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Elf's Random Musings

What's In a Name

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by
Elf
, August 17th, 2014 at 06:36 PM (4045 Views)
So, I'm getting ready to finish my online serial The Law Unto Herself Chronicles: The Stolen and originally I was going to just segue into the next Forest story. It's called "Scream Queen" and takes place during the 1980's. You know, that wonderful decade of Reganomics, movies that were unapologeticly violent and awesome like The Terminator, Aliens, Robocop, and so on and so forth, and hair metal. It just happens to be the decade I was born in and the one I will probably always feel nostalgic about because dude, seriously The Terminator, Aliens, Robocop, and a whole slew of other movies I could spend a blog entry talking about.


Well, the closer I'm coming to finishing my serial, which if things go right I'll have published in novel form after JukePop releases it, I need a follow up. Thing of it is, even though "Scream Queen" is something near and dear to my heart and something I've wanted to write for a while, I have another idea. Or rather, an old idea that LUHC spawned from.


See, long time ago I had an idea for an Urban Fantasy series that involved four supernatural types human and other who were part of a police force to take care of supernatural crimes. The whole basis was that the supernatural had been discovered and was common place now. Sort of like the Anita Blake books or the amazing Anno Dracula series but it was a fairly recent thing.


Well, my husband pointed out to me that if the supernatural was discovered an X-Men like situation would be the best case scenario. The more I thought about it, the more I realized my proofreader/editor/hubby was right. Then I realized how much more fun it would be to have this sort of maverick and dysfunctional group keep the world they live in secret from humanity. They would essentially be working outside of the law to keep it secret even though one of them is a police detective.

Of course they would have sanction to do this. There are shadowy government agencies for a reason. Plus the Cloak and Dagger stuff is really fun to write.

I'm collecting my ideas together, and the cast of characters is a lot broader than LUHC, even though it takes place in the same universe. In fact, those readers of LUHC will see several familiar faces in this series and Forest herself will make guest appearances from time to time. Of course, it has a totally different feel. Say LUHC is Buffy if I'm using my Whedonverse examples because biggest inspiration and all of that, then this will be more like Angel. Less tongue in cheek and more dire situations. Not to mention a somewhat darker tone.


Now here comes the kicker.


What shall I call my motley crew?


The original concept was SPF short for Supernatural Protection Force. Which, the more that I think of it, its kind of goofy. Sounds like sunscreen. Now of course, I could make jokes about vampires needing sunscreen and all of that but it would get lame really quick.


I was thinking something like The Shadow Guard or Umbra Praesidio which is Latin for Shadow Guard.Plus its a play off one of the group's last names.

So, what do you think, true believers?
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  1. Dullahan's Avatar
    If you go with the Latin title, I'm not sure if you can use praesidium in that sense. In the hymn Sub Tuum Praesidium (Under Thy Protection) it refers to 'protection' in an abstract sense, like we might say "the protection of powerful vested interests allows this program to continue" or "this bullet-proof vest affords me a great deal of protection". Furthermore, you've got it down as Praesidio, which is the dative/ablative singular, and makes the phrase translate as "Shadow to Protection" or "Shadow by protection" (Ablative case has a shitload of uses, so this could be any number of other things.)

    If you want 'guard' in the sense of 'City Guard', then the plural form of custos or vigil is a good bet - that is, custodes or vigiles respectively, which mean 'guards' or 'sentries'. (Both are nominative.) Thing is, getting umbra to connect to that is tricky. Latin doesn't really support attributive nouns like the "Shadow" in "Shadow Guard" and generally requires you to use an adjective or genitive construction to say what you mean. You can use the genitive singular of umbra to make the name Umbrae Vigiles - "Sentries of the Shadow" but that kinda sounds a bit too evil.

    EDIT: It's worth noting that umbra means both 'shadow' in the sense of something cast by an object and also 'shade' as in 'the shades of the dead, who dwell in Hades'.

    If the title is a play off one of the group's last names, what's the name?
    Updated August 18th, 2014 at 07:48 AM by Dullahan
  2. Mattias's Avatar
    I've always been a fan of groups with completely mudane names, who keep getting monikers (some stupid, others badass) attached to them buy their enemies/allies. Something like Division 9, and then you can throw in all the off the cuff titles you want as the story needs them.

    Then again, I've been reading a lot of Slayers and Nightside books recently and it may just be sticking in my mind.
  3. I3uster's Avatar
    Do you take suggestions

    how bout Silver Handlers.

    Kill supernatural shit, you use silver. Also derogatory because it sounds like they are in for the pay which supernatural humanlike beings would totally accuse them off. Not to mention that supernaturals preying on humans would rather avoid handling silver. Also "handler" sounds kind of wetworks-y
  4. Imperial's Avatar
    Schwarzwald

    Not, not the Big O character

    As in, "Black Forest"

    Could be indicative or working with scary, perhaps even dark, things that go bump in the night and keeping people from seeing the forest for the trees--oh, no, that wasn't a werewolf! It was an escaped mental patient! That wasn't hypnosis magic! That was a charismatic conman using cold readings!

    There's also the possibility of making it a deliberate shout out to Forest herself if you decided to blend them into the same setting. Perhaps one of the founders was one of Forest's students and is paying homage to her. Or maybe it's entirely unrelated before one of the magic-cops makes the offhand remark that their names have something in common, and everyone stares him/her down.
  5. Elf's Avatar
    Thanks guys, there are some really great ideas here.

    And if all else fails, I can always have the characters have an awesome conversation where they throw these ideas back and forth to each other. Filled with snark of course.