> As for the Broken Council guidebook, the spelling of Elmal(us) (sorry, can't
> find the reference right now) is easily explained as a result of Dara Happan
> spelling conventions. --warning: new and not-universally-available
> information use ahead-- The Entekosiad shows us how the Dara Happans spelled
> or misspelled foreign gods' names, like Uleria for one.
UlEria is a bad example, since it sounds the same no matter whether you write it with the original glyphs or the Dara Happan script. A better example is Pelandan YarGan, Dara Happan Arganum, and this is in GRoY where anyone can read it. I believe this had nothing to do with spelling, it's first and foremost how they say the word. Dara Happan male names end most commonly in -us or -um, so when a foreigner gives a name, that's how the Dara Happan hears it.
I was thinking on this very issue today (the names in Broken Council Guidebook), and came to the conclusion that the scribe bent over backwards getting the names right. Note he gets KanOra the ManaAlkElsor right, and uses either a space or dash as appropriate (Sharan Cho vs Senit-Ranor).
So Elmalus (if that appears in BCG -- I couldn't find it) would be the native term.
Mark Smylie
> Arkat I tend to associate with Alexander for some reason
While reading Arrian's Campaigns of Alexander, I kept thinking, "this is Arkat." I could think of no other Gloranthan who led an army conquering such huge areas. One difference: Arkat lost a battle (Kartolin Pass). Alexander never lost. His only defeat was when his mean refused to go further, so he returned home by a different route, continuing to conquer.
BTW, Greg has said that both Arkat and Argrath are linguistically equivalent, and mean "Liberator." (This doesn't mean it was used as a title rather than a personal name, any more than your name means you're an avatar of the war god).
I think some of the cases of multiple Argraths are actually the same Argrath heroquesting back to save himself.
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