What are some of the more creative swears used in any fantasy setting? "Fuck" and "shit" don't really fit in a fantasy setting. The Elder Scrolls has a few, such as "By the Nine! (or Eight)" or "Azura curse you!"
I'm looking for more general expressions, not racial slurs or anything of the sort - though throw them in if they're particularly interesting, for sure.
Pig's whore - A yo mama insult. Also a reference to orcs.
Bearded tits! - An exclamation of surprise or frustration.
Six fingered sluts - An archaic insult in reference to old beliefs about elves.
(Death god)'s womb - A harsher version of spinster, about even with "hag" in terms of judgement but specifically implying infertility.
Lamprey tongued - "Silver tongued" but with more emphasis on the person being slimy and parasitic.
Ekh - Dwarven word for elf. Not strictly an insult, but when spoken by itself without honorific or sex, has the effect of referring to a person as "it". Due to the revulsion expressed when it's in the singular, Ekh has granted the common tongue the interjection "ech!" for something that disgusts the speaker.
Luvah - Elvish word for Orc. Elven common nouns are a special tense of verbs, and Luvah can also be conjugated as "to rape", "to be unfaithful", or "to be intimately betrayed". A particularly fancy slur to use in the common tongue.
Los - Orcish word for Dwarf. Implies a lack of drive and foresight when used colloquially.
Painters - Mild insult referring to humans in the common tongue, derives from the Dwarven word for the human race.
"What in Gronch-Bolzag is that?!"
or
"What in Gronch-Bolzag"
a popular Orcish swear phrase, which gained notoriety after a group of adventurers (which notably had a high-level rogue) put Aboleth eggs in the stomach of Orc warlord Gronch-Bolzag, which hatched right when he is about to attack a nearby human kingdom. Afterwards, the shocked Orcish army disperses, and the phrase gained traction among the Orcish communities they fled back to.
>"Fuck"
One thing I nearly always do is if I like an urban legend, I'll steal it and make it canon in my game. So I'm totally fine with making both the "archery finger" and the "for unlawful carnal knowledge" histories legit in my setting.
Actually, that reminds me, for a game set in a prison I came up with a legal term, "Unlawful Carnal Knowledge of the Nth Order", where each order was some separate taboo, but never actually told the players what each order referred to. It was simply unspeakable, after all. One of the mid-bosses was a hooker-turned-vampire who was in prison for Unlawful Carnal Knowledge of the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth orders, as well as a host of lesser crimes including murder.
Damn, I wish that game had gotten further along...
"You n'wah!" was one of my favorites from Morrowind.
Wazzock!
Coxfither - I have no idea what it means, saw it in pillars of eternity.
"boots!"
Sounds to me like a slang-spelling of "cock's feather." That is, a feather on a rooster. No idea what they're getting at, but that's my two cents.
>Lamprey tongued - "Silver tongued" but with more emphasis on the person being slimy and parasitic.
Oooh, oooh, I just came up with a better one
Hydra tongued - An even more negative and harsh form of "two faced". Someone hydra tongued is a betrayer, who plays all sides against the middle. In popular fiction, Petyr Baelish would be hydra tongued.
Knife-ear is the best one.
It's like a real swear word in that it's recognisable to you and I as offensive straight off the bat, because it's been used in so many RPG fantasy contexts.
Taffer
My GM refers to dwarves as "diggers." When our party got captured and the dwarf started making weapons for our captors, they called him a "good little house digger."
>running a game based on the mid-to-late 1800s
>slavery is an ongoing concern in part of the campaign setting
>have black players in the group
>one of them is from the south IRL, is playing a former slave in game
>panic
cock sucker - popular insult used by giants for humans
TAFFER
>OP: I'm looking for more general expressions, not racial slurs
>anons: post racial slurs
You mean in dragon age and almost nowhere else, you spoon-ear?
It's one of the dumbest insults too, because you really need to take huge leaps in order to make knives insulting rather than a compliment.
... There's already a term for the sinister version of silver-tongued. It's "fork tongued."
How?
Fuck, Shit, Cunt, etc are all Anglo-Saxon profanity, most English curse words are Anglo-Saxon
Why do people have always problem with "fuck", "cunt" and the like in fantasy setting? It's not that those are words invented in the previous century
Also it's not like you are using actual medieval, or even early modern language in your games (be it middle english or ye olde variant of whatever language your native speech is), at best it ends at superficial stylisation or late 1800s language, which is usually fine and enough to keep the "long, long ago" feel without being tiresome and barely comprehensible.
Many fantasy authors have no problem with using normal swearwords. And it usually doesn't create any friction with suspension of disbelief, at least for me. GoT is good example, as it's well known, and while it's both hip to shit on it now and I have many personal gripes with it, I don't think that "Fuck the king", or many other examples of the book and show utilizing real life swearwords sounded out of touch by any means.
I agree that in more "exalted" settings like LotR or something swearwords are out of place in narration, but then, you just don't use swears at all.
Because it's boring
I'd say it's contrary. It's forced, made up shit that is boring. Standard vocabulary is at least evocative.
Just be like "ayo this game is about shit that aint cool, if it's too uncool for anyone let me know and shit"
I'm imagining a dwarf walking into a tavern and greeting his comrades with "WASSUP MY DIGGAS?"
>human friend accidentally says Digga Please! when you're joking around with your homies
"WHERE DA ELF WIMMEN AT"
>the hit dwarven bard troupe Diggaz Wit' Attitude are on tour in the city
I like made up swears because it takes into account unfamiliar cultures, and thus tells you a bit about what said culture values, fears, or feels about certain things in an organic way. A fuck and a cunt is all well and good, but real people don't spew fucks and cunts all day. We spice it up with a "jesus christ" or a "goddamn nigger" here or there. It's nice to see other cultural equivalents. I can see how when done badly it can be jarring or irritating, but I'd prefer a bad effort rather than none at all.
as with all things, just do some research or be thoughtful. There's plenty of weird real life swears you can use, or contemplate what your particular fantasy culture would find vulgar. For instance I imagine 'Fuck' isn't as big of a deal to Elves, and calling a Dwarf a liar is a good way to get fucking murdered
>"Fuck" and "shit" don't really fit in a fantasy setting.
Why? Neither fucking nor shitting is a particularly recent concept.
Just say Fuck or Shit in a foreign language, then it sounds appropriate.
No it doesn't. That makes even less sense than making something up.
Think about how you use language. What are you trying to convey?
I got so much mileage out of 'pig fucker' during one particular campaign, our DM made sure to mention that the setting for our next campaign did not contain any type of pig and didn't even have a word for it.
So I called him a cheeky little dog fucker.
>There's plenty of weird real life swears you can use,
The entire point is to use something specifically relevant to the fantasy culture in order to communicate specific details about them. The jesus christ becomes shor's bones, nigger becomes n'wah, etc. Using weird irl swears defeats the purpose even if appropriate.
The Malazan series has quite a few creative swears, alongside the (admittedly more rare) normal shit, fuck and cunt.
Hood's Hoary Balls is probably one of my personal favourites.
Aloth: "Fye, you're itching for the kindling touch of your sister, ye coxfither."
Watcher: "You did just tell him to go fuck his sister."
>Self hating dwarf gets drunk and sings "Don' trust dem new diggas ovah there!"
Valid point. The term "bastard" used to be a fighting tier insult. Now nobody cares about wedlock.
The Dutch used to greatly suffer from Kanker sores so even now it's just a genetic swear.
That doesn't make sense. An insult is intended to anger and hurt another person. You want the knife to sting. And naturally, by using universally despised verbs & nouns you can maximize the impact.
Moi hotel is as clean as an elven arse
"Dirt-raker" is one I've used a bit. Something along the lines of "useless idiot".
Mothers milk in a cup
Coming straight from the underground, young diggers got it bad cause they round.
You n'wah
>gobble it - means "suck my dick", obvious reason
>off your top - means "kill yourself", came from a person getting decapitated
>elk piss - means "bull shit", obvious meaning
>all about - means "slag", came from "your mother's been all about"
>coinless - means "idiot/insane", came from an innuendo that a person is "a coin short of purse"
>go find [deity] - means "fuck off", came from the idea that no one had seen a deity before
>hello two fists - means "arrogant", when a person said they only needed their two fists to win a fight, but then promptly lost
>big grin - means "cunt", after a horror story of a creature that ate people with its genitals deformed into smiles
...
Anything shorter than 4' is an angry knife baby. Especially gnomes
I use "plough" a bit in my games, taken from the Witcher Series as a sub for fuck.
"What are ya doin?" "Ploughin' yer sister good, mate!"
A few insults the universe I play/run in uses. Some are racial slurs, some are not, some are relatively situational.
"Vilesoul" is an insult aimed towards Tieflings, Changelings, Warlocks- Generally anyone who dabbles in dark arts or has been born from some foul joining of Demon and Mortal.
"Pack Warmly" is a way of saying 'Go to Hell'- Given that in this universe, Hell is a freezing cold abyss.
"Warmother" is a harsh way to refer to the mother of Half Orcs, or any female who sympathizes with the Orcish race, who in-universe are almost exclusively kidnappers, rapists, and warmongering savages.
"Sandspitter" is a regional insult, used towards people from desert areas.
"Diplomat" (used as in 'Oh, yeah, he's a -real- diplomat.) essentially used to mean 'Race Traitor'- Someone who pursues romantic or carnal interests outside their own species.
More religious combatants often yell 'Rejoin the Cycle!' towards enemies. Basically telling someone to 'Fucking die, and rejoin the cycle of Reincarnation.'
Arrowpoint: Cockhead.
Dull arrowpoint: Stupid Cockhead.
Bent Arrow: Derogatory term for male homosexuals.
Stablemud: Shit. Referring to how often horses and other stabled animals tend to defecate, obviously.
Busy Gardener: A way of referring to a manwhore (or a promiscuous lesbian)
Cave: A way of referring to a promiscuous woman. Usually reserved for non-prostitutes. (Used: 'You're dating Suzie? Bring a map, she's a real cave.')
Busy Woman: A (female) prostitute.
Pet: A derogatory term for beast races. (Wolfin, Bird People, etc.)
>I don't trust dem Sand Diggers over there I hear they like explosives in their mining methods.
I had "Boar's Balls!" as one.
Fun fact, Aussie soldiers are affectionately called Diggers.
>I have been known to greet my lads with "whats up my digger"
>I would recommend a young officer refrain from doing so in front of Americans.
though not fantasy, i've always liked to imagine the phrase "void take you" as a good way to get bottle-shanked in a barfight in space-faring games. i imagine spacers are the highly superstitious like that.
>"Crow's sat on my shoulder"
>"my luck is very bad"
>"I'd slam a new pipe on your grave"
>"i'll celebrate when you die"
>"light a fire on a mole hill"
>"you've not only fucked yourself up, you've fucked me"
>"fisherman's lost catch"
>"in the closet homosexual"
I thought you said 'fun' fact?
Bags and double bags
Son of a lich, for the obviously meta tongue in cheek quality, but it also implies both that you have evil/necrotic heritage and that your mother would have carnal relations with the undead.
Knife ears
first, second, third... and fifth
> what's the fourth? if she's in for the 3rd and the 5th why isn't she in for the 4th?
> If we|re not going to tell the what the 4th or the 5th is why on earth would we tell you the 4th?
>Why not the fourth?
>Well, she's an orphan, so...
Stupid Wop-Dago is a good one
"I already told you, Grunghtor you Stupid Wop-Dago, the mage is in another tower"
Feth and Gak, from Gaunt's Ghosts
Feth sounds suspiciously like a certain swear word corrupted, but it turns out to be the name of a forest spirit. Not really sure that works considering it's never capitalized, and you can add an -ing to the end to turn it into a verb.
Gak seems to be synonymous with shit or fuck, or some other foul thing. Gakhead is an example of its use.