Nomenclature: or how I learned to stop worrying and love being Overlord Mordax
You know you’ve been using a moniker for too long when it starts to feel like a name.
I don’t even blink when people call me Mordax anymore, even offline- I think of myself as Overlord Mordax more often than I do any other name. Saevitia, on the other hand still feels like a net name.
I guess it’s not surprising that I’ve gotten used to being Mordax. After all, I’ve had then name for ten years, and been using it actively online for over seven.
That’s right, it’s a name I came up with when I was 14ish. This should surprise no one. I was coming to terms with my identity as evil, and had declared my intention to become a super-villain. So naturally the first thing I needed was a name.
‘Mordax’ was the result of an hour or so with a Latin dictionary. I wanted something that sounded evil, and dark, but not too cartoony. Something in cool-points somewhere between Darth Vader and Doctor Robotnik, Points were awarded for actually meaning something sinister.
I don’t remember all the rejected possibilities, but I remember the way it felt when I came across the one I would use. Mordax just felt right on the tongue. The X of course, was a big plus, as was the ‘Mor/Mord’, which gave it just the right amount of audible association with death.
And it means ‘Biter’.
Well, even then I considered myself to have a sharp, biting wit. And of courses, I like to bite things (and people) so it really was perfect.
Mordax I would be.
You might be curious about the ‘Overlord’ in front of it (which, I might add, even though I drop between friends, I consider to be my proper title); that has a slightly less glorious origin.
You might surmise that I filched it from the ‘Evil Overlord List’, and this would be a good guess, but was not the case.
I was introduced to the title of Overlord by a man named Mark Latus who wrote epic Sailor Moon fanfiction in the 1990s. He had a character who declared himself overlord, whom I admired quite a bit.
Let me say this; if there had been a gender-neutral title for a royal despot I’d have picked that. But even back then I couldn’t stand the connotations of female epithets. Queen, Lady, Mistress (especially Mistress, eugh!) I could handle Duchess, but it didn’t go with the name. For some reason, Overlord struck me as a good compromise.
Plus, it just sounded fucking cool.
I love pseudonyms, and I can live with my birth-name, but I don’t think any other appellation will live up to Mordax in my mind. If I were the only person with this legal identity I might have it legally changed. But ah well.
Vivat Mordax!
I don’t even blink when people call me Mordax anymore, even offline- I think of myself as Overlord Mordax more often than I do any other name. Saevitia, on the other hand still feels like a net name.
I guess it’s not surprising that I’ve gotten used to being Mordax. After all, I’ve had then name for ten years, and been using it actively online for over seven.
That’s right, it’s a name I came up with when I was 14ish. This should surprise no one. I was coming to terms with my identity as evil, and had declared my intention to become a super-villain. So naturally the first thing I needed was a name.
‘Mordax’ was the result of an hour or so with a Latin dictionary. I wanted something that sounded evil, and dark, but not too cartoony. Something in cool-points somewhere between Darth Vader and Doctor Robotnik, Points were awarded for actually meaning something sinister.
I don’t remember all the rejected possibilities, but I remember the way it felt when I came across the one I would use. Mordax just felt right on the tongue. The X of course, was a big plus, as was the ‘Mor/Mord’, which gave it just the right amount of audible association with death.
And it means ‘Biter’.
Well, even then I considered myself to have a sharp, biting wit. And of courses, I like to bite things (and people) so it really was perfect.
Mordax I would be.
You might be curious about the ‘Overlord’ in front of it (which, I might add, even though I drop between friends, I consider to be my proper title); that has a slightly less glorious origin.
You might surmise that I filched it from the ‘Evil Overlord List’, and this would be a good guess, but was not the case.
I was introduced to the title of Overlord by a man named Mark Latus who wrote epic Sailor Moon fanfiction in the 1990s. He had a character who declared himself overlord, whom I admired quite a bit.
Let me say this; if there had been a gender-neutral title for a royal despot I’d have picked that. But even back then I couldn’t stand the connotations of female epithets. Queen, Lady, Mistress (especially Mistress, eugh!) I could handle Duchess, but it didn’t go with the name. For some reason, Overlord struck me as a good compromise.
Plus, it just sounded fucking cool.
I love pseudonyms, and I can live with my birth-name, but I don’t think any other appellation will live up to Mordax in my mind. If I were the only person with this legal identity I might have it legally changed. But ah well.
Vivat Mordax!