||BOOK 1 of THE WALKWE|| Assassins' Creed with Werewolves || for content review purposes please, note that while Volya is 17 in the first book, he is 18 in the second book.
Ancient magic and werewolves ain't supposed to be center-stage for a pop-st...
All moodboards in this chapter are by the talented @Sapphire-Rain
Volya's and Liam's portrait generated with the use of ArtBreeder
GIVEN NAMES
Not going to lie—Russian names are tricky. So, here are some notes on Volya & friends:
To pronounce Volya: the first syllable is the stressed one, VO is hard and strong like in English word voice. The second syllable (-lya) is soft and 'ya' is said a bit like là in French voilà.
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In Russian, Volya's name will be spelled like this: Воля (that reverse 'R' is used to make a sound for 'ya' in Russian).
Russians rarely use given names that are derived from Russian words. Volya's name (it could mean 'freedom' or 'free will' or even 'decree') sounds unusual to a Russian speaker. Very, very rarely 'Volya' could be used as a short/private name for Vladimir, but I decided not to go there.
Russians love shortening the given names into a bunch of different forms.
Alexander sounds way cool as the alpha male in a tragic story, but he too used to be a snot-nosed brat playing in a sandbox... while his mom probably yelled 'Sasha! Dinner!' at him. Those are not official names. Choosing a specific form of the full name often points to the person's relationship with the speaker. A buddy might call the same person differently than their mom or their lover.
Toshka, the name of Volya's friend in the story, is one of many short/private names derived from a popular name Anton.
Toshka sometimes addresses Volya as Vol'--both shortening his name and changing its case (it's like conjugating a verb, only for a noun). It just felt natural to me to do it. The asterisk softens that last 'l' sound.
Another example of a private address is when a character named Damir is called Mirka in an intimate situation.
Valya is a short/private name for Valentine (male) and/or Valentina (female).
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PATRONYMIC NAMES
No discussion of Russian names is complete without the patronymics...
Patronymic name goes between the given (first) and the last name. It is not the middle name, however. It is derived from the father's name.
