Adventure Concepts: Myth

[niltrias]

(I'm kind of equating them to the tomte, who like porridge with butter, particularly on special holidays.)

From the likeness in sound, I suspected that they may actually be related, and, interestingly enough, some research shows that that may actually be true. "Tomte" is based on the Swedish word "tomt" (which has a root meaning of "lot" or "homestead" or similar), and "domovoi" (домовой) appears to be based on "domasnij" which, according to Wiktionary, has a very similar meaning, and is also related to "dom" (дом), which, apart from now sounding extremely similar to "tomt", is, apparently, traceable back to Proto-Indo-European "*domo-/*domu" (which, I guess, is also cognate to Latin "domus", the root of the English word "domestic"), which has the same meaning and almost has to be cognate with Swedish "tomt".

The d->t shift from Italic to Germanic languages is well documented.
Examples Italic->Germanic (English)
Duo -> Two
Edere -> Eat
Decim -> Ten
Pater -> Fader (Germanic source)
The second part of Grimms law points this out, as Latin is more likely to use the voiced stop and Germanic languages the unvoiced stop.
So I think you nailed this one.
Interestingly, German and English also show the same kind of divergence, with German voiced stops becoming English unvoiced stops. So German "Bett" becomes English "Bed", "Blut" becomes "Blood" etc.
Out of curiosity, does Swedish use more of the German or the English system? Im guessing German, although my total knowledge of Swedish comes from a cousin trying to teach me it for a week about 20 years ago.
Edit-- Better examples

[Valcor]

After reading the description about the Domovoi I was reminded of the little harvest sprites that help you in Harvest Moon, 'cept a lot darker

- Harvest Sprite

[Yolan]

We gotta get a few varieties of wailing spirits. So, on the one hand, people will have to give proper burial/respect to their ancestors in order to get bonuses, but they also need to do so to avoid hauntings and such.

[trollfairy]

A young female player character drowns, or is murdered, in or near water. Her spirit haunts the water in the form of a Rusalka, attempting to drown hapless passersby until she's banished, or her curse is broken.

jorb, your defenition of Rusalka (mermaid, literally) is better suited for Navka (or Mavka).
In short, Navka is an aggressive spirit of a drowned girl.

[Potjeh]

I like this very much. It's in the spirit of my witchcraft suggestion thread. And not only that, but it's also great to see some Slavic elements in this game. I've had it with all these wursts and weissbier

Anyway, if you manage to track down a copy of Ivana Brlic Mazuranic's fairy tales, give it a read. There's plenty of inspiration to be found there. I tried to find a link for you, but I just found Croatian versions, no translations. If all fails, I can translate a fairy tale or two for you when I'm bored and have nothing to do - but only if it'd be useful to development.

[eql]

woah Jorb, now it almost feels as if you're grabbing inspiration from QfG IV

Good spot. One of my favorite games (and series) of all times. Played it a thousand times.

Edit: I remember it scaring the shit out of me more than once.

QFG ROCKS!

[kobnach]

Someone else already said this - but the Rusalka will be yet another tool for griefers etc.

Also, is this game supposed to be Euro-themed, or Geremanic-themed? I'd somehow gotten the idea it was Germanic-themed, in which case the Slavic element isn't quite on target. Fortunately the same kind of thing can be found, with different names, in many other cultural and linguistic groups.

[Errol]

I'd say both. Also, screw griefers. Certainly two rusalkas at the same time in the same region should be rare if not impossible, and Murder should have a higher chance of spawning one of these, and there should probably be a dark ritual to spawn them with 100% chance. We demand dark rituals! *MINDFORCING*

[Delamore]

I'd say both. Also, screw griefers. Certainly two rusalkas at the same time in the same region should be rare if not impossible, and Murder should have a higher chance of spawning one of these, and there should probably be a dark ritual to spawn them with 100% chance. We demand dark rituals! *MINDFORCING*

What is to stop me from gathering a bunch of alts and killing them over and over for tons near your town?
Or getting all the goons together to do the ritual on tons of people?

[Golbez]

Delamore, every argument in the world can't be countered with "there are a lot of goons" but you sure seem to try.