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Scientific Names for My Homebrew Setting
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<blockquote data-quote="Hriston" data-source="post: 8873360" data-attributes="member: 6787503"><p>I’m not exactly sure what you mean here by “in-setting”. If you mean <em>“are they meant to reflect words or categories used by someone in the setting?"</em> no, they are not. If you mean <em>"are they meant to reflect in-setting biological realities, as I imagine them?"</em> then yes, that's what I'm trying to describe.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Right, I went with <em>immanis, </em>as opposed to the perhaps more obvious <em>monstrosus, </em>for at least in part something like this reason. For the orc/goblinoid/kobold grouping, however, I had some difficulty finding a characteristic that I feel defines them that doesn't also have similarly bad optics. I think <em>noctis, </em>as you suggest, doesn't quite capture their association with darkness, especially underground darkness which I think is a big part of it. I also think it risks subsuming part of the elven identity which is a sort of night-adapted human. Of course, <em>tenebris </em>is right out because of implications about human skin-tones. What about <em>umbra </em>in the sense of "shadow"? Perhaps the fiendish origin I imagine for them could be acknowledged with the word <em>furialia, </em>although I think that might commonly be interpreted as <em>furious </em>rather than <em>fiendish,</em> which meaning could also work but runs into similar problems. Alternatively, I think one solution is to fold them into the modern human subspecies along with elves and halflings.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Well, yes, I came up with this, and I am human. It's funny that I've never really had the need to explain that to anyone before, but that already in this thread I've had to make that clarification at least once. Now, I think I resorted to describing things in terms of physical differences from modern humans because my audience (other humans) ought to know what a human is, and because I was trying to justify creating a few other categories based on those differences.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Okay, well again, it's not meant to be an "in-setting" taxonomy. I'm describing the setting from outside, as it were. The reason I've grouped elves in as part of the "modern human" group is because I'm imagining them as having very little actual physical difference from (modern) humans.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hriston, post: 8873360, member: 6787503"] I’m not exactly sure what you mean here by “in-setting”. If you mean [I]“are they meant to reflect words or categories used by someone in the setting?"[/I] no, they are not. If you mean [I]"are they meant to reflect in-setting biological realities, as I imagine them?"[/I] then yes, that's what I'm trying to describe. Right, I went with [I]immanis, [/I]as opposed to the perhaps more obvious [I]monstrosus, [/I]for at least in part something like this reason. For the orc/goblinoid/kobold grouping, however, I had some difficulty finding a characteristic that I feel defines them that doesn't also have similarly bad optics. I think [I]noctis, [/I]as you suggest, doesn't quite capture their association with darkness, especially underground darkness which I think is a big part of it. I also think it risks subsuming part of the elven identity which is a sort of night-adapted human. Of course, [I]tenebris [/I]is right out because of implications about human skin-tones. What about [I]umbra [/I]in the sense of "shadow"? Perhaps the fiendish origin I imagine for them could be acknowledged with the word [I]furialia, [/I]although I think that might commonly be interpreted as [I]furious [/I]rather than [I]fiendish,[/I] which meaning could also work but runs into similar problems. Alternatively, I think one solution is to fold them into the modern human subspecies along with elves and halflings. Well, yes, I came up with this, and I am human. It's funny that I've never really had the need to explain that to anyone before, but that already in this thread I've had to make that clarification at least once. Now, I think I resorted to describing things in terms of physical differences from modern humans because my audience (other humans) ought to know what a human is, and because I was trying to justify creating a few other categories based on those differences. Okay, well again, it's not meant to be an "in-setting" taxonomy. I'm describing the setting from outside, as it were. The reason I've grouped elves in as part of the "modern human" group is because I'm imagining them as having very little actual physical difference from (modern) humans. [/QUOTE]
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