Could swear I’ve seen a setting where the currency was sovereigns, but there was no king. Literally “cash is king”.
Comment on Anon makes games
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
This is what I love about the Legend of Zelda games, it’s “rupee”, which comes from “ruby”:
Rupee is likely derived from or a corruption of ruby, a valuable gemstone. As a result, Rupees were frequently misnamed early in the series, such as the name “Rupy” in the original The Legend of Zelda. In the German versions of The Legend of Zelda games, a Rupee is called a Rubin, which is German for ruby. Ironically, Red Rupees resemble rubies.
They’re valuable gems of indeterminate size, not necessarily related to rubies or actual gems (could be glass or something), and have no direct comparison to any actual currency (unlike gold) but we can understand some amount of inherent value (better than credits). It’s unique to the game, and denominated as a single number.
Some other ideas for units:
- sovereigns - as long as the person in charge is a king
- in-game term related to the region (like Euro is to Europe)
- chips - could be metal, glass, gemstones, etc
Keep it vague so people don’t lose immersion by comparing to realm world units, or not have any inherent wealth. That said, “credits” is better than “gold,” just a bit cliché.
MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I guess you don’t need a king, since sovereign refers to the government, but when it comes to currency, I’d assume “sovereign” is referring to the picture of the ruler on the currency. I don’t know many who call their chief executive/head of state a “sovereign”, but most would use that to describe a monarch.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Maybe it’s just a linguistic holdover from when they did have a monarch!
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You can also get weird with it. Brandon Sanderson likes to tie money to a world’s magic system so in the world where people have metal based magic it’s coins called clips and boxings, but in the world where hurricanes make gemstones glow with magic it’s spheres of glass with gems called chips, marks, and broams
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Yup, and that’s partly where my suggestion of “chips” came from. The money term isn’t a huge deal, but just changing the name to something relevant in world is cool.
Jankatarch@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
In reverend insanity the “money” was rocks that can be used as “mana potions.” Once someone becomes immortal they get infinite “mortal mana” tho so there is a seperate currency used by immortals.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Wait, they call it “rupee” but it somehow doesn’t relate to the currency of the most populous state in the world, whose currency is literally called “rupee”, which is etymologically related to silver, not ruby?
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
And it makes sense since Japanese doesn’t have a “B” sound and they look like gems, so ruby -> rupee makes a ton of sense.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Or they could have gone with the actual japanese word for ruby instead of picking one that sounds identical to a real-world currency that is not gem-based.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
There isn’t a native word AFAICT, it’s a loan word. But taking real things and making a slight change to be something new is pretty common for games. For example, final fantasy uses “Gil,” which is abbreviated “G” and probably comes from “gold” (gil - > gold is a pretty easy jump), though the in-game explanation is different (name of in-game ruling family).
I think it’s highly likely Miyamoto didn’t know about the Indian rupee.
Wolfizen@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
Metro series games use bullets as a currency. Theyre small, not easily produceable in the setting, and have inherent value (you can shoot your money at enemies). Great design.