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.
