Anduin is Named After a River? - Unknown Side of WoW: Etymologies
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- čas přidán 3. 07. 2024
- In this video, we’ll be taking a look at some of the etymologies and sources for names throughout all of Azeroth and beyond. These names and their etymologies can include characters, players, places, and factions. A lot of early WoW’s geography and character design are the result of Chris Metzen, and it is fun for lore nerds to see what influences and references to other works Metzen and others have placed in the game. We’ve chosen 10 names from WoW in alphabetical order, so let's get ready to explore the history and meaning of each word.
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Video edited by Sam
The List
Intro: (0:00)
Anduin: (0:15)
Argus: (2:37)
Azeroth: (4:00)
Azshara: (5:13)
C’thun: (6:24)
Draenor: (7:33)
Kalimdor: (8:24)
Lordareon: (8:50)
Sylvanas: (10:02)
Tauren: (11:18)
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- #WoW #WorldofWarcraft #warcraft - Hry
Just a random idea, maybe make the April fool’s video for this year “The Known Side of WoW” where you just go over very obvious and well-known facts about the game and the lore
high tier video idea
Brilliant
Exquisite idea
Sounds like a great idea! But following his trend of jokingly redeeming characters, maybe his new April Fool's is about how Shadowlands is the best WoW expansion.
@@banjiroxtr3237 While it's certainly not the best, I wouldn't mind a video going over the positive side of Shadowlands. It was by no means good but people tend to ignore the many great features that came with it.
Here's another one, not officially confirmed, but I think the name "Arthas" is a play on the name "Arthur", as in King Arthur of Camelot. Both characters take up a sword from a stone (Frostmourne and Excalibur) and later become kings and legendary figures - except of course Arthas' tale ends in a darker, more twisted tone than Arthur's.
Also, King Arthur's father was named Uther Pendragon. Uther the Lightbringer being Arthas' mentor as a paladin is probably another nod to their similarities.
Definitely can't be a coincidence. Makes for a pretty nice foil to King Arthur of Camelot, as we know Arthas went on to be, well... the exact opposite of what Arthur was.
About the word Azeroth, there is a lovecraftian god named Azathoth, which is basically the source of the universe and should he awakens, our reality is gone. A interesting paralel to Azeroth role in the Warcraft universe.
To be fair tho, that’s probably a much later addition to the lore. The original game just seemed to use it cuz it sounded like a cool name and also maybe a reference to that one book mentioned, with the later parallels with the world soul and how it’s sleeping and what that could mean for us coming in much later and never being imagined in the original script
It's funny that he missed this, because the name Azathoth also shows up as an infamous Yu-Gi-Oh card and one of Hirumared's other channels is about Yu-Gi-Oh.
For Unknown Side of WoW etymology, there an Arakkoa NPC in Talador called Kura the Blind. Word kura mean chicken in polish. There is polish proverb "trafiło się ślepej jak kurze ziarno" which you can translate to "The blind hen hit upon a grain" which mean something happened by chance and someone succeeded without any effort.
I think that's the first time in my life I see 6 polish words in a sentence and none of them is "kurwa" 😂
There's also NPC in Voldun called 'Sraka' which can be used as a really vulgar way to say diarrhea in polish.
I don't know why did i write this, it just made me laugh when I had to fight diarrhea in wow
I really loved this video. Can we explore the etymology of Dalaran? Ysera? Malfurion? Cenarius? Teldrassil / Yggdrasil / Nordrassil? You could go a long way with this series!
Not sure about Dalaran. Pretty sure Ysera comes from "Sera" in hebrew, which means "princess", plus the green dragonflight quirk of "Y" at the beginning of the name (they also have names ending in "-ikus", usually male vs. female). Not sure on Malfurion, but I do know he was referred to as "Furion" in the older games. Cenarius likely comes from "Centaur". As for the world trees, Yggdrasil is lifted directly, as its the central world tree in Norse mythos. Nordrassil is definitely a direct nod to the nords. Teldrassil is probably the same, though I've no clue where they got the "Tel-" part from.
@@sincodemayo Yggdrasil isn't part of WoW. The concept and naming of all the world trees is directly from Norse mythology. The "drassil" or as its spelled in the actual word, drasil, simply means horse
Another one I noticed: In Shadowlands there's a dungeon called "The Mists of Tirna Scithe." In Irish mythology there's a magic realm called "Tir na Nog" which means "Lands of Youth." Furthermore, the word "scáth" means "shadow," as seen in Dun Scaith (Shadow Fort), a famous castle in real life and even a raid in XIV.
So taken together, "Tirna Scithe" is a tweaked version of "Tir na scáth," which would literally mean Shadowlands.
Id argue Azeroth also has a connection to the Alchemic concept of Azoth, which is the very force of change itself. Given what Azeroth goes through, does, and potentially why everyone and their dog wants Azeroth, this may be a solid inspiration too
Tirion is also a place in Middle Earth / Valinor I believe.
In fact, Kalimdor is probably a reference to Valinor (both are ancient continents, and both are in the West, and both had 2 humongous godly trees). Also Sylvanas probably comes from the Sylvan elves from tolkien.
Sylvan is still from Latin
Tirion city on the hill of Tuna, at the entrance to Valinor - and on the west end of the Calacirya, a passage thru the Pelori mountains, allowing the Noldor of Tirion to see and communicate with their Teleri distant kin on Tol Eressea at the east end of the Calcirya
Absolutely loved this video, would be great to see more in the series.
I actually really liked this, an interesting dive into the lore. Great work putting this together.
This video took me a bit to watch because of the title and thumbnail, but I found it very fascinating and wish I had watched it sooner. Please keep it up!
I'd love to see you delve into Dragon names, if there is anything to them, and I also feel like a lot can be explored with the names of Northrend, such as the Titans and bosses of Ulduar, the Vrykul, the Giants, etc.
Love it, brief lore explainations are always welcome, cba listening to 3hr long lore videos about someone tbh. This is great, love your videos
It's interesting how the words Kalimdor and Azeroth have changed throughout the history of Warcraft.
Kalimdor was first introduced in Warcraft 3 and is the continent in the west. But when the War of the Ancients novels were introduced, Kalimdor also was the name of all (or most) of the landmass of the entire planet before the Sundering.
In Warcraft 1, the human faction in the game is said to be from the Kingdom of Azeroth. Then when Warcraft 2 came along, that kingdom was retconned into Stormwind and Azeroth was instead the name of the continent that contains all territories of the humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves (there was only one kind of elf in the lore back then). Then when WoW came along, that continent became known as the Eastern Kingdoms and Azeroth became the name of the planet itself.
Loved the new content, looking forward for more.
Loved the etymology video, great job!
I loved this, really hope you do more of these kinds of deep dives!
Great idea and format. MORE!
very awesome loved this video style. would love to see more
Great video. I would love to see more!
I absolutely loved this video concept. Would love to see more WoW etymology
This is a great idea with the names etymology! These kind of videos will be very interesting :)
Great stuff. Would enjoy seeing more
Love that so much! we rlly need more of those.:)
I -really- liked this! I would love to see this become a series!
I like this video very much! I always enjoy words, and your research and speculations are very interesting.
I enjoyed it keep them coming, much love
Really love this kind of video!
Good video, I like the format and ethymology idea
I really liked this video and would love to see more like it! I love the fusion of really world roots and history of WoW! My kind of edutainmental content!
I like this video. Its nice to come back to Hiru after 3 years and see he still have his creative streak. Very well done, will watch again!
That was pretty good. I like lore videos and languages and etymology so this is a win-win-win video.
This was a good video. I hope you do more WoW Etymology videos.
I liked the video and would watch if more is made :D
Sylvanas is likely an extrapolation of the word "Sylvan", a word with similar meaning to the god Silvanus as well
Great stuff!
Awesome video, it's some cool info that I've been thinking about as a linguist. Something new like this is great :D Keep it uP!
This was really cool video
I love this video topic. Please make more
Great video, make more like this
Love this. Do more like this.
Loved this video
loved this type of video!1
fun fact: theres a town in Denmark called Uldum
more more. seriously love all ur videos hirumaredx
Good stuff, Hiru.
I love Etymology, awesome video
I would love if this were to become a series!
Reading dictionaries and studying words is one of my hobbies... love this video and it hasn't even started yet. 5 stars rating! XD
I think all of the analysis of anduin should be applied to the original anduin. Varyians son wasn’t a character until wow but anduin Lothar was there in the beginning.
It was fun to listen to this video and also to watch. If you ask me i could watch such videos more often. i liked it very well. That doesn't mean that i dislike the others.
Chthonic is also the name of a badass Taiwanese metal band
Big fan of that video.
This video should be called,”The Etymology of WOW.”
Nice one, I enjoyed this video.
Hey, I want to give some extra on "Sylvanas." She was named after a high elven forest, likely from before the sundering.
"We named you for the beautiful woods of our homeland, and you have proved that naming true."
-The Sylvanas novel, page 53 on Kindle Edition. Words spoken by her father, Verath.
Just a random fun fact on the word azeroth. Azarath was also the home of the famous comic book character in the DC universe. She was introduced in the 80s during a time that Metzen was mega nerding out in the old school sense and ive always wondered if there was some kind of influence there.
PLEASE make a video exploring some of the LotR refferences in WoW, my friend is a big fan of tolkien and started playing WoW, I'm trying to show everything I already know but there's so much that I probably never heard or saw before
In Tolkien’s lore Silvan Elves are also called Wood-elves or Woodland Elves. Another connection for Sylvanas 😇
Because "Sylvan" literally means "related to trees". So
Love it!
Well, the Latin taurus also comes from the Greek word tauros (ταῦρος). That's why mino-taur (minotauros, Μινώταυρος) is an ancient Greek word; the tauros of Minos, the king of Knossos of Crete (from whom the Minoan civilisation is named). And it literally means bull even in modern Greek.
Having an MA degree in literature, several of these analyses and conclusions sound hilarious.
- Anduin growing in size and power much like a river. He travels through kingdoms like a river -- haha, what??
- Draen means thorn, and the Draenei were a thorn in the side of KJ, Saggyboi and the Burning Legion -- hilarious. I was waiting for you to say something like "Also their horns are similar to thorns" (Very glad you didn't!)
- The analysis on Argus was a journey
Loved your analyses on Sylvanas and the Tauren, though. More of this, yes please!
In the story of the Lord of the Rings, the Anduin River is mostly associated with the human kingdom of Gondor. I suspect the name was chosen for that allusion.
Cant wait for an unknownside about the various things u can find in dragonflight 👀 though i reckon it will take a while, seeing as we probably gonna have to search every pixel 🤷♂️
Silvanas is also a nature god in D&D, which is ofc inspired by the dirty of the same name
more of this!
love this.
Tolkien was such a Chad, he literally created a world after he made up his own language since he felt that it needed a story centered around it
Interesting!
Argus is also the name for the blacksmith NPC in goldshire
i liked the video idea
actually Tauren have more of an native indian culture, native American culture is covered by tauren, but also tuskar (Inuit) trolls (central/south American tribes particularly Mayan and Aztec ) it's akin to saying X is inspired by European culture vs X is inspired by French culture.
Hey, love your videos. It's actually Lordaeron, not Lordareon. Keep up the good work!
the elf city silvermoon is named after silverymoon from dnd, Elune from DnD's selune, Well of Eternity same name from Warhammer, Sargeras is Sargonas DnD, Muradin is Moradin. Thalassian is from DnD also it means from the sea in greek. Murloc from Morlock or Merlock.
I met someone who met someone who played Moradin in Gygax's game.
@@DIEGhostfish Moradin is the god of dwarves in DnD, thought many ppl like to play OP campaigns I guess
@@Loki-qo2kb He was a normal dwarf in Gygax's game, he ascended, or was just used as the basis for the god.
@@DIEGhostfish thats cool, didn't know it before.
Nice video idea. There’s also a lot of German-influenced words in WoW.
E.g. “Strom” means ‘energy’
Azeroth could also be derivitive of Azathoth from H.P. Lovecraft's works
A few points I think are worth mentioning:
I believe it's pronounced "Sindarin", rather than "Sindarian".
"Draenor" was introduced at least as early as Warcraft 2's expansion, so I doubt that "Draenei" came first. The Draenei were originally treated as people from Draenor, before they were retconned to be exiled.
Watch out with saying "entomology" instead of "etymology. The former is the study of insects.
The generally accepted pronunciation for "celtic" is "keltik", rather than "seltik".
Need more ^_ ^
I was hoping to see N'Zoth on here since it's actually the name of a planet in Star Wars Legends content.
Ever thought about doing a lore video about the Sethrak?
Aaaaaand Argos is also a shop known the UK where you can buy a vast multitude of products 🤣
This probably took awhile. Could we get more?
In the next video you should discuss the origins of the name of H.P Lovecraft's cat.
Fun fact, Azeroth originally wasn't the name of the world of warcraft but a name for a human kingdom Azeroth, later renamed after it's capital of Stormwind all the way back in the original Warcraft : Orcs and Humans
Also a little fun fact is nature and tauren uses the exact same letters
he clearly stated that...
10:30 _Spends thirty seconds talking about how amazing her use of Guerilla Tactics and how amazing she was_
_Shows the scene where she powerslides up to the frost DK_
Classic
Also i like to point out that Argus is an anagram for Gusar which means pirate in the balkan languages, not that it would make any sence lore wise i just want to point it out
Because he's always crying, his eyes flow like a river.
Pausing the video at 0:00 without looking in, I can tell you the river was named after Anduin LOTHAR.
"This is a video not a literature class"
I'd totally attend a literature class on Warcraft lore, tho.
Another one is Bowansamdi lowa of death for zandalari trolls, there a very similar baron samdi in haitian vodou whos represented as a skeleton wearing top hat and is also lwa of death lwa and lowa are actually the same word so i guess other troll lowa in wow may be also influenced by similar origins... anyway loved the video and looking forward for more like it
A very simple one would be the the Ursa mobs from places like felwood they are bear humanoids and ursa literally means bear in Latin
Azeroth comes from HP lovecrafts works. Theres a giant Old one name Azethoth which is the size of a planet and is said to dream all life into existence. Aka the world soul of azeroth. They took a ton of inspiration from lovecraft, the name warcraft, the names of old gods and even the idea of ancient beings corrupting the world.
"Azeroth" wasn't always the name of the planet the game takes place on. It was originally the name of the eastern continent.
The southern part only at that. It was Azeroth and Lordaeron and Khaz Modan.
I didn’t realize that the southern part of the eastern kingdoms wasn’t still called Azeroth… I thought the name applied to both.
@@DIEGhostfish I think I would've liked this more. Warcraft 3 puts a heavy emphasis on the distinction between these places, ESPECIALLY Lordaeron, so it would've been fitting to see WoW go the same route. Plus, when BC came out, we would've seen the important distinctions between the lands that are governed by Lordaeron vs. Quel'thalas. Although Azeroth is a pretty damn cool name for the planet either way.
You forgot about azathoth! That is another potential place of origin for Azeroth. It’s the primordial chaos deity from the Cthulhu Mythos
From Minas Tirith, could they have gotten Tyranas Minithil? Or is that too much of a reach?
terenas menethil *
Not at all! If you reverse the sounds, all you're missing on the second word is the "-il" at the end. That's gotta be where it's from.
The word Azurite has some real life meaning, mainly named after a crystal with similar colours but also honours Athena the Greek Goddess of War and Wisdom.
Anduin wasn't named after the River... He was named after Anduin Lothar, who WAS named after that river. Lol
Nice video, but a couple of pronunciation mistakes.
"Celtic' the group of people and language from Europe and 'Celtic' the sports team are spelled the same, but the ancient people/language uses a hard C (Kel-tic) while the sports team have a soft C (Sell-tic). The team are named after the people/language, and got slightly mangled when it was remembered and used by immigrants who were born on the East Coast of America, but trace their ancestry back to the Ancient Celts.
Several times you say 'eNtomology' when you mean to say 'ETymology'. What you meant and write is correct (the study and history of words/languages), but entomology is... the study of insects (a type of aRthropod meaning 'joint foot' as opposed to the common misspeaking of 'aNthropod' meaning 'man-foot' which currently isn't a scientific classification).
Celtic/Celts is pronounced with a hard C or K sound. The Celtic language doesn't have a soft C or S sound associated with that letter.
argus is also the name of a kind of beer.
Bit sus that a lot of non-eurocentric cultures get projected onto half-animal people though. Tauren, Pandaren, Tuskarr, the centaur etc.
I like it. It gives those races more individual identity, and fits with how they would have acted realistically had they existed. Those animal races, save the Pandaren, tend to be tribal and/or clan-based. For instance, you wouldn't see Taurens going by Edward until they mingled with European societies heavily.
aren't almost every race from azeroth half animals tho? like natural races. not titans one. the exception maybe be trolls, and nigh elf that are just mutan trolls.
@@rokingfrost8446 thinking back on it, yeah pretty much.
Not to be confused with 'entomology' very different things