Titles and catchphrases

[ladyofastolat]

I used to collect interesting titles (i.e. noble titles, names of offices etc.) that I found in history books, but I've long since lost my list. I do remember deciding that "Lord of the Isles" was a wonderful title to have, back when I was about 10. On holiday in Skye last year, visiting the traditional home of the Lords of the Isles, I was delighted to read about their interactions with the King of Man. I also remember that the Ottomans have some pretty great titles. "Margrave of the Horizons" was one I particularly liked.

Today, though, I heard a quote from the "Shadow Immigration Secretary", and I think this is the best of all. I just love the idea of him standing there at the ports, making sure we don't end up with more shadows in Britain than we ought to have. "One man, one shadow!" is the rallying cry. Let too many in, and all our decent British shadows will be out of work, floating in limbo without a body to attach themselves to. And what about those poor people back in Poland, etc., whose shadows have all flooded here? They have rights, too.

Which leads me onto Baldur's Gate, by something that really is a sequitur, honest. ("Shadows! Aren't they those things in BG that say...? No. That's doppelgangers. Er... I think...") I was trying the other day to remember all the BG baddy catch-phrases, and find that I've forgotten most of them. I know a few people on my Friends list have played it as obsessively as I have in the past, so any help...?

I remember "I kicked him in the head until he was dead - ha ha!" (bandits.) Someone (hobgoblins?) say "Forward march!" Depressed miners say "Get me out of this hell-hole!", which is very quotable and often apt. I used to swear blind that doppelgangers said "Time to f-lay some flesssh!" and "Your time has come, primates", and "This time is our time!" but I seem to remember that most of these were proved wrong on a replay.

Comments

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

The BG series (and other later DnD CRPGs, including NWN) have some very good lines in. My favourites from BG mostly seem to belong to Minsc, though, so not the baddies. But how can you not love a man who's battle cry is "Butt-kicking, for goodness!"? (And who has a 'miniature giant space hamster' as a pet, and sometimes shouts "Go for the eyes, Boo! Go for the eyes!".)

Mind you, I could swear that the trolls in NWN shout "guten tag" as they charge towards you, which always makes me feel slightly bad about killing confused German holidaymakers. Or something.

(And stripey_cat has requested an honourable mention for the deranged talking sword in BG2 - 'As a sword, I'm pretty one-dimensional in what I want'.)

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

Whose. My excuse is dealing with someone else's contorted English all morning. Also, typing with a tiger on my lap is hard. Raaaar.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I have sometimes tried typing with a cat on the keyboard, which is also quite a challenge. No tigers, though.

Minsc: "Live by the sword, live a verrrry long time!" Plus the one in my icon above.

Don't remember those trolls. (Oh no! I might have to play the game again!) I did come close to wanting to kill that talking sword after a few weeks of it, though... Though nothing quite beats the annoyance factor of "my weapon has no effect!" and "you must gather your party before venturing forth."

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

I always rather fancied being the Dame of Sark myself. Or a Margrave. I'm not even sure what a Margrave is, and I'm pretty sure I would have to change gender for it, but what a lovely word it is.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

In one slightly silly student society, we on the committee decided that titles like "president" and "treasurer" were far too boring, so informally adopted more colourful ones. As secretary, I was "margravine of the horizons." I can't remember if this was the recognised feminine version of "margrave" or if I just made it up, but it sounded right. Well, except for sounding a little too like "margarine."

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

'Margravine' is exactly right. There are several streets in Hammersmith named 'Margravine x' as the last Margravine of Brandenburg-Anspach-Bayreuth, Elizabeth, lived in the area. On one of these streets lived, or lives, Kishwer Falkner (http://www.kishwerfalkner.org.uk/), who when made a life peer took the title 'Baroness Falkner of Margravine' which seems slightly ludicrous to me, as 'Margravine' had never been a place name until then.

I think that the king of Spain or the king of Portugal was monarch 'of unknown lands beyond the western sea', which is ambitiously expansive.

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

I serve the Flaming Fist!

Never tried this recipe before... could be messy...

Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya.

We are all heroes, you and Boo and I. Hamsters and Rangers everywhere!

Squeaky wheel gets the kick

Butt-kicking for goodness

Full plate and packing steel

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I thought with you it was "Heya. Heya. Heya. Heya." *gurgle gurgle twitch dead*

I put up with a few dozen heyas and got lots of lovely XPs for my paladinish patience.

[nilsigma.livejournal.com]

The Soke of Peterborough is one of my favourite names, although of course it is an administrative area rather than a title. When I was young I rather fancied being the Nawab of Pataudi (who was an Indian test cricketer as well as a Nawab, what a life!).

[segh.livejournal.com]

Many years ago there was a radio programme called "Hordes of the things" whose hero had a faithful minotaur called Stephen. I'm not really sure why I mentioned this, but I do want to say that I'm quite enchanted by the job description of the Shadow Immigration Secretary - it's almost enough to make me want to go in for politics.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Try this:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Baldur's_Gate_series

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

*chuckles* Ah, the nostalgia... Though some I don't remember at all.

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

Whereas I envisioned a smiling Mr Morden on Newsnight...

[segh.livejournal.com]

Oh brilliant!

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was very much my first line of thought as well.

[evilmissbecky.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh...I can barely remember huge chunks of either BG or BG2, it's been so long since I've played it. But now I'm all nostalgic for it, and wanting to try again.

And some day I really will get through that solo-no-reloads game.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Secretary to the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. Not such a daft title 150 years ago, but now?

- Creatrix