Guild Wars 2

I was pretty confused to find out that after Rox “Pickheart” (………lame) was accepted into Rytlock’s Stone warband that her name became “Whetstone.”

I thought the non-warband part of the charr name was personal, chosen by your farrar mates upon graduation, and wouldn’t change even if you had to join a new warband. So I expected Rox to become Rox “Stoneheart” (awesome!) or “Heartstone” (…not as awesome).

Instead, Rytlock made her…whet. I don’t even think I should comment on that.

I guess I’m wrong on the naming conventions? Why wouldn’t she want to keep the “heart” part of her name as a momento from her fallen warband (even if it’s kinda lame for a charr surname)? And do we have any kind of (PG-13) explanation why Rytlock and his warband would name her “whet”?

Simple: a whetstone is a rock that you use to sharpen bladed weaponry.

Edit* Just to let you know I’m not making that up
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whetstone

I can imagine a lot of people probably don’t sharpen their knives, but yeesh, one would think the sudden ‘h’ in the word would be reason enough to consider it may not be the same thing. There’s a /sunglasses-ready ‘sharpest knife’ joke within such easy reach of this thread…

Not to forget that once combined, ‘Stoneheart’ seems almost antithetical to the character.

LameFox.6349:

There’s a /sunglasses-ready ‘sharpest knife’ joke within such easy reach of this thread….

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Simple: a whetstone is a rock that you use to sharpen bladed weaponry.

Edit* Just to let you know I’m not making that up
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whetstone

LameFox.6349:

I can imagine a lot of people probably don’t sharpen their knives, but yeesh, one would think the sudden ‘h’ in the word would be reason enough to consider it may not be the same thing. There’s a /sunglasses-ready ‘sharpest knife’ joke within such easy reach of this thread…

Not to forget that once combined, ‘Stoneheart’ seems almost antithetical to the character.

Yeah….I know what a whetstone is, thanks people. eyeroll

What I’m curious about is why her name got fully changed, instead of partial changed. And why Rytlock decided that would be her name. Even if “Stoneheart” is antithetical to the character, they could have made it “Heartstone” and kept to what, at least I undstood was, the naming conventions.

CETheLucid.3964:

LameFox.6349:

There’s a /sunglasses-ready ‘sharpest knife’ joke within such easy reach of this thread….

Dude is a pimp!

azureai.9764:

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Simple: a whetstone is a rock that you use to sharpen bladed weaponry.

Edit* Just to let you know I’m not making that up
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whetstone

LameFox.6349:

I can imagine a lot of people probably don’t sharpen their knives, but yeesh, one would think the sudden ‘h’ in the word would be reason enough to consider it may not be the same thing. There’s a /sunglasses-ready ‘sharpest knife’ joke within such easy reach of this thread…

Not to forget that once combined, ‘Stoneheart’ seems almost antithetical to the character.

Yeah….I know what a whetstone is, thanks people. eyeroll

What I’m curious about is why her name got fully changed, instead of partial changed. And why Rytlock decided that would be her name. Even if “Stoneheart” is antithetical to the character, they could have made it “Heartstone” and kept to what, at least I undstood was, the naming conventions.

She’s part of the stone warband now. Whetstone. She’s an invaluable component. If you use a whetstone on a knife or an arrow, it becomes sharper. Deadlier.

Having Roxx in your party would make it sharper and deadlier.

Charr surnames can note your exact job in the warband, but it’s not a hard and fast rule. Rytlock’s surname is an example of that.

He’s of the stone warband, but his purpose in the warband isn’t ‘brim’.

Brimstone has connotations of wrath and hellfire. It expresses the fierceness of his person. It sounds cool.

There’s some artistic liberty you can take with the surname, as long as it’s not completely ridiculous.

Whetstone fits. Stoneheart makes it sound like she’s a droid, it’s completely antithetical to her character.

Heartstone is paradoxical if not over emphasizing an (admirable) quirk of her character in an only the strong society.

Whetstone works well.

There is no set rule on how charr change their names when changing warbands. It’s really up to the individual charr and her new warband—and preferences will vary.

Also a thought would be to think of Brimstone as fire and Whet to cool him off and balance each other? She seems calm and collected where as Rytlock is all head first murderage.

azureai.9764:

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Simple: a whetstone is a rock that you use to sharpen bladed weaponry.

Edit* Just to let you know I’m not making that up
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whetstone

LameFox.6349:

I can imagine a lot of people probably don’t sharpen their knives, but yeesh, one would think the sudden ‘h’ in the word would be reason enough to consider it may not be the same thing. There’s a /sunglasses-ready ‘sharpest knife’ joke within such easy reach of this thread…

Not to forget that once combined, ‘Stoneheart’ seems almost antithetical to the character.

Yeah….I know what a whetstone is, thanks people. eyeroll

What I’m curious about is why her name got fully changed, instead of partial changed. And why Rytlock decided that would be her name. Even if “Stoneheart” is antithetical to the character, they could have made it “Heartstone” and kept to what, at least I undstood was, the naming conventions.

“And do we have any kind of (PG-13) explanation why Rytlock and his warband would name her “whet”?”

/eyeroll back at you. The question above denoted that you didn’t know what a whetstone was. Figured you could have at least figured out the connection….

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

“And do we have any kind of (PG-13) explanation why Rytlock and his warband would name her “whet”?”

/eyeroll back at you. The question above denoted that you didn’t know what a whetstone was. Figured you could have at least figured out the connection….

Yeah, I guess I could have been a little more clear that was a joke. I actually did forget that whetstones would be used on arrows as well as swords, so I suppose the name fits.

Still surprised she wouldn’t keep her personal name, though. My understanding was that the personal name stuck with a charr, and I guess we’re finding that understanding is wrong.

azureai.9764:

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

“And do we have any kind of (PG-13) explanation why Rytlock and his warband would name her “whet”?”

/eyeroll back at you. The question above denoted that you didn’t know what a whetstone was. Figured you could have at least figured out the connection….

Yeah, I guess I could have been a little more clear that was a joke. I actually did forget that whetstones would be used on arrows as well as swords, so I suppose the name fits.

Still surprised she wouldn’t keep her personal name, though. My understanding was that the personal name stuck with a charr, and I guess we’re finding that understanding is wrong.

Don’t take this offensively, ‘cause I’m not trying to be, but you’re thinking about why she was named a bit narrowmindedly. Think of the Stone warbad as the metaphorical blade. Her addition to the warband has sharpened the blade. Therefore she’s like a whetstone.

As to why she lost all of her last name before joining, I’m unsure of that one, but I’m going to give a guess that it has to do with her being a Gladium.

What puzzles me is I didn’t even know she was renamed and allowed to join the Stone warband. I could have sworn Rytlock said she wasn’t a member yet and needed a few more tests at the end of F&F. I may have been half asleep when I saw that exchange too. :S

A charr without a warband has no surname.

If they do, it’s more a nickname then anything especially meaningful (see Maakel the Immortal). When Roxx lost her warband, misfortune had made her a gladium.

By becoming part of Rytlock’s warband, she’s no longer a gladium and so she has been given a new surname with the stone warband.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

What puzzles me is I didn’t even know she was renamed and allowed to join the Stone warband. I could have sworn Rytlock said she wasn’t a member yet and needed a few more tests at the end of F&F. I may have been half asleep when I saw that exchange too. :S

It hasn’t happened officially, they used the name in the F+F: Retribution news posts, then later changed it to ‘… the charr’.

/TMYK

I also haven’t really seen a warband yet where the warband specific part would vary between suffix and affix (meaning that it can be both at the start and the end of the full “last name”). It’s either one or the other. In her first warband Pick was an affix and the charr specific trait came as the suffix. In Rytlock’s warband Stone is the suffix so her new warband name can only end in “….stone” but never start with it. Unless of course if there can be exeptions for which we would need examples from the lore.
Also, it’s quite likely that with a new warband they need to change both parts of the name and she had to earn “Whetstone” specifically for that warband and the “heart” part didn’t matter anymore.

Charr surnames usually follow the rule that the warband name goes in the same place for every member of the warband, but its not 100%. I imagine it’d be up to the warband themselves how strict they’d be about it. There is evidence of going against it, though, even if it seems rare.

From Rox’ backstory blog post…

Ultimately, they’d all chosen respectable names that expressed their personalities: Nonus got Pickaxe because he claimed it first, Tullia took Pickright, and Rufinus chose Pickiron. Vitus wanted Silverpick, because he always had to be different, and Rox was unanimously dubbed Pickheart for her ability to, as Tullia had said, “break through the armor surrounding anyone’s heart.”

As for why Rox got Whetstone instead of something with Heart… I dunno, maybe after the events of her backstory she doesn’t feel like heart fits her anymore. And that Whetstone fits her new role as an archer better.

-blink-

Huh. You know, I was about to file a bug report on the treat bag item you get from Rox for being spelt wrong. I kept spelling it “Roxx”.

I was wrong.