Suishen - What does it mean?

[Koujow]

Pretty simple, really. What does the name Suishen (from part 2) mean? Because the AP does not give us Kanji with any of the names throughout the entire AP, I have been unable to get a decent translation.

From my awesome skills in the Japanese and Chinese, I have a guess, but maybe I missed something. My idea is that the Sui translates into Water and because shen doesn't really translate into japanese (unless they were going for shin, like in the name Kenshin), I ventured maybe they meant Chinese Shen, as in Shenlong. Shen means god in Chinese, so my guess is Water God? Except the sword doesn't have any water based powers, so... *shrug*

That all said, my language skills are atrocious.

Also, in case you are wondering, my reasoning behind wanting to know the name is because at the end of the Brinewall Legacy (spoilers?), when they open the vault, my idea was to give legacy items to each of the players and connect them to Suishen's background. I wanted names that were consistent with Suishen's.

[Jeff Wilder]

I hate the name Suishen, and I'd already established the naming of Tien implements of war: "Whispering Shrike," "Stubborn Mountain," "Stooping Falcon." All items already claimed by the characters.

So I changed Suishen's name (or, more precisely, just decided that it translated) to "Revered Uncle."

[Jess Door]

I have a smattering of Japanese, and while Suishen has fire based powers, the "sui" immediately brings to mind water. And Koujow is right, "shen" isn't Japanese. This offended my sensibilities, especially since Amatatsu can mean either Stands on/in the Sky/Heavens, or Heaven/Sky Dragon.

I decided a bunch of changes were in order to make things line up between family names, family heirloom weapons, and elements, so I did a major overhaul, sometimes tweaking or changing names to find something with a reasonable translation.

For example, Suishen was changed to Suishin (Driving Waters), and it is associated with the Teikoku family, which I changed to Tekokku (Tekokoku, Rigorous Rowing). And it became a +3 impact Oustuchi (earthbreaker), and the Tekokku family ended up being Ulfen that came over eons ago, though they've mostly integrated, with only the occasional blue or green eyed scion really calling to mind their ancient origins.

[Cranky Dog]

I also searched for a meaning behind the name and came up zilch.

So I made up one: "First Snow" (I know that in japanese it doesn't sound anything like Suishen), with a meaning of the first snow after a meaningful final battle, covering the bloodshed, symbolizing a returning peace to the land.

Suishen's powers against the cold was my inspiration.

[Scharlata]

Koujow wrote:

... What does the name Suishen (from part 2) mean? ...

I don't have any skill in the Far Eastern languages at all, but after tinkering with a German/Japanese online translation site, I came up with "fire creature". Made sense to me.

[Solomani]

I renamed it to Fushigiri (Japanese: 不死斬り) the mortal blade. I gave it the ability to kill oni regen and perma-kill them.