New Cant for Old Tales

• A rich or powerful individual, not necessarily factional

  >>>Cull. Similar to the respect of a "Blood", but more along the lines of finances over experience/skill.

• An expression of contempt for something trivial or unimportant

  >>>Lindsay Lohan? Uh, no, wait... Paris Hilton.

If we're to follow the rhyming slang of Cockney, as the Cant often does (no, I will not translate the real meaning of 'berk', suffice to say it's a swear word), then possibly something like this:

1. A gilded sword, from "Golden Lord"
2. A fine piece o' sable, from "under the table"
3. A marble bit, from "useless s***"

I like the "pincher" too, although I think that would only apply to individuals who are wealthy but not powerful. I don't think anyone would have the guts to call Estavan a pincher.

Lighten their load, acquire, lift, and umm borrow permanently?

Cross-trade is a noun, or occasionally an adjective (as in "cross-trading berk"). I'm looking for a verb. Saying "Hey, someone cross-traded my jink!" sounds silly somehow.

How about 'muffin' then? Muffins and tarts = subtle arts?

Or, going from baker and muffin, you could use it as folk etymology for a magical item (possibly one of limited use).

"Eh? That berk? He's peddlin' a right load o' muffins, he is."

"Now - don't be going for any of those half-baked goods. I hear they're pipin' hot." (stolen magic items, and shoddy ones at that)

Well, I guess it would depend on the methods of killing.

Hmmm, if they call magic 'the Art' is killing someone with magic called 'painting them?'
Or 'drawing them?'

somehow, i think 'carving them' sounds better.

I always liked scribing the dead book. Or a scribe of the dead book to mean a profesional assasin or killer or serial killer.

I'd personally lean towards variations on 'scribed into the dead-book'.

...although, none seem to be coming to mind right now. I was thinking various literary terms somehow similar in nature to the type of killing.

A particularly bloody or accidental murder could be "spilled ink", while an assassination could be "ripping a page".

I really like the appellation of Crowfeeder for an assassin. Maybe something connected to that, like "crow's feed" for a victim of a hit.

White ink.

Rat-tails.

Brights. "He bought the bright of it."

Gears. "He found some gears that the Fated would kill him for."

Heh. No, it's just that your requirements are so concise that the words immediately jump into my head. Also, I like making stuff up off the top of my head. I'm less good at recalling Cant. My players love all the weird stuff I make up during our sessions, but they hate it when I can't remember what I said last session.

Are you using all this new cant in your campaign?

Heh. And here I just have enough trouble avoiding mixing up my Planescape cant and my Shadowrun slang.

*nods* I've been known to have the same problem. Both ways.

"Pike off, chummer" is a pretty fair compromise, I think.

That's not right.

1. Deal with dragons? Who ever has a choice in these matters other than the dragons? No it is best to deal with a dragon, unless you want to be eaten or incinerated.

2. Nope. Johnsons will often screw you, but not always. It isn't always profitable to screw runners; this is especially true because competent runners are hard to find.

3. That's what they think yes. There is always a bigger fish even if the little fish don't see it coming.

Yes.

Insults, eh? You want racial slurs or just general put-downs of someone's intelligence or appearance? Post 3 or 4 specific instances you want insults for and I'll bet you get some real hard-hitting ones that'll almost draw blood.

As a general note, when you want to insult someone vis a vis their sexual preferences, you could go with 'loths, but weak, ugly or diminutive creatures make better jibes, especially if the animal reference is actually a subtle reference to said 'loths. Take rats, for example. Rats might mean rats, or it might be a slanderous reference to a particular race. Now if you call someone a rat-f###er, you're getting double your money's worth!

With the beastiary of the entire outer planes to choose from, you can get REAL creative with this approach alone.

With racial slurs, it's good to get right to the heart of their most vile stereotypes and misconceptions. (forget tiefers, I feel sorry for the poor bariaurs!)

Now that's what I'm talking about.

Arcanoloths have canine heads, therefore the reference to dogs. But you've (delightfully) gone a step further by choosing the word puppy, which implies cuteness, goodness and powerlessness; all things any proper 'loth would revile. Then, the person you are insulting is a -licker which implies subservience. Two little words insult both the target and his presumed masters. Well done. You get a gold star.

Still there is a huge difference between puppies and arcanaloths. Puppies you see are able to be house trained.

Insult personalized:
Yeah. Loth's ain't like puppies cause puppies at least can be housetrained. Take Shemeska, that b**** leaves messes and piddles everywhere she goes. Bloody one's too. I think it means she's in heat and is upset because Akin woln't let her get any of his freindly fiend.

"Clueless" wrote:

Annnnnd - we will go no worse than that... B/c we are operating loosely under a 'Eric's grandmother' rule.

And an 'I know where you live and I have no morals' rule.

*looking cold but calm*

I often use 'By the friendly fiend!' as a sort of indication of frustration.