Athens in Earthdawn

[Mataxes]

Perhaps look at it as a case of getting the inspiration flipped around?

That references in an old (forgotten) language were used for Athena (goddess of wisdom), from which the city (Athens) took its name?

[Marzhin]

That references in an old (forgotten) language were used for Athena (goddess of wisdom), from which the city (Athens) took its name?

Well, that's the thing: despite what the legends say, historians think the goddess was named after the city, not the other way around ^^'

[Mataxes]

Okay...?

Look, I'm as guilty as anyone of obsessing over trivia and mastering lore. But there comes a time when, honestly, you just need to accept that it's a fictional world and not every detail is going to hang together like a perfect crystal chandelier.

(And the little detail that ruins it? It's gonna be different for different people! You can't win!)

So, yeah. There's gonna be stuff that doesn't necessarily hang together. As mentioned earlier, they don't speak English in Throal, but the books are written in English for a (primarily) English-speaking audience. The nature of etymology means words will show up referencing stuff they couldn't actually reference in Barsaive.

And that's okay. To borrow from the great sage Joel Hodgson, "Repeat to yourself it's just a game. You should really just relax."

[Marzhin]

Look, I'm as guilty as anyone of obsessing over trivia and mastering lore. But there comes a time when, honestly, you just need to accept that it's a fictional world and not every detail is going to hang together like a perfect crystal chandelier. (...)

My apologies if my posts came across as some sort of attack. So I feel like I should clarify my intent.
You're of course completely right: this is a game, it's not perfect and will never be. And in fact, at no point have I said "we should burn all the Travar books and print them again" It's a fine book -- a great one, even. If my post was intended as a serious criticism of the product I would have posted it in the "Product Discussion" section. As I said in my original post, this is only an idea that crossed my sleepless mind while reading through the Travar book for the second time.
This is the "For Game Masters" section, and -- for me at least -- coming up with theories to explain discrepancies in the world is part of the fun of being a GM. Discrepancies, contradictions, shady areas, strange Names... are where ideas are born for an adventure, a NPC, an artifact... Maybe some of the other Game Masters will find them useful, or inspiring, or bad, and that's OK. I'm certainly not trying to suggest it should be made canon or anything.
I mean, if that was the case, I would have sent you a proposal for an Athenai / Rugaria sourcebook instead of posting it here

[Mataxes]

And my feelings are perhaps a bit more... puzzled? Bemused? And maybe came across a bit more defensive than I intended.

One of my personal bugaboos lately is the attempts by big studios to create mega-franchises in the pattern of the Marvel movieverse, and the related obsession in the fan community with canon and continuity.

Speaking of Marvel, I'm reminded of the "No-Prize", given out in the letters columns of yore, when a fan would come up with an explanation for an apparent continuity error or similar problem.

No harm, no foul. It's all good.

Edit to add: The "you" in the bit you quoted should probably be read more as a general you rather than a personal you. But I can understand the confusion.

[Bonhumm]

Awwww..... but we wanted blood, tears and drama.....


Seriously tho, I can understand that the 'weight' of previous content (i.e. canon) can be heavy on you. Earthdawn had 4 previous editions that each added a bit to its history and background as the years went by (plus it's 'now unofficial' link with Shadowrun) so keeping continuity in line must be very hard, especially since (based on other posts you made) your creative team seems to be very small.

We (at least I am) are very pleased that you choose to continue this universe instead of attempting a 'reboot' like they did, for example, with 7th Sea who just threw out of the window about 30 books worth of content to completely start over the universe into something with a similar atmosphere but with world so completely different from the previous edition that nothing is valid anymore and that the users have to wait for the new books to (slowly) come out, impeding in the process the tools of the game master who is afraid to venture outside the limited described universe in fear of being 'overridden' by new canon the next month.

Please do not take our discussions about the Earthdawn universe as a complaint to you or FASA about the continuity/canon of the universe. We are just a bunch of nerds fantasizing about this vast and rich universe you guys have created and I assure you that this is a very, very good sign.

[Flowswithdrek]

Here's the thing. The Delver's Athenaeum came about because one of he early goals of the Travar project was to try and bring together all the tiny little details about Travar dispersed throughout all the editions in a way that made sense to us (three Earthdawn nerds who liked to obsess over everything). And obsess we did. Travar had to have many libraries, not least because there is one line in one of the books that says "Travar is noted for its many libraries" or something like that, but also because Throal had one big library, Thera had one big library and somewhere it also says Iopos claims a library to rival both the Great Library and the Eternal Library. So the last thing we needed was another big library. I think only three or four made it into the original manuscript, but at one point I had as many as ten planned. That meant we needed Names, and some of the best ones were already taken. Secret Societies also mentions Namman's Hand has a private library in Travar and Athenaeum seemed a good fit. I knew the origins of the word, but looked it up to be sure. I figured were the language originated would be within the Theran sphere of influence (could it be a Theran word or just a loan word used by well travelled Therans)? Travar had strong connections to Thera before the Scourge and after, the cult were trying to raise a Theran hero and were possibly Therans themselves, so it seemed (to me at least) that he world wouldn't be out of place.

I also put some Irish words into the manuscrip, not all made it through editing, but I think a few did, so have at it nerds

[Mataxes]

There are some Irish expressions and turns of phrase in a couple of places that were flagged as "errors" by some of the beta readers that I left in.

I know there was an airship Named in Gaelic that I nixed (changing it to a close English equivalent) because it so blatantly stood out. There might have been a couple of others that weren't as obvious, but the airship was the big one I remember.

[Bonhumm]

Don't tease us like that, what was the name of the ship?

[Mataxes]

Hawk Greatgust's ship (called Crimson Vintage in the final book) was called Fíon Dearg in the earlier drafts.