Names of the Gods

Where do you think each of the names came from?

Wait, what? What does the title have to do with this? o.O And it's from the mists ^_^

each of them refers to their names, not the gods themselves, unending.

As for the question, I remember searching wiki for them, I remember Balthazar has results, idr which others had results. May try it again later, but cba to right now

Balthazar is one of the three original wisemen in the Christmas story. (Balthasar)

Lyssa, I assume, comes from the word 'illusion' or some variation thereof.

I think Dwayna comes from St. Dwynwen from the Catholic Church.

I have no idea about the others.

I know Balthazar is used in some Shakespeare plays.

Grenth = Grim in a way. Both rule death.

Melandru = Me-Land-Ru, has to do with earth so it's my best bet.

Balthazar is a character in the Merchant of Venice ...
That's all I got

Balthazar and Menzies are common names - and far more than the three wise men for Balthazar. Abaddon comes from Jewish myth. Dhuum, doom. Any others, dunno.

Balthazar is named after Baal of the ancient near east, (in certain ancient languages, Baal actually means "god"). The word Balthasar actually can be translated as "protected by god", and is WHY one of the three wise-men was given this name in the first place. There was also a king of ancient babalon named Belshazzar, from which the name Balthazar is derived.

Melandru, and variants of it has been used for druidic imagery in a variety of places, including several modern fantasy novels, and as such is a good name for the god of nature. Additionally, Melandrium is a genus of plant species, which probably is part of the motivation for so many variants of Melandru type names involving nature deities.

Grenth was probably partially motivated by the word Grinch, which would also explain the foes of the snowmen during wintersday. It's also, as someone else pointed out, related to the word grim, which has a host of death related imagery associated with it.

Lyssa is probabloy taken from the greek god of craziness (of the same name). Seems semi fitting for a god whose patron profession is the ultimate trickster, a mesmer.

Dwyna is most likely motivated by the Roman goddess, Diana, who was based off the greek goddess Artemis. Artemis portrayed many things, such as goddess of the hunt, goddess of chastity and goddess of fertility. Diana is also linked to Vesta, who was the roman goddess of health, home and family. The roman word for "fairy" was motivated by the name Diana as well, which could partially explain Dwyna's avatar.

Abaddon seems to be of hebrew/christian origin, and may or may not refer to an anti-christ like figure. He may also be just a fallen angel. The name, or varients of it, has come to mean "the destroyer" or "place of destruction."

Dhuum is almost certainly a reference to the under-world city of Khazad-dûm, also known as Moria, in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

In Greek Mythology, Lyssa is the Goddess of rabies and mad rage, but the name could also have originated in Krull, a movie where there were two Lyssas...one a princess and one a witch.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lyssa

Abbadon is the English form of the word Avadon, which in Hebrew means Doom

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Abaddon
Note: is this real? lmao...If your party uses the /dance emote before engaging Abaddon he will perform some warrior dance moves before slaying your entire party with the message "You got served!".

Not likely. However, there is a reference related to Dhuum that is in the Underworld in the shape of Kazhad Dhuum. Usually, one thing is not referenced twice in GW.

Perhaps you've never seen anything with the name Monty Python attached? Especially something that also references a holy grail type object? There are references to it all over the place in GW...

How many times is one specific thing from Monty Python referenced though? How many white rabbit references are there? How many Black Beasts? One each, last time I checked.

Abaddon - Greek Appolyon- Angel of the Abyss. The name is uses quite often in various fictions.

Balthazar -One of the Three Wise Men in Christian mythology. Also a very commonly used name.

Lyssa - As stated above, one of a group of goddesses known as the Maniae.

Melandru - Not entirely sure. The word Melan is a Greek for "black". Dru is perhaps in reference to druids or dyrads or something similarly woodsy.

Menzies- as far as I'm aware, is a Scottish clan name.

I got nothing for Grenth or Dwayna. Dhuum and Aracnhia should be obvious.

When you pronounce Melandru, it has this at the same time rough, yet softly flowing sound. Kind of like the earth.

To be fair, there ARE multiple references to the black beast of arrrrrrgh AND the white rabbit from Monty Python's H.G. Aside from just the creature itself, we also have an Aegis of Arrrrrgh, a mini black beast, and even a tonic which can transform you into said black beast. For the white rabbit, there's the rabbit which you follow down the rabbit hole and suddenly becomes hostile (also a reference to Alice in wonderland), there is an assassin rabbit obtained through a summoning stone, and also a mini white rabbit from the third year minis which has the same rarity as the black beast mini which certainly seems to indicate its the killer rabbit once again.

If anything, one of the horsemen of Dhuum being named Kazhad Dhuum only reinforces the fact that Dhuum is motivated (as a god of the UW who has fallen from power) by Khazad Dum (Moria... an underground power which was defeated by a single powerful entity who later claimed the domain as his own). Its too big of a parallel to ignore I'd say, but most of this thread is just speculation anyway

All derived from the same reference - for the Black Beast, for instance, the creature you fight is the primary reference, and all the others are referring back to that creature. If it was called something else - the Alpha Titan, say - you'd probably still have an Alpha Titan mini (so people who don't get a Greased Lightning can have another shot at a beetle mini), and Alpha Titan tonic (although isn't that just a possible result of the Mysterious Tonic?), and at least one Alpha Titan-related green.

Either way, though, claiming Dhuum is purely a reference to Khazad-Dum is a bit of a stretch - there are three other Horsemen, after all! It might get some credit if the name was chosen purely to make the puns for that quest, but it seems a very tenuous link when the simple appropriateness of an evil god of death being called "Doom" is just sitting there. Personally, I'm more inclined to believe that they came up with the name, then spotted to potential to make a reference.

As Drax said, the green, mini, and tonic form are to the monster - not a reference. So it is still just one reference.

The rabbit in Drakkar Lake is more of a reference to Alice in Wonderland it seems. Though the summoning stone is a second reference - but then again, I said usually only one reference.

Every Horseman references something else. If one horseman is a reference for Dhuum as well, then that means that Dhuum is a reference to "Gozer" is the name of the antagonist in the Ghostbusters movie, a reference to Marduk, a Sumerian patron deity, and a reference to Thulsa Doom the main antagonist in the movie Conan the Barbarian? I think it is more likely it is a reference to the word "doom" itself, if any of the four horsemen can be taken as a reference for Dhuum as well, it would be Thul Za Dhuum - as that (might) references a being as well (who is also an antagonist). But then again Thulsa Doom and Thul Za Dhuum - hmmm...

There's probably some truth to Dhuum being also motivated in parallel to the word Doom, as the 4 horsemen quest suggests. Still, the strongest connection to a being which rules an underworld is undoubtedly from Khazad Dum. Ghozer is likely more a reference to the fact that the horsemen are ghostly, Thulsa Doom was, at least in comic book form a necromancer (and as such has an obvious GW connection, even though Thul Za Dhuum is a mesmer), and Marduk was a dragon like deity who started as an obscure city protector but rose in popularity to become head of the sumerian pantheon (still without being specifically the god of the underworld). My guess, and its only a guess, is that Khazad Dum inspired the name Dhuum, and then they paid homage to this as well as other doom related popculture in the 4-horsemen quest. Of course, I could be way off, but as I said I think the parallel between the UW and Moria is too much to ignore. Granted, it would have been stronger if we knew the UW had a connection to dwarves, but maybe that would be too close to copyrighted material

Aside from the Horseman, I don't see a connection with an underground location and a god of death. Going from "Name of Underground City" to "Underworld" to "Former God of Death" is a bit of a stretch. I mean, the only real connection between Moria is the Underground and undercity thing. The Balrog and Grenth are too different to be connected. And the "overtaken" idea can connect to a million things in reality and a dozen things in GW alone. Far too big of a stretch, to be honest. But that's just me.