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Translation edit
To the best of my knowledge no official translation into English of any Crystalicum project products exists. When adding information to the English version of the article, I shall use the following form:
Translated Title ("Original Title") - oficially published material
Translated Name (Original Name) - in-game names and concepts
Translated quote
- Quoted character (optional)
Original quote
- Quoted character (optional)
I would like to take this opportunity to note that while I will try to translate to the best of my ability and knowledge, it is not the official translation, and not everyone may agree with it.
Saiden (talk) 11:26, 1 March 2008 (UTC)
Overmetal (Nadmetal) edit
When translating this, I was torn between "Overmetal" ("Overnet" has been translated into "Nadsieć") and "Supermetal" ("Nadprzewodnik" is Polish for "Superconductor"). In the end I went with Overmetal, because even with the game's convention, Supermetal sounds to silly/cartoony.
Saiden (talk) 22:26, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
The Ice Elven Dominion (Cesarstwo Lodowych Elfów) and the Crystal Empire (Imperium Kryształowe) edit
There is a peculiar problem when translating these two names, and that is using basic translation both "Cesarstwo" and "Imperium" translate into "Empire". However, in Polish, there is a distinction between them, tracing back mostly to the words' etimology.
"Cesarstwo" spans from Ceasar, and can be associated with e.g. the later title of Czar. In fact, the Russian Empire was known as Cesarstwo Rosyjskie for some time.
"Imperium" is derived from Imperator, and bears association with "impera" - rule. In English, the word "Imperium" translates broadly into "power". The Ottoman Empire is Imperium Ottomańskie in Polish. Also, Episode V of the Star Wars series, The Empire Strikes Back is translated into "Imperium Kontratakuje" and "Emperor Palpatine" is known as "Imperator Palpatine".
However, I decided to not use the word "Imperium", as it a borrowing, and sounds somewhat artificial (especially since English is a germanic language). Looking for synonyms I came upon, among others, dominion.
This forced me to choose which of the two cultures will be the "Empire", and which will be the "Dominion". In the end, the title of Empire went to the Imperium Kryształowe, because its nature seems, in my opinion, closer to what most people consider an empire, and because that will allow to keep some of the connotations and humor when translating e.g. quotes into English.
Saiden (talk) 00:11, 5 March 2008 (UTC)
The Kaiser edit
Translating the word "Cesarz" directly into Caesar sounded very wrong from the beginning. While dictionaries do list it as the agreed-upon translation, in Polish Caesar ("Cezar") refers only to the name, Julius Caesar, and his successors took on the title which has its etymology in that word. The title being "Cesarz".
Since the problem stems from a linguo-cultural difference in connotations, I took the liberty of using the German/Prussian word "Kaiser" for the title of the ruler. Part of the reason is that culturally, the Ice Elves are a mix of Plato's Republic and Prussia.
Layout edit
The "Cultures and Races" section is still in its early stages, and I am actually considering whether or not there is a better way to adress the issue. The main problem to tackle is that e.g. humans are the dominant race in three different civilizations (not to mention a number of single-world sub-cultures), or that common elves are both a part of the Ice Elven Dominion, and are actively fighting against it.
For the time being I shall stick to the division used in the card game, and hope something better comes up.