This is the last place I expected to see a discussion of Latin declensions. Impressive! I studied Wheelock for four years but I think you remember yours a little better. Or maybe, and I'm hoping, you had to pull your copy off the shelf to deliver that aside :)

Reply

Actually the Ab dracone is somewhat redundant. yu can just say Dracone using the ablative of separation!


BRK Delindo Est!!!!!!!

Reply

make that delindus sorry too much italian!

Reply

Carpe ab Dracone and Carpe ex Dracone, while both can be translated to "taken from the dragon" into English, there are subtle nuances in meaning which especially become clear if they are placed into context (at least in historical Latin documents).

As #2 stated above, the ablative of separation is best used in this instance as it probably comes closer to your intended meaning. Carpe Dracone.

Sincerely,
A person who has an undergrad degree in Classics and is a PhD Candidate for Classical Archaeology :)

Reply

/ogre

NEEEERRRRRRRRRDDDDDSSSSSSS!!!!!! NERDS! NERDS! NERDS! NERDS! NERDS! NERDS!

/ogre

Reply

Since we're picking nits...

'Seize', not 'sieze'.

Reply

This got a big ol' grin out of me. Thanks for the post!

My first Latin midterm was memorable. The teacher was asked if it was okay if the test was done in pen. He looked up, blinked, said, "Pencil, pen, snot. Sure, just don't change colors halfway through." He paused, blinking furiously. "If you're prone to nosebleeds I guess snot is out."

Reply

I want a guild name "Catullus XVI."

Reply

Know nothing about latin (took French, German, and Attic Greek in college) so I'll have to take your word for it. I am a stickler for grammar (especially in public context, such as guild names) so I feel your pain.

Reply

Who do I send this voucher to, so that I can get those 5 minutes back?

Reply

Carpe Draconis is an Aggramar *Alliance* guild, btw.

Reply

I'm a good friend of a number of people in Carpe Draconis on Aggramar, including two of their tanks (Chivalry & Waz), and while I can appreciate the effort they are putting into this, I think it's tacky.

A lot of guilds use vent and have to pay hosting fees, but trying to tie in a boss kill to a funds drive? Doesn't make much sense to me. Why should random strangers pay a guild to take down a boss four or five other guilds on the server already have? This only pays off for Carpe Draconis.

Maybe if they were going for a world first, or trying to do something that goes above and beyond the normal call of duty for a raiding guild, I could totally get into this. But paying a guild to take down a boss that most servers have on farm? I dunno.

Let me be clear - I like Carpe Draconis and it's members a lot, and I want them to get Hydross down, but I think this idea is skirting the edge of tastefulness - and people from my server will agree that if *I* think something isn't tasteful, it's definitely questionable.

-Mayo of (Aggramar-A)

Reply

I'd be way more likely to pay them to kill members of the opposing faction than a raid boss. Just think if they had a nice easy paypal link for transferring funds and an easy "job posting" area where, in a fit of rage from being camped, you can enter the names of those you wish camped and how many kills you are paying for (or camp time).

If they could get that going fast enough to take advantage of impule buys i'm sure the little $1-$5 bounties would add up to some real life $$.

I can probably name 3 night elf rogues who have earned a $5 bounty. The screenshots make it all worth it. Set up a kill squad and go earn $15.

Reply

Whoa, I was right! I should've majored in somethign useful like Latin instead of music! Oh wait lol

I will forever cherish the silver medal I got when I was 15 for the national latin exam. Geekus sum.

Reply

This is pathetic that you would bash our guild in this manner. This was set up as a "project" and in no way should reflect our guild as a whole. I am absolutely appalled at this post.

Reply

Being one of the two aformentioned people, I would like to shed a little light on this, if it's okay.

First off, the person organizing it isn't a guild leader, or an officer, or, technically, a member of our guild anymore. In fact, the person who started the site in question (an ex-member named Ardria/Hantrenar in-game) quit the guild so they could start the site. Ardria was a great member while he was around, but left before the inception of BC, and has not been seen in months.

In fact, the site has a couple other incentives on our members, or ex-members. One has to do with a member quitting smoking, one with giving a member the best hamburger recipe. I can assure you this won't be around for all bosses, it was just something we were approached with a couple weeks back, which Ardria wanted to do for us, and we couldn't really see the inherent problem, I guess, with cash for mobs.

I'm sure, if people have a real problem with this, being only a community site, we could get it taken down, but I don't really understand what the big deal is. It's not like we publicized this site, it's really only a friends-and-family thing, thus far.

It seems to me that the major issue wasn't so much the mobincentive deal, it was the fact that our name wasn't gramattically correct in latin, (which is quite the nitpick to make, considering the number of guilds out there with "Knigts of teh Lite" or "Slayerdz of Baddiez" or whatever.)

But if it's really a big deal, on the scale of things, then Mea Culpa, (or however you would say it to represent a guild's worth of people.) We hope that the image macro has given you sufficient reason to laugh at both our lack of progression and incorrect latin name. If not, please also consider that we probably also have some members with misspelled names, (my alt is named Kharity, for example) and I'm sure occasionally, one or two of us have said "OMGLOLWTF" and other abused internet terms. Please, make fun of us for those, and not the tongue-in-cheek guild name meant to lampoon the seriousness of most latin raiding guilds' names.

Thanks for your interest in carpe draconis. Keep on bringing us informative stories like this one, and we'll keep seizing the dragon's (something).

Reply

Eliah:

Yes, reading both your article, and my reply, I realize I may have come off a little harsh. I just rankled immediately at seeing my guild up there in the passage:

"some less scrupulous individuals, of course, pay for gold, powerleveling, and the like. But it doesn't stop there. A member of the guild Carpe Draconis (Aggramar-A) has started a cash bounty on Hydross the Unstable, the first boss in Serpentshrine Cavern."

which seems to imply that the bounty itself is unscrupulous. I take pride in my scruples, so my immediate reaction was to bite back.

In any case I won't delete my post, or anything of the like, it should be a matter of record what was said, but I do withdraw any malicious intent my words did contain.

To delve even further into the mystery, my (admittedly small) experience with latin in university taught me (likely incorrectly, after having done some online research) that the root "draco" was a reference to a politician, Athens' first Lawgiver, Draco, from which the english word "draconian" sprung. So if it's not indeed latin, and is a reference to Draco, what would be the grammatical implications of such a change?

Reply