Help me name an organisation!
Added 2024-06-19 08:42:32 +0000 UTCI'm writing up an essay on the Sanctified Orders of the Inquisition - a multi-faceted organistation within the Korachani empire whose independent orders oversee the policing of certain activities. Each order has a headquarters (Langue) in a particular city, with various strongholds and outposts across the empire. There's an order that fights Atramental taint, another that defends people and cities from dreamscapes, one that specialises in fortifications, another that destroys heathen idols, and so on.
I'm almost done with the main essay, and am now writing some appendices regarding what happened to the Orders in Reformed Empire of Sarastro. following the Sundering of the empire.
To get you up to speed, the Korachani empire was sundered following the aptly-named Sundering of the Empire that took place in 3705 RM (present year 4007 RM), into the High-empire of Korachan to the north of the Inner Sea and the Low-empire of Sarastro south of the Inner Sea.
During the schism, the Church of the Undying Machine was also sundered in two, with a new orthodox faith taking root in Sarastro (indeed, this was one of the main reasons for the sundering in the first place). The Sanctified Orders of the Inquisition were among the affected organisations, with many caught in the crossfire of civil war. Most were based in lands that remained loyal to the High-empire, so there was little long-term changes there, though others were based in lands that remained loyal to Sarastro or otherwise defected to Sarastro.
Given that Sarastro was quick to unburden itself of millennia of imperial oppression, it soon abandoned the Korachani tongue in favour of Sarastroan, so it stands to reason that Sarastro would come up with its own name (and possibly hierarchy and other factors) for the Orders that remained under its control.
It's even possible that, in the reorganisaton of the newly-independent state, the Sarastoran Orders might have been dissolved and become part of another agency/organisation.
I've been toying with some new names to reflect this though think I'm stuck in a rut thinking of the same naming structure, and can't really settle on anything so thought I'd throw it to you guys for your feedback.
Sarastro and the Reformed Sarasroan empire are vaguely inspired by the ottoman empire, though this is a lose analogy at best, though an arabic-sounding name or something with near eastern etymology might be cool, though its hardly a prerequisite. I did settle on using the word Enclave instead of Order for the individual facets of the organisatain, which isnt a literal name though symbolic of that the orders are.
Please vote for which you prefer and also feel free to give me your own suggestings in the comments below - I'd love to see what you come up with!
Comments
some cool terms there, and I actually think your etymological reasoning with naming things lines up quite similarly to my own
Nate Mangion
2024-06-20 06:45:42 +0000 UTCThe Sarastroan Cor, Latin for “Heart”, or Corcum, Latin for “Hearts”? The Sarastroan Excoriators? The Sarastroan Hamaa, Arabic for “Protectors”? (This word isn’t related to HAMAS, which is an acronym for Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamiya.) The Sarastroan Shilton, Hebrew for Power, or Dunamis, Greek for “Power”? The Sarastroan Eamuwd, Arabic for “Column”, or Quba, Arabic for “Dome”? A large proportion of religious organizations seems to see themselves, regardless of the history behind their formation, as the single and exclusive sect anywhere that is correct and approved by Heaven. If it were tradition in Sarastro that the entire system of Sarastroan Enclaves were formed by divine intent, as a way of establishing true religion, or a truly divine pattern on earth, there could be traditional imagery associated with this, apparent in the language used to describe it happening. The Sarastroan Enclaves could be described as being formed by a figurative bolt of holy action from Heaven. I don’t mean that the Sarastroans should deny the literal, physical history of the Sundering, but imagistic language colors a culture’s perception of historical events, and cultivates tradition. Anyway, this long chain of ideas might result in the name the “Sarastroan Fulgurite” for the organization, a fulgurite being a piece of melted and fused material left behind by a bolt of lightning that shot through the ground. Some fulgurites can be the size of tree-root systems, and have branches. The holy bolt from Heaven crystallizing the organization and its branches, you see. I also like the following Latin and Arabic words: a “cathedra” was a heavy, armed chair, found in basilicas, that a bishop would sit in. One can suppose that the cathedra was what made the cathedral, because a cathedral would surround the cathedra of a bishop. And “qalea” is Arabic for “fortress.” You know synecdoche, where you refer to the President by saying “the White House,” equating the two? Well, if there’s a central building that represents the central leadership of the Sarastroan Enclaves, it could sometimes be referenced as a stand-in term for the organization as a whole. You might call it “Cathedra fi Al-Qalea,” a fusion of Latin and Arabic that I think means “The Chair in the Fortress.” Since a cathedra was properly a teaching chair, from which, I imagine, the bishops dispensed doctrine, this mixture of terms might imply that the organization views teaching and war, or defense, as dual responsibilities. Although, of course, a nation with the right mindset might argue that war is in fact a form of teaching. Anyway, sorry for the long comment, but I thought those ideas were neat.
Sean Harvey
2024-06-19 15:08:02 +0000 UTCA mix of the last two could be cool. Shamashi Mahkama, or Tribunal of the Sun.
Conrad Staier
2024-06-19 09:43:00 +0000 UTC