Why Would a Male Miqo'te Seeker Have a Surname?

[Apollonir64]

My main character's name is U'vern Nhir, a male miqo'te seeker of the sun. I made the character without giving him the normal seeker last names of Tia or Nunh because I wanted to stand out a bit, but now that I'm trying to integrate my character into the world a bit more I'm trying to come up with a reason why he would do this.

He's a young scholarly-type who arrived in Limsa Lominsa to study magic at the arcanist's guild. He's physically weak and generally introverted, shy about being the warrior of light but eager to help save people.

His name implies he's part of the U tribe, which I only just recently realized can be found in the forgotten springs. But the Nunh of the U tribe is not called Nhir, and U'vern looks pretty different to rest of the U tribe. 

 

So, does anyone have any ideas for a backstory? Why does he have the U' at the start of his name, but the surname Nhir? Why does he look different from the rest of the inhabitance of the forgotten springs? Maybe something to do with shunning the patriarchal structure of seeker society?

Edited May 25, 2022 by Apollonir64

[Faye]

As far as tribes--the consensus of the most of the RP community is that each tribe has different "sects." Most of the tribes aren't given any in-game lore. Obviously there are going to be players with characters from the same tribe who come from completely different places and backgrounds with different last names which creates some dissonance if there's supposed to be only one small tribe for each animal/letter. There's also the issue of incest otherwise which most people understandably don't want to touch on in their RP. (And fwiw the lore does suggest that bigger tribes can have more one than Nunh. Nunhs can also probably be usurped at any time if they're beaten by a stronger male). So I don't think he needs to resemble the U tribe we see in game, be from the Sagolii, or anything like that.

Some reasons for why his surname may not be Tia or Nunh:

 

- He was adopted by another race and took their family name.

- One of his parents was a Keeper of the Moon or another race altogether.

- He left his tribe behind for some reason. Personal journey, or exile, or just didn't approve of their way of life. Decided to keep the U to honor his tribe but made his own last name because he didn't want any part in that Tia/Nunh business.

- His last name really is Nunh/Tia but Nhir is some sort of nickname or alias he goes by outside of his tribe.
- His parents and maybe his sect of his tribe as a whole were nontraditional and use a different naming system.
- He married and took his partner's last name.

I'm sure there are other possibilities, but those are some simple ones.  Go with whatever sounds appealing to you and makes sense for your character.

[Apollonir64]

1 hour ago, Faye said:

As far as tribes--the consensus of the most of the RP community is that each tribe has different "sects." Most of the tribes aren't given any in-game lore. Obviously there are going to be players with characters from the same tribe who come from completely different places and backgrounds with different last names which creates some dissonance if there's supposed to be only one small tribe for each animal/letter. There's also the issue of incest otherwise which most people understandably don't want to touch on in their RP. (And fwiw the lore does suggest that bigger tribes can have more one than Nunh. Nunhs can also probably be usurped at any time if they're beaten by a stronger male). So I don't think he needs to resemble the U tribe we see in game, be from the Sagolii, or anything like that.

Some reasons for why his surname may not be Tia or Nunh:

 

- He was adopted by another race and took their family name.

- One of his parents was a Keeper of the Moon or another race altogether.

- He left his tribe behind for some reason. Personal journey, or exile, or just didn't approve of their way of life. Decided to keep the U to honor his tribe but made his own last name because he didn't want any part in that Tia/Nunh business.

- His last name really is Nunh/Tia but Nhir is some sort of nickname or alias he goes by outside of his tribe.
- His parents and maybe his sect of his tribe as a whole were nontraditional and use a different naming system.
- He married and took his partner's last name.

I'm sure there are other possibilities, but those are some simple ones.  Go with whatever sounds appealing to you and makes sense for your character.

 

Thanks for the information, and the ideas! These are really great concepts to build on.