Hey guys, in relation to my previous post about looking for people to help start my guild, I’m also in need of some guidance when it comes to group terminology. We are all aware of the reputation the “House” title carries, as many people ridicule and criticize it nowadays. As much as I’d love to call the guild “House …”, I don’t wish to be burdened with such judgement.
So I’m looking to use “Clan” as I have some external influences as to why I’d want to use it. For instance, I’d want to call my guild “The Dawnmaw Clan” or “Clan Dawmnaw”. However I’ve been recently made aware that “Clan” is a term that was used by Horde races predominantly (I am a Human character), such as the Orcs. So “Tribe” was suggested; however after researching “human Tribes” in some WoW databases, it seems that there aren’t any, or none that I could find. Only more Horde Tribes of Trolls and such. So then I thought maybe “Dynasty”, but I’m stuck on deciding because I really do enjoy the sound of “The Dawnmaw Clan”, courtesy of my love for “The Bartok Clan” from the film “Last Knights”.
I would call it “House Dawnmaw” as It is so in my novels I have written, which is the other external influence. But as I aforementioned, I will not use House.
Anyone care to lend me some advice on what I should use?
If you’re really set against using House, which I’d recommend regardless of the stigma, but if you’re dead set against it “tribe” would fit humans more than clans, I suppose.
Well the guild will be base solely around the Dawnmaw name; as Tarrion, the last and only member of the Dawnmaw family, attempts to revitalize his House/Clan/Whatever, you name it, bringing back several operating components such as the family itself so he would require a wife (Though that’ll be explored by his own means in due time); as well as the militaristic, militia and Knighthood of the estate and House; and the laboring and Citizen part. Standard procedure really, but ultimately looking to restore the Dawnmaw estate and the Dawnmaw Clan/House.
I would ideally like to use House, as it is a standard title and my novels have that the Dawnmaw family is written as a “House” order. However, it carries stigma which would undoubtedly be a deterrent.
As for Tribe, why though? I’ve searched for both Clans and Tribes in WoW and none of which have been Human; only Orc, Troll, Centaur, so forth.
Well, the humans were assorted tribes before being united under the Arathi tribe into the Kingdom of Arathor, so it’d make more sense than Clan, if still being archaic.
Really? It’s a pain 'cos I can’t seem to find any of that information anywhere. But if so, it makes more sense now to call it “Tribe”. But still, it sounds primitive in “modern” Azeroth. So suppose I might have to settle with House.
Clan is usually reserved for Horde guilds. I dont think ive ever seen an Alliance guild called ‘somethingsomething clan’ before - I’d go for House, personally, to hell with the stigma.
Use whichever you feel sounds best to yourself OP, if you think Clan sounds okay use it. All of the above words are basically cognates of one another so its really semantic quibbles at this stage.
If you dislike the sound of “House” (understandable considering the baggage) then don’t use it, just because some have said “oh but this is only here” means nothing. Perhaps your character is an eccentric, perhaps they prefer the feel for calling their family a clan, maybe they prefer the sound of tribe?
Tribe and Clan are relative synonyms of each other. Perhaps before the discovery of Orcish Clans, there could have been Human Clans? Seeing as Clan literally means a group of people or a family. Just like Tribe.
It’s a tough one really, 'cos logically if you know synonyms IC then you could use Clan knowing full well that it is the same as Tribe. But obviously comes the “Orcish” heritage with the title “Clan”, as WoW has depicted.
I like your positivity. - Though I’m trying to avoid Tribe as I don’t really like the sound of it. Clan just sounds better, plus the aforementioned statement about my influences as to why I’d call it Clan. But perhaps I can improvise or even bite the bullet and go for the other titles.
I have a headcanon that Arathi used to have clans instead of houses, and it’s only because of the influence of the later Kingdoms that they changed it. I’d imagine that some Arathi still go by clans in this case. Arathi Houses don’t really make sense to me. It doesn’t seem to fit.
Anyway, goodluck with this! Even if your character isn’t from there!
You seem to want to avoid using “House” to evade a certain stigma, but keep in mind the stigma isn’t tied to the word “House”, it’s the entire concept that people have an issue with, after it’s been so poorly done so many times. If you call your guild a “tribe” but still act in every way like a House, it’s gonna look strange, and like you’re trying to hide what you are. And whatever issues people have with house guilds, they’ll still apply to your guild, no matter what you call it.
I say call your house guild a house, and try to beat the stigma by displaying quality and doing the concept justice.