"Hey, someone should ask Karthas if he plays League of Legends!"

"LoL huh? I hate your ult LOL"

It happens on a nearly weekly basis, and though it doesn't really bother me per se, I thought I might write out the origin on my "handle" and perhaps inspire some others to do the same.

At this point, I've used the name Karthas online for about 14 years. Recently, I've had to take to using variations once the second League of Legends player comes through, tries Karthus, and then settles for Karthas. Any time I join a multiplayer game with any kind of chat, there's a 60% chance someone will assume that I am that LoL player.

I'm able to trace the origin of my name despite my horrible memory because it was derived in part from a different game- Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption published in 2000. In the game you play a Crusader turned vampire in a story that moves through multiple settings and times, at one point taking place around the city of Carthage. In the game, one of your elders (or rather, the voice actor) will make repeated references to the "Glorious city of CARTHage". The way the VO actor hit that hard CARTH sound stuck with me for some reason, and shortly after going through one of those cutscenes I was registering on some forum or something along those lines and decided to use that sound as basis of that new name. I went through several permutations of the name (Carthes? Carthelas? Carth?) when I realized I liked the look of the K more for some reason. A few more rings around the word soup bowl and I ended up with Karthas.

So, how did you come about your usual name? Is it a long overwrought story full of twists and turns, or do you just really like the character Sephiroth and the number 69?