[Poll] Help Name Some Races

Epic Meepo · January 23, 2007, 05:14:11 PM

I'm getting close to finalizing the races of Cebexia so I can actually start building the world itself, but I can't decide on some of the names I want to use.

Possible Names for Animal-like Humanoids
(Note: The ancestors of these humanoids were literally cursed with the Mark of the Beast by vengeful elder gods.)
[th]Name[/th][th]Pros[/th][th]Cons[/th]

Beast-Marked	Avoids the overused suffix "folk"; evocative of the race's history	Unwieldy, since the plural form is "the beast-marked" instead of something with an "s" on the end.
Beastfolk	Short and to the point.	Somewhat cliche.
Enoc	Short and easy to use.	Not descriptive. ("Wait, what's an enoc again?")
Gnoll	Uses an existing name for an animal-like race.	Slightly changes the term gnoll, since now, gnolls aren't all hyena-like.

Possible Names for Aquatic Humanoids
[th]Name[/th][th]Pros[/th][th]Cons[/th]

Merfolk	Accurately describes aquatic humanoids.	Might (?) create the impression that all aquatic humanoids have tails (only some do).
Locathah	Existing aquatic humanoid name that sounds like an authentic species name.	Not very descriptive; tied to one of the crappiest aquatic races in the core rules.
Piscine	Accurate and descriptive.	Abandons traditional and equally accurate terms like "merfolk."

Any thoughts?

Xathan · January 23, 2007, 05:30:32 PM

Thoughts:

A horse is a horse, and a human is a human. Humans should be members of the hominid group, and other human relatives should be also part of that, but calling humans something other than humans is just...odd.

How about Beastborn or Ferals or Primals or Anthronians (based off of anthropomorphic) for the beast-people. I agree with you that the cliche "folk" is really, really overused, so try to avoid it if at all possible. I also like Enoc, despite it's lack of description: and really, of all of the well known-and-loved fantasy or sci-fi races, how many of them have descriptive names?

For lizard people, the term Saurian is one I always like to use. It fits scientifically, sounds cool, and is descriptive enough without being blunt. Most people, even if they don't know what Saurian actually means, will still subconsciously associate it with the -saur in dinosaur, so it has a particularly scaly feel.

snakefing · January 23, 2007, 05:42:04 PM

Hmm, I'm not sure about hominid.

Scientifically, it is used to refer to humans and their near relatives. (Of course, all the near relatives are extinct now.) So I could see using this as a word for a group of races (humans and other human-like races) that would emphasize their close kinship. For example, hominids might refer to all the (non-beast-marked) mammalian races of humanoid shape and ancestry. But as a synonym/replacement for the usual meaning of "human" I'd say no.

I like Saurian. That's a good idea.

Beast-marked is an interesting name, but to me it is suggestive that they were somehow devolved or created by mixing "normal" races with beasts. I don't know if that is the impression you are going for. Or maybe "beast-marked" is what they are called by others, and they have their own more flattering or more accurate name for themselves.

Captain Obvious · January 23, 2007, 05:43:22 PM

Hamans.
What about some name that sounds phonetically like human, that is the human's name for themselves. and then the pronounciation gets butchered by the othe races.
something like Umans.

For the beast-folk.
What if you use some similar term to beast without actually using beast.
Something like wildren (although i believe there is already a race called wildren).
i also like the idea of calling them goblins. although maybe Goblyns would be better since it lets people know they harken more to the classic folk-lore goblins than the dnd sterotypes.

for the lizard guys.
What about saurians. or saurials.

~Kalin~ · January 23, 2007, 08:57:32 PM

I think the general reason that humans are called humans in settings is to not add any unnesassary complexity or confusion, just keep humans as humans

I like the name Enoc, but it reminds me of the Ewok from star wars, so i would say go with the Beast Marked.

Stargate525 · January 23, 2007, 10:11:11 PM

Human I like. Makes it nice and simple. If you want more variety, divide the race by region. He's not a human, he's a Gilgethi, or some such thing.

I like Enoc, smacks of a mix between the Eloi and the Morloc from The Time Machine to me. I might be the only one to get that, but it's not a bad thing. In fact it gives me a very nice picture of them in my head.

I'm in the Saurian party for their names as well. However, I wouldn't shelve 'the scaled folk' just yet. It might work as a derogatory name along with 'scalie.'

Raelifin · January 23, 2007, 11:13:59 PM

Of those you suggested:

Human

Goblin (Simply because I love using the name goblin to break stereotypes. If they don't share the same feel/traits as the goblins of lore, I would use Enoc)

None that you suggested. I like saurians.

Epic Meepo · January 23, 2007, 11:36:41 PM

In the main post, I'm officially adding "saurian" as a possible name for kobolds et al.

SA · January 23, 2007, 11:43:42 PM

If you're going for a scientific feel (that is, if you classify mammalian humanoids as "hominids"), then you might consider calling the reptiles "sauropsids", as a similar bastardisation of the technical sauropsidae (corresponding with hominidae).

Matt Larkin (author) · January 26, 2007, 03:55:47 PM

Maybe I will have to re-examine use of "folk" myself. I just am hesitant to make up names for races for my particular project. As to yours:

I'm so fond of saurian, I may have to snatch it for my reptile people.

I wouldn't call humans hominids, really. Use either human, or a unique name they would have for themselves.

It'd be a neat use for goblin, but what if you wound up wanting to later include something closer to folklore goblins (or fantasy goblins)? Beast-marked, is okay. Someone said ferals/primals, which is kind of nice.

Matt Larkin (author) · January 26, 2007, 04:16:30 PM

At the risk of hijacking the thread (and I don't want Epic Meepo after me :o ), does anyone have a good idea for another name for a catfolk race (I don't want too specific, since there are subspecies for all the major species of great cat)?

Kindling · January 28, 2007, 08:15:25 AM

Maybe some kind of perversion of the word "feline" would work, Phoenix.

Phelyn, Felann, Faelen, or something along those lines.

Matt Larkin (author) · January 28, 2007, 09:16:26 AM

That's a good place to start. Thanks, Kindling, I might use one of those or something similar.

Ishmayl-Retired · January 28, 2007, 09:19:40 AM

Meeps,
I don't have any specifics to throw out, but just my two cents on the subject. I've always liked the idea that different races generally have two names; the name they have chosen, and the name others have chosen for them. Typically, the first tends to be of high importance to the people and holds hundreds or thousands of years of history, while the second is usually found to be distasteful or even outright rude (Inuit --> Eskimo; or in my world, Trakloks --> Beast Men, Myari --> Halflings). The reason this works is the same reason it works here in the real world; either a name was just given to people based on familiar stereotypes, or over time, racial discrimination has led to a lack of understanding and intolerance that the significance of a name holds to a culture. Therefore, in your world, a particular people could call themselves the "Enocs," while others who don't know the significance of the name could call them Beast-Marked, or even Goblins.

Matt Larkin (author) · January 28, 2007, 07:59:39 PM

So Meepo, have you made decisions?

In my case, I'm thinking of going with:
saurian to replace all instances of lizardfolk
felid to replace catfolk (I think it parallels my use of canid for wolf/jackal people, well; thanks Kindling)
cynoceph for jackalfolk subspecies of canid

I'm still uncertain what to do for subspecies of catfolk, however (e.g. tigerfolk, lionfolk, etc.) Some have passible scientific names (leos, tigris (though there is the issue of that sounding like the river)), but others are not clearly recognizable for their nature (many people would not know oncas are jaguar-men, but maybe that's good?).

I agree with that Ishy, mostly. Only I would say a setting writter out to consistently use one name, and make a note that the race calls themselves "X." Polite NPCs may use this name for the race, too.

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[Poll] Help Name Some Races

Epic Meepo

Xathan

snakefing

Captain Obvious

~Kalin~

Stargate525

Raelifin

Epic Meepo

SA

Matt Larkin (author)

Matt Larkin (author)

Kindling

Matt Larkin (author)

Ishmayl-Retired

Matt Larkin (author)