In Maelstrom, it's a very rules-mechanical process. Certain spell effects positive & negative require knowledge of the true name, so a player has to decide that their character will trust another player character with the information.

For some people, that's something they do all the time - for others, it's something that never happens, depending on the behaviour and beliefs of their character.

I can be very little more help on this score - I play such a private walled-in character that he has never revealed his true name to anyone - along with a large number of other things he doesn't trust anyone else to know. That applies to such an extent that I recently had to get my character's true name emailed to me in case I need it at a future event, - and it amused me when I remembered why I had chosen that particular name.

Of course, if I ever do need to use it (and assuming OOC I do remember it) it'll be a very serious decision as to whether to trust someone with it.

Well you were actively involved in some part of my own experience of this ;o)

Phoenix was originally called Phoenix DiMaggio - basically Phoenix the Mage. He had an affinity to House Karlennon and was 'adopted' by them only to find out later on that he was actually a blood relative anyway.

Obviously it eventually turned out that his real name was Nicholas Karlennon and the Phoenix part came about because people called him Fae Nick until it became 'polluted' to Phoenix.

When his true name was fully discovered it also brough about his true heritiage ... the magically created son of a human Karlennon and the daughter of Finn, grandaughter of Balor.

That led to his belief that he was doomed to be evil like his grandfather and him succumbing to the promises of the corrupt Dream Guardian.

So - if he had never discovered who he was (his true name) and had just kept on being Phoenix things may have been different ;o)

I suppose I'm thinking more in terms of say Phoenix had known his true name and trusted it to say - Thenni... (bad example this I realise!)

and Thenni turned into mad raging evil queen and decided 'ha I have phoenix's real name, I shall use it against him' and came up and said 'you, i use your true name nicholas karlennon and I tell you, you must now - do - [insert evil plan here]'

Would you have done it?

Hmmm --- I think that his true name could have been used against him in that way but nost as simply as her just saying his name and giving an order. If 'Thenni had used his real name and heritage subtley against him it would have worked ... what a wonderful World that would have turned out to be ruled by you ;o)

still might happen, you never know, but seeing as you don't play any more...
*pouts* :p

You can't still be upset with me about that! :o) I would probably break in half if I played again and then be ill everywhere :o)

... plus Nathaniel is FAR to sneaky/clever to ever give his real name to anyone ;o)

I played the Pooka Cat in the Harts for years and everyone called her 'Puss' Cos that was what she answered to. But her true name was never known - which was really annoying as it was my favourite character name, and I had to hide my character card from everyone at all times as well!! Lol!

lol i have to hide my character card too ;-)
worst experience i had was when someone who knows it ooc from running the bards, used it on me ic. stared at him then ran off to stab the only person who could have possibly told him ic!
he did apologise afterwards ooc :p

Angharad was left the name of an ancestor in said ancestor's will in a moment of Amelia not having taken her clever pills, or having a case of mischief (I've never been sure which). This led to various cases of abstracted possession and becoming unbalanced, which eventually led to my having to be pulled back to the dark side to balance me out. "Where's Angharad?" "Oh, she's in a rite with Gwion and a couple of dark incantors. One of them is her apprentice. I'm sure she'll be fine."

Never actually got a chance to invoke (as in the skill) the name, though. Probably hard to phys rep glowing like a bastard.

Hard but not impossible. I've done it. :-)

done what? :)

Glowed like an illegitimate child, apparently.

Well, woof!

(I mean, physrepped a glowing character. In the Durham TT system, Quenya are elves aligned to the element of Light, and they're supposed to glow with enough luminance to read by. I made a reasonably convincing costume by swathing myself in heavy fabric and a white mask with battery-powered lights inside it, so where you could see the skin though the holes in the mask, it was illuminated. Given that the interactives took place in a fairly dark room, the effect was of a glowing person, who had wrapped themselves up to try and mask it.

The only downside is that when you're trying to walk around a darkened bar and the edges of your vision are filled with illuminated white mask, you do tend to walk into tables a lot. But I'll put up with a lot for a cool costume idea.)

Edited at 2008-04-09 12:23 pm (UTC)

Mischief, definitely mischief :)

Hmm.. ittimin doesn't have a true name as such, however I do play her as having some other things that can be used to manipulate her to an extent.

I just do it through roleplay. If somethings happens which would cause my character to have to do something, I just do it. I have been lucky so far that it hasn't got me into too much trouble, and no one has used it against me... I hope it stays that way.

It is a bit dangerous to play a character where you write things like that into the rp. But, it does make it feel like there is more depth to the character, even though it isn't defined by rules.

quite agree. i like knowing ic that i'm not giving my real name and having the faint terror that if anyone ever learnt it or used it, i'd be completely screwed :p

Well, as you might Imagine Shanks isn't Shanks real name. It's his Pirate name. It wouldn't really matter if someone knew his birth name, but I like the roleplay aspect of ACTUALLY have a real name other then the one people know you as.

But here's the thing.. what name do you put on your character card!

I still put shanks, cause, as we know, OC is IC...

But I wouldn't say it held any REALY power over me... but then... maybe it would.... ;)

no see i put my real ic name on my card and tbh i think that's the way it should be

Yeah, I guess so, but then, I leave me cards laying around and stuff and I like the fact I have an ACTUAL secret name... as in NO ONE knows what it is :)

I've allways been a big fan of "true names", it is one of my favourite features of mealstrom.

In LT I have seen them used to good effect in the past, either as tools for politics and intrigue, or as modifiers to magics (Often used in rituals when targeting the owner of the true name for horrible effect, or in more pleasent rites like weddings, or bondings of servitute).

I've seen people ignore certain resistances they might of had to damage/magic if their names is used against them, and in one extreme case I saw someone shorten their own deathcount as a result of being attacked by someone using thier true name against them.

I remember waaaay back in '98 one of the other Greyknights was a fae and someone got hold of his true name, it was not being activly used against him but he started to fade away as a result,losing all motivation and energy just because his name was in the possesion of a person he did not know or trust. In the end he ended up fighting alongside those undseele fae that were attacking everyone, so we had to put him down...Would of had some good drama from the death and funeral, but the two ghouls I was using that day ate his body before we could mourn his loss :P

you know I don't mean to sound suspicious but 'the two ghouls you were using...'? o_0

They were nice guys :D Just misunderstood a lot.
We normaly kept them ona fairly tight leash so they would not eat people, but durinf fights they were hard to keep track of (well you could follow the line of paralysed people, but a lot of the unseelie fey were throwing quite exotic damage around too).
Used to take them out as part of our regular "peace keeping patrols", even used to guard peoples camp gates if they were worried about attacks :D

um
do we need to talk about something ic?!

Maybe, depends :D

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Ask me this at an event... I might even give you an interesting answer;)

I absolutely loved RPing having a true name and the 'effects' it had on me. I certainly wouldn't have ended up where I was if I hadn't had one.

The most fun was watching people try and work out ways to get my name out of me....when they had already heard it three times before!

As Coel, dewin of the Blaidd Ddu I threatend someone with the curse of the bitter tongue if they even attempted to find my true name or any of my tribe. The roleplay was quite intense as at first it was seen by a bystander (lets call him Jo) as a complete over-reaction. However Bob (I really can't recall his name) became very apologetic and scared, Jo turned to threaten me should anything befall Bob. Bob then told Jo that I was right and revealing of true names should not be done, especially not of those touched by the ancestors and that really it was all his fault.
The curse of the bitter tongue was simply that all he hunted would turn to ash in his mouth until he had made right his transgression.
Apologies and whiskey were offered and the curse was never invoked. So yes there are people out there who will go with the roleplay and can hold the thought of what could happen as very serious.
Whole thing took probably five minutes and provoked a lot of interest and after discussion.

I know how I would react if people used my true name, but so far noone has.

So you say, Woggle Peanut von Sprocket!

Personally I think to know a true name (where rules for it do not exist) you must hear it from the persons lips (thus the character card becomes irrellevant).

In one of the books I read (can't remember which series it was), if a True Name is spoken backwards (that'll take some practise) the being was unmade.

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!
that's horrible!
(please excuse the story fae in my head looking horrified)

Thats sound about right :D, its similar to variations on story making/unmaking :D