So who is the next pick from the Arthurian Names?

OK, we got started with Nimue who turned into Merlin and has now 'cloned' herself into Nimue as a second PICA. Now we have a 'new' Seijin, Dialydd Mab, which is another Arthurian NAME (another of the 4 Queens (with Nimue) who take Arthur to Avalon.) So RFC is using the Arthurian Legend cycle for names that are totally foreign to the SAFEHOLD naming conventions (I presume Seijin privilege) for nom d'guerre aliases and others.

Who shall be next? Arthur himself, the once and future King? Gawain, Galahad, Uther, Lancelot - see the list of potentials at "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arthurian_characters" and lets see if we can read RFC's tea leaves before he presents them.

Come you Gentles, present your choices and speculate away!

Two thoughts.

First, Nimue/Merlin is using the Welsh names for the most part (Merlin is the exception as that wasn't the Welsh name of the individual) so Lancelot likely won't be used as Lancelot was an addition to older stories by French storytellers.

Second, Dialydd Mab is the exception of how Merlin choses to name his alternate personas. Merlin also uses Zhozuah Murphai, Zhapyth Slaytyr and Ahbraim Zhevons. The names of these personas are standard Safeholdian names not Welsh/Arthurian names. Of course, Zhapyth Slaytyr and Ahbraim Zhevons do interact with people who don't know that they are Seijin. While the only people who met up with Dialydd Mab are soon-to-be-dead Inquisitors and Inquisitor minions.

Charybdis wrote:OK, we got started with Nimue who turned into Merlin and has now 'cloned' herself into Nimue as a second PICA. Now we have a 'new' Seijin, Dialydd Mab, which is another Arthurian NAME (another of the 4 Queens (with Nimue) who take Arthur to Avalon.) So RFC is using the Arthurian Legend cycle for names that are totally foreign to the SAFEHOLD naming conventions (I presume Seijin privilege) for nom d'guerre aliases and others.

Who shall be next? Arthur himself, the once and future King? Gawain, Galahad, Uther, Lancelot - see the list of potentials at "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arthurian_characters" and lets see if we can read RFC's tea leaves before he presents them.

Come you Gentles, present your choices and speculate away!

Don't forget the name given to Cayleb's sword.

It seems to me that Merlin has been drawing on Arthurian legends for names on some occasions, but it doesn't seem to be a consistent trend. So I don't think that there's necessarily going to be any more seijins or magic swords or whatnot with Arthurian names.

Charybdis wrote:OK, we got started with Nimue who turned into Merlin and has now 'cloned' herself into Nimue as a second PICA. Now we have a 'new' Seijin, Dialydd Mab, which is another Arthurian NAME (another of the 4 Queens (with Nimue) who take Arthur to Avalon.) So RFC is using the Arthurian Legend cycle for names that are totally foreign to the SAFEHOLD naming conventions (I presume Seijin privilege) for nom d'guerre aliases and others.

Who shall be next? Arthur himself, the once and future King? Gawain, Galahad, Uther, Lancelot - see the list of potentials at "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arthurian_characters" and lets see if we can read RFC's tea leaves before he presents them.

Come you Gentles, present your choices and speculate away!

Nimue Alban seems to be the last native Welsh speaker around. The name "Dialydd Mab" is a composition of "avenger" and "son" (cf. e.g. wikipedia). She seems to like using talking names understandble only to her. Similarities to Arthurian names can be intentional, but there's no list she's drawing names from, I guess.
If there's another openly seijin identity, I'd assume s/he will be named for the occasion on Welsh: Mocking Sister, Warrior Executioner, etc. - providing it sounds good. Although - switching to Swedish might be considered.
As an aside: Those names will reveal her to anyone with access to the Federation tech below the temple.

anwi wrote:
Nimue Alban seems to be the last native Welsh speaker around. The name "Dialydd Mab" is a composition of "avenger" and "son" (cf. e.g. wikipedia). She seems to like using talking names understandble only to her. Similarities to Arthurian names can be intentional, but there's no list she's drawing names from, I guess.
If there's another openly seijin identity, I'd assume s/he will be named for the occasion on Welsh: Mocking Sister, Warrior Executioner, etc. - providing it sounds good. Although - switching to Swedish might be considered.
As an aside: Those names will reveal her to anyone with access to the Federation tech below the temple.

The story of Arthur is one of societal resurrection during dark and chaotic times. The analogy would come naturally for Nimue, given her namesake. During those first few weeks after awakening the last daughter of the Terran Federation, the last bearer of the memory of Earth, the last Christian, the last Welsh speaker and most important (to her knowledge) the last and only hope of the surrogate parents she loved so dearly wants desperately to generate a resurrection of all she willingly gave up.

Is it any wonder her mind chose Arthurian symbols early her mission? Going forward there is far less need for those symbols to anchor her to what was a desperately lonely task.

PeterZ wrote:

anwi wrote:
Nimue Alban seems to be the last native Welsh speaker around. The name "Dialydd Mab" is a composition of "avenger" and "son" (cf. e.g. wikipedia). She seems to like using talking names understandble only to her. Similarities to Arthurian names can be intentional, but there's no list she's drawing names from, I guess.
If there's another openly seijin identity, I'd assume s/he will be named for the occasion on Welsh: Mocking Sister, Warrior Executioner, etc. - providing it sounds good. Although - switching to Swedish might be considered.
As an aside: Those names will reveal her to anyone with access to the Federation tech below the temple.

The story of Arthur is one of societal resurrection during dark and chaotic times. The analogy would come naturally for Nimue, given her namesake. During those first few weeks after awakening the last daughter of the Terran Federation, the last bearer of the memory of Earth, the last Christian, the last Welsh speaker and most important (to her knowledge) the last and only hope of the surrogate parents she loved so dearly wants desperately to generate a resurrection of all she willingly gave up.

Is it any wonder her mind chose Arthurian symbols early her mission? Going forward there is far less need for those symbols to anchor her to what was a desperately lonely task.

Ah, but the deep symbolism of Arthur, the Once and Future King, is a strong one. Look at us today, at best we have tiny fragments of 'something' that apparently strove to hold back what became a long night of misery and pain. Yet through the centuries, those fragments have grown into a powerful legend that has gripped our ancestral world and we gladly pay homage to it today. While generations have added layer upon layer of enhancements and side stories, yet we still cling to that nugget of a light against an overwhelming dark. Poems and plays and movies and academics vibrate to the life yet still found in those fragments. The fantasy, legend and history of today looking back a millennium and a half plus is unlikely to simply vanish in RFC's Terran Federation of the future, so I dispute that Nimue would throw it away as unnecessary. After the defeat of the CoGA, why not spread the word of that indomitable Terran Legend of a Light against the Dark and use that Light - being religious yet secular - to symbolize the future steps of destroying the Gbaba Dark. The Imperial Ship EXCALIBUR has a good sound to it!

I never asserted Merlin would discontinue the use of that symbolism. I only asserted Nimue's need to connect to her world of origin had diminished over time. That the primary reason for beginning to use that symbolism was the deep need to connect to something. The reasons for its continued use is as you post.

That said, I suspect that others beside Merlin would expand using Arthurian symbolism. Nahrmahn might well suggest a round table for the Imperial Council of its Heads of State or whatever they end up calling it. Siddermark has a seat as an Associated Power and perhaps even Silkiah. Around that table those rulers would adopt restrictions on what rulers could and couldn't do so that no one would again abuse his power as Clyntahn had.

Any nation could join if they also agreed to govern under those limitations.

Charybdis wrote:

PeterZ wrote:
The story of Arthur is one of societal resurrection during dark and chaotic times. The analogy would come naturally for Nimue, given her namesake. During those first few weeks after awakening the last daughter of the Terran Federation, the last bearer of the memory of Earth, the last Christian, the last Welsh speaker and most important (to her knowledge) the last and only hope of the surrogate parents she loved so dearly wants desperately to generate a resurrection of all she willingly gave up.

Is it any wonder her mind chose Arthurian symbols early her mission? Going forward there is far less need for those symbols to anchor her to what was a desperately lonely task.

Ah, but the deep symbolism of Arthur, the Once and Future King, is a strong one. Look at us today, at best we have tiny fragments of 'something' that apparently strove to hold back what became a long night of misery and pain. Yet through the centuries, those fragments have grown into a powerful legend that has gripped our ancestral world and we gladly pay homage to it today. While generations have added layer upon layer of enhancements and side stories, yet we still cling to that nugget of a light against an overwhelming dark. Poems and plays and movies and academics vibrate to the life yet still found in those fragments. The fantasy, legend and history of today looking back a millennium and a half plus is unlikely to simply vanish in RFC's Terran Federation of the future, so I dispute that Nimue would throw it away as unnecessary. After the defeat of the CoGA, why not spread the word of that indomitable Terran Legend of a Light against the Dark and use that Light - being religious yet secular - to symbolize the future steps of destroying the Gbaba Dark. The Imperial Ship EXCALIBUR has a good sound to it!