Gorgon Systems

[The Grey Sage]

Hello I'm the Grey Sage, and I am posing a question to all.
In the universe I have created I have made the Gorgon inhabitants be based of a 'hive' system of functions, but allowed them to retain personalities the higher ranked they are in that system. I mentioned in my writing that there is a naming process for each egg (containing a Gorgon), and I even have names but I need some kind of coherency in their surname or base names. I'm looking for some kind of system to put into the names. Here is an example of a character I'm using: Semaza’trsdar’kes.
I know the name is long but I recently looked up other Gorgons in writing and wanted to do something similar but different, so I came up with divided, long names with 'kes, 'aza, 'trsa, and 'yursa all at the ends. Any ideas how I can fit all of this stuff together?

 

[mythique890]

Can you give a little more detail on what kind of system you're looking for? How are the eggs classified? Who lays them? Can you give a more detailed description of your hive hierarchy and how you want the names to reflect it?

Sounds like an interesting idea.

 

[Ravana]

See my posts elsewhere on basic phonology and phonotactics. Once you have the sound system set up properly, all you need to do is pick a few elements and decide what they mean. Though if you're going to go that route, they are all going to end up sounding similar: there can only be so many elements in a hierarchy. To draw a comparison: there are an amazing number of people in the military whose first name is "Sergeant" (no matter what their mothers called them at birth). Hive societies would care far less about names than they would about membership (are you from this hive, or some other one?) and function. In fact, if you have significant amounts of individuality, you don't really have much of a "hive."

Beyond that, you'd have to provide more specifics. I'm having a bit of trouble imagining gorgons as hive entities… or social entities at all. I would think the mortality rate would prove perilously high.…

 

[The Grey Sage]

Actually I've augmented what Gorgons are. They are the same form but without the same motives and powers as Gorgons from Greek mythology. Also, only the 'priestess'' and queen have their own individuality, no other gorgon has such capacity. I'll release more info on my Realms when I've completed my first draft of my guide to them
But the information that I can give for you is that. According to level of projected strength and size eggs are separated into Gorgonite (worker, low class), Priestess (religious, inventors, high class), and Queens (highest class, parts of the hive mind) which are breed to be as such. The hive mind is centered in the first queen, also being a higher yielder of eggs than the other queens. Each queen has a large frontal sack from which the eggs come from and are then placed in incubators. As far as technology, well, think the bio tech type stuff from the Yuuzhan Vong from Star Wars. That's about as much as I have as far as birth process and classes.

 

[Ravana]

I'd start by not calling them "gorgons," then. Something that "looks" like a gorgon (and which form did you have in mind? they varied) but doesn't turn things to stone isn't a gorgon, it's someone with really bad dreadlocks. You'd be far better off inventing your own name for the race than to create an expectation in your readers' minds that you have no intention of fulfilling.

Just out of curiosity, have you read the SF novel Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card? Nothing to do with gorgons, but you might see how it would apply to what you're doing.…

 

[The Grey Sage]

Actually Orson is my favorite sci-fi novelist and I love Ender's Game perhaps most of all, perhaps you're right about renaming the species. I have thought about giving the higher ranked members the stone-making capability but thought against it. I wanted a familiar species though because I have invented about 7 new species for the Realms. And I do see the connections between the 'buggers' or formics and my species. My only hesitation is because the species physically resemble classical Gorgon descriptions. Thanks for the input, any more ideas are totally welcome.

 

[Ravana]

Hmm. Well… for starters, in what way do they physically resemble gorgons? At one point in Greek mythology, gorgons had wings, but doing that would probably surprise quite a few people. Live snakes for hair? That's fairly distinctive–and really, really hard to explain without divine intervention of some sort–but you can probably find some comparable examples somewhere. (A couple of the Aztec gods were depicted as having "skirts" of living snakes, for instance, though I'm not sure it's clear whether these are supposed to be appendages or garments.) What might surprise people here is that this appears to be a fairly late addition to the form of the gorgon… and to look at some of the earlier gorgon art, might have even been a reinterpretation (or misinterpretation) of "wild," curly hair. (Some of the early art also appears to have beards, for that matter, though this was apparently intended to be dripping blood.)

Most people would have no problem with them having fangs… but brass claws? boarlike tusks? protruding tongue? bug-eyes? (That's "large," not "insectoid.") Scaly skin, sometimes; serpentine lower body? Forget it: Harryhausen added that. If you want those, you're after nagas from Hindu legend. (And doubtless numerous less well-known beings from elsewhere.)

I guess a better question might be why you feel the need for such a species at all. You're correct that bombarding your readers with too many new ones can be confusing or off-putting, and conversely doesn't give you as much room to develop each one. Whereas if you aren't going to be developing them, you may be better off not using them at all–you'll find discussions elsewhere on this forum about the difference between "elves" and "humans with pointy ears," to take one commonly-abused example. But if you're going to be using a race that is a hive-mind ("familiar" gorgons aren't) and doesn't cause petrification ("familiar" gorgons do), you're already down to mere physical resemblance anyway… so just give them haircuts (or whatever) and call them something else; otherwise, you'll probably end up losing more from the "familiarity" than you're gaining. Just my way of looking at it.

 

[The Grey Sage]

You have a point. I have already fixed certian problems with them but am now looking for a new name. As for appearence I have edited them and slightly Naga-ized them to have the serpentine lower body. Although the serpent theme is a good one I have indeed 'given them haircuts'. So here is a current physical description for them: (from head to tail)

They have lengthy skulls that are hairless. Their skin is a light green with scales on certian areas (such as the lower body). Their faces are thin and angular. They have large lidless eyes that are a deep green color, almost black. They have caved nose cavities (meaning no cartilage structure to cover the nasal cavity). They have pointed teeth but not really fangs; all contained in a small mouth without lips. They have long necks and boney shoulders. They all have female humanish torsos with roughly the same porportions as a human. However their arms are very long and their hands only three long fingers. Each finger has long black claws. Down past the waist they are covered in large, slick scales. Their lower bodies are that of a huge snake.

So, any thoughts or suggestions. As soon as I can get a picture upload to work, I will post a sketch of one (I did one for fun and it turned out fairly well).

 

[Ravana]

Sounds like you're on the right track. As for a name… the obvious would be "nagini" (the feminine form of "naga"), or "phanini" (a related term—though the "ph" here is an aspirated "p," not an "f," so it would sound an awful lot like grilled bread); neither would seem to fit in well with the personal names you're using, however. Though it doesn't matter so much what they call themselves as what other people (i.e. your characters) call them, really… though in all likelihood, that will be their language's equivalent of "snake people," which is kinda dull.

Here's an interesting thought—though it might at first fly in the face of what I've said before: call them "hydrans." Individually, it doesn't seem to be an apt descriptor, but if you think of the hive community as being "multiple heads" of one being, it might actually fit rather well. It gives you a name that is somewhat familiar, to the extent that readers will associate it with serpentine beings, while at the same time is clearly not the same thing as "hydras." Or if you want to make it slightly less obviously based on English adjective derivation, change the ending: "hydrasi," or something like that. Possibly alter the initial consonant to a related sound, say "chydrasi." Probably don't want to go much farther afield than that, or you'll lose the benefit of being vaguely familiar, at which point you're essentially just making up your own name. (Which isn't the worst thing in the world: I thought the particle "yursa" from your first post would work well. Depends on what you want.)

 

[The Grey Sage]

Ruhydran is the name I came up with actually. Thanks for the awesome idea of the 'hydra' base word. Your insight is always appreciated. Thank you very much Ravana!
Oh, by the way the plural of Ruhydran is Ruhydrai

 

[Ravana]

Quite welcome. Always glad to see something come together well.

 

[The Grey Sage]

I have almost everything ready for a post of a description, some characters and a social ladder, along with a picture. More to come!