Yendor
The term Yendor was introduced to Rogue and then appeared in Hack and NetHack. The word is "Rodney" spelled backwards, which probably is the original derivation, but it also feels linguistically appropriate to a fantasy game. This is doubtlessly due to Tolkien's created language of Sindarin, in which the suffix "-(n)dor" corresponds to English "-land," as in Gondor ("stone land"), Mordor ("black land"), and many others. In the sincerest form of flattery, place-names ending in "-(n)dor" can be found throughout fantasy and science fiction, such as "the forest moon of Endor" in the film The Return of the Jedi.
So, perhaps "Yendor" is a fictional country; it has some similarity with names that occur in Tolkien's works, such as "Gondor" and "Endor". The soldiers you will encounter in the dungeon are, according to their encyclopaedia entry, Yendorian soldiers.
The following names in NetHack contain Yendor:
- Amulet of Yendor, the goal
- Wizard of Yendor (aka Rodney), annoying wizard
- Platinum Yendorian Express Card, the Tourist quest artifact
- Yendor, an incomplete novel by Nameless
- If applying an unpaid potion of oil, you will get the message, "Yendorian Fuel Tax (n zorkmids)".
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