Rounin Ryuuji wrote: ↑Sun Jan 24, 2021 9:34 pm
So do you have higher ranks that are yokara, yokaga, yokalao, mahayokalao, yokadain, mahayokadain?
No, but I like the idea enough to consider it. Where are you pulling those morphemes from, out of curiosity?
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It's a video game joke — Final Fantasy (also Kingdom Hearts) spells rank
Whatever,
Whateverara,
Whateveraga, also
Whateveraja; with modifications based on the sounds of words (
Thunder, Thundara, Thundaga,
Aero, Aera/Aerora, Aega/Aeroga,
Water, Watera, Watega, and so on). Kingdom Hearts sometimes uses
-(a)gun or
-(a)za rather than -
(a)ja at fourth-tier (which isn't common to have in either games, most use three except for healing, which sometimes do
Cure, Cura, Curaga, Curaja, and others
Cure, Cura, Curada, Curaga, which is how they normally go in Japanese (localisation complicates many things). The Japanese version of
Chrono Trigger also does Whatever, Whateverga, but the third tier is some other word, and this was localised out in English.
The others are from Shin Megami Tensei and Persona (high-level spells are usually suffixed with
-dyne — Kana spellings indicate a reading /dain/ — and area-of-effect spells prefixed with
ma-,
mar-, or
maha). The
-lao is from
agilao (second-level fire spell), but in this second series, the suffixes are more random and fluid for second-level spells, cf.:
Zio, Mazio; Zionga, Mazionga; Ziodyne, Maziodyne (Lightning); but
Agi, Maragi; Agilao, Maragion; Agidyne, Maragydine (Fire);
Bufu, Mabufu; Bufula, Mabufula; Bufudyne, Mabufudyne (Ice);
Kouha, Makouha; Kouga, Makouga; Kougaon, Makougaon (Light); the last one appears analogical with the ultimate spells
Megido, Megidola, Megidolaon (all area-of-effect anyway).
I'm not sure why they do this, but I've often wondered, and found such systems interesting. The original
Final Fantasy is described as an "unlicensed Dungeons and Dragons product" (see the art for the original game, and then look at more recent releases for a very, very odd evolution), so I'm surprised it didn't start with similar names (unlike the much-more-anime-from-the-beginning
Tales series, which has your standard "Fireball, Lightning, Air Thrust, Ice Tornado, Earth Glaive" and some weird ones like "Extension, Spread Blue, Brilliant Lance, God Press, Indignation (the last one being the "iconic" one)" that are Wasei-eigo of varying quality.
This wouldn't fit phonologically, but Fire Emblem also does the affix-gradation, with
Fire, Elfire, Arcfire (in Japanese, the third-tier seems to be
Gigafire instead, changed in localisations as it doesn't fit the Pseudomediaeval/Pseudoantiquity setting), or the ultimate spells in one title (usually either Norse words like
Ragnarok,
Fimbulvetr,
Brynhildr,
Gleipnir, or
Naglfar; or more Waasei-Eigo like
Forblaze, or very random things like
Cymbeline) being
Rexaura, Rexbolt, Rexflame, Rexcalibur. It often also suffixes wild spells with -calibur —
Aircalibur, Grafcalibur, Excalibur, Gigascalibur and the above
Rexcalibur all being wind-aligned. It probably just sounds cool and foreign or something.
