About curse names
French constructions dominate, with "la Malédiction de la Ruine" and "le Fléau du Phénix" sounding like entries in a witch's ledger, alongside blunt English forms like "The Dread Hex". These suit a rival's parting shot, a bloodline's old debt, and the bargain a fey prince never honors. Read one aloud at the table and watch players refuse to touch the loot.
How curse names are built
A curse takes one of four shapes: an English noun framed as a curse (a curse-word plus "of" plus a noun, with 11 curse-words and 175 nouns), a titled form ("The" plus an adjective plus a curse-word, 126 adjectives), or a French branch that joins a gendered curse-word (4 entries: le Sort, le Fléau, la Malédiction, la Mauvaise Action style) to a French complement drawn from a 245-entry bank or a 41-entry bank. The French halves keep correct grammar, so de, du, de la, and elided d' contractions agree with the leading article. Bank outputs include Curse of Desire, La Malédiction de la Ruine, and Le Fléau d'Incendie.
Curse of Desire
Curse (curse-word) + Desire (noun)
La Malédiction de la Ruine
la Malédiction (French curse-word) + de la Ruine (French complement)
Le Fléau d'Incendie
le Fléau (French curse-word) + d'Incendie (French complement)
Naming notes
The split is bilingual: the English side stays terse and declarative (Curse of Desire, The Withered Hex) while the French side carries the bulk of the variety through the 245-entry complement bank. Because the French curse-words are gendered (le Sort, la Malédiction), the joining preposition and any following article are pre-agreed in the data rather than recombined, so outputs stay grammatical. For fiction, use the English forms as a witch's plain pronouncement and the French forms as the formal grimoire entry for the same hex.
Questions about curse names
- What patterns produce a curse name?
- English forms use a curse-word plus "of" plus a noun, or an article-and-adjective title; the French branch joins one of four gendered curse-words to a complement from the 245-entry bank.
- Why are some curses in French?
- The bank carries a full French branch so a hex can read as a formal continental grimoire entry, with the curse-word and its preposition pre-agreed for gender as in la Malédiction de la Ruine.
- Do the French contractions stay grammatical?
- Yes. Forms like de la, du, and the elided d' are stored already agreed with their article, so Le Fléau d'Incendie joins correctly rather than recombining pieces blindly.