Maids & Masters Lore Post - Names

Not very many of you voted in the poll from last week, but those of you who did mainly voted for lore posts, so we'll start with something that's pretty central to the society of Maids & Masters but that I'll likely never put into the story - names.

Some of these lore posts might end up in books in your library after completing Quinn's affection quest(s), but those can be easy to miss if you don't go looking and names in particular might be a fairly boring read despite the importance to the setting.

Also, spoiler warning for the second Haunt. If you haven't recruited Katrina yet, there'll be some information in here as it pertains to other characters that you might want to wait to discover until you're to that point in the game. The information in question is in the book that contains the code to unlock the room she's in.

The names of Masters, like their Estates, are generational. This is pretty obvious in terms of Estates - the Ambrose Estate, the Amaira Estate, etc. - but is a little less so when it comes to names. The first three names of Masters "rotate" with each generation, which creates a means of tracing history from the current Master of an Estate back through their family.

While there are some situations where a family name might change, such as if a new Estate is established independent of the original family name, these events are rare. Even in the case of a marriage or other type of merging of two families, the ancestral name of the Estate of the resulting family would continue to be used based on the Estate's location.

Due to the inconsistent lifespan of Masters - people who are technically ageless thanks to their Theurgy, but can still be slain, and who tend to fall victim to the Curse of Inheritance - the rotation of their names also helps them remember their own lineage. For boys, they receive the names of the men of their family, and girls receive the names of the women. While having multiple children can make this more complicated, in those cases, typically only the first name is changed, leaving the second and third names as a point of reference. Where it truly becomes hazy is when a Master's parentage is unknown or - for various reasons - concealed.

An example of this in-game is found in the Amaira family. Specifically - Beverly Collier Garrison Amaira. In normal naming structure, "Garrison," the name he wants so badly to be referred to by, should actually be his father's name - Marius. Another example of this is Archibald Bartholomew Cornelius Ambrose; his third name is that of his father. The second name would be the grandfather, and the first name is the great-grandfather. However, Beverly doesn't know who his father is, and Griselda is under Contract not to reveal his father's identity; with Baleflight dead, it's unlikely Beverly will ever learn his true lineage.

As a short aside - this is why Beverly is so obsessed with his third name. I originally wanted to include scenes where this would be explained, but there was already a lot happening in the Amaira Estate segment of the game, and I felt the information would get lost and only serve to confuse the story, so it was changed to be more of a gag where Beverly just feels insecure about his name sounding feminine rather than feeling insecure over potentially never knowing his full and true legacy, just like he never knew his father. The character beats are roughly the same, even if the tone behind them is different, and the version in the game doesn't require any exposition.

This is part of why it's considered a social faux pas among Masters to go by anything except the name you were born into. To ignore or deny it is to ignore the legacy you should be proud to continue. To change your name is to indicate shame or the desire to hide something about your family's past. While a parent could choose their child's second name in the event that their own parents' names are unknown to them, this still shows a crack in the family line; a literal break in what should be a long and storied lineage.

As this relates to Master himself, this is why people balk or express disbelief when he introduces himself. If he's only giving his title, who is he really, and what is he trying to hide? What Estate does he hail from? Does he mean to place himself above whoever is in front of them, as though they are either unworthy of his name, or somehow less worthy of the title of Master? There's certainly no one in any history books or lineage records that state an heir's name simply as "Master." Maybe he's just being rude?

Or is it because he truly has no name? Is it possible that a Master could leave a child with the Folk, and generations later - once the Master has been entirely forgotten by the Folk, short as their lives are - that child could return to lay claim to an Estate, their heritage somehow more true than the one born and raised as a Master? If so, the legacy of every Master that's ever split from or merged into their name, or left the Folk or a Servant with their child, or married into another family's name, or any number of other things - which literally every name has done at some point in history - would be at risk.

Especially if this theoretical "low born" Master could somehow best even the oldest and most powerful names on Commorance.