What's The D Deal?

The other day I got the 4th Edition D&D Core Rulebook Collection, and like most people do with books, I read through them. The first book: Monster Manual. As I read through it, I noticed quite a few of the monsters in there and the Felaryan predators shared names, and some were kinda similar, save the eating people and wide ranges of sizes. But the important thing for now is the names. Everything other than Dridder had the same spelling, and was curious:
Why the extra "d" in Drider, if everything else has the same spelling?

Well, I guess that's just either for originality, or just as a slight variation as D&D Drider's are essentially Drows who showed the most loyalty to Lolth, so they are promoted to Drider. In the same vein, there's always the dilemma between which is the correct term for snake women between Lamias and Nagas. From what I checked on wikipedia, the former comes from a poem about a Greek Queen who became a Daemon, and the other are either Buddhist or Hindu deities.

Sean Okotami wrote:

Well, I guess that's just either for originality, or just as a slight variation as D&D Drider's are essentially Drows who showed the most loyalty to Lolth, so they are promoted to Drider. In the same vein, there's always the dilemma between which is the correct term for snake women between Lamias and Nagas. From what I checked on wikipedia, the former comes from a poem about a Greek Queen who became a Daemon, and the other are either Buddhist or Hindu deities.

Indeed, with the actual difference when it comes to Felarya; I believe that while there are both male and female nagas, all lamias are female.
Furthermore they have the ability to change to a human form.
(I'm going by something I read concerning Flare and the difference between Nagas and Lamias)

Anime-Junkie wrote:

Sean Okotami wrote:

Well, I guess that's just either for originality, or just as a slight variation as D&D Drider's are essentially Drows who showed the most loyalty to Lolth, so they are promoted to Drider. In the same vein, there's always the dilemma between which is the correct term for snake women between Lamias and Nagas. From what I checked on wikipedia, the former comes from a poem about a Greek Queen who became a Daemon, and the other are either Buddhist or Hindu deities.

Indeed, with the actual difference when it comes to Felarya; I believe that while there are both male and female nagas, all lamias are female.
Furthermore they have the ability to change to a human form.
(I'm going by something I read concerning Flare and the difference between Nagas and Lamias)

I talked to her about it, she based that one on Final Fantasy, so I don't think it's a really good comparison. I mean in fantasy in general, not excluding Felarya.

Sean Okotami wrote:

Anime-Junkie wrote:

Sean Okotami wrote:

Well, I guess that's just either for originality, or just as a slight variation as D&D Drider's are essentially Drows who showed the most loyalty to Lolth, so they are promoted to Drider. In the same vein, there's always the dilemma between which is the correct term for snake women between Lamias and Nagas. From what I checked on wikipedia, the former comes from a poem about a Greek Queen who became a Daemon, and the other are either Buddhist or Hindu deities.

Indeed, with the actual difference when it comes to Felarya; I believe that while there are both male and female nagas, all lamias are female.
Furthermore they have the ability to change to a human form.
(I'm going by something I read concerning Flare and the difference between Nagas and Lamias)

I talked to her about it, she based that one on Final Fantasy, so I don't think it's a really good comparison. I mean in fantasy in general, not excluding Felarya.

Also, it should be noted that Flare was from another world altogether, and Lamias were just one species there. There aren't really any "Lamias" on Felarya, that I know of.

As for the Dridders...yeah, it was either to differentiate them, or because he didn't spell it right the first time and just ran with it. lol. I like them having different names personally. Dridders already have the problem of being typecast as villains, so the less association they have with a cult of dark-elves, the better =P

One thing I wonder though...

Would it still be pronounced 'Dry-Dur' like the original form is, or since that extra D is added, would it be "Drid-Dur"?

It'd be "Drid-der" because with "Drider", the "e" makes the "i" say it's name. Just like we learned in elementary school. (that wasn't an insult, that was a reference)

the addionnal D ... iit's not something really conscious actually. It's just that I saw on many instances the name spelled either ways ^^; I picked the addiionnal d because I thought it looked better.
Althought if it was to do again, I would probably invent an original name altogether.

By the way, dridders haven't made their apparition in the manga yet, but do you think it can be a problem if they do , for that very reason of the d&d franchised drider original ?

Karbo wrote:

the addionnal D ... iit's not something really conscious actually. It's just that I saw on many instances the name spelled either ways ^^; I picked the addiionnal d because I thought it looked better.
Althought if it was to do again, I would probably invent an original name altogether.

By the way, dridders haven't made their apparition in the manga yet, but do you think it can be a problem if they do , for that very reason of the d&d franchised drider original ?

I should hope not.
I would like to think that Felarya dridders are characterised enough not to be overshadowed by their d&d origins... but I'm not sure. It may be that having them in the manga will help move even further away from D&D.

Interesting question. It hasn't come up yet, but something to think about I suppose for when (if) you include them in the manga. Searching for 'dridder' in Google pings a lot of Felaryan hits almost singly, whereas searching for 'drider' will lead you right to Wiki on the first hit that describes the term as being solely fitting with D&D and Drowtales. It doesn't seem to have a mythological context that I can find searching quickly.



The answer from my point of view is that I'm not really sure. Dridder is really close to drider, and while they do maintain some similarities in appearance the etymology of dridders in Felarya is nowhere near the same as that of driders in D&D or Drowtales. In Bionicle you have the Visoraks, which are also similar in appearance but completely different in etymology. In mythology, you don't really encounter a specific name for half human/half spider breeds, other than Arachne or the like. The point of contention would be the ownership rights of the word 'drider', and whether or not it is too similar to dridder to be used in a separate publicized universe.

Karbo wrote:

the addionnal D ... iit's not something really conscious actually. It's just that I saw on many instances the name spelled either ways ^^; I picked the addiionnal d because I thought it looked better.
Althought if it was to do again, I would probably invent an original name altogether.

By the way, dridders haven't made their apparition in the manga yet, but do you think it can be a problem if they do , for that very reason of the d&d franchised drider original ?

I doubt it would be a problem. Both races are pretty different in origin and overall personality. It's not like D&D holds the rights to spider-people =P

Also, if you want to get technical, D&D has nagas, lamias, harpies and mermaids too. They're just common fantasy creatures.

rcs619 wrote:

Karbo wrote:

the addionnal D ... iit's not something really conscious actually. It's just that I saw on many instances the name spelled either ways ^^; I picked the addiionnal d because I thought it looked better.
Althought if it was to do again, I would probably invent an original name altogether.

By the way, dridders haven't made their apparition in the manga yet, but do you think it can be a problem if they do , for that very reason of the d&d franchised drider original ?

I doubt it would be a problem. Both races are pretty different in origin and overall personality. It's not like D&D holds the rights to spider-people =P

Also, if you want to get technical, D&D has nagas, lamias, harpies and mermaids too. They're just common fantasy creatures.

D&D nagas are giant snakes with a humanoid-shaped head, while lamias, much to my dismay, have the lower body of a wild cat or something, which I have no idea why.

Well, at least I was not the only one who was bugged(pun intended) by this "misspelling". I just felt it was wrong. But then I thought that since Karbo is French, "dridder" must be a French spelling. Sure enough, I checked the French Wikipedia article on driders:

Quote :

Dans la série de jeux de rôle Donjons et Dragons, les driders, parfois orthographiés dridders, sont des créatures semblables à des centaures, avec le corps d'un elfe noir ou drow pour la partie supérieure et celui d'une araignée géante pour la partie inférieure. Le mot vient probablement de la contraction de drow et de spider (araignée).

The article in question: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drider

Oh, I never realized it was an anagram.

Sean Okotami wrote:

Oh, I never realized it was an anagram.

I think you mean portmanteau: drow (aka dark elf) + spider = drider.

Whatever

Well yes I think the dridders of Felarya are sufficently different to not have problems ^^
it's the name itself that could be an issue. If I'm not mistaken, Driders have been created solely by D&D. Nagas, elves and all the rest clearly don't pose any problem because they are in the general fantasy mithology. Driders, on the other hand, I'm not so sure. I shoudl really look into that ^^;

Karbo wrote:

Well yes I think the dridders of Felarya are sufficently different to not have problems ^^
it's the name itself that could be an issue. If I'm not mistaken, Driders have been created solely by D&D. Nagas, elves and all the rest clearly don't pose any problem because they are in the general fantasy mithology. Driders, on the other hand, I'm not so sure. I shoudl really look into that ^^;

they have been made for D&D, but since Felaryas Dridders only actual resemblance as a race is the name and their form, you should consider the option of sending D&D an email about it.

well both words are not trademarked at least

so it would seem ok to me. But asking D&D could be a good idea indeed though.

It's not trademarked?

nope

Guess we're in the clear then.