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thepringlesofblood · 1 year ago

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An Incomplete Collection of Calorum Etymology Shenanigans

A Crown of Candy has a LOT of food puns, and with more presumably on the way with The Ravening War, I don’t think it’s possible to catalogue them all.

However, if we take the ones in plain English as given, (e.g. Oliver Onionpatch is an onion, Primsy Coldbottle is a bottle), that lightens the load significantly enough that a catalogue of Calorum wordplay becomes possible.

This will be a (non-comprehensive) list of characters, place names, and more that have hidden meanings or food-related etymology. If I don’t list who came up with it, it’s the GM of that campaign (Brennan for ACOC, Matt Mercer for TRW)

spoilers for ACOC and TRW, naturally.

disclaimer: I am not an expert on words, but I do know a lot of weird nerd shit, as well as a decent chunk of ancient Greek and Latin as I’m majoring in classics (the study of the ancient Mediterranean). I might not get everything right, but I’m doing my best. verify your sources, kids

I actually made a post like this before, but it was mostly place names, so I’m sorting this one into categories

Locations

A Crown of Candy

PCs

NPCs

Etc.

The Ravening War

PCs

NPCs

Etc.

LOCATIONS

Ceresia - this is the one that genuinely impresses me the most. Ceres is the Roman goddess of wheat, the harvest, and agriculture. English has her to thank for the word “cereal”. Each nation is clearly themed for a specific real-world country, with Ceresia being Italy. So, Brennan used the Roman version of the goddess (w the Greek version being Demeter). That’s dope as hell.  

Calorum - you probably can associate this with the word “calorie” but it goes deeper. The word “calorie” refers to the unit of energy, and derives from the Latin calor, caloris meaning “heat” or “warmth”

-orum is the genitive plural in latin - so, calorum lit. translates to “of heat [calories]”, but you could totally translate it as an adjective meaning “made of heat [calories]”

TLDR: the name of the food land is “made of calories” in Latin, that’s AWESOME

Fructera - kind of obvious, but if you want to know the Latin, this is from fructus, fructus which can mean many things, including “produce” “crops” and “fruit”

Dulcington - dulce, dulcis is a word for sweets/a sweet drink in Latin

Sucrosi - sucrose is a main chemical compound in sugar, w the word deriving from the French word for sugar, sucre.

Glucian Road - from glucose, a simple sugar that’s in most living things statistically.

Frucian Road - from fructose, a very similar simple sugar present mostly in fruit. I think it’s kind of cool that the crossroads of the road to Fructera and the road to Candia emphasize the thing they have in common - sugar.

Pangranos - “pan” is bread in several languages, and the “gran” part likely alludes to words derived from “grain,” like “granary.”

then the -os ending recalls ancient Greek naming conventions and grammar (think “Alexandros” or “Mykonos”) many of which carried over into Roman times (though many were also changed to -us for alphabet reasons, hence why we normally see “Patroclus” “Dionysus” and “Hephaestus” instead of the more literal spellings “Patroklos” “Dionysos” and “Hephaistos” it’s a big ol fuckin controversy in ancient Greek translation)

Lacramor - here’s the thing. we all know lactose is in milk (coming from the Latin lac, lactis for milk). but lacrimal means tears, or related to tears (coming from the Latin lacrima, lacrimae for tears).

(update: I went DEEP in the paint on this one, and there’s a protein called lactoferrin that exists in all human secretions (gross) including milk, tears, and saliva. intriguing…) 

(updatier update: fuck. he probably just meant amor like Spanish & Latin for “love” so the milk city is called “love of milk.”)

Carn - a more obvious one, especially if you speak Spanish or any of the other romance languages that use this word - carnis, carnis in Latin and carne in Spanish mean “meat”

Uvano - they’re. they’re grapes. and. uva is grape. both in Latin and Spanish. nice one

Comida - the Spanish word for food. it will forever irritate me that they pronounce it like it’s an English word (COM-ih-duh) not the Spanish word that it is (coh-MEE-da) but it makes sense - Brennan mentioned in a  n interview that it’s an allusion to how colonizers (specifically the English) would bastardize local place names until the original pronunciation is lost.

The Verduran Forest - straight up a location from pathfinder. also, “verdure” is an English word meaning “growing vegetation”, or the color of it, or the condition of health and liveliness it implies. comes from old French verd (green) by way of Latin viridis (green). Spanish also has a hand on this ball with verde (green).

The Sangre - Blood! sangre is blood. In Spanish. And French.

Gristlemar - “mar” is a Latin root used in a lot of things to mean the ocean (deriving from mare, maris = sea/ocean), so it’s a sea of gristle. gross! I love it!

Saprophus - likely either from “saprophyte”, something that feeds off the dead, or “saprophagus”, an adjective meaning “feeding on decaying matter”

Greek roots!

sapros- = rotten, putrid

-phyton = plant/“that which is grown”

-phagos = eat/consume

A CROWN OF CANDY

PCs

The Rocks Family - One thing that’s not Latin exactly but is really cool is that almost everyone in the Rocks family is named after an actual rock - like, a gemstone - and most of them are rock candy (or of course poprocks in Amethar’s case)

Archmage Lazuli - pretty obvious, lapis lazuli is a beautiful blue gemstone

Sister Citrina - citrine is a yellow gemstone

Princess Sapphria - sapphires are usually blue but can come in a bunch of other colors which i didn’t know! fun fact

King Jadain - jade - a lovely green gemstone

King Amethar - amethyst - p obvious, he’s purple and all (credit to Lou!)

Princess/Bastard Ruby - i don’t have to explain this one to you (credit to Siobhan!)

Princess/Bastard Jet - I was surprised to find out that Jet is actually a type of lignite - it’s like coal, but so compressed it becomes a gemstone. hence the phrase “jet-black” (credit to Emily!)

the exceptions to this are Cumulous (which like, that’s a cloud and he’s a cotton candy man, makes total sense) and General Rococoa - I can’t fault Brennan for the pun there, and technically Rococo is a style of jewelry (among other things) that can include a lot of different gemstones so there’s a loose connection there.

Queen Pamelia Rocks was Fructeran and from House Pomegrana originally so like. she gets a pass from the rock puns.

however...you ever wondered why its “Pamelia” instead of the way more common “Pamela”? they actually changed it in TRW so that “Pamela” is one of her nicknames bc straight up no one calls her Pamelia at the table.

2 thoughts, one more likely than the other

1. this is Brennan making fun of George RR Martin for minutely altering a common name to make a Fantasy Name, which he’s done before, e.g. Belizabeth, Bonathan.

2. the ancient Greek μέλι, μέλιτος (meli, melitos) and the Latin mel, mellis both mean “honey” or, when used as an adjective, “sweet”, usually translated as “honey-sweet”, famously the adjective used to describe the pomegranate seed that Hades gives Persephone. hehe pomegranate

so. th.there’s strength in sweetness amiright fellas?

update: thank you to @trans-leek-cookie for the info that "pomegranate” and “garnet” share a few root words! in fact, it’s possible that the gemstone was named because of its resemblance to the fruit!

pomegranate etymology

Latin granatus, granata, granatum = an adjective meaning “containing many seeds”, used in conjunction with pomum (fruit) to mean “pomegranate”, which later leads to:

Medieval Latin granatum, granati = pomegranate (a fruit with many seeds in it)

garnet etymology

Old French grenate, gernatte, granate = garnet/of a dark red color

which comes from the same Medieval Latin granatum used as an adjective to describe something dark red like a pomegranate seed

conclusion: you are not immune to rock puns just bc you’re a fruit

Chancellor Lapin Cadbury - bet you didn’t think this was anything, right? Lapin is the French word for rabbit. Hence, why it’s pronounced la-PAN not LAP-in. And of course Cadbury, like the chocolate brand that is primarily famous for its eggs & rabbits & easter stuff. (credit to Zac!)

Sir Theobald Gumbar - as far as I can tell, the only funny bit here is the whole gummy bear = gumbar bit. I will say that he is a knight of North Gumbia, which is likely a reference to Northumbria, a medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. (credit to Murph!)

update: thank you to @sanguidge for pointing out the Theo - Theodore - Teddy - teddy bear connection! to borrow Gooey’s words, Sir Theo is in fact a big soft squishy bear.

Liam Wilhemina - Wilhemina is a brand of peppermint from the Netherlands ^v^ (credit to Ally!)

Queen Saccharina Frostwhip - references the word “saccharine” meaning “overly sweet” from the Latin saccharum meaning “sugar” (credit to Emily!)

Cumulous Rocks - we mentioned it earlier, but “cumulous” refers to a kind of cloud that is very puffy and fluffy and white and looks, tbh, like white cotton candy. hell yeah. (credit to Zac!)

NPCs

Commander Constano Grissini - grissini is literally the Italian word for breadsticks (not the big soft olive garden ones, the thin crispy ones). Constano is a very ancient Roman name, which fits.

Pontifex Belizabeth Brassica - refers to the genus (Brassica oleracera) that broccoli belongs to , and “Pontifex” is a Roman title, given to basically a high priest who is the political and religious power and representation of the gods will - they’re the ones who make sure everyone’s worshipping the right way, sort of like the pope but for ancient Rome.

Basha Myaso - myaso is Russian for meat, though the Meatlands are supposedly based off of ancient Celts. Much like with Belizabeth & Bonathan, Brennan likes to change one letter of a common name to make fun of George RR Martin. This could easily be him changing “Sasha” to “Basha”

Sir Keradin Deeproot- that fuckin carrot. so you’re probably thinking huh that sounds like keratin, the stuff our hair and fingernails are made out of, right? guess what. “keratin” and “carrot” share a common root word - keras, the Greek word for “horn” that’s a DEEP cut, brennan.  

Dracoria Azucar (aka Cinnamon) - azúcar is Spanish for “sugar” which is cool bc Cinnamon is inspired by Mexican hot chocolate. then draco = dragon in Latin, like the constellation

Spearia Mentha - its spearmint. mentha = the genus for the mint plant.

this one’s a stretch and probably not intended but just for funsies: mentha is from the Greek μίνθα, which comes from an interesting not very well-known myth about a nymph/naiad named Minthe.

nymphs and naiads are representations of nature, naiads being spirits of water and other nymphs represent trees, plants, and other organisms in nature, which to me really evokes Spearia’s whole vibe. there’s other stuff with Minthe and non-monogamy but not in a particularly positive way :/

ETC.

“Senator” and “Imperator” being used for Ceresia parallel the Roman system of government - as does the country swinging b/w ineffective democracy and destructive imperatorship lol.

Plus Senator Ciabatta being a war hero turned senator who then got popular enough to make himself emperor/tyrant/imperator is extremely Roman - that shit happens ALL THE TIME in ancient Roman history.

This might be nothing, but I think it’s funny that the Concord was founded by a grape. You know, like Concord grapes?

update: like a year after posting this I finally figured out what the Ramsian Doctrine and the Prophidian Heresy are from.

“Ramsian” is a reference to Gordon Ramsey, a popular TV chef who famously promotes the use of fresh, farm-to-table ingredients.

“Prophidian” is a shortening of “pro-ophidian”, with “ophidian” meaning “snake-like” or “relating to snakes”. The Christian devil is often represented as a snake, due to the myth of the Garden of Eden, and the Hungry One is Calorum’s version of the devil, so it’s basically “pro-Hungry One” because the Prophidian Heresy states that the Hungry One is as powerful as the bulb.

(personally I’ve always thought snakes got the short end of the stick here, they’re very chill and interesting creatures and the whole devil iconography thing kind of ruined their reputation. I am personally Prophidian in that I am pro-snakes. snake rights!)

update: forgot about the unused backup PCs lol

Sir Amanda Maillard - the Maillard reaction is the name for the reaction food does when in contact with heat where it gets crispy and good - like smores, like she is. 10/10 (credit to Ally!)

Bitternight Darknibs - since her thing is she sold her sugar for power and is thus unsweetened cacao, the “darkness” theming alludes to how we rate chocolate according to how “dark” it is based on how much sugar and milk is added.

chocolate with 0 sugar (aka baking chocolate) is “100% dark” and is not good to eat with your mouth, being very bitter. hence, “bitter” “night” and “dark”

“nibs” alludes to chocolate in an less processed form - cocoa beans get roasted and cracked open to create “nibs”, which get ground up and melted and separated and recombined and things are added to make chocolate (this is where it makes a difference how much sugar you add). (credit to Siobhan!)

Murdo Brer - our molasses necromancer has “Brer” most likely as a reference to the brand Brer Rabbit Molasses. the fact that he’s a necromancer who lives in a swamp is also interesting to me. (credit to Lou!)

cw: discussion of dead bodies, enbalming, & mummies in the links

swamps are extremely good at preserving dead things, which is a little like necromancy, which I think is cool.

for some reason I had it in my head that putting a dead body in molasses preserves it really well, but when I went to get sources I couldn’t find shit. maybe I was conflating the great molasses flood with how honey has historically been used in enbalming? lmk if you know what I’m thinking of, I was like fully convinced of this fact until I went to find info on it.

murph’s bubblegum monster wasn’t named sadly :/

THE RAVENING WAR

PCs (I went through some of this in another post but that was in reaction to the trailer before episodes started actually coming out lol)

Colin Provolone - Provolone is a kind of cheese. Colin is a name of Irish/Scottish origin. It’s nice to have one simple one. I will say I’ve seen several people point out that provolone goes really well on a pastrami rueben (which our boy below is!) so that’s fun! (credit to Zac!)

Thane Delissandro Katzon - Thank you @blueaerin (among many others) for your post about how this is most likely a reference to Katz’s Delicatessan, a famous deli in NYC! I never would’ve know that. I’m also told they specialize in pastrami rueben on rye, which we now know is what Deli is, since Lou’s description in the first episode! Then we have “thane”, which in Anglo-Saxon culture, is a title of a landowner, specifically someone who was gifted land by a king. y’all who read Macbeth know this one! (credit to Lou!)

Bishop Raphaniel Charlock - the scientific name for wild radish is Raphanus raphanistrum, so that’s probably where Raphaniel came from. wild radish has two other names - “jointed charlock” and “white charlock”. So there we go. Your typical red radish (as Brennan described his character to look like) is a subspecies of Raphanus raphanistrum called sativus. but! even MORE interesting! you know what order and family radishes are in? the order Brassicales in the family Brassicaceae! This could be 100% unintentional, there’s a LOT of vegetables in the family Brassicaceae, but I remain optimistic. also thanks to @tenoroutoften for the info that Raphael Warnock is a senator & religious leader in Georgia rn! (credit to Brennan!)

Lady Amangeaux Epiceé du Peche - She is a mango! French for mango = la mangue. Amangeaux = sounds like “a mango”, and does contain the French word for “I eat” (mange). Epiceé = spicy (can be used as slang for y’know. spICY) and du Peche = of peach (her house prior to marrying King Cardoon) (credit to Anjali!)

Karna Solara - we know now (thanks @quiddie!) that “Karna” refers to her being a Carolina Reaper pepper! For her last name, chili peppers do come from the order Solanales in the family Solanaceae. there’s also solar -> sun, which makes for some interesting implications, given that generally The Bulb = the sun and her power is extremely not Bulbian. lots of fun sun imagery this campaign! (credit to Aabria!)

NPCs

King Arthur Cardoon - Cynara cardunculus, also known as the artichoke thistle or the cardoon, is a flowering plant from which the artichoke is cultivated. people eat cardoons too though.

also, his name being Arthur could be an allusion to his wife being unfaithful (see: the whole Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot love triangle of Arthurian legend), as well as being alliterative with the word “artichoke” itself.

Ja’Crudite/Jacques Crudites - it’s spelled both ways in the subtitles in different episodes. Crudités = French appetizers that are mostly raw vegetables, sometimes sliced or cut, usually with dip. Carrots feature prominently, but usually as carrot sticks, not the whole carrot, in an interesting departure from other carrot-based characters in Calorum. Also interesting since carrots are traditionally Vegetanian and his French name implies that he’s Fructeran.

if it is “Ja’Crudite”, it’s probably a pun off of the phrase “J’accuse!” which is French for “I accuse!”

Dammit, now I’m curious - does Ja’Crudite have “hair” (leaves) like Keradin and the infamous zealot from TRW e5, if he’s a carrot stick rather than a full carrot?

Senator Enzo Carbano, Tribune of the Fusilli

Enzo - Italian name

at first I was like ‘wait is that a pasta?’ nope I was thinking of orzo

Carbano - likely derived from pasta carbonara, or from “carbohydrates” in general.

Fusili - a twisty noodle. Not famous for carbonara but you can very much use it that way

Tribune - another ancient Roman government title. typically, a tribune is a representative of the plebeians, sometimes from a specific area. It’s usually a way lower ranking role than senator, mostly bc it was one of the only ways a plebeian could get into goverment. seems like they combined it so each senator gets a little area to rule over represent - v cool!

Senator Ariana Gemelli, Tribune of Triscutia

Ariana - Greco-Roman name

Gemelli - another fun twisty pasta

Triscutia - could be referring to Triscuits. if you’re wondering about the Latin, a scutum is a kind of shield, so with the tri- bit, maybe thrice-shielded? I think it’s the Triscuits.

Sir Allium Goldring, Knight of the Burning Basket - I included the burning basket bit bc it implies an order of deep-fried veggie knights, which is hilarious. “Allium” is the name for a genus of plants including onions, garlic, shallots, leeks, chives, etc.

If you’re thinking “but wait, isn’t that a flower?” you are correct, another name for the allium flower is “ornamental onion”. it’s one of those classifications that applies to a bajillion things, like Brassica.

ETC.

they don’t mention “Pontifex” as a religious title in the ravening war.

The highest ranking Bulbian church official we run into is the Archbishop Camille Colliflour. Which is interesting, considering that we run into a whole bunch of Archbishops in ACOC (Alfredi, Onionpatch, Radicca Rutabaga who you probably forgot about), all of who seem to be high-ranking but nowhere near the level of the Pontifex

But what’s interesting about that, is. “Pontifex” is a very Roman title. and the church doesn’t start using until a. they grow more powerful and b. Vegetania allies with Ceresia under Imperator Focaccia during the war. So it’s a Roman loan-word bc Ceresia = Rome = Empire. fuck dude.

update: thank you to @trans-leek-cookie for pointing out a brief mention of the Pontifex in ep 1!

Colliflour mentions consulting the Pontifex about Tomaté’s claim to the throne, and Tomaté himself mentions the “plight of the Pontifex and his followers” earlier on in the episode while talking to Raphaniel.

so there is a Pontifex, but we know extremely little about him, except that he is a him, and doesn’t seem to be very involved in the goings-on of the Ravening War. it probably became a more important position post-war as the Bulbian church rose to power.

update: forgot about backup PCs lol

Lady Melys of House Manuka - like I said before, the ancient Greek μέλι, μέλιτος (meli, melitos) and the Latin mel, mellis both mean “honey”, and manuka honey is a special type of honey from the manuka (or mānuka) tree in New Zealand. mānuka is a Māori word, hell yeah, break the chokehold that romance languages have on food puns! (credit to Aabria!)

Zhyr Kaban - another rebel against romance languages, in the BTS Brennan mentions that this means ‘boar fat’ in Ukrainian (жир кабан), and as far as I can tell, he’s right! dope. Also more evidence for the Meatlands being based in Eastern European & Russian culture as well as the ancient Celtic and Anglo-Saxon tribes Brennan ususally lists as inspiration - an interesting combo. (credit to Brennan!)

Kahfeer Activian Balfour - “kefir” is a kind of probiotic yogurt drink (though pronounced like keh-FEER), and he a yogurt man. in the BTS Lou mentions they weren’t sure if he could be named Activia like the yogurt brand, so they had a backup last name “Balfour”, which may allude to Balfour farm dairy in Maine, which sells yogurt and cheeses (though not kefir). (credit to Lou!)

Granny Pom and Flaky Smuthers are pretty straightforward etymologically speaking, though excellent names in their own right of course. (credit to Anjali and Zac!)

hmu if you can think of any other fun ones or if i fucked up anything or if any of the links are busted on this monster of a post lol

#dnd #d20 #dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #d20 spoilers #trw #trw spoilers #the ravening war spoilers #the ravening war #acoc #acoc spoilers #original post #ongoing #etymology #dropout

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