Yinrih astronyms: Difference between revisions
Created page with "Originally, there was a taboo against giving names to stars and planets. When the planets were assumed to be "stars" in the sense meant by the Great Commandment, it was assumed that they bore sapient life and that the local sophonts would have their own perfectly good names for where they lived. To give them names would be tantamount to unjustly claiming ownership over them. The yinrih would just have to wait and see what those names were. As astronomy advanced, it beca..." |
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Originally, there was a taboo against giving names to stars and planets. When the planets were assumed to be "stars" in the sense meant by the Great Commandment, it was assumed that they bore sapient life and that the local sophonts would have their own perfectly good names for where they lived. To give them names would be tantamount to unjustly claiming ownership over them. The yinrih would just have to wait and see what those names were. | Originally, there was a taboo against giving names to stars and planets. When the planets were assumed to be "stars" in the sense meant by the [[Great Commandment]], it was assumed that they bore sapient life and that the local sophonts would have their own perfectly good names for where they lived. To give them names would be tantamount to unjustly claiming ownership over them. The yinrih would just have to wait and see what those names were. | ||
As astronomy advanced, it became clear that the local planets were lifeless, but cultural inertia kept the taboo in place. After [[The Shakeoff]], the Neoshamanists gave them names as a way of rejecting the Great Commandment, and as the Lifebringers' terraforming tech became more and more feasible, indeed claiming ownership over them. They were drawn from the then-popular genre of planetary romances. In these stories a band of missionaries or party of adventurers would meet the local sophonts and learn their name for their world. It would be like humans deciding to call Venus Paralandra and Mars Barsoom. Most authors didn't give much thought to the etymologies of these names, so most were simply euphonious strings of sounds. | As astronomy advanced, it became clear that the local planets were lifeless, but cultural inertia kept the taboo in place. After [[The Shakeoff]], the Neoshamanists gave them names as a way of rejecting the Great Commandment, and as the Lifebringers' terraforming tech became more and more feasible, indeed claiming ownership over them. They were drawn from the then-popular genre of planetary romances. In these stories a band of missionaries or party of adventurers would meet the local sophonts and learn their name for their world. It would be like humans deciding to call Venus Paralandra and Mars Barsoom. Most authors didn't give much thought to the etymologies of these names, so most were simply euphonious strings of sounds. | ||