mournblade was the sister sword of Stormbringer from Elric of Melnibone.  I always liked the name better.

94 has significance as the year I was released from active duty in the US Navy and started my biological studies... AND well it is the Docking Bay of the Millenium falcon in the Mos Eisley Space port (A wretched hive of scum and villainy for those unfamiliar with it)

I would not have used 94 if any one of those factors was the only thing present.  Pretty much it is my universal online user name.


----------



## Psion (Sep 12, 2010)

A Psion is a class in the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition game. Ever heard of it? 

I joined the boards about the time that the 3.0 Psioncs handbook came out, and it was the first thing that occurred. And I always liked psionics in D&D, dating back to the Psionicist class in the Dragon (the power lottery stuff in the 1e DMG... not so much.)


----------



## Jhaelen (Sep 12, 2010)

Fun thread! 

Mine is the middle part of the protagonist's name of a fantasy novel that impressed me most back in my teenager days. I've been using different parts of that name for everything I'm doing online.

I later found out that the name is actually an anagram of a different novel's protagonist from the same author...


----------



## Zhaleskra (Sep 12, 2010)

Doesn't mean a thing. A made up word I created while generating the first World Tree character I ever made. Went with the suggestions of something sounding magical, and am fairly certain I thought of using a J somewhere. Well, there is a J in the full name, just not where I thought of putting it when coming up with the convenient nickname.


----------



## Theron (Sep 12, 2010)

According to the baby name book my parents got it out of, it's Greek for "Hunter."  According to at least one Greek acquaintance, it's not.

Either way, it's my real name.  When I first got online (back in the days of BBSes) the first board I frequented was largely populated by people using their real names.  So the idea of a handle never really stuck with me.

Using my real name has served me well over the years, as it's quite unique and folks who've only seen it online tend to recognize it.


----------



## Meadyaon (Mar 23, 2011)

Meadyaon is a demi-god character I am working on for Heroes Unlimited.


----------



## nnms (Mar 23, 2011)

I like keeping aquariums and my username is for a creature I like in saltwater/reef aquariums.  But I spelled it incorrectly.  Oops.


----------



## Viktyr Gehrig (Mar 23, 2011)

It's my name. I had it changed last year.


----------



## Redshirt (Mar 24, 2011)

It was the name I used the first time I played Halo 2 with my friends (it seemed appropriate). I've used it pretty much for everything since.


----------



## SoulsFury (Mar 24, 2011)

I had thought of an idea for a campaign setting that I wanted to DM in many years ago, which basically entailed me not creating the world at all until we played in it, allowing all details to be designed as we played, catering to what the players want. Whatever they expressed interest in, I would put in it. If I heard someone say, "That would suck if we ran into xxx," well then they would run into it. Never got to do it until recently, and it is by far the most successful campaign I have ever run. My players actually know about the world because they had input in it. They have designed and built villages and towns, created the cultures and helped along the politics. I called it Soul's Fury because it was to come from the heart and imagination of my players (the Soul part), and the Fury part because I get to lash out at them for wanting something I didn't (lol).


----------



## kitsune9 (Mar 24, 2011)

Kitsune is the Japanese word for fox. I chose it just because.


----------



## Stumblewyk (Mar 24, 2011)

Stumblewyk was the name of my first-ever PC, back in AD&D 2e.  Gnome Cleric/Illusionist.  I still love that little guy.


----------



## invokethehojo (Mar 24, 2011)

A friend of mine came up with the phrase Invoke The Hojo in highschool.  I will give you it's definition by example:

When you have a very busy day planned at work the next day, but you stay up all night droppin acid (or similar) and not only don't go to work, but call in trippin balls with an excuse that may not even be plausible in a cartoon, and you can hear your coworkers are dealing with that shitstorm of work your skipping out on in the background, and then once off the phone you take two more hits of acid (or similar), it is then that you are invokin the hojo.


----------



## NoWayJose (Mar 24, 2011)

In my high school, there was one guy called José. On the very last day of school, he said something that gave me the opening to finally, finally exclaim, "No way Jose!". Years later, if feels like a suitable moniker for a forum where people often disagree with each other.


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## Aspect of Veles (Mar 24, 2011)

Veles was a slavic deity whose primary domain was sheep, and he fought so hard to protect them, that he became the god of fighters.  Later, he was deemed so 'down to earth' that he was made god of the underworld in addition to his other two domains.  He was an all-around nice guy.

Then the christian missionaries came in and made connections between him and the devil (animal-association, violence, god of the underworld) and his follwers soon dwindled.

I just find the progression of his domains amusing, and the mythology geek in me loves the idea of using a character from mythology whom hardly anyone has heard of.  I use this moniker on many sites, only choosing different names on especially thematic forums (such as yog-sothoth).


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## NewJeffCT (Mar 24, 2011)

I was originally on enworld through an old work email.  My ID/user name was something like JeffCT1966 or something like that.  I was a fairly frequent poster dating back to around when 3E was first coming out.  I remember going to this site religiously in anticipation of 3E.

However, I changed jobs and forgot my password.  And, of course, password recovery usually involves sending an email to the registered email address, which was my no longer valid work email.  

So, in case anybody actually knew me and remembered me at all, I became *NewJeffCT* to replace JeffCT1966 in an attempt to make it familiar to people.


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## Theo R Cwithin (Mar 24, 2011)

"the orc within" is an anagram of "wet rhino itch", a foul (and foul-smelling) disease I contracted during a stint as a naugahyde smuggler in the Congo basin during the mid-90s.

To this day I still walk funny on account of the scars.


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## Askaval30 (Mar 24, 2011)

The name of a Scandinavian Eagle from a William Horwood novel


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## jonesy (Mar 24, 2011)

the_orc_within said:


> "the orc within" is an anagram of "wet rhino itch", a foul (and foul-smelling) disease I contracted during a stint as a naugahyde smuggler in the Congo basin during the mid-90s.
> 
> To this day I still walk funny on account of the scars.



And here I thought it was an anagram of Tin Witch Hero.


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## Kannik (Mar 24, 2011)

Kannik's the name I've gone by online for ages.  Long ago I was choosing a name for my alter-ego and needed a good name for a canadian lynx, so I hit up one of the Inuit-English dictionaries at the university library.  I chose one of the words for snow in one particular dialect of Inuktitut, bastardized it a bit, and ended up with Kannik.  I just liked the sound of it.  I then simply adopted it for the whole of my online identities.

Humorously I now live in an area where many of the people I know I met online, so I answer to Kannik off-line as readily as my given name.  It's become part of my identity overall.  

Years later I would come to find out that Kannik is a semi-common name in _Norway_.  Who knew?  

peace,

Kannik


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## Crazy Jerome (Mar 24, 2011)

At some point I decided that it would make sense to use the name of one of the only two recurring characters from campaigns I run.  CJ was the absent-minded, planar traveling wizard-merchant.  Smitty was the loyal but guillible and literal-minded gate guard--who always managed to get hired easily in time to irritate the players at the next town, but too annoying and trusting to keep the job--and thus be available for the next.  Smitty's didn't seem like good characteristics for a forum. 

So I took the "other" name, and much to my surprise found that it was always available no matter where I went ...


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## jdrakeh (Mar 24, 2011)

Mine is the first letter of my first name, my whole middle name, and the first letter of my last name. It'si also a super unique ID that I can use pretty much anywhere online withassurances that somebody else isn't already using it.


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## Nikosandros (Mar 24, 2011)

Nikosandros was the name of a magic-user NPC in my longest running campaign (19 years). When I become active on the Internet (in the late '90s), I decided that I really liked the name ans started using it as my handle almost everywhere.

Possibly the name was originally at least somewhat inspired by the name Nicodemus, a wizard in the Fighting Fantasy game-book _City of Thieves_, but it's hard to be sure after all this years...


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## A flannel shirt (Mar 25, 2011)

Do I need to explain?

I like wearing flannel.

There you beat it out of me.



I mostly use it due to when playing counter strike when I kill somoene it will say "You have been killed by A Flannel Shirt."


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## tenkar (Mar 25, 2011)

It was the name of a party henchman when I DMed AD&D 2e back in the day.  A  Dwarven Fighter, the party got pretty attached to him, and in the end, he was the only henchman / hireling they had left.

Years later, when the old gaming group played Everquest, he became my Dwarven Paladin.  The rest, as they say, is history


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## Nellisir (Mar 25, 2011)

jdrakeh said:


> Mine is the first letter of my first name, my whole middle name, and the first letter of my last name. It'si also a super unique ID that I can use pretty much anywhere online withassurances that somebody else isn't already using it.




First letter of my first name, my whole middle name, and the first TWO letters of my last name.

Ditto the rest.  And I will answer to Nell in real life.


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## Man in the Funny Hat (Mar 25, 2011)

Man in the Funny Hat.  It's a reference to a line from Willy Wonka (the good version with the inimitable Gene Wilder.)  It also fits because I like hats and almost always wear one.  People don't wear enough hats.

The name I was using before was "D+1" which was secretly a clue to... a secret.  But I never told anybody there was a secret, nor that the name was a clue.  I got tired of it and MitFH sounded better.


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## DrunkonDuty (Mar 25, 2011)

I wanted to use "DnD" in it in some way. DrunkoNDuty fit both for this and my life style. 

Although I don't achieve this state so much now as I am no longer a bartender. 

cheers.


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## Orius (Mar 25, 2011)

When I first ventured online, I needed a name.  I figured all the good names from various SF universes were already taken, so like a lot of posters in this thread, I dipped into my D&D campaign. However, egotist that I am, I didn't settle for the name of a PC or NPC.

Nope, only the name of one of the gods from my campaign was good enough. 

Orius was the god of magic and knowledge in my 3rd campaign world (later recycled into my 5th).  Naturally I chose this name because of my supreme nerdiness, and because in RPGs I like playing the wizard whenever possible.  Unfortunately, the name gets taken every now and then, and in the old days, I'd use the_real_orius defiantly.  These days I just stick a 3 on the end of it, because 3 is the greatest number ever.


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## Siberys (Mar 25, 2011)

Siberys is one of the dragons in Eberron's creation myth. I'm a huge Eberron nerd, so when I first registered on the Wizards boards in late 2004, I used that. I've used it ever since. Unfortunately, people have a terrible tendency to misspell it _Syberis_, much like the seeming compunction to misspell Eberron as _Ebberon_. 

If Siberys is ever taken, I use dragonabove instead (if you know Eberron, the reason is obvious).

I also use astralArchivist (in relation to a comic I read), and, more recently, Widget (my initials are WJT... Fairly straightforward).


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## buddhafrog (Mar 25, 2011)

the two ends of the spectrum, the divinity and base mortality in all of us.... and I was high and listening to the Door's "Peace Frog" when I first needed an internet nickname many a year ago.


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## Tymophil (Mar 25, 2011)

Tymophil is the name of my very first character for Dungeons & Dragons, the very first roleplaying game I played.

He was a half-elf ranger, created in 1981. He got murdered by a Dungeon master that our club had invited for a one shot where the DM killed all the player-characters by telling us that "time was up"...


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## Murder of Crows (Mar 25, 2011)

It's the term used to describe a group of crows.
Plus, I thought it sounded cool.


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## Joshua Randall (Mar 25, 2011)

jdrakeh said:


> Mine is the first letter of my first name, my whole middle name, and the first letter of my last name.



And all this time I've been pronouncing it "jay dee rah-keh". Heh.

I think that sounds better than "jay drake ache", anyway.


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## Sebastianelgar (Mar 25, 2011)

It's the name I use in one of my other geeky hobbies, the SCA.  Which came about because I started out interested in archery so St. Sebastian (martyred by arrows) and Elgar (which means elf-spear, arrows of a sort)
Sebastian


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## SkredlitheOgre (Mar 25, 2011)

Skredli the Ogre is a secondary character in the book "Bitter Gold Hearts" by Glen Cook.  He ends up getting killed at the end.  When I was making an ogre character for GURPS, this name popped immediately to mind.  I use this name for all of the RPG/fantasy boards I go on and it's even my gmail address.

Another cool thing is that, for a while anyway, my wife was using the name Donni Pell, who is Skredli's human girlfriend.


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## Scott DeWar (Mar 26, 2011)

I was looking at a bottle of Dewar's Scotch. Really. It is nothing more then a permutation of my favorite liquid refreshment.


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## nedjer (Mar 26, 2011)

nedjer is the Pharaonic verb for the action of spiritualisation or epiphany - kind of 'set in spiritual motion'.

Here's a modern translation:


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## Viking Bastard (Mar 26, 2011)

On another board, a long time ago, someone starting calling me a viking bastard. Because I was Icelandic and considered a rat bastard.

So I adopted it.

Long since tired of it, really. But sometimes you're stuck with your teenage decisions.


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## Scott DeWar (Mar 26, 2011)

How is that volcano eruption doing over there?


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## Drowbane (Mar 26, 2011)

Janus Nasadra was my favorite 2e PC. Around level 3 he inherited a drow-slaying katana from his mentor and during the next 10 levels he became known by that sword. "Drowbane".

My avatar is a drawing (OotS style) by Tarionzcousin depicting a halfling I played in tabletop, "Daevas Bitterleaf, the Halfling Torch".


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## Viking Bastard (Mar 26, 2011)

Scott DeWar said:


> How is that volcano eruption doing over there?




Finished, as far as I know.


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## the Jester (Mar 26, 2011)

I've been the Jester since the old BBS days in the late 80s/early 90s. 

It's a reference to a band (Marillion).


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## Dice4Hire (Mar 26, 2011)

I had a couple other names on the board, but moved along with them as my Yahoo id changed. The one I have now I have used before, but there is no real story behind it.


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## Scott DeWar (Mar 26, 2011)

I see you are in Japan. How are your fellow countrymen doing with the recent tragedies?


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## Zeverian (Mar 27, 2011)

*Severian* is the narrator and main character of Gene Wolfe's four-volume novel _The Book of the New Sun__.  _The first place I used it already had a Severian so I changed it to incorporate the Z from my previous handles Zombu and ZombieMonkey.

Peace,

Zev


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## airwalkrr (Mar 27, 2011)

About 15 years ago there were these shoes called Airwalks which were very similar to shoes called Vans (the latter of which are still in production, the former I am not so sure about). At my high school, you were either a Vans Man or an Airwalker as virtually all kids wore either one brand or the other. I was an Airwalker and when I went to make my first email address at hotmail.com, I tried airwalker[MENTION=89935]hotmail[/MENTION].com but it was taken. So I decided to replace the "e" with another "r." It's been my internet screen name for just about everything ever since.


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## TarionzCousin (Mar 27, 2011)

Drowbane said:


> My avatar is a drawing (OotS style) by Tarionzcousin depicting a halfling I played in tabletop, "Daevas Bitterleaf, the Halfling Torch".



Wow. What a great avatar. How much did that cost? It looks awesome.


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## Dice4Hire (Mar 27, 2011)

Scott DeWar said:


> I see you are in Japan. How are your fellow countrymen doing with the recent tragedies?




As far as I know, only one American has died in the quake, though a lot have left the country and I'm sure some are having a tough time of it up north.


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## Scott DeWar (Mar 27, 2011)

I do not own a TV. I get more news and better reported here then by jornalists.

I am sorry to hear this.


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## Herobizkit (Mar 28, 2011)

Hero biscuit: 
when someone does a small feat and gets excited  or acts overly proud, someone who is making fun of them for being so  excited or proud over such a small feat would say it sarcastically.

person 1 : oh yay! I'm done cleaning my room! 
person 2 : **tosses you a hero biscuit**

My first GURPS GM tossed this around liberally while I was learning the rules.  It also applies in a non-sarcastic fashion when you epically succeed despite an expected result of failure.  Also applies during combat.

Example: The GM gives you three rolls to save your character from falling down a cliff to his death.  Each success cancels a failure.  

Roll 1: fail.
Roll 2: fail.
Roll 3: critical success.


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## Infernal Teddy (Mar 28, 2011)

An ex-girlfriend used to call me her cute, huggable demonic bear... kinda stuck, even if she didn't...


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## vonmolkew (Mar 29, 2011)

One of the first D&D characters I ever played -- way back in about 8th grade -- was a magic-user named Gonzar (a name I still don't particularly like, even to this day).  As it turned out, he survived multiple dungeon forays and kept surviving until he reached the level where you could gain a castle (I'd have to dig out my old copies of Greyhawk, Blackmoor and the rest to find where that all came about).  I named the place Von Molkew.  Von Molkew has since become a nation in my home-created world, run by the aforementioned Gonzar.  And it's been my email address since email was first created and unleashed on an unsuspecting world.....


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## Thunderfoot (Mar 29, 2011)

Can't believe I haven't replied to this yet...

Okay, most of you know I'm a drummer.  At a family reunion a cousin of mine asked me to sit in on drums (we have so many musicians in the family that we have enough personnel for about six touring groups).  The last time he heard me play, I had been about 8, this was ten years later, I had been playing semi-pro through the last two years in high school and was on the cusp of signing with a pro band.

So, I sit down on the throne, he calls "Wipeout" and I give the count.  The bass drums (double bass) were ported and Brian, my cousin was standing in front of my drums.  I launch into the song and the air from the ports in the bass, flaps his pant legs.  Afterwards he commented, "Hey, thunder-foot, you wanna back off on the pedals?"  It stuck...


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## Whisper72 (Mar 29, 2011)

The 'whisper' part of my name has two meanings. It is derived from the character from the Glen Cook's Black Company series (a rebel sorceress who gets 'taken' by The Lady and is key in turning the tables on the rebels) and because my voice is quite soft and people complain that I whisper...

72 is the year I was hatched...

The combination is usually available, in some way or form I have been using the psuedonym 'whisper' or 'whisper72' on the net since about 1992... whew... that is a long time come to think of it...


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## Jon_Dahl (Mar 29, 2011)

Well mine comes from the Danish footballer Jon Dahl Tomasson. There is no specific reason why I chose it. I couldn't think of any better and it's easy to read or abbreviate if you feel like it.


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## JediSoth (Mar 29, 2011)

My name has its genesis back in 1996 when I first got online with AOL. Naturally, I wanted a cool Star Wars-related screen name, but all the good ones were taken. So I wracked my brain. (Gunga thought and thought.)

Finally, I decided to put something after "Jedi" that NO ONE else would think to put with "Jedi." My eyes went to my book shelf and settled on my collection of Dragonlance novels. Specifically, they settled on one book in particular: Lord Soth.

A Jedi Death Knight? *shrug* OK. It wasn't taken, and I've used JediSoth as my screen name ever since.


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## Hellcow (Mar 30, 2011)

Most people assume that my name comes from the secret cow level in Diablo II, and I am a fan of Diablo. But actually it comes from my first published d20 piece - a mini-adventure called "The Hellcow" in Atlas Game's _En Route_. You can download the adventure here.


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## Dragonblade (Mar 30, 2011)

My name is based off a character I ran for a 2e Dragonlance campaign years and years ago when I was in high school. He started out as a first level Knight of Solamnia and eventually earned his way up to being a Knight of the Rose over the course of the game. I also rolled 18/00 for strength, something I had never done before which contributed to the PC's uniqueness. Our DM ruled that none of the actual famous Dragonlance NPC's existed and so we ended up sort of taking on their roles during his game. One of my favorite PCs and one of my favorite campaigns of all time.


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## Mentat55 (Mar 30, 2011)

My name comes from being a big _Dune_ fan, and particularly of the idea of humans training their minds to store and process huge amounts of data -- the Mentats.

And I liked the number 5.  So clearly 55 is easily twice as awesome.


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## Vikarr (Mar 31, 2011)

My name is the name of the villain of the Sci-Fi novel I'm writing. It's actually an old Norse name, which I picked because it came right after Viking in an alphabetized name list.


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## TarionzCousin (Apr 1, 2011)

schwa said:


> My name is composed of my favorite letters.



Is this your all-time most favorite letter?


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## Mark CMG (Apr 1, 2011)

Mark is an indication of correctness or quality while the CMG are the initials of my company.


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