Thursday, April 12, 2007

+++Divide by Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe and Reboot+++
Actually, I'm never going to finish that. You know me.

Anyway, so I got a used copy of .hack//Infection (I'm gonna try the IMOQ series to start fleshing out my .hack knowledge so I don't have to ask Exo for everything) and started playing last night, and decided to start keeping track of outside references. First I copied down the names of the root towns and their given meanings, and today I went through a Latin dictionary and a Gaelic dictionary to see if they worked out. Not much luck, actually. It seems that either a lot of the words were made up or they came from the notorious archaic Latin that I can't learn to decipher until I get to college and find me a good classics teacher to consult. There were a few matches. The beloved delta root town Mac Anu, supposedly meaning "Son of a Goddess", is somewhat discernable. "Mac" does mean "son of" in Gaelic (which suddenly makes all those MacWhatever Irish names make sense, doesn't it?), but I can't find anything smilarly Gaelic that connects Anu to "Goddess". However, when I popped open the Latin dictionary, I found the word "anus"--hurr hurr, I know, it has two meanings depending on how you decline it--which means either the obvious or "old woman". An old woman could conceivably ge goddess-like in wisdom, I guess. Just a stab in the dark.
Then there's Carmina Gadelica ("Song of Gael"), which is painfully obviously Latin. "Carmina" I already knew means "song", and "Gadelica" is likely a declined and Latinized version of "Gael", whoever that is.
Then there's a long dry spell of nothing. Fort Ouph, or "Fort of Elves", gave me some trouble, because "fort" is the same and therefore I have no linguistic leads. Also, it is surprisingly difficuly to find the Gaelic word for "elf" in a dictionary! Must be some anti-stereotype movement or something. But in any case, from the few things I did find, "elf" is likely going to start with an "al" and might have an f or v in there. I checked Gaelic, Latin, and even German but found nothing similar to "ouph", so I delved into Welsh, which at least is geographically close to Gaelic-speaking areas. No luck. It's very frustrating.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel! The other thing I noticed was that a series of items that caused status effects were named after tarot cards. So far I've seen Death, the Hanged Man, the Devil, the Moon, the Lovers, and the Fool. I affirmed the meanings of each and they seem to fit pretty well with the effects of the items. For once, something straightforward!
Anyway, that's all I've gleaned for now. I love Elk, by the way, he is flipping adoooorable. And Mia...well, I can see why Elk likes her... She's so...cool. And so unlike typical anime females *coughMistralcough*! It's good to know Elk grows up into a nice effeminate pretty-boy. It would be a shame for him to turn out like Orca or somesuch. Bleargh, his voice was just so He-Man. *eyeroll* I'm rambling so I think I'll go look at my homework...
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