Yarra

Connections

• Accompanied by her raven, Yarra, Ember served as the Guardian of the Fangwild

Context

Yarra is the name of a river (as well as the accompanying valley and a nearby city) in the state of Victoria, Australia (the southeastern tip of the country, just north of the island state of Tasmania). The river was called Birrarung ("ever flowing") by the local aboriginal people (the Wurundjeri people). It was also called Birrarung Mar ("river of mist" or "river bank"). This was all before European occupation.

When the Europeans arrived in 1835, they thought the aboriginal peoples called the river "Yarra Yarra." But it is believed that the word yarra means "waterfall" or "flow," and is used to describe any flowing river or waterfall. There isn't much more to add here, especially since none of this seems to be at all relevant to an elf ranger's raven companion. But it's interesting, nonetheless.

What is most likely, however, was suggested to me by a user named ASkyHappy. They pointed out that "Yarra" is "array" backwards. "Array" is a term in game development (an indexed set of related elements), and it would be just like BMG to do something simple and cheeky like taking a word backwards to make something sound "exotic" or "fantasy-like."