D&D 4E Help me rename 4e's "fell taints"

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

Howdy folks!

While I've tagged this as 4e, since the creatures made their debut in an issue of Dragon and have 4e stats, the thread is pretty universal in scope.

One of the big enemies of my campaign so far have been fell taints--they're weird little creatures from the Far Realm that are the initial manifestation of some bad, bad stuff happening to my homebrew setting. For a full write-up, see the article in Dragon 376, but in a nutshell, they're bizarre, alien creatures that are basically silent sky jellyfish that do psychic damage. I don't believe the initial article really says where the creatures come from, but for my purposes, we're going to say they're coming from the Far Realm.

I play them up in game for being very strange, alien, and frightening, and they can be tough opponents in the game, and they really capture the feel that I'm going for...but i just cannot stand the name.

So, ENWorld...help me. What's a better name for these creatures?

 

[Cleon]

Howdy folks!

Howdy Trevalon!

I don't believe the initial article really says where the creatures come from, but for my purposes, we're going to say they're coming from the Far Realm.

I found two references specifically linking them to the Far Realm. The Monster Manual 2 says "Fell taints usually work only with their kind and other aberrant creatures of the Far Realm" (page 104), and the article in Dragon #376 has "In some remote areas the boundary with the Far Realm might be so thin that fell taints move back and forth with ease" (page 7).

So, ENWorld...help me. What's a better name for these creatures?

How about "Madness Wisp" or "Wisp o'Madness"?

Their schtick of "floaty translucent thing with an inscrutable mind that feed off psychic energy" is pretty much the same as a Will o'Wisp, which was an aberration / bizarre alien creature in earlier editions of D&D, so I could easily see the two as being related. The Fell Taint Pulsar even give out light like a Will o'Wisp, so the main mechanical difference between the two is Will o'Wisps can "blink out".

Maybe Taints are Will o'Wisps that have adapted to live in the Far Realms. Or, contrarywise, Will o'Wisps are Taints that have adapted to live in the Feywilds.

Will o'wisps already have a bunch of relatives in D&D - Boggart, Firestar, Ghostlight, Will o'Dawn, Will o'Deep, Will o'Mist, Will o'Sea and Will o'Shadow, so it doesn't seem much of a stretch adding another one. Even if they aren't actually related, I can see the "common folk" in D&D giving them a similar name because of the resemblance of their abilities.

There are many synonyms and regional names for a "Will o'Wisp" - e.g. Corpse Candle, Ghostlight, Ignis Fatuus (Latin, Fool's Fire), Ellylldan (Welsh), Teine Biorach (Gaelic), Herwisch (German, Rhine Valley), but most of those appear to be unsuitable since they refer to light/fire sources, ghosts, or the folklore is specific about them being some kind of faerie.

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

Aha! So I wasn't making things up then. Good!

Thanks so much for the thorough reply. I like the suggestions. Madness wisp seems to fit well with how I've been describing them in game.

Feel free to keep other suggestions coming in, though, folks!

 

[Cleon]

Aha! So I wasn't making things up then. Good!

Thanks so much for the thorough reply. I like the suggestions. Madness wisp seems to fit well with how I've been describing them in game.

Feel free to keep other suggestions coming in, though, folks!

Glad to help.

Madness Wisp fits in pretty well with Fourth Edition's habit of giving monsters names with common English meanings, and I like the ring of it better than some of official monsters.

Or how about something "scientific" sounding that uses (or, at least resembles) Greek or Latin like a taxonomical name (e.g. Tyrannosaurus for "Tyrant Lizard".

Rummaging through various online dictionaries, the only Greek word for "wisp" I could find was τούφα ("toufa"), which also means "lock of hair".

That doesn't sound very monstrous, so how about something that starts with phobos (fear/horror).

Phobokystis (Horror Sac, where kystis means "bladder or sac").
Phobonkos (Fear Tumour, where onkos means "bulk, mass, or tumour" - the same root as is used for oncology, the medical study of cancers.)

I suspect the words aren't conjugated correctly, since I don't actually speak/read Greek, but they sound sort-of-convincing, which is hopefully good enough for a campaign whose scholars have a pseudo-classical background.

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

I like those pseudo-scientific names. I might run with those a bit since there's at least one research/detail oriented character, and several scholarly NPCs that might have information on the things.

Thanks!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Dire Flumph?

I like the idea of connecting them to Will o' Wisps...perhaps they're but a juvenile form of the Fell Taints?

And the prefix "phobos" is a good fit...what about pairing it with "psalída" for tendril?

 

[Cleon]

And the prefix "phobos" is a good fit...what about pairing it with "psalída" for tendril?

Psalida as in ψαλίδα? I had some difficulty finding the word online, since Wikipedia's deleted its Psalida page.

Still, I eventually found the word on Babylon.com and Google Translate as a Greek word meaning "tendril".

However it also means "earwig", and a quick internet search for animals called psalida also came up with a Fruit Fly and a Pintail Duck - none of which seem very good models for a Fell Taint.

Also, is psalida singular? Fell Taints have lots of appendages, so we want a plural form (e.g. something that means "Horror Tendrils").

Google translate returns έλικες ([h]elikes) as meaning "tendrils/strands/spirals", which'd come out as something like Phobohelices once we tag it onto φόβος (phobos) and anglicize it.

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

Great discussion and ideas!

I'm no language expert and none of my players are, so I'm sure your credentials (fake or real as they may be LOL) will suit my needs just fine.

Many thanks, and feel free to chime in, anyone who knows these languages!

 

[Cleon]

Great discussion and ideas!

I'm no language expert and none of my players are, so I'm sure your credentials (fake or real as they may be LOL) will suit my needs just fine.

Many thanks, and feel free to chime in, anyone who knows these languages!

I suspect there are at least some biological scientists who coin taxonomical names for species they've discovered with as little knowledge of classical languages as I have.

Especially considering some of them have names which combine Greek and Latin words...