gwen

realistically i know that 1. it is good that i am finally making real progress on twilight gest again after feeling creatively blocked for months and 2. i can change literally anything i want ever for any reason right up until i start publishing and then i need to stick to like. continuity and shit but there are still the anxieties (being annoying by talking about things, betraying my initial ideas etc). anyway i might either respell elaine's name as eleyn (found in a 16th century welsh document) or change it to eurgain ("golden and fine" bc she's the spiritual successor of a woman named nia goldenhaired). i do feel like her name needs to be more specifically welsh bc it predates my narrowing down the specificity of the setting.

also backstory character amraut silverhand is now straight-up medraut silverwheel to get in both mordred and ariahrhod. orphne then gets the adopted byname "of the silver wheel."

(my eyes opening wide) mererid takes excalibur* from arthvael

*i am not actually calling it excalibur. nonetheless.

consolation prize for getting your hand cut off is that while your enemy is gloating and distracted you can just grab his sword and run

trying to name the sword. excalibur and variants are out since that's way too unsubtle and the welsh form "caledfwlch" means "hard cleft" which just doesn't sound appealing to me. it's also based on drynwyn (white-hilt) but i'm not sure about that one... it's in the possibilities. however. king arthur's ceremonial sword in the alliterative morte arthur is clarent, which mordred steals and uses to kill him. clarent is a latin word but i'm p sure the sword name came through french. anyway it's like. to do with brightness and shining. this opens up some meaning-based possible names.

therefore, my candidates are:

• Eirianu (ayrr-ee-AN-ee) (to shine, brighten, beautify) (love the sound but it is not phonetic by english rules)
• Eirian (ayrr-EE-an) (fair, bright, beautiful, radiant one)
• Eirianol (ayrr-ee-AN-awl) (shining, resplendent)
• Gleamblade
• Farshining

since "elf" in twilight gest is already an in-universe loanword (from the fantasy northmen), i'm debating using the mercian spelling (aelf, f. aelfen) or west saxon (ielf, f. ielfen) for some historical verisimilitude but this might be too twee. the local name is "the fair family" (y tylwyth teg), but you can't use that as a descriptor for an individual. the thing is i LOVE playing with archaic and/or non-modern english words. my toxic tolkienian trait.

i guess people have readily accepted "faerie" instead of "fairy" as the currently dominant spelling of that so aelf might not be a step too far...?

my cohost is kind of just my twilight gest dev diary huh