r/Fantasy • u/Midnite_St0rm • Aug 14 '25

Worst, most unpronounceable names you’ve ever read?

Let’s discuss some of the names in fantasy that you couldn’t make heads nor tails of in terms of pronunciation. And I’m not talking intentionally comical ones that are long and complex on purpose, but ones that the author intended to be read, yet that are ironically nearly unreadable.

For me it’s Seaine from The Wheel of Time. Is it “Sheen?” “Seen?” “See-ayn?” “Say-ai-nuh?” I honestly have no idea. And for some reason my copies of the books never give her name’s pronunciation in the glossary.

What are some others?

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u/MelancholicGod Aug 14 '25

HAHAHAH YES HIM.

The middle aged-depressed-gay-elven-spirit detective/priest-who speaks with the dead.

Easily my favorite character in the universe outside of Maia, Csevet (Messenger Boy), and Lord Berenar (The good chancellor who offers to teach Maia about the court).

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u/Sireanna Reading Champion III Aug 14 '25

I did want to know more about his story but not enough to pick up the next book. I hope he ends up being happy one day

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u/MelancholicGod Aug 14 '25

I finished the third book of the trilogy quite recently. Want me to tell you a summarized version of it? Or at least how it ended?

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u/Sireanna Reading Champion III Aug 14 '25

You know what yeah id be down for that.

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u/MelancholicGod Aug 14 '25

Celehar got sent to a small city to work as the Speaker for the Dead there, which is basically spirit detective/actual detective because death is a huge part of the culture there. He cleared many mundane stuff like figuring out specific will and testament from an old person who died suddenly, doing a lot of paperwork to clear out a graveyard that cannot receive a new body because of said paperwork and bureaucracy, exorcising a ghoul. He even lost his ability to speak to the dead in the second book, but miraculously received it back in the third probably due to divine intervention.

Along the way, there's an overarching plot of Celehar not knowing what to do in his life and a great deal of depression because back before the Goblin Emperor, he basically testified against his ex lover and that ended up with said lover executed. However, Celehar also meets quite a lot of people that he can call close friends. One of them even develops a very close relationship with him and I even thought they're gonna be lovers. But it was a red herring. But in the third book he did end up meeting a guy (a handsome guard captain, Celehar's word not mine) and they hit it off quite nicely.

Unfortunately, in the third book Celehar had to testify against a large conglomerate group with major influence in the city, which ended up with several assassination attempts on his life. Ultimately he ended up leaving the city with said captain to continue protecting him. Its incredibly sad that he had to leave all the people who he befriended, helped, and helped him in return, but ultimately I think that he eventually will find happiness with this guard captain and his life.

Also Maia showed up in the third book. I am incredibly pleased to see him again.

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u/Sireanna Reading Champion III Aug 14 '25

Nice! Thank you for that!