So I’m poking around the internet for a directory of given names for Midianites or Amalekites and I find this – a step-by-step, program-assisted guide to creating whatever Canaanite name you want.

Apparently it was created as a tool for people playing roleplaying games in an ancient Canaanite setting – that is, playing Dungeons & Dragons or something of the sort in Biblical scenery. Even as a scion of the whole Comics/RPG/Sci-Fi/Fantasy culture, I’ve never heard of that, but imagining how such a thing might play out entertains me immensely.

UPDATE: After a little more digging about, I’ve learned that there is indeed a fairly new role playing game produced for enthusiasts of Biblical mythology, aptly named Testament. And there’s a magazine named – I kid you not – Targum that contains supplementary information for it.

The game features character classes such as “desert hermit”, “Levite priest”, and of course “champion of Israel” (that is, a judge). Characters have piety ratings and glorious opportunities for advantages like the “Nazirite feat”, which “adds +8 to an attribute of your choice, as long as you don’t drink alcohol, drink wine, cut your hair, or let your Piety drop below 10 (by, for example, dallying with a Qedeshot dancer and letting her cut your hair).”

I want to buy this game just to read the rest of its instruction manual.

Above is a picture of Testament‘s cover.