@Shangyan#1471 ```s the term often translated from Japanese as "Emperor," not referring to the Japanese Emperor, also correctly translated as "Great King"? I am presently entertaining the possibility that Jaldabaoth's title of Demon Emperor is also Great Demon King, which is a more proper translation of Ganon's title of Great King of Evil in Ocarina of Time.```
That depends. There are multiple kanji that could apply to those titles in a general translation context. Off the top, the two traditional Emperor ttiles are reserved in the fan translation for Jircniv and Tsa's father. Given how Maruyama calls knights from Jircniv's nation as "Imperial Knights" and JIrcniv has the "Emperor" class it does suggest that this kanji should be read as Emperor/Empire/Imperial and so on.
Demiurge's title is not so distinct, paralleling how King or Ou can in fact vary in nuance given it's roots in Chinese dynasties in the past as req was pointing out. For context, the Re Estize Kingdom uses Ou and is a feudal monarchy of a sort. Yet demihuman lords also are called King or Lord in the same way but their societal organization isn't as formalized as we would think of a proper Kingdom. But King or Lord does get across this powerful person is in charge and is a person of status.
If you want to be literal, clearly he shouldn't be called King or Emperor if you want to preserve nuance. But then, what can you call him?
If you look at the terms that share it, like for example the term, foreign emperors, "Imperial Heir" (male or female), or how the modern Japanese title is no longer the Emperor used for the other two, it's not wrong to still call Jaldaboath an Emperor of a sort. This title however predates the other one in fact.
So you could see Maruyama using the obsolete one as a subtle form of respect (Japan is very weird in how you talk about the Emperor with living and deceased forms of address etc).
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``` I am presently entertaining the possibility that Jaldabaoth's title of Demon Emperor is also Great Demon King, which is a more proper translation of Ganon's title of Great King of Evil in Ocarina of Time.```
``` I am presently entertaining the possibility that Jaldabaoth's title of Demon Emperor is also Great Demon King, which is a more proper translation of Ganon's title of Great King of Evil in Ocarina of Time.```
I guess you could interpret it as "Great King" not literally of course but as in Emperor > King which is echoed somewhat in the history of the term. Still, if it was literal, the title should've been something else and not what he choose. A nuance this adds however is just Great or High King implies superiority to regular Kings, Demiurge using it instead of the other one could be seen as implying the others are obsolete as well or retroactively going to become things of the past. If you interpret kanji choice that liberally....
If we try to understand Maruyama's logic, I believe you could argue that this version of Emperor could be considered a Great King. The logic he might have used was Demiurge was already in control of many Lords or Kings. The Empire is distinct because it's not an Emperor above various Kings but his own subjects. This line of reasoning falls apart with how the Dragon Emperor ruled over Dragon Lords however. Still, the logic used for JIrcniv's empire may not hav ebeen the same used for the Dragon Empire's name (or it's a vestige of Web Novel naming so Maruyama just named them the same at the time).
From my perspective, at least the difference between Kingdom and Emperor seems clear. What remains is how to include an alternate reading for Emperor in the midst. Pondering how to localize it seems to be the main problem. Looking at the history of 'Emperor' in English it's clear to draw a line from figures like Caesar and the original Latin literal meaning.
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Maybe because Demiurge is the defense commander and led his demihumans in battle as Jaldaboath on several occasions perhaps you could echo the parallels? LIke call Jaldaboath the "Demon Imperator" or "Evil Imperator" since I believe the official romanization was Evil not Devil or Demon in Volume 12's chapter page? But I could be misremembering that detail. Anyway right now at least distinguishing between the two Emperor names with Emperor and Imperator seems like a decent localization attempt at least.
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