On similar lines, Molossis
, Zagore
, possibly some variation of Karpatia or Karpatalja
but that might be farther north than you're thinking?
A little less historical and more symbolic, Murmidonia
?
I'm trying to think of a last name for a character, but I don't have any ideas for said last name. Here's what I have for him so far, if it helps spark some ideas:
- First name is Andrew.
- Born on the 22nd of July 1979, making him 11 when the story itself starts.
- Jewish
- Profane
- Self-proclaimed pacifist. Heavy emphasis on "Self-proclaimed".
- Just really annoying to be around in general.
Edited by HunterGr33n on Sep 29th 2023 at 6:15:03 AM
I think Zetabrand is a pretty cool guy. Eh has a license to combo and doesn't afraid of anything.I went to the Surnames section of Behind the Name, looked up the Jewish names, and found Prinz
, which stuck out to me because it'd be kind of ironic (or maybe fitting, depending on your view of monarchies) for an obnoxious character to not act very princely at all.
I don't believe in intentionally meaningful names, though, so if I were in your position, I'd scroll through the Jewish surnames until one speaks to me.
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."Sorry for disappearing for a week, I got distracted and then forgot that I had left the discussion hanging.
On my last query, I've settled on "hyborg" as my term of choice. Thanks for all the feedback.
Now, on a different subject, I have in mind for my setting an Unobtainium-type exotic chemical element that is so versatile in its applications, it revolutionized human civilization with several quantum leaps in technological advancement... only for the cruel irony that in their reckless abuse of the element like a narcotic drug (proverbially), humanity accidentally created their own civilization-destroying apocalypse in the form of a horde of rogue biomechatronic robots, with the survivors fleeing into the Last Bastion that is Ploutonion.
Knowing that the Greek god Prometheus has become a byword for both human striving and scientific knowledge on the one hand note , and the risk of overreaching or unintended consequences on the other hand note , I find him a very fitting namesake for this element. And yes, I know there's already the real-life element promethium
, which is frankly underwhelming for its imposing etymology; given the precedent of four elements not only having the exact same namesake but being hilariously close to one another in spelling and pronunciation (yttrium
and ytterbium
, terbium
and erbium
), I have more than valid ground to reuse Prometheus as a namesake.
So... I'm thinking prometheonium, leaning on the name's genitive form (Προμηθέως Promēthéōs) as well as the adjectival form (Προμήθειος Promḗtheios). What do you think?
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.I think that would not be a likely name, I'm sure the people who name elements learned their lesson from the ytterby incident. Also physics says no more elements, (island of stability being purely hypothetical aside, it's absurdly difficult to make large nucleus things in the first place, and certainly not in large quantities.) so there's that. Also new elements are now pretty much always named after the university that gets first detection.
Might I recommend it not being an element, but instead a mineral or synthetic compound?
Promethonite or Promethite could get around both the problems of duplicate names and physics saying no, and minerals are more likely to be versatile than elements, especially transuranic ones, synthetic minerals possibly even more so.
Edited by Florien on Sep 30th 2023 at 12:37:02 PM
First off: Yes, I want it to be an element. It's going to be the basis for numerous compounds and alloys in the first place; having it be a compound in itself complicates matters IMO.
Second: The setting is on a Fictional Earth and I'm operating on the softer end of the Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness to begin with, which gives me considerable leeway of the Artistic License – Physics and Artistic License – Chemistry kinds.
Third: As pointed out in the Not On The Periodic Table
draft, the element originating from an alternate reality or being synthesized by Sufficiently Advanced Aliens is perfectly valid. Throw in a built-in property for controllable self-replication, and we handwave away any risk of scarcity.
Fourth: You're wrong on the "named after the university that gets first detection" thing; half of the elements that were discovered in the last three decades were named after people, with all but one having no connection to the institutes that discovered them. Besides, even if it ends up becoming a formally dictated naming convention, I still wouldn't deign to strictly enforce it because it's fucking boring.
Edited by MarqFJA on Sep 30th 2023 at 5:43:59 PM
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.Oh, I'll dispute that.
Half the elements that were synthesized in the last three decades were named after people. This may be true. However!
All the elements synthesized in the last two decades (from 114 on) aside from one (flerovium), are named for researchers involved or where their researchers were from or they were discovered, you've got Livermore, Moscow, Yuri Oganessian, Tennessee, and Japan.
(Flerovium is named after the previous director of the institute that discovered it, (he was at the time, dead) and Oganesson is named after the current director (he is still alive))
The last element named for a person unrelated to it was copernicum, in 2009, after years of debate.
But if you're going to go the soft sci-fi route, yeah, I guess duplicate your element name away. I still think that it doesn't super work as a name though, the symbolism is nice to have since you're having a greek theming, but it's going to sound stilted to anyone who's heard of promethium, just as Yttrium and Yttrium-2-fast-2-furious sound stilted to anyone who's heard of both.
I don't like the issue with Ytterby much as it is.
What you're describing sounds like some form of programmable matter
, so that may be of some help. (I like the name wellstone, which is supposed to be for a solid semiconductor carefully made on a nanotech scale to be capable of supporting quantum wells that can imitate the electromagnetic behaviour of arbitrary elements. I've probably described that very badly.)
Here are some random prima materia-related terms mostly inspired by alchemy: argillum, atramentum, azoth, chrysopeum, hydraurum, pandora, xerion, ylem, yliaster.
All that said, if you're operating on a sufficiently soft level of SF, you could always just declare that actual promethium behaves the way you want it to in this universe, or that the name wasn't already assigned yet.
ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NO![]()
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I had considered that, but changed my mind after learning that Ithax/Ithas is likely a different, messenger god
who had been confused for Prometheus by Hesychius of Alexandria.
... That said, it would be a good choice of name for an arrogant Mad Scientist that had the hubris to think that he had mastered this element and become the Prometheus of his time, only to be put through a Humiliation Conga over the course of the apocalypse's unfolding that shows just how much of a pathetic pretender he is to that lofty status.
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Fair enough on the real-life element names, though it doesn't change the fact that such a naming convention gives too much an Egopolis-esque vibe.
BTW, the debate over copernicium was about proving it was successfully synthesized; its 1996 discovery took until 2009 before it was finally recognized. Once that was dealt with, it only took a couple of months for a name to be proposed, and a routine six-month discussion period before it was formally accepted.
As for sounding stilted... I honestly don't see (well, hear) it. Even if it somehow is, there are numerous other fictional elements and other materials with far worse-sounding names than that. I particularly can never not cringe at DCU's Nth Metal; who the hell thought that was a good name?!
It's more like smart material
, actually, though I can see a form of programmable matter being a high-end product of prometheonium-based technology (indeed, it would be a good explanation for the apocalypse-causing robot horde being so overwhelmingly powerful). And for the record, it's not infinitely malleable, at least not in the hands of humans; it's just unusually versatile.
Funny that you suggest I simply take "promethium" as my made-up element's name, because I did consider doing that and then renaming the real-life promethium after the man who had first predicted its existence over four decades before it was properly synthesized and proven to be its own element, Bohuslav Brauner
(was thinking braunerium, mirroring the real-life meitnerium
being named after Lise Meitner).
With all that said, I just thought of an alternative: Prometheus is commonly known by the epithet pyrphoros (Πυρφόρος, lit. "fire-bringer" or "fire-bearer"), and the element is basically carries to humanity a "fire" that can elevate their civilization as much as it can destroy it. So... either "pyrphorium", or "pyrphoronium". I'm leaning towards the latter; it sounds a little better to me.
I suppose I could also take a page from your suggestion of about this world's promethium behaving differently from real life, and make pyrphorium a fictional isotope of promethium that was created from synthetic subatomic particles by Sufficiently Advanced Aliens, before ultimately finding its way to the Fictional Earth and becoming Imported Alien Phlebotinum.
Edited by MarqFJA on Sep 30th 2023 at 11:23:56 AM
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.One of Red Revenge's nazi supervillains (Aryan Maiden) defects to the soviets in august or september 1945. They take her because she's a very powerful telekinetic and nobody else except America and the nazis had a real supersoldier, and the Cold War's sides are already arming up and hiring nazis for a war they think they're going to have with each other.
The soviets give her a fake identity, and a new costume and name, and claim they gave her those powers. But the lack of any other soviet telekinetics makes it apparent that they did not. They keep denying that she's Aryan Maiden.
Ideas for her soviet supervillain name?
~*bleh*~What would be a good name for people whose souls grant them superpowers? I have this concept for a novel where people are able to manifest supernatural abilities through their souls, usually under traumatic circumstances.
CG for short![]()
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"Inbetweens"?
They're not "here" in the life of the living where souls have no powers and they are not "there" where their souls would have the powers usually by default.
They're "in-between" the worlds of the living and the afterlifes.
In short "Inbetweens".
Edited by Trainbarrel on Oct 3rd 2023 at 3:45:23 PM
"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."
Well, I picked "Afterlife" as an example.
The "in-between" could mean anything really, as long there is another side to stand in the doorway off.
Such as the "side" where the souls get their powers from for example, which could be a mystery of its own in the setting if the "superpower-blooming event" happens all of a sudden one day.
And "Inbetweens" came to mind when asking myself:
"How would an ordinary person with only the base superficial facts that "superpowers now exists?" try and explain it based on what they know, to someone else that's wondering about it and not sound absolutely clueless while answering that person."
Edited by Trainbarrel on Oct 3rd 2023 at 3:59:45 PM
"If there's problems, there's simple solutions."

Anyways, any good names for a Southeast European dystopia?
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