Get your name in Crusader Kings II!
- Thread starter dannie
- Start date
-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
- Status
- Dec 14, 1999
- 19.184
- 79.317
The hour is late, but as the sun has not yet set on All Hallows Eve I hope that my tale shall not be too late in the telling. Gather now ‘round the hearth and throw a fresh log on the fire to make it burn bright. The mead is fresh, so take your fill and make yourself comfortable as I regale you with the tales and deeds of the family of . . . .
MacKinnon!
(Son of Fingon)
Now where to begin? Ah yes before the ken and reckonings of men . . . The Sons of Fingon trace their line back to the Cenél Loairn, the distant progeny of the Dál Riatic King Loarn mac Eirc. If you believe the Irish genealogists and the Scottish Seannachies, Fingon himself was a descendant of the great King of Alba, MacBheatha mac Fhionnlaigh. Aye, the same that your sassenach bard Shakespeare so famously slandered!
Ah, but I’m getting both ahead of and behind myself. The progenitor of the clan was Fingon, meaning ‘fair-born’ in the Gaelic tongue. Fingon and his kin tied their fortunes to the heroic Somhairle, King of Cinn Tire, who would later also become the King of the Hebrides (Rí Innse Gall) after his victory at the Battle of Epiphany against his rival Gofraid mac Amlaíb the King of Mann.
Though on the surface it would appear that the victory of his liege Somhairle would be a boon to Fingon, the victory merely complicated matters. The partition of lands after the Battle of Epiphany meant that he now had two lords, Somhairle who reigned as King over Fingon’s estates in Mull, and Somhairle’s rival Gofraid who reigned as King over his estate of Strathaird in Skye.
What to do? Why marry a princess of course! One of Gofraid’s youngest daughters Mhairi had recently reached a marriageable age, and what better way to prevent Gofraid from taking out his vengeance on Fingon for siding with Somhairle? Not to mention that her dowry would mean the addition of the nearby parish of Strath to Fingon’s growing demesne.
While most would take the upcoming nuptials as a sign that Fingon was beginning to side with Gofraid over Somhairle, nothing in fact could be further from the truth. To borrow from the popular idiom, rather than putting all of his eggs in one basket, he was merely ensuring that they were more evenly distributed.
The ruins of Dunakin, which was formerly the site of a fortified broch
A further benefit of the union was the addition of a fortified broch on the shores of Loch Alsh. Legend has it that Fingon and his wife set up a log boom across the strait, charging a toll for all those who wished to pass, a price that many were willing to pay to avoid a stormy crossing of the Minch.
My God, look at the time! All the mead’s gone and we haven’t even gotten to the battle of Renfrew! Well lad, before you go, let me give you a rundown of some of the other momentous events in the history of the clan.
Cross of Lauchlan MacKinnon, Iona
•During King Haakon’s ill fated naval expedition in 1263, prior to the skirmish at Largs Haakon’s fleet spent some time moored at Loch Alsh in front of Fingon’s fortified broch. The broch was renamed Dun Haakon, or as it is more commonly known today, Dunakin. In the late fourteenth century the broch was demolished and a castle was built on in its stead.
•As a young man Gillebride (Bricius) the 6th MacKinnon chief lead his clan to join Aonghas Óg mac Dhòmhnaill’s contingent of Islemen at the battle of Bannockburn. He was the master of the household of the Lord of the Isles until murdered by the Macleans in c.1350. He was buried with his ancestors on the Isle of Colum Cille, Iona, where his graveslab can still be seen today.
Bricius MacKinnon
•His son Neil was hanged by the Lord of the Isles for rebellion in c.1387. His brother Fingon was the Green Abbot of Iona, and had instigated John Mor Tanister (Eòin Mòr Tànaiste ) to rise up against his brother Donald of Islay (Dómhnall Íle).
Abbot John MacKinnon of Iona (Fingon was an earlier abbot but would have had similar vestments)
•Taking advantage of the Scottish disaster at the Battle of Flodden, Neil Ban, the 10th chief, joined in an attempt by the other Islemen to restore the Lordship of the Isles. The meeting of Chiefs took place at Dunakin, where it was decided that they would back Donald MacDonald of Lochalsh as Rí Innse Gall.
•Neil’s son the 11th chief earned quite the name for himself, and was known as Eoghan Ruadh nan Cath (Red Ewen of the Battles). He was involved in a number of plots to restore the Lordship of the Isles, and In 1545 joined the rising of Donald Dubh.
•The time frame of Crusader Kings doesn't really encompass the MacKinnon adventures with Montrose, Alasdair Mac Colla, and the Jacobite Risings. Let’s just say that it was the little clan that could!
Timothy Pont's Map of 1654 showing Dunakin on the Isle of Skye
MacKinnon!
(Son of Fingon)
Now where to begin? Ah yes before the ken and reckonings of men . . . The Sons of Fingon trace their line back to the Cenél Loairn, the distant progeny of the Dál Riatic King Loarn mac Eirc. If you believe the Irish genealogists and the Scottish Seannachies, Fingon himself was a descendant of the great King of Alba, MacBheatha mac Fhionnlaigh. Aye, the same that your sassenach bard Shakespeare so famously slandered!
Ah, but I’m getting both ahead of and behind myself. The progenitor of the clan was Fingon, meaning ‘fair-born’ in the Gaelic tongue. Fingon and his kin tied their fortunes to the heroic Somhairle, King of Cinn Tire, who would later also become the King of the Hebrides (Rí Innse Gall) after his victory at the Battle of Epiphany against his rival Gofraid mac Amlaíb the King of Mann.
Though on the surface it would appear that the victory of his liege Somhairle would be a boon to Fingon, the victory merely complicated matters. The partition of lands after the Battle of Epiphany meant that he now had two lords, Somhairle who reigned as King over Fingon’s estates in Mull, and Somhairle’s rival Gofraid who reigned as King over his estate of Strathaird in Skye.
What to do? Why marry a princess of course! One of Gofraid’s youngest daughters Mhairi had recently reached a marriageable age, and what better way to prevent Gofraid from taking out his vengeance on Fingon for siding with Somhairle? Not to mention that her dowry would mean the addition of the nearby parish of Strath to Fingon’s growing demesne.
While most would take the upcoming nuptials as a sign that Fingon was beginning to side with Gofraid over Somhairle, nothing in fact could be further from the truth. To borrow from the popular idiom, rather than putting all of his eggs in one basket, he was merely ensuring that they were more evenly distributed.
The ruins of Dunakin, which was formerly the site of a fortified broch
A further benefit of the union was the addition of a fortified broch on the shores of Loch Alsh. Legend has it that Fingon and his wife set up a log boom across the strait, charging a toll for all those who wished to pass, a price that many were willing to pay to avoid a stormy crossing of the Minch.
My God, look at the time! All the mead’s gone and we haven’t even gotten to the battle of Renfrew! Well lad, before you go, let me give you a rundown of some of the other momentous events in the history of the clan.
Cross of Lauchlan MacKinnon, Iona
•During King Haakon’s ill fated naval expedition in 1263, prior to the skirmish at Largs Haakon’s fleet spent some time moored at Loch Alsh in front of Fingon’s fortified broch. The broch was renamed Dun Haakon, or as it is more commonly known today, Dunakin. In the late fourteenth century the broch was demolished and a castle was built on in its stead.
•As a young man Gillebride (Bricius) the 6th MacKinnon chief lead his clan to join Aonghas Óg mac Dhòmhnaill’s contingent of Islemen at the battle of Bannockburn. He was the master of the household of the Lord of the Isles until murdered by the Macleans in c.1350. He was buried with his ancestors on the Isle of Colum Cille, Iona, where his graveslab can still be seen today.
Bricius MacKinnon
•His son Neil was hanged by the Lord of the Isles for rebellion in c.1387. His brother Fingon was the Green Abbot of Iona, and had instigated John Mor Tanister (Eòin Mòr Tànaiste ) to rise up against his brother Donald of Islay (Dómhnall Íle).
Abbot John MacKinnon of Iona (Fingon was an earlier abbot but would have had similar vestments)
•Taking advantage of the Scottish disaster at the Battle of Flodden, Neil Ban, the 10th chief, joined in an attempt by the other Islemen to restore the Lordship of the Isles. The meeting of Chiefs took place at Dunakin, where it was decided that they would back Donald MacDonald of Lochalsh as Rí Innse Gall.
•Neil’s son the 11th chief earned quite the name for himself, and was known as Eoghan Ruadh nan Cath (Red Ewen of the Battles). He was involved in a number of plots to restore the Lordship of the Isles, and In 1545 joined the rising of Donald Dubh.
•The time frame of Crusader Kings doesn't really encompass the MacKinnon adventures with Montrose, Alasdair Mac Colla, and the Jacobite Risings. Let’s just say that it was the little clan that could!
Timothy Pont's Map of 1654 showing Dunakin on the Isle of Skye
Last edited:
Hopefully I'm not too late. It's still Oct 31 in the states.
Hilficker or Hilfiker.
Swiss German. Quick Google search confirms no appearance before the late 1400s, which is I know beyond the time scope of the game. So feel free to disregard it on that count.
We may have had a few ancestors who fought in the famous Swiss mercenaries, so it might be appropriate to a lower class mercenary commander. Almost certainly not plausible for the nobility.
Really not much of a story that is known to me. At least not from before the 19th cent, when we moved to the USA.
Hilficker or Hilfiker.
Swiss German. Quick Google search confirms no appearance before the late 1400s, which is I know beyond the time scope of the game. So feel free to disregard it on that count.
We may have had a few ancestors who fought in the famous Swiss mercenaries, so it might be appropriate to a lower class mercenary commander. Almost certainly not plausible for the nobility.
Really not much of a story that is known to me. At least not from before the 19th cent, when we moved to the USA.
Here's a few of my own family names of recent heritage:
Strub - Denizens of Swabia and the Black Forest since time immemorial, the House of Strub has produced doctors, artists and even a few members of the gentry and lesser nobles.
Scrimgeour - The proud clansmen of Scrimgeour were skirmishers in the royal Scots army. Alistair Scrimgeour was even the standard-bearer for Robert the Bruce.
Anscombe - Proud Saxons of Sussex, the Anscombes remained in their ancestral homeland following the Norman Conquest and have persisted in their ancient trades ever since.
Strub - Denizens of Swabia and the Black Forest since time immemorial, the House of Strub has produced doctors, artists and even a few members of the gentry and lesser nobles.
Scrimgeour - The proud clansmen of Scrimgeour were skirmishers in the royal Scots army. Alistair Scrimgeour was even the standard-bearer for Robert the Bruce.
Anscombe - Proud Saxons of Sussex, the Anscombes remained in their ancestral homeland following the Norman Conquest and have persisted in their ancient trades ever since.
OK, we are beginning to go through all the entries tonight so soon you'll know if your name will be immortalized in CKII. Stay tuned... 
The winners are selected!
It’s great to see that so many of you took interest in this contest. We got almost 400 forum members telling their stories about their family name which is really impressive. There were so many well written entries, we had a hard time picking out the winners but after much consideration and discussion we agreed on that the following participants will have their name as a dynasty in Crusader Kings II (in no specific order):
iron0037 - Campbell
Gwyn ap Nud – Fysche
AllmyJames – Myall
Tob.Ristlin – Rojas
Verenti – Shannon
A_Dane – Stjerne
polydamas - Schmollinger
Here you can read the winning entries:
iron0037 - Campbell
Though better known today as a purveyors of soups, the Campbells were originally more into kilts and bagpipes. Campbell is a Scottish clan whose origins trace back to the High Middle Ages. The name likely derives from caimbeul, a Gaelic phrase that translates as "crooked mouth." Evidently our founder had a physical deformity (or a tendency for deception). The most famous of the early Campbells is the knight Colin the Great, a possible cousin of Robert the Bruce and staunch advocate for Robert's accession. In later centuries, the Campbells would rise to power in their own right, gaining lordship over Argyll and elsewhere.
The motto of the Campbells is "ne obliviscaris," or "forget not." So Paradox, let's not forget the Campbells.
Gwyn ap Nud – Fysche
Well, considering I can trace my line back past William the Conquerer...
Try Fysche. Looks German, is actually Anglo-, either -Saxon or -Norman, either works, they just couldn't spell. Norfolk name. Good King's Lynn name. Merchants, and yeah, fishermen. So, this family from the fens and marshes, probably around Cambridgeshire, moves, all at once, to King's Lynn, and decide to take, as their surname, the surname of the locally powerful and influential Fyshe family. Later, not long after CKII ends, they would move, all at once, to London. *le gasp*!!!!
What drove them, en masse, from the trials of inland swampy farming, to the trials of coastal swampy farming? What drove them yet again, en masse, from the trading and fishing hub of all of eastern England, to the completely unfamiliar trials of living in the economic and political capital of the Isles?
Later, in the V2 era, they would move, yet again, en masse, to Canada; those that were not sent, for reasons unknown, to the prison-continent of Australia.
What could have caused these sudden movements, and entire family, brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, all to move from one place to another, all at the same time?
What was the secret of those who chose, upon their arrival in King's Lynn, to take a new name so that their past couldn't be traced any farther?
Where they Vampires? Werewolves? Murderers? Cannibals?
We may never know, but it is clear, that some dark secret stalks the family. A secret that, perhaps, yearns to be told..."
AllmyJames - Myall
Some jealous historians with a lack of imagination will tell you that the name is a corrupted spelling of 'Michael' or even, scandalously, 'Miggle'.
In fact, the Myall dynasty has a long and interesting history. The first Count Myall was a little-known lord of a minor holding somewhere in Western Europe. However, by a series of strategically-planned marriages, cunningly-plotted assassinations and clever courting of the church, he and his descendents quickly increased their prestige and influence until the 3rd generation descended from Count Myall was anointed a Duke and the fifth a King.
With the power of the dynasty growing exponentially, it wasn’t long before half of Europe was under their sway. But this is when disaster struck. King James V was struck down by an unknown sickness, resulting in a form of insanity. Complaining endlessly of ‘micromanagement’, and squandering his vast riches on bribes to insignificant vassals, the greatest king of the Myall dynasty soon bankrupted his sprawling holdings, and fulfilled his own darkest fears. In a period known as the great 'Realm Duress', Western Europe was torn asunder by civil war, and soon fragmented into innumerable smaller holdings. The disgraced Myall descendents, divested of their lands, were scattered to the four winds, eking out a living under their Mongol overlords for centuries to come.
Tob.Ristlin - Rojas
An ancient Castillian surname.
It literally means "reds" in feminine. It's said it comes from the old Jew families in Toledo and their red hair. That's the most nostalgic and candid explanation for such a meaningful name.
But there are other stories. Other stories only told by fools and drunkards. Other stories whispered in dark alleys in the old city of Toledo. Other stories told by old women to kids in their bed fortresses, where the bloody red legend of the Rojas family can never harm them.
There are other stories that talk about vengeance. They talk about death. They talk about the Rojas name raised to the Layos mountain range, dominating the plains, to become the counts of Layos. The red counts of Layos. almost all of those stories agree on one point. Sancho Rojas did exist. And the peasants down below in the plains knew him. Knew him very well indeed. They say he was tall, dark haired and tan. They called him the moor. Not to his face of course, but they did. And from time to time he learned of someone who spelled the word. And that someone used to be found in the old Roman dam near Mazarambroz. Well not him or her, only some tiny pieces of meat and bones, just enough to know they used to belong to a human body.
Eventually the peasants anger grew to a point where the king himself had to act, for the infamy of the Rojas name ran all over Castille by the time.
There's not much to say about what happened. The Rojas family, who did not have any friends in court was decimated, and the few survivors were left to the peasants to do as they pleased. Very few survived, and the ones who did were despised and hated for generations, leaving the Rojas surname as an example of the brutality and inhumanity of the medieval nobility in the extremadura, the harsh piece of land bordering the Moorish states...
P.D; The Jew "legend" is actually quite possibly true, it's said that my surname comes from the Jews that converted to Catholicism in Toledo after they were forced to either convert or be expelled to north africa or asia minor (sephardins ).
Rojas is a rather common name in Toledo, and there was a very famous and old writer with that surname.
There were some counts of Layos with that surname and there is a Roman dam nearby, in the municipality of Mazarambroz.
Verenti - Shannon
Irish name, most people would tell you that it comes from the river Shannon. Nothing could be further from the "truth"! Well, a good many things could be further from the truth, but they don't count. Because I said so.
Here is the "true" story behind the surname Shannon.
Once upon a time there was man named Finn the Irishman. This was a particularly odd name, considering that he had never met someone who wasn't irish, so no one had any reason to single him out as Irish. But they did. Anyhow, One day while walking through the forest near his home WHICH WASN'T ANYWHERES NEAR THE RIVER SHANNON, he came across a maiden in the woods. "Fair lady," he inquired in English, because that's the language Irish people speak, espcially when they haven't met anyone from outside Ireland, "Fair lady, How have you come to be in such a place all alone?" The Maiden regarded him and calmly replied "I am a wood spirit, and I cannot leave here until someone guesses my name. If you do so I will grant your fondest wish." Finn the Irishman was a catious man "And what if I guess wrong?" "Then I will be forced to stay here another hundred years and wait for someone to guess it right." "But lady, can you not give me a clue?" "Very well," the wood spirit replied "We wood spirits have named based on Geographical features that sound like girls names THAT AREN'T ANYWHERES NEAR HERE."
Finn thought long and hard about geographical features that have girls' names and were not anywhere near by. He thought long and hard, "Ah!" He finally said, "Your name is Elbe!" Finn had a surprisingly good knowlege of geography for someone who had never met anyone from outside of Ireland. "Well, ****." The Wood Spirit said. "What did you just say?" "Fuddle duddle." she said with a tone of restrained anger as she melted into the ground condemned to stay there for another hundred years. "Oh! It Shannon! SHANNON!" He stamped and shouted into the ground.
Some passing traders saw this specticle from a distance and one asked the other "What's he doing?" The other replied "I don't know, but I think his name is Shannon"
A_Dane - Stjerne
Stjerne (which literally translates into "Star" in english, or Stierna, which appareantly is a noble family in Sweden). Not kidding here
“There's been some speculation into whether we might be a bastard line from the "Gyldenstjerne" family, which should still exist in Sweden, but there's an old family legend that has it otherwise, so here goes:
The family legend has it, that back in the day there was a great storm near Samsoe, and a ship came into serious trouble. My courageous forefather was a captain of a smaller vessel but, valiant as he was, he and his crew went to the rescue. In the following hours he succeeded in saving everybody on the ship. The king heard of his death defying rescue mission, and granted him a choice for a surname: He could either take, A) Sol (the sun), måne (the moon), or Stjerne (Star), he chose Star, and that's, according to the family legend, how we came to bear the family name.
polydamas - Schmollinger
Every family has... obstacles. Every member of the Holy Roman Emperor faces these obstacles differently. Some use war. Others try diplomacy. Sometimes neither of those work.
The House of Schmollinger originated as the bastard branch of the House of Hohenstaufen. They did the sort of work for the Hohenstaufen's that needed... a delicate hand. If someone got in Red Beard's way well, they didn't stay there. Some would get sick from a mysterious disease and slip away into death. Others had accidents while hunter. The lucky ones went into exile never to be a factor in political life again.
Obstacles need removing. That's what the Schmollingers were for.
It’s great to see that so many of you took interest in this contest. We got almost 400 forum members telling their stories about their family name which is really impressive. There were so many well written entries, we had a hard time picking out the winners but after much consideration and discussion we agreed on that the following participants will have their name as a dynasty in Crusader Kings II (in no specific order):
iron0037 - Campbell
Gwyn ap Nud – Fysche
AllmyJames – Myall
Tob.Ristlin – Rojas
Verenti – Shannon
A_Dane – Stjerne
polydamas - Schmollinger
Here you can read the winning entries:
iron0037 - Campbell
Though better known today as a purveyors of soups, the Campbells were originally more into kilts and bagpipes. Campbell is a Scottish clan whose origins trace back to the High Middle Ages. The name likely derives from caimbeul, a Gaelic phrase that translates as "crooked mouth." Evidently our founder had a physical deformity (or a tendency for deception). The most famous of the early Campbells is the knight Colin the Great, a possible cousin of Robert the Bruce and staunch advocate for Robert's accession. In later centuries, the Campbells would rise to power in their own right, gaining lordship over Argyll and elsewhere.
The motto of the Campbells is "ne obliviscaris," or "forget not." So Paradox, let's not forget the Campbells.
Gwyn ap Nud – Fysche
Well, considering I can trace my line back past William the Conquerer...
Try Fysche. Looks German, is actually Anglo-, either -Saxon or -Norman, either works, they just couldn't spell. Norfolk name. Good King's Lynn name. Merchants, and yeah, fishermen. So, this family from the fens and marshes, probably around Cambridgeshire, moves, all at once, to King's Lynn, and decide to take, as their surname, the surname of the locally powerful and influential Fyshe family. Later, not long after CKII ends, they would move, all at once, to London. *le gasp*!!!!
What drove them, en masse, from the trials of inland swampy farming, to the trials of coastal swampy farming? What drove them yet again, en masse, from the trading and fishing hub of all of eastern England, to the completely unfamiliar trials of living in the economic and political capital of the Isles?
Later, in the V2 era, they would move, yet again, en masse, to Canada; those that were not sent, for reasons unknown, to the prison-continent of Australia.
What could have caused these sudden movements, and entire family, brothers, sisters, cousins, uncles, all to move from one place to another, all at the same time?
What was the secret of those who chose, upon their arrival in King's Lynn, to take a new name so that their past couldn't be traced any farther?
Where they Vampires? Werewolves? Murderers? Cannibals?
We may never know, but it is clear, that some dark secret stalks the family. A secret that, perhaps, yearns to be told..."
AllmyJames - Myall
Some jealous historians with a lack of imagination will tell you that the name is a corrupted spelling of 'Michael' or even, scandalously, 'Miggle'.
In fact, the Myall dynasty has a long and interesting history. The first Count Myall was a little-known lord of a minor holding somewhere in Western Europe. However, by a series of strategically-planned marriages, cunningly-plotted assassinations and clever courting of the church, he and his descendents quickly increased their prestige and influence until the 3rd generation descended from Count Myall was anointed a Duke and the fifth a King.
With the power of the dynasty growing exponentially, it wasn’t long before half of Europe was under their sway. But this is when disaster struck. King James V was struck down by an unknown sickness, resulting in a form of insanity. Complaining endlessly of ‘micromanagement’, and squandering his vast riches on bribes to insignificant vassals, the greatest king of the Myall dynasty soon bankrupted his sprawling holdings, and fulfilled his own darkest fears. In a period known as the great 'Realm Duress', Western Europe was torn asunder by civil war, and soon fragmented into innumerable smaller holdings. The disgraced Myall descendents, divested of their lands, were scattered to the four winds, eking out a living under their Mongol overlords for centuries to come.
Tob.Ristlin - Rojas
An ancient Castillian surname.
It literally means "reds" in feminine. It's said it comes from the old Jew families in Toledo and their red hair. That's the most nostalgic and candid explanation for such a meaningful name.
But there are other stories. Other stories only told by fools and drunkards. Other stories whispered in dark alleys in the old city of Toledo. Other stories told by old women to kids in their bed fortresses, where the bloody red legend of the Rojas family can never harm them.
There are other stories that talk about vengeance. They talk about death. They talk about the Rojas name raised to the Layos mountain range, dominating the plains, to become the counts of Layos. The red counts of Layos. almost all of those stories agree on one point. Sancho Rojas did exist. And the peasants down below in the plains knew him. Knew him very well indeed. They say he was tall, dark haired and tan. They called him the moor. Not to his face of course, but they did. And from time to time he learned of someone who spelled the word. And that someone used to be found in the old Roman dam near Mazarambroz. Well not him or her, only some tiny pieces of meat and bones, just enough to know they used to belong to a human body.
Eventually the peasants anger grew to a point where the king himself had to act, for the infamy of the Rojas name ran all over Castille by the time.
There's not much to say about what happened. The Rojas family, who did not have any friends in court was decimated, and the few survivors were left to the peasants to do as they pleased. Very few survived, and the ones who did were despised and hated for generations, leaving the Rojas surname as an example of the brutality and inhumanity of the medieval nobility in the extremadura, the harsh piece of land bordering the Moorish states...
P.D; The Jew "legend" is actually quite possibly true, it's said that my surname comes from the Jews that converted to Catholicism in Toledo after they were forced to either convert or be expelled to north africa or asia minor (sephardins ).
Rojas is a rather common name in Toledo, and there was a very famous and old writer with that surname.
There were some counts of Layos with that surname and there is a Roman dam nearby, in the municipality of Mazarambroz.
Verenti - Shannon
Irish name, most people would tell you that it comes from the river Shannon. Nothing could be further from the "truth"! Well, a good many things could be further from the truth, but they don't count. Because I said so.
Here is the "true" story behind the surname Shannon.
Once upon a time there was man named Finn the Irishman. This was a particularly odd name, considering that he had never met someone who wasn't irish, so no one had any reason to single him out as Irish. But they did. Anyhow, One day while walking through the forest near his home WHICH WASN'T ANYWHERES NEAR THE RIVER SHANNON, he came across a maiden in the woods. "Fair lady," he inquired in English, because that's the language Irish people speak, espcially when they haven't met anyone from outside Ireland, "Fair lady, How have you come to be in such a place all alone?" The Maiden regarded him and calmly replied "I am a wood spirit, and I cannot leave here until someone guesses my name. If you do so I will grant your fondest wish." Finn the Irishman was a catious man "And what if I guess wrong?" "Then I will be forced to stay here another hundred years and wait for someone to guess it right." "But lady, can you not give me a clue?" "Very well," the wood spirit replied "We wood spirits have named based on Geographical features that sound like girls names THAT AREN'T ANYWHERES NEAR HERE."
Finn thought long and hard about geographical features that have girls' names and were not anywhere near by. He thought long and hard, "Ah!" He finally said, "Your name is Elbe!" Finn had a surprisingly good knowlege of geography for someone who had never met anyone from outside of Ireland. "Well, ****." The Wood Spirit said. "What did you just say?" "Fuddle duddle." she said with a tone of restrained anger as she melted into the ground condemned to stay there for another hundred years. "Oh! It Shannon! SHANNON!" He stamped and shouted into the ground.
Some passing traders saw this specticle from a distance and one asked the other "What's he doing?" The other replied "I don't know, but I think his name is Shannon"
A_Dane - Stjerne
Stjerne (which literally translates into "Star" in english, or Stierna, which appareantly is a noble family in Sweden). Not kidding here
“There's been some speculation into whether we might be a bastard line from the "Gyldenstjerne" family, which should still exist in Sweden, but there's an old family legend that has it otherwise, so here goes:
The family legend has it, that back in the day there was a great storm near Samsoe, and a ship came into serious trouble. My courageous forefather was a captain of a smaller vessel but, valiant as he was, he and his crew went to the rescue. In the following hours he succeeded in saving everybody on the ship. The king heard of his death defying rescue mission, and granted him a choice for a surname: He could either take, A) Sol (the sun), måne (the moon), or Stjerne (Star), he chose Star, and that's, according to the family legend, how we came to bear the family name.
polydamas - Schmollinger
Every family has... obstacles. Every member of the Holy Roman Emperor faces these obstacles differently. Some use war. Others try diplomacy. Sometimes neither of those work.
The House of Schmollinger originated as the bastard branch of the House of Hohenstaufen. They did the sort of work for the Hohenstaufen's that needed... a delicate hand. If someone got in Red Beard's way well, they didn't stay there. Some would get sick from a mysterious disease and slip away into death. Others had accidents while hunter. The lucky ones went into exile never to be a factor in political life again.
Obstacles need removing. That's what the Schmollingers were for.
I won? I'm speechless, this is a great honour, thank you very much :O
EDIT: Actually: congrats to the other winners, and i feel truly sorry for the rest, nice reads everyone of them
EDIT: Actually: congrats to the other winners, and i feel truly sorry for the rest, nice reads everyone of them
Congrats to the winners! Just sad kinda that mine wasn't picked, but admittedly, its not exactly in the game's setting/frame
Congrats to all the winners!
My personal favorite is the 'von Cain' entry.
Grats to the winners, admittely I was partial to Blackadder
omg they picked mine! I'm so going to get the preorder....CK was always my favourite paradox game, now there's yet another reason to get the game, yes!
Congratulations to the winners.
Although I'm truly sad my surname isn't making it. And it really started being used at the period
Although I'm truly sad my surname isn't making it. And it really started being used at the period
Yeah haha, I was thinking the same, maybe based on my family "legend" hehe, "the Rojas dinasty, counts of Asturias, Galicia, Zamora, Leon, Salamanca, Layos and Toledo, Dukes of New Castille and Extremadura, Kings of Castille, Leon, Aragon and Portugal. Emperors."I kinda feel obliged to do an AAR now
- Status