Artifact weapon named for a racial slur?

Type: 

Issue

Category: 

Severity: 

Minor

Game version: 

Morrowind (Steam)

Concerns: 

TR_Mainland

Found in Version: 

Status: 

Description: 

I'm told the artifact sword "Gwai-lo" is named after a Chinese racial slur for Westerners. While thematically fitting, it may be too offensive and perhaps another similar term should be found. I admittedly don't know enough about the Chinese language to know what might be better.

Sword in question, with link to its attached quest: http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Tes3Mod:Tamriel_Rebuilt/Gwai-lo#Gwai-lo

Comments

Hi, I'm the one who brought

ColaTheLionheart's picture

Hi, I'm the one who brought it to everyones attention.

First of all the Artifact is a "Akaviri dai-katana" a Katana is a japanese sword not chinese so why it's named after a Chinese racial slur for people is beyond me.

But some other names keeping with the "theme" of this blade having a chinese name would be: "Qiè dìguó" which translates roughly to "Cut the Empire" or "Túshā jīnglíng" Which translates to "Slaughter Elf".

Not the best names but hey better than a sword that means "Bad guy" or "White Ghost"

I'm the living embodiment of the "Stop the Moon" Shrine

Feel free to add me on Discord: Cola the Lionheart#4703

I say it's fine and moreso

Rot's picture

I say it's fine and moreso going down the road of trying not to offend touchy people is neither worthwhile nor a good precedent to set. Well known and mild term anyway, "outlander in chinese" was probably the thought from whoever named this

IIRC, Gwai-lo was made by

Rats's picture

IIRC, Gwai-lo was made by Theo who indeed thought that naming it thusly would amuse those who got the reference.

Changing old TR's stuff on a whim is something I've always stood against. Then again, I would prefer if TR's easter eggs weren't offensive and I wouldn't like to set a precedent for it here.

I don't perhaps know enough about the word or its history of usage to form an opinion on its offensiveness (I just thought it meant "white devil"/"foreign devil", which I think is relatively harmless in its context). If it is offensive in a significant way, changing the name into anything else would not be an issue.

I do not believe this is

Atrayonis's picture

I do not believe this is worth renaming the weapon for. Gweilo as term can be used offensively, but is also used non-offensively and as per the Wiki page, people use the term to refer to themselves.

Thinking we are not seeing a weapon that has the equivalent of "nigger slayer" or "towelhead thrasher" as it's name, and as part of the people which should be offended, I'm going to follow the others, disagree with the objections to it, and close the bug.

Finally, Akaviri is only faux-japanese, ("dai-katana" is afaik also nonsense) so using a Chinese term doesn't need correcting by default either.