Windchaser

(Posting this because I'm sure I'll end up losing it if I don't.)

I've been doing a little work on how the laima species functions, socially, and realised that I hadn't really thought about how their naming system works - I was just giving them first names and nothing else. This caused me 2 problems:

Firstly, for a society with three genders, you can't easily use Mr and Mrs. Mr and Mrs and... Mrs? No, that's not going to work.

Secondly, for a society that puts such a heavy emphasis on an individual's social standing and political importance, it would be strange for them to NOT have any system of indicating whose family you're part of, particularly if it's an important family.

So! I finally sat down and worked out how it should be structured.

Basic structure:
First name (capitalised), prefix’ (not capitalised), family name (capitalised)
The prefix is the determiner of whether an individual is married or not.

For unmarried laima:
Name su’MName - unmarried medusi (this is relatively unusual) - e.g., Pabishka su’Ventni
Name a’Name - unmarried spur or fessine - e.g., Valdis a’Verdi, Liega a’Salvon

For married laima:
Name si’MName - married medusi, head of family. - e.g., Pabishka si’Ventni
(si and su are intentionally similar. Most medusi like you to THINK they’re married and accumulating a big harem, even if they aren't, yet)
Name si’MName-name - married spur, takes the medusi’s family name and hyphenates it in front of his own - e.g., Valdis si’Ventni-verdi
Name ro’MName - married fessine, just takes the medusi’s family name. - e.g., Liega ro’Ventni

Notes
No medusi have hyphenated names; it is considered to lessen their social standing to take the spur’s family name in addition to her own.
Most medusi tend to be referred to as "Madame Firstname", e.g. Madame Pabishka; they only use "Madame si’Surname" in official documentation.
All children take the medusi’s surname.

NaNo2011... finally has a title. XD
After much scouring through latin phrasebooks, I came up with a very boring but oddly fitting
"Memento Mori"
Wikipedia says it’s “a Latin phrase translated as ‘Remember your mortality’, ‘Remember you must die’ or ‘Remember you will die’.“
In a way, it fits with what has happened to Blink, and also the “virus” plot.
I suppose in a way it's a little morbid? But I like it. ^_^

The other title I was thinking about using was "Carpe noctem" – ok, so it’s even more cliché and over-used, but I felt it fitted with the whole “werewolves” (or “were-whatevertheyares”) theme. XD

Other ideas I was kicking about:

• I quite like the whole "bee"-colourscheme I have going on in my brain - yellow, orange, black and white, with accents in green, blue and lilac.


• My subconsciousness also has hexagons in mind, as a sort of artistic/visual theme. (Hexagons are my new favourite thing at the moment, ha. Honeycombs, chickenwire, fences etc.) Plus I like the way they tessellate. I'm thinking of embroidering them onto my art, too, but we'll see how well THAT works. ¬_¬


• Ferns are lurking in there, too - these com from “Frond”, the multi-planar creature that “changes” Bee. (I have a halfassed idea for this now, and that's to save her life. I'll note the plot down properly in a bit.)


• The city Blink and Rae are making their way to is derelict, overgrown, but not abandoned - this is where the werewolves come in. XD (OK I don't know what they actually ARE. It's driven by a viral infection spread by a bite, that Frond has made Blink immune to - although she hasn't had time to tell her so. So there's another aspect of the "Memento Mori" thing.)


• They're on their way to a laboratory, which MIGHT have either a ship (to escape on) or at least a radio (to call for help). This is all glass and chrome and shiny-looking. Probably has some kind of remote security system in place, which is still running several years after the workers abandoned it.


• I love pebbles, too - either those big piles of smooth round pebbles like on a riverbed, or else like they do for spas, where they're all stacked up.


• Dragonflies! I particularly like these wings, because they've got the same black and yellow and stripey theme going on.


• Plus I'm thinking of using barbed wire as another theme - letters, words, hearts etc. It's supposedly evocative of protection, as well as being sharp and vicious.


Plot to come later. ^_^