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Default   #14   Suzerain of Sheol Suzerain of Sheol is offline
Desolation Denizen
I'm reminded of playing Final Fantasy Tactics as a child, and being rather thrown-off when a character refers to a castle's housing conditions as "Spartan", which even at such a young age struck me as very incongruous. I eventually attributed it to the overall poor quality of the translation.

Now, though, while I think my first inclination on seeing things like that is to be annoyed, the more erudite part of my brain is quick to remind that all manner of seemingly-common words have their roots in very specific cultural references that have been all but forgotten in modern language use. 'Sinister' is one that always sticks out in my mind, but likewise, 'Dexterity' as well. There's no particular reason a secondary world would have the same superstitions and cultural biases of the Romans (though such beliefs were hardly exclusive to them, obviously, but we're talking about the words themselves), I'd hazard not even 1% of readers would give words like that a second glance in fantasy or sci-fi.

In terms of words that are straight-up anachronistic, though, the line might be a little harsher. I'd think such references should be used to characterize the setting. If you want it to feel Regency-Era-ish, then use words that reinforce that. If not, then maybe think twice before doing so. I'm currently writing a military fantasy novel in a late-Medieval-era world, and I have little to no restraint throwing around onerous French terms for armor components, much to the dismay of some people in this thread. :P

...which on that note, I'm not sure what it says that our RP group comprises the sum total of responses in this thread.
Cold silence has a tendency
to atrophy any sense of compassion
between supposed lovers.
Between supposed brothers.
Old Posted 04-18-2017, 03:53 PM Reply With Quote