May to Z: W & X

W for wow! People must really like the 100 mark, or the letter V, because that one post generated almost twice as many hits as I've been getting. Thanks folks! That right there is what we bloggers call "incentive".

For W, I was originally going to post a name/character I just thought up because I liked the sound - Wymar the White. He was going to be a wandering, white wizard. But gosh, doesn't that sound a little familiar?

Then as I was cruising Behindthename.com I just happened across Wynmar, which is Welsh for "white" and "great". I think that's a fitting name for Saia Kalan'gwyn's father, the elven king. I'm trying to decide how he'd look. Maybe long white hair, like really long, perhaps to just above his knees. He could have decorative braids and bits of limbs and leaves woven into it. I think a leafy crown might be a nice touch.

Or do I make him balding with about shoulder length hair and a waist long decorative beard? I was pondering the idea that his "greatness" doesn't come from the length/amount of his white hair, but his knowledge. He doesn't have a large cranium physically, but over the extended years of his life he's become very wise.

Other W names I batted around are a foreign warlords, perhaps the very same that Padraig palavered with. They are all Germanic names: Walthrud meaning "foreign strength" and Waldric meaning "foreign power" are the sons of Waldhur meaning "ruler of the army". Waldhur never crosses the sea with Padraig, but sends his prince, knowing that he can trust in the loyalty of his sons to report true on their return. The story could go that one of them, perhaps Walthrud, decides to stay and learn more of the new land while his brother returns home with Padraig. Or Waldric could grow jealous of his older brother and he decides to tell King Waldhur that his son was killed by the outlanders and volunteers to lead an army across the sea to conquer these new, rich lands. Dunno...I'll have to think on that.

X, I always expected to be a bit tricky. But I actually found a name I quite like to fill that place.

Xiomara, the feminine Portuguese form of Guiomar or Germanic Wigmar, meaning "famous in war"

She was an incredibly fierce elf maiden would took up a blade in battle - something that had never before been done - instead of remaining relegated to healing the wounded. There are now whole troops of Amazonian elf women who fight just as hard, if not harder than the males, to prove their worth in defending their homes. They never seek conflict outside the boundaries of the forest, but are certain death to any enemy encountered within the woods. These deadly bands are known as Xylians, from Greek xylon meaning "of the forest".