Idea - naming dungeon spell books

[drquicksilver]

I always quite liked the old books which were named after famous wizards (Kelek's, Raal's, etc) but they are way off-theme, coming from D&D or who knows where. I wonder if a fun way to bring that back, but in-theme, would be to name each of the dungeon books after an appropriate Ainur. That differentiates the dungeon books clearly so new players can see they are 'special' and it would provide a link to the names and descriptions of some of the artefacts and the Maiar in-dungeon. Without thinking too hard (and by no means an expert on the Tolkein's pantheon):

Mithrandir's Arcane Control
Curumo's Tome of Power

Aiwendil's Creature Dominion
Osse's Nature Craft
Yavanna's Wild Forces

Tulkas's Blessings
Manwe's Wrath

Sauron's Deadly Powers
Melkor's Corruption of Spirit

[whartung]

Gandalf's Notes and Shopping List

[tangar]

sorry, but putting valar names of book's spine is sacrilege I like traditional band's lore, it''s fun.. there were already plenty of changes in magic books recently, it will be good to leave it alone for a while, so people will get used to new stuff

[wobbly]

I like the names suggested, though I'm also fine with less Tolkien names too, such as the old set (Raal's etc.). To my mind anything is better then "the dull book of blandness" which is what the current set are called. Maybe that's a little unfair, some of the names are actually not that bad. Some are just ..."first spells". Not exact flavoursome. Hard to get excited about finding "Nature Craft" even though it's actually a useful book.

[Saru]

+1 to the suggestions.

In response to @tangar, I feel that if we're ever going to change the names to something more interesting (which I heavily support), now would be the time before people get too used to the bland current names.

[Nick]

I quite like this idea, but it will have to wait for version 4.3 because it will break savefiles. This gives us plenty of time to discuss appropriate names - have at it!

[archolewa]

The Tulkas Techniques for one of the Blackguard books.

Morgoth's Musings for one of the others.

Manwes Manual for a priest book.

Radagasts Recipes for a druid book.

EDIT: FIngolfin's Fury should be the new name for Battle Blessings.

[DavidMedley]

At least with the current design, two classes must share books. I don't know if that's got to be the way for all time, but if we made 8 books and didn't do any fudging in the cave creation process then we'd either find a lot more of other classes' books or a lot less of our own.

When I was working on the 4.2.1 Blackguard spell list, I tried to tailor them to the names of the books. Wish someone had started this thread last year!!!

Anyway, I didn't find the names too bland. But I do very much like the idea of putting Valar and Maiar names onto and into the books.

[DavidMedley]

I was pretty jealous of the name "Grond's Blow" or something to do with Grond, so I'll throw in a request for a transfer right here.

[Nick]

At least with the current design, two classes must share books. I don't know if that's got to be the way for all time, but if we made 8 books and didn't do any fudging in the cave creation process then we'd either find a lot more of other classes' books or a lot less of our own.

Originally I had blackguard books different to Necro books (Dirty Fighting and Bloodwrath ), but IIRC changed them because of too many different books being annoying. There may have been another reason too, I don't remember.

[tangar]

damm, folks.. naming the books after valars is just silly, it won't suit game's aesthetics.. Tolkien will turn-over in his coffin.

Maybe call them at least by territories names? eg

Gondolin's Arcane Control
Valinors's Nature Craft
Beleriand's Wild Forces

etc.. though it's also sounds wrong to me. Better have it simple:

Arcane Control
Nature Craft
Wild Forces
..much better in terms of style.

Or maybe call some books as `grimoire`, `manuscript`, etc.. eg:

Arcane Control Crystal
Grimoire of Deadly Powers
Manuscript of Creature Dominion

[archolewa]

I like naming them after regions. I vote for egions, and major non-valar figures. So Fingolfins Fury, Rivendell Rituals, etc. The inplication being these are techniques developed by that person, or in that region.

[Voovus]

Sorry to cause trouble, but I'm very anti-Tolkienization of spellbooks. Those guys didn't teleport around throwing fireballs. To light a fire, they had to either use flint and tinder or a Gandalf.

[Thraalbee]

Agree. Tangar's last idea seems reasonable

[bughunter]

I like naming them after regions. I vote for egions, and major non-valar figures. So Fingolfins Fury, Rivendell Rituals, etc. The inplication being these are techniques developed by that person, or in that region.

As long as they don't start sounding like cookbooks for regional cuisine.

It's just a cosmetic change (other than the breaking sav files bit) so there's no objective standard, other than "don't add suckage."

If you want to find lore-appropriate names for the books, look to the names of owners of the Rings of Power. Those were really the only high-magic users in ME's low fantasy setting.