Generic guards in Tarant have names!

Greetings to you! I've just made a fantastic observation in the wonderful city of Tarant! It seems her respectable guards patrolling her streets at every hour, are in fact named! Whoever said they are 'generic' ought to reconsider their remark.

Behold! The man appears to be but a guard. Unremarkable, generic, providing the intellectual and sociable mind no interest. He appears to be just like any other guard in Tarant. Still, they are men of the preservation of order and law.



But what is this? After getting into a conversation, we learn that his name is in fact Tarant Officer. Mr. Officer has thus revealed to us his name, amazingly without ever speaking it out! Is this some sort of tomfoolery? Nay! Should one speak to this guard of Tarant, one will always read his label with the newly revealed name, Tarant Officer. Who would've ever thought these 'generic' guards bore names?


Okay, so I am aware of this being trivial and hardly a problem with Arcanum, but it occurred to me today that every guard in Tarant (save Jared) is marked as "Human Guard", before speaking to them, after which they become marked as "Tarant Officer". Has anyone else noticed this whilst playing? I'm at an early point in the game, whence I am supposed to locate the residence of a certain Gilbert Bates. My character is an evil and abhorred abomination, which you can see at the guard's (Mr. Officer's) initial reaction of 37. The character in question is an half-elf, negatively aligned and not especially beautiful at BE 9. He made a pact with the devil and sold his soul, giving himself +20 Magickal Aptitude and -20 alignment.
Has anyone else encountered this? Does it depend upon at what point in the game one currently is? Is it upon alignment, or any other factor? WHY IS THIS IMMENSELY IMPORTANT PROBLEM OCCURRING TO ME? Aaaarrrghh!

 

Do they have a generic uniform or a unique Tarant Guard uniform? I would assume without a visual identifier and until otherwise persuaded one would have no idea if a stranger on the street guarding an object was of the official Tarantian variety or a much more sinister presence guarding a den of stinking evil.

Thus until one is a "Tarant Officer" or a "Dastardly Thug" by exploration they would continue to be merely a "Human Guard".

 

Yes, the former, they have a generic uniform and your theory is most applicable to any claim of being the most possible one. In all my excitement I simply assumed anyone could enlist as a guard in Tarant, so long as one's name was Tarant Officer.

From an interview at the Arcanum Guard's headquarters:
- Good morning Mr. Officer.
- Morning, sir.
- Mr. Officer, I hear you're willing to work as a guard?
- Yes sir.
- Well, Officer, would you please fill out this form? We need to know what area suits you best.

"NAME, first: Tarant | NAME, last: Officer..."

- Excellent, Mr. Officer. You'll start off tomorrow by patrolling Lion's Head Street.
- Thank you, sir.

(Tarant Officer to himself)
- I'm glad my name ain't Dastardly Thug, 'cause that'd mean I'd watch the Den.

 

Well, yeah. And there's nothing strange about it. Human Guard is simply the race and class which is always revealed and the known name (in this case their job title) is revealed after the first conversation. I think the lady in the Hall of Records is simply called Human City Dweller before the first conversation and the Librarian is called Gnome City Dweller, but I could be misremembering some of them start out with a "known" name. The "Elite Bow Guards" in Dernholm might be called "Human Guard" before having been spoken to. There are many other examples though.

What's rather peculiar though are the ones whose race+class name are weird. Such as "Tough, Shady-looking Character" and "Voluptuous Female" and "Young, Inexperienced Woman". I also think that they mixed up the "unknown" and "known" names for Dog. I mean Dog is his race and should be his unknown name, whereas "Worthless Mutt" has more of a disparaging ring to it (like Dogmeat) and is somewhat amusing seeing as he's anything but.

Dog is also dull as hell.