Making and Using True Names in Your Campaign

Last summer, I started and finished A Wizard of Earthsea in a single night. It was very good.

It recalls my favorite fantasy novels from childhood and young adulthood, such as the Skullduggery Pleasant books, which I now recognize were inspired in large part by LeGuin. I was especially taken with how she depicted True Names. So, of course, I took it upon myself to work true names into my game. This isn't quite going to be Earthsea rules, as creating a really faithful depiction would require lots of special rules and wouldn't translate well outside the setting, but here's a quick gloss.

Everything has a True Name, and knowing it gives you power over that thing. Learning the names of common and notable things, such as a certain species of flower, or a particular bay, are part and parcel of a spellcaster's studies. But the true names of specific individuals, whether humans, spirits or others, are obscure and hidden, even to themselves. 

Learning your own true name is difficult and dangerous, but very rewarding. If another person learns it, either from you or on their own, they hold great power over you, to help and to heal. Be careful who you give it out to.

I wanted to work true names into my own games, but wasn't quite sure how until I read an old post by Rick Stump, Names, True Names and Magic. In Stump's old campaigns, characters had both a True Name, bestowed at birth and known only by those very close to them, and a Day Name or Friend Name used by everyone else. Further, the Day Name might be changed at certain points in one's life, such as becoming master of a craft. 

This not only opens the door to all sorts of weird names, but it expands our options.

Broadly, Stump and LeGuin offer two views of True Names:

The Arcane Name

True Names are unknown to their bearer unless bestowed by a powerful magical authority or discovered through great effort. They are entrusted only with extreme caution, and can be used to help or harm the bearer through invoking them alone.

Learning the Arcane Name

Making a journey to the land of the dead and speaking to the ghost of a sage there. Make sure to pick out a thoughtful gift, and take care to not lose it along the way.

Asking for one's true name as a divine boon. If the party has just completed a quest of note for a god, a character would be within their bounds to refuse other reward in exchange for knowledge of their true name. Any real god would be able to provide such knowledge.

A Magic-User or Cleric of 12th level or greater may have access to the True Naming spell, which has the following properties.

True Naming

Spell Level: Cleric, Magic-User, 6th level

Range: See below

Duration: Permanent

By casting this spell through an hour-long ceremony, the caster may learn the true name of the target. If this is done with the consent and presence of the target, it works automatically, and both the caster and target learn the name. Otherwise, it may be performed remotely with a piece of the target, such as a lock of hair, and the target both receives a Save and is immediately aware of a magical attack upon them. It further requires 100gp in sacrificial components particular to the caster, such as a dozen prize goats, rare spices from distant lands, dust of precious gems, etc. This works on undead and magical creatures, but not on the peaceful dead.

Some might protest that an Arcane Name should not be bought like this. I would reply, how many 12th level clerics and magic users are floating around your campaign world? Hopefully not too many. If the players get it in their heads to go on pilgrimage to a powerful wizard or holy ma in order to learn their true names, they will have to deal with that figure's eccentricities, raise the money for the sacrifical materials, and may be sent on some quests to be proven worthy of the boon. That's a kickass quest hook.

Likewise if the party can't find any casters of that level, but a party member takes it upon themselves to become the most powerful caster they can in order to bestow this boon upon themselves and their enemies, that's a great long-term goal for a character to have. 

Uses Your Own Arcane Name

Learning one's Arcane Name should have some noticeable effect, and be desireable. Here's a few options for what an Arcane Name could do.

1. You become utterly assured in your personal identity, becoming immune to mind-affecting spells.

2. You can call your own name back from death. If you would die, instead survive with 0 hit points once a day.

3. You can call upon your name once a day to automatically succeed on a Save, make an attack, or otherwise succeed on a roll after you have failed. 

Uses of Another's Arcane Name

Learning another's true name gives you power over them, to heal or to harm. Again, take the below options as suggestions, although you could use more than one.

Calling someone with their true name ensures they hear you, regardless of the distance, volume or other factors, as long as you remain on the same plane of existence.

Reviving a person's whose true name you know with Reincarnation allows the caster to choose the form they return in. Using Raise Dead with a true name allows the target to return automatically, although a recovery period will still be necessary.

Using another's true name to harm them allows one to bypass defenses granted by the name. If that person does not know their own true name allows one to do one of the following once a day: cast a spell on them without a save, automatically strike with an attack, force them to make a Morale roll. 

The Birth Name

True Names are known to their bearer and to others close by at birth, such as parents, siblings, godparents, village priest, etc. They are not widely used, but they are neither so dangerous. Knowledge of a creature's True Name in a spell can be used to bypass magical defenses.

True Names are more commonly known and less potent, but are still guarded. 

From Rick Stump's Mage Guild: if you know the true name of your target they make all saves vs. your spells at -4 and any magic resistance is cut in half. 

Stealing a True Name

True Names are closely kept in any case, and stealing them is not easy. Magical compulsion to steal a Name from them has the following penalties, again from Stump: asking a Charmed target their true name gives them an immediate save at +4; if using ESP the target gets a saving throw to keep their own true name unavailable to the caster.

This applies both to one's own Name and those of others. Best not to publicize what you do and don't know.

Creating True Names

My initial draft of this post suggested a roundabout method using random word generators to create strange True Names like 'Jexago Phwlcyf'.

That's very silly. If you have an idea of what True Names should sound like in your setting — whether they should be ordinary names, fantasy-sounding, in a particular language, etc, feel free to make them up yourself. If you take a freer hand, your players will likely enjoy coming up with their own. 

They might end up being really weird. It's okay, not everyone can be named Ged.

You may wish to assign True Names to characters as they are rolled up, in secret from players, or to come up with them as they are discovered. Either works. 

More on Day Names

Stump really got me thinking with the distinction between True and Day names. Between the options above, I gravitate towards the Arcane Name more, but I can see using that alongside a distinction between Birth and Day Names as well. There's the name you were born with and which is used only by those close to you, the name you use in public (which may include honorifics and titles) and which will likely change throughout your life from a childhood nickname to an apprenticehood title to a self-bestowed name when you become a master of what you do.

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