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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
2066 Posts |
 Posted - 07 Jan 2020 : 15:49:01
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Greetings,
Has anyone stumbled across a "fancy" word for ropers? (Kind of like "illithid" came along to be to racial name of mind flayers.)
I know of the roper, the storoper, the prismatic roper, and the urophion. (The last one might hint towards what that racial name might be.)
Anyone ever stumble across one in canon D&D products?
Thanks,
--Eric
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http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/ |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jan 2020 : 18:48:05
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Ropers are an older creation than I realized -- all the way back to The Strategic Review.
I wasn't able to find any alternate names for them... There was a good write-up of them for Pathfinder, in Dungeon Denizens Revisited, though. |
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Edited by - Wooly Rupert on 07 Jan 2020 19:11:00 |
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Seethyr
Master of Realmslore
USA
1151 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jan 2020 : 20:42:42
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Ecology of the Roper in Dragon 232 might have something. I’ll hunt down my copy if you don’t have one available.
Update: Not joking, I reached into my old boxes of dragon mags and this was the first one I grabbed - weird.
Anyway, nothing in there on naming conventions, but if you are looking to do something with ropers it’s a wonderful resource. |
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Edited by - Seethyr on 07 Jan 2020 21:10:04 |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7968 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2020 : 04:08:26
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Ropers started off as just another weird dangerous party-killing monster in the Gygaxian freak show, not unlike owlbears and jelly cubes and displacer beasts.
Variants are found in all climates and terrains, underground, underwater, across many worlds, even on the astral and other planes. And they're "compatible" with illithids. To me this suggests ropers are some sort of aberration or native/manifestation of the Far Realms.
"Roper" is a descriptive but very dull name. But no other taxonomy has been published, except to distinguish roper variants from each other.
"insidior vinculum" ("binding ambusher/trapper") and "bestia fenum interfectorem" ("killer rope beast") just don't seem very catchy to me but they might appeal to sagely academic sorts.
I like the term "tangler" even though it's admittedly not better than "roper". |
[/Ayrik] |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4685 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2020 : 05:21:42
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Hmm, found this
quote:
The Illithiad (1998)[7] introduced the illithid-roper crossbreed, the urophion
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roper_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)
The article does add quote:
The urophion appeared again in the book Lords of Madness (2005)
Maybe something could be derived from urophion to indicate a full blood roper instead of a half blood. |
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"Caring for afterwards ...? Ker repeated this without understanding.
"After action, afterwards," the dragon said. "Choose the afterwards first, then the action. Fools choose action first."
"Judgement" copyright 2003 by Elizabeth Moon |
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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore
Australia
6643 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2020 : 07:18:37
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Their gizzard that contains gems is called a "horlobb" in the Realms.
-- George Krashos |
"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
2066 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2020 : 11:47:41
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Lots of good hints. I think the most promising is to look at illithid -> ulatharid, think about urophion, and point to the horlobb as the key determinant.
How about "rophor" (pronounced ROE-four) which has become "roper" in the common vernacular? It's close enough to explain its lack of use, but you could see how both "urophion" and "horlobb" are related.
That also allows us to use "strophor" for storoper and "prophor" for prismatic roper.
--Eric |
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http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/ |
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Gary Dallison
Great Reader
United Kingdom
6351 Posts |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7968 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2020 : 13:16:48
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So where would this "official" name for the species come from?
Do they name themselves? Because everyone else calls them ropers. |
[/Ayrik] |
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Seethyr
Master of Realmslore
USA
1151 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2020 : 13:19:23
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quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
Lots of good hints. I think the most promising is to look at illithid -> ulatharid, think about urophion, and point to the horlobb as the key determinant.
How about "rophor" (pronounced ROE-four) which has become "roper" in the common vernacular? It's close enough to explain its lack of use, but you could see how both "urophion" and "horlobb" are related.
That also allows us to use "strophor" for storoper and "prophor" for prismatic roper.
--Eric
I think storoper came from “stone roper” so rophor might do better with storophor. This way, you could see how the common man who has heard about the creature bastardized the names of both from the original rophor. |
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
2066 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2020 : 15:13:18
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That sounds good.
--Eric
quote:
Originally posted by Seethyr
quote:
Originally posted by ericlboyd
Lots of good hints. I think the most promising is to look at illithid -> ulatharid, think about urophion, and point to the horlobb as the key determinant.
How about "rophor" (pronounced ROE-four) which has become "roper" in the common vernacular? It's close enough to explain its lack of use, but you could see how both "urophion" and "horlobb" are related.
That also allows us to use "strophor" for storoper and "prophor" for prismatic roper.
--Eric
I think storoper came from “stone roper” so rophor might do better with storophor. This way, you could see how the common man who has heard about the creature bastardized the names of both from the original rophor.
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http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/ |
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ericlboyd
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
2066 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2020 : 15:44:47
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quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik
So where would this "official" name for the species come from?
Do they name themselves? Because everyone else calls them ropers.
They speak Undercommon and Terran, so presumably they could name themselves.
However, I think in general there's a "real name" instead of the "common name. For example, Ed named displacer beasts "dirlagraun" in "The Sword Never Sleeps." |
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http://www.ericlboyd.com/dnd/ |
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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore
Australia
6643 Posts |
Posted - 08 Jan 2020 : 22:44:35
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They do indeed talk. One can utter a command word to activate a wand of wonder in the "Ruins of Undermountain" boxed set.
-- George Krashos
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"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7968 Posts |
Posted - 09 Jan 2020 : 03:11:13
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Do ropers have any deity, religion, or even a patron fiend? A world or place of origin? If so, they might take their name from it.
I'd think that if ropers only speak Common and Undercommon then they'd use the same Common/Undercommon names for their species that everyone else uses. But they'd likely prefer names from their own (or their "deity's") native language, if they have one.
Do words like "orc", "ogre", "goblin", "kobold" have any clear etymology? Are they meaningful words in the old languages spoken by Gruumsh, creator races, dragons, etc? It seems like names are just names, arbitrary designations, and "roper" is as good a name as any other. |
[/Ayrik] |
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TBeholder
Great Reader
2382 Posts |
Posted - 20 Feb 2020 : 19:11:02
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Wouldn't it be just an Elven or Dwarven word?
quote:
Originally posted by Kentinal
Hmm, found this
quote:
The Illithiad (1998)[7] introduced the illithid-roper crossbreed, the urophion
Maybe something could be derived from urophion to indicate a full blood roper instead of a half blood.
With illithids, it's not a crossbreed. It's a ceremorph - a creature taken over and converted by an illithid tadpole.
Other than that, even if it's derived (which is not certain, it may be something unrelated, like "mindlinked sentry"... or "terse mind-speaker"  ) and can be reverse-derived, this would be... just an Illitid word for ropers.
There's no particular reason to even assume they meet ropers first. |
People never wonder How the world goes round -Helloween
And even I make no pretense Of having more than common sense -R.W.Wood
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Edited by - TBeholder on 20 Feb 2020 19:18:23 |
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AuldDragon
Senior Scribe
USA
549 Posts |
Posted - 20 Feb 2020 : 23:37:53
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quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik
Do ropers have any deity, religion, or even a patron fiend? A world or place of origin? If so, they might take their name from it.
Given their nature, I would expect Ghaunadar (and Juiblex outside the Realms).
Lolth also has the Yochlol, which are tanar'ri that have an elven and a roper form; could have come from magical experimentation or an old deal between her and Ghaunadar or Juiblex.
Jeff |
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lookatroopa
Acolyte
Netherlands
38 Posts |
Posted - 21 Feb 2020 : 04:32:55
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quote:
Originally posted by TBeholder
Wouldn't it be just an Elven or Dwarven word?
Considering their habitat, I'd lean Dwarvish. Using terms from Dwarves Deep one could go literal and call them "yauthlinnorogh" (literally "rope monster"). The drow probably have a name of their own, considering their "healthy respect" for ropers noted in the Ecology, but I can't find a particularly workable set of Drowic terms. |
Edited by - lookatroopa on 21 Feb 2020 04:51:43 |
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Roper Genus
