Feb 17, 2025
Author's Commentary #295:
Time to talk about Chapter 295: Undead Mongols and clairvoyant dreidels.
This might be the weirdest chapter title yet, but it describes exactly what the chapter contains. Once again, multiple new characters are introduced meaning we need to go over their bios.
ノア・ベン・ホリン (Noa Ben-Horin) is how Noa's name is written in katakana. נועה בן-חורין (Noa Ben-Horin) is how her name would be spelled in Hebrew. Her first name would be spelled as 希愛 in kanji and means "hope" and "to love".
Her birthday is July 1st, as it could be considered the half-way point in the year.
Her favorite piece is the knight, mainly because it's her father's favorite piece.
Noa is actually the DSPCM of New Tel Aviv, a city pretty much identical to the modern day Tel Aviv aside from it's geographical location. Her mother was Japanese so she is half-Japanese. She was born in America though and lived there with her family until about 2 months prior to the start of the series, which would be about late June or early July 2024. The New Kingdom of Simien actually came into existence on January 4th, 2023 so unlike most of the other Simiens, she wasn't an original resident.
マカビー・ベン・ホーリン (Maccabee Ben-Horin) is how Maccabee's name is spelled in katakana. מכבי בן-חורין (Maccabee Ben-Horin) is how his name would be spelled in Hebrew.
His birthday is June 24th, which he shares with Belarusian-Israeli grandmaster, Boris Gelfrand.
His favorite piece is the knight as it can move as it pleases.
Maccabee was originally born in Tel Aviv, but immigrated to America. He shares his name with the Maccabees, a group of Jewish rebels that overthrew the Seleucid empire in the 2nd century BCE, which eventually led to the celebration of Hannukah. As such, Maccabee often carries around dreidels, 4-sided tops each containing a Hebrew letter, as they are often associated with Hanukkah.
ゴルダ・ゴールドシュミット (Golda Goldschmidt) is how Golda's name is spelled in katakana. גולדה גולדשמידט (Golda Goldschmidt) is how her name would be spelled in Hebrew.
Her birthday is October 20th, which is also national gold day.
Her favorite piece is the king, because she believes it's the most "golden".
Golda is a Beta Israel, or Ethiopian Jew, who was initially born and raised in Gondar, Ethiopia before immigrating to Israel with her family. Gondar was actually part of the Kingdom of Simien, a Jewish kingdom said to have been located in the northwestern part of the Ethiopian Empire that was in existence from 350-351 CE, and then later reestablished in 960 CE and lasting until 1329. She was originally planned to be part of the Ethiopian team, but I felt it made more sense for her to be on the Simien team. Though the original plotline for her character will still carry over. As for the city she's the DSPCM of, New Rishon LeZion, it's real-life counterpart, Rishon LeZion, is actually sister cities with Gondar, and has a place known as the Gold Mall.
I'll reveal this before it's revealed in the story, but there's a certain member of the Ethiopian team who Golda considers her life-long rival. Said rival is a celebrated Olympic runner, who has just recently taken up chess and has potential in it. Golda being the vain little gremlin that she is, can't stand to get second place, a trait that stems from the fact that she has lot's of "gold" in her name. Though ironically enough, she has a heart of gold and never results to underhanded tactics. She just has a big ego, that's all.
グディット・ハイレ (Gudit Haille) is how Gudit's name is spelled in katakana. ጉዲት ሀይሌ (Gudit Haile) is how her name would be spelled in Amharic, while גודית היילה (Gudit Haile) is how it would be spelled in Hebrew. She shares her name with the warrior queen, Gudit, also known as Yodit or Yudit, who was said to have reestablished the Kingdom of Simien back in 960 CE. She is also an Ethiopian Jew like Golda, but her family chose to remain in Ethiopia. This proved to be key to the eventual creation of the New Kingdom of Simien as Gudit eventually managed to rise to the rank of president of Ethiopia. Under her authority, she allowed for the New Kingdom of Simien to take in some of Ethiopia's territory, notably the regions where the original Kingdom of Simien existed, and has been successful at ending every civil in the nation, leading to Ethiopia now being one of the most stable places to live in Africa.
Her birthday is October 11th. Since there is no recorded birthday for the historical Gudit, I chose this date at random to serve as the birthday for this Gudit. There is some significance behind the date though as Gudit was said to have been queen of Simien from the 10th century to the 11th century AD, which is why I chose the date that I did.
Her favorite piece is the queen for obvious reasons.
オリット・シャリル (Orit Sharir) is how Orit's name is spelled in katakana. אורית שריר (Orit Sharir) is how her name would be spelled in Hebrew.
Her birthday is January 4th. I chose the date at random, but in the context of the story, it is the same date the New Kingdom of Simien was founded.
Her favorite piece is the queen.
Orit first appeared back in Chapter 281: The conclusion of the Spain vs Denmark match, and was the one who caught Iori's eye. She's easily shaping up to be one of the more difficult characters to write, which I alluded to before. Ironically enough though, Olavi Hellkkinen ended up overtaking her for the title of most difficult character to write. The plotline I have in mind for these two characters will be VERY dark, so forewarnings in advance.
On the topic of the dreidels, I have no idea if the "affinity" with each letter is a real thing. Through my research, I did find that each letter does have some greater meaning behind it, but didn't dig much deeper than the Wikipedia articles on them. On the topic of the letter shin, it generally does have some good symbolism behind it according to the wiki page I read on it. It is true though that it does have different phonemes, being shin and sin. As such, I decided to base a plot around that.
ハヤ・シャミール (Chaya Shamir) is how Chaya's name is written in katakana. חיה שמיר (Chaya Shamir) is how her name would be written in Hebrew. When I originally saw her name when going through lists of names to use for potential characters, I initially thought it was pronounced "Chai-ah" as in like ochaya. But the c is actually silent so it's pronounced like "hi-ya". Her surname on the other hand is the same as the first name of Shamir Nevrand from Fire Emblem Three Houses.
Her birthday is March 27th, which she shares with Shamir Nevrand from Fire Emblem Three Houses.
Her favorite piece is the bishop.
モーゲ・カトゥン (Möge Khatun) is how Möge's name would be written in katakana. Мөгэ Хатун (Möge Khatun) is how her name would be written in Mongolian.
She is obviously based off of the real-life Möge Khatun who was one of Genghis Khan's many wives, eventually becoming the wife of his son, Ögedei Khan.
Her birthday is December 29th. Since there is no recorded birthday for the historical Möge, I chose this date at random to serve as the birthday for this Möge. There is some significance behind this date though as 1229 was the year Möge's tenure as Khatun began, which is why I chose the date that I did.
Her favorite piece is the king, as she was married to kings.
Originally, Mongolia was only set to have a men's team, but as a result of me doing research for said men's team, I learned about the various consorts of the Khans as well as Genghis Khan's most notable daughters, giving me the missing inspiration I needed to craft the women's team. As such, Mongolia now has a women's team as well.
ジョチ・ハーン (Jochi Khan) is how Jochi's name is spelled in katakana. Зүчи хаан (Jochi Kahn) is how his name would be spelled in Mongolian. He is clearly based off of the real-life Jochi, the first son of Genghis Khan and his first wife, Börte, whose birth is regarded with controversy due to the circumstances of it.
His birthday is November 8th. Since there is no recorded birthday for the historical Jochi, I chose this date at random to serve as the birthday for this Jochi. There is some significance behind this date though as 1182 was the year he was believed to have been born, which is why I chose the date that I did.
His favorite piece is the king.
It is worth noting that despite sharing his name with a historical figure, he doesn't appear to be a zombie. Of course, it's possible Jad's simply made it so that he looks the most living, but it's still something to think about.
チンギス・ジャド (Genghis Jad) is how Jad's name would be written in katakana. His name, Jad, is actualy Mongolian for "spear". Чингис Жад (Genghis Jad) is how his name would be spelled in Mongolian.
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
His birthday is January 10th.
His favorite piece is the king for obvious reasons.
Jad is a man shrouded in mystery as he either obscures his face with the skull of a horse or the visage of Genghis Khan himself. On the topic of Jad, he was originally planned to be a humanoid skeleton which was originally modeled after Keyes from Fairy Tail.
And we're finally done. Yet the commentaries dominated with character bios will only continue as next up is all the members of the Indian teams that have yet to get their bios. It's honestly a slog to write these types of commentaries out, but I feel it's necessary as I want to flesh out all the named characters in the story.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
