At War’s Edge webcomic episode 272 is up. Sounds like the “child” has something important to say. (Yeah, that was… a strange word choice from Boleslav there, considering he’s only a few years older than Tvorian — and doesn’t even look it unless you squint. But hey, he’s trying to be all kingly here, alright?)
Fun fact: Tvorian’s second name, “Subyslav” used to appear as “Sbynya”. Wait, I can explain! 😀
Thing is, when I first came up with this character around fifteen years ago, his name was Sbynya. Back then I knew nothing about the Bereghin language yet, so I just went ahead and borrowed an Old Novgorodian name for him.
Now, Tvorian as he is now is an extremely evolved version of that early character. His overall role is similar — but his background, personality, and ultimate fate are all different. So in the end I renamed him, keeping “Sbynya” as his father-name. (In Bereghin culture, a man’s second name is normally his father’s first name, similar to a patronymic. I thought it fitting that the original Sbynya should give his name to Tvorian’s father.)
However. Recently I did some digging, and discovered that “Sbynya” is a name attested in exactly one historical document (so far) — the Torzhok birch bark letter #2.
From the way it’s written there, it’s likely to be “Sъbynѧ” or “Sъbyna” — without the hard-to-pronounce “sb” cluster at the start, and possibly without the “ya” at the end, either. And, on top of that, it’s a diminutive from “Sъbyslavъ” rather than an independent name.
And because nowadays I have actual rules on how to derive Bereghin from Proto-Slavic — “Sъbyslavъ” in Bereghin becomes “Subyslav”.
Mind you, I did consider keeping the diminutive, Subyna. Tvorian’s father was the kind of guy who used the diminutive form most of the time anyway. But Tvorian is the kind of guy who goes out drinking with the royal knights. He’d never pass up the chance to use the more aristocratic-sounding “Subyslav”, would he?
So — that’s why Tvorian’s got what looks like a brand new father-name. It’s actually the same name, just spelled correctly this time!