Post by vbfdoee on Sept 7, 2012 17:50:12 GMT -6
I intend for this thread to be a discussion of the concept of "sacred" names. For the purposes of this discussion, a sacred name is one that uses elements that warrior cats consider sacred.
Everyone agrees that Star should not be used as a prefix out of respect for StarClan, not to mention the potential disaster should the cat become leader. You just don't do that. Some have suggested that if a cat whose prefix is Star becomes leader, the prefix and suffix could be flipped. This is absurd; consider how many Footstars and Tailstars and Peltstars and suchlike who would be running around.
Sky is never canonically referred to as sacred to my knowledge, but it's probably not a good idea to use it. The sky contains the sun, moon and stars, all of which are generally agreed to be sacred objects. Not to mention that Sky doesn't suggest a single colouration; the sky can be any of a million different colours depending on the weather and the time of day. There's also the matter of SkyClan, but I don't find that as problematic as the matters mentioned above. Sky just isn't a particularly good idea for a prefix.
Grey has made a post on Ailuronymy about Moon, both as a prefix and a suffix, which one can find here. The general idea is that the moon is a source of light, as well as the primary intermediary between the Clans and StarClan. Erin Hunter considers it sacred; however, being an imperfect hivemind, they ended up naming Bluestar's mother Moonflower. Oops.
In Ten's thread on the suffix -stone, she mentions that the Erins consider the suffix sacred due to the significance of the Moonstone. If one were to write a fanfiction or RP in a setting without the Moonstone and could sufficiently justify -stone's use as a suffix, it could work. In the very thread mentioned earlier, Ten makes a very good case for it.
There seems to be something of a consensus among traditional-style namers that Sun is sacred and shouldn't be used. The sun is the source of all heat and light, barring moonlight and starlight (technically, moonlight is reflected sunlight, but you wouldn't expect feral cats to know that). If the Erins ever said something about Sun being a sacred prefix, I don't know it. Maybe they did, but the presence in canon of a cat named Sunstar (he was Bluestar's immediate predecessor) suggests otherwise.
And then there are Thunder, Shadow, River and Wind. Grey mentions in one post that I doubt I'd be able to find again that, of these four, only Shadow makes sense as a prefix for a cat at all. Thunder and Wind suggest nothing at all about the cat's appearance, and rivers vary too much in colour to suggest an appearance. In the canon setting, they have the additional barrier of being the names of the Clans. They aren't quite sacred, but a cat with any of these prefixes would be rather awkward for inter-Clan relations (Windfoot of ShadowClan must be popular at Gatherings!). However, if you aren't using the canonical four Clans, then there's no reason why you couldn't use Shadow as a prefix.
Those are the main sacred names that come to mind. A good rule of thumb is that if it's shiny and it's in the sky, you probably shouldn't use it in a name. Any other ideas about sacred names? Any problems with my post? Any places where I'm being overly obtuse?
Everyone agrees that Star should not be used as a prefix out of respect for StarClan, not to mention the potential disaster should the cat become leader. You just don't do that. Some have suggested that if a cat whose prefix is Star becomes leader, the prefix and suffix could be flipped. This is absurd; consider how many Footstars and Tailstars and Peltstars and suchlike who would be running around.
Sky is never canonically referred to as sacred to my knowledge, but it's probably not a good idea to use it. The sky contains the sun, moon and stars, all of which are generally agreed to be sacred objects. Not to mention that Sky doesn't suggest a single colouration; the sky can be any of a million different colours depending on the weather and the time of day. There's also the matter of SkyClan, but I don't find that as problematic as the matters mentioned above. Sky just isn't a particularly good idea for a prefix.
Grey has made a post on Ailuronymy about Moon, both as a prefix and a suffix, which one can find here. The general idea is that the moon is a source of light, as well as the primary intermediary between the Clans and StarClan. Erin Hunter considers it sacred; however, being an imperfect hivemind, they ended up naming Bluestar's mother Moonflower. Oops.
In Ten's thread on the suffix -stone, she mentions that the Erins consider the suffix sacred due to the significance of the Moonstone. If one were to write a fanfiction or RP in a setting without the Moonstone and could sufficiently justify -stone's use as a suffix, it could work. In the very thread mentioned earlier, Ten makes a very good case for it.
There seems to be something of a consensus among traditional-style namers that Sun is sacred and shouldn't be used. The sun is the source of all heat and light, barring moonlight and starlight (technically, moonlight is reflected sunlight, but you wouldn't expect feral cats to know that). If the Erins ever said something about Sun being a sacred prefix, I don't know it. Maybe they did, but the presence in canon of a cat named Sunstar (he was Bluestar's immediate predecessor) suggests otherwise.
And then there are Thunder, Shadow, River and Wind. Grey mentions in one post that I doubt I'd be able to find again that, of these four, only Shadow makes sense as a prefix for a cat at all. Thunder and Wind suggest nothing at all about the cat's appearance, and rivers vary too much in colour to suggest an appearance. In the canon setting, they have the additional barrier of being the names of the Clans. They aren't quite sacred, but a cat with any of these prefixes would be rather awkward for inter-Clan relations (Windfoot of ShadowClan must be popular at Gatherings!). However, if you aren't using the canonical four Clans, then there's no reason why you couldn't use Shadow as a prefix.
Those are the main sacred names that come to mind. A good rule of thumb is that if it's shiny and it's in the sky, you probably shouldn't use it in a name. Any other ideas about sacred names? Any problems with my post? Any places where I'm being overly obtuse?
