Thursday, May 31, 2007

A few years ago, when Xbox Live was first released, I wanted to pick out out a rather unique gamertag that I could also use as my online alias around the web.  As I am a Freemason, I wanted to pick something that was vaguely related to Freemasonry.    Given the legends around the relationship between the Knights Templar and the Freemasons, I thought something Templar-related would be good.  The moniker I chose was Bloody Templar, the etymology being:

  • Bloody:  having or covered with or accompanied by blood; "a bloody nose"; "your scarf is all bloody"; "the effects will be violent and probably bloody"; "a bloody fight"
  • Templar:  Knight Templar; a knight of a religious military order established in 1118 to protect pilgrims and the Holy Sepulcher

So "Bloody Templar" means a Knight Templar covered in blood.  It's a reference to October 13, 1307, the day when King Phillip IV of France ordered the arrest and torture of the Knights Templar (certainly a "bloody" day, in my book). 

So, there you have it, the origin of my gamertag and online alias, rooted in history, and tied to my interests.  How clever, right?

Unfortunately, what I envisioned as a somewhat cool and pithy gamertag apparently doesn't make sense to a lot of the intellectually challenged gamers that you run into on Xbox Live.  I can't tell you how many times this has happened:

[Bloody Templar enters an online game.]

RandomIdiot420:  What?  Bloody Tampon???

Bloody Templar:  How original.  Did you think that up all on your own?

RandomIdiot420:  Whatever, dude.  Your name is ghey*.

[Bloody Templar mutes RandomIdiot420 and submits negative feedback.]

*sigh*

 

(*Editor's note:  I use the 1337 word "ghey" because I'm not a big fan of using the word "gay" as an insult.  RandomIdiot420 is not only stupid, he's also a bigot.)