✍︎  On the naming of steeds

28 Jul, 2025

“Rocinante: nombre, a su parecer, alto, sonoro y significativo de lo que había sido cuando fue rocín, antes de lo que ahora era, que era antes y primero de todos los rocines del mundo.” -Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

There are, i believe, two kind of names for steeds, horses, donkeys, and mounts more in general: names that when heard help me picture a horse, and names that don't.

When i hear names such as:

• Incitatus , which came to be remembered as the name of the steed of the Roman emperor Caligula; the name means 'swift' or 'at the gallop'.
• Rocinante the name of the beloved horse of Don Quixote.
• Tornado who always makes sure Zorro doesn't fall into the hands of the Alcalde.
• Bucefalus , ox head, who has carried Alexander the Great through countless travels and battles.
• Ruffian, a race horse which i didn't know about and found out while writing this
• Seabiscuit, same as above

I can more or less start picturing an image - or and idea - about that steed, and i love being able to ask myself whether Rocinante would take it slower than - say - Tornado. Or whether i could befriend Seabiscuit. I love being able to play with that name during the story and use it as a variable in the events that happen during my games.

With proper names the exercise might be more arduous, but i feel that's a very subjective take; i find it super hard, the only exception being that i can perfectly picture a horse named Philip.

In games where i spend considerable amounts of times with a mount of any kind, I do like to bring that piece of my character to impact the story and more often than not i'd name it. I have made a little table of sparks for generating names of horses and donkeys because every now and then i need one on the fly.

#devlog #mythicbastionland #steed