For the record, a Banshee, or Ban Sidhe is Fey, and is not Undead.
The word Sidhe literally means Fey, so if the Banshee is going to be only one Type, it should be Fey.
This is basically like having a Baby Dragon be Undead but not a Dragon (or Frost Giant and Giant, or Goblin King and Goblin).
It seems like the team has been trying to ensure that new Troops (and some updated ones) fall under two Types.
So this would be in line with game design, not just to please etymology or mythology nerds. (Although this is just straight out of a standard dictionary, this isnât esoterica.)
Another option if you want to stick with the D&D (Undead) version of Banshee, would be to make the Banshee an Elf and an Undead. Elf is somewhat synonymous with Fey (although not in GoW, obviously).
P.S. I thought it was interesting that they chose to make the Marid a Human.
i think the design devs chose for this troop was not taken from the origin of its name
she is clearly an undead by the look of the picture
and for the record , only banshee i know (from few sources) were undead - turned from a woman unhappy in her life that she decided to scream for the rest of eternity (and haunt humans ofc)
i dont see banshee current design and typing as wrong at all
perhaps she was fey before she died and become an undead (turned into undead in ghoulvania it seems)
Thatâs quite a bit of freedom you took there, taking half the name and deciding from it that the creature is actually Fey.
According to Wikipedia, bansheeâs original meaning in Irish is âwoman of the fairy moundâ, where âfairy moundâ seems to mean a burial place in this context. The Bansheeâs name does not contain any hints on what she is, only where she supposedly came from.
âThis says heâs from Mars, why do you keep saying heâs a Martian?â
Fairies come from fairy mounds.
You can open a standard print dictionary, this is not some crazy theory.
As far as taking âhalfâ a name, thatâs exactly how etymology works.
Root1 + Root2 = word
Acrophobia = Heights + Fear even though only âHalfâ the name means âfear.â
I assume itâs a fear of heights and not open spaces because âhalfâ the word is heights.
Google Sidhe or The Sidhe. No liberties taken.
Iâd like to reiterate I suggested that they ADD FEY, not remove Undead.
Anybody who likes the Banshee as Undead, rejoice, she still will be! [Like I said, this resistance is puzzling.]
More types = more fun for GoW, more interactions, more synergies, more weaknesses.
Please make the case that sheâs Undead using any tools and logical assumptions at your disposal.
As fascinating as the lore behind the name is, itâs a fact that in most fantasy settings, banshees are represented as restless undead spirits, not fey creatures. I think you are spitting into the wind with this particular request.
I do love a bit of crossover mythology like best of us. Iâd rather Fey was written Fae. While weâre at it we should distinguish Seelie and Unseelie Fae.
I agree it feels right that Banshee could be Undead Fey. I donât agree that this is unarguable logic though, itâs all made-up fantasy nonsense anyway. Next weâll be saying half the dragons donât look like proper Welsh dragonsâŚ
the same wiki also confirms it could as well not be a fey but ghost(undead):
âThe tales sometimes recounted that the woman, though called a fairy, was a ghost, often of a specific murdered woman, or a mother who died in childbirth.â
âMartianâ still only means âcame from Marsâ, it doesnât say anything else about the person/creature itself. If there are multiple races that can come from Mars, it can be any of them - humanoids, animals, even a normal human who happened to be born and raised on Mars.
What youâre trying to do is give the name of a place more meaning than it actually has. Sidhe - âfairy moundsâ is the name of real mounds that exist all over the place, and would be called that by people who donât believe in fairies all the same. Many places are named after things that donât even live there - not everyone who happened to come from Buffalo is a large bovine, even though you call them âBuffaloniansâ.
A lot of the stuff in this game borrows from standard fantasy RPG lore, most of which is based directly or indirectly on D&D (which in turn borrowed heavily from Tolkien but I digress).
When in doubt about how different mythologies, popular culture, literature, games, and Gems of Warâs in-universe story interact, refer to Bellisarioâs Maxim for the answer: âDonât examine this too closely.â