[Geezer]

During a war, soldiers tend to come up with a nickname for the enemy.  The nicknames seem to serve two opposite purposes - they make the enemy familiar (and therefore less frightening?) but also faceless (and morally easier to kill?).  Somewhat surprisingly, the nicknames themselves are rather benign (calling a man in a red coat a “Lobster” is almost funny while calling someone “Charlie” makes them sound like a friend), probably showing the respect that one soldier has for another, even when talking about an enemy.

So my question is: What would Alpha 1 and his buddies of the UTS call their Vasudan enemies?  And, since the Vasudans think just like we do, what would they call the humans?

[Knight Templar]

Vasudans = Boneheads

Humans = Fleshies, Morons, puffys, pinkies.

[karajorma]

Before anyone else says it I`ll say "fish lovers" for the vasudans

[phreak]

zogs

[Hudzy]

I always thought it was Zods, not Zogs.

[Knight Templar]

Nope, Zod is the dude from Lightning Marshall.

Zogs is the nickname.

Welll fiiine then...  

[Goober5000]

No, no, no - Zod is correct.  Ask Eishtmo, who coined the term.  It  comes from Zodiac.

[Knight Templar]

well fiine then...

If it's Zod, then where did Zogs come from?

[Geezer]

Hmmmm. “Zods”, huh?  Not a bad name, but what does the Zodiac have to do with Vasudans?  Wouldn’t a nickname be much more likely derived from the name of the enemy (“Suzies”:ick ) or from some real or assumed characteristic of theirs (KT’s “Bonehead”)?

[Goober5000]

Something about Vasudan drug trade in the Terran-Vasudan war; the drug being Zodiac dust.

[Hudzy]

Their wing designations were always stuff like Libra and Cancer as well. Aren't they signs of the Zodiac or something?

[Miburo]

Hudzy got a solid point there, but then again Shivan wings were named samely on Second Great War.

[Geezer]

By that logic, the Vasudans would be calling the humans "Greeks" because human wings are named for Greek letters...

Still, it's not a bad name.  I just don't see it as organic to "Vasudan-ness" the way a name based on a Vasudan characteristic would be.

Also, if we use a name coined in the T-V War project, doesn't it imply that the events of the T-V are part of MG's history?  And if that's true, then the MG team and the T-V team are going to have to do something to insure that there are no inconsistancies...  For instance, what were the Starborn doing during the T-V War?

[Goober5000]

Originally posted by Geezer
By that logic, the Vasudans would be calling the humans "Greeks" because human wings are named for Greek letters...

The name came from the drug first.  Wings were named that way later.

Also, if we use a name coined in the T-V War project, doesn't it imply that the events of the T-V are part of MG's history?  And if that's true, then the MG team and the T-V team are going to have to do something to insure that there are no inconsistancies...

Eishtmo coined that term a long time ago, even before FS2 came out.  We're just using it because it makes sense, but it's not canon, so treat it however you will.  I just wanted to clarify that if you do use it, it's Zod, not Zog.

For instance, what were the Starborn doing during the T-V War?

Probably making sure it lasted long enough until they could get the Shivans to arrive.

Actually, there's a major natural event that happens in the seventh year of the TVW that sets the GTA back substantially - you could say that the Starborn were responsible for that.

[Geezer]

Originally posted by Goober5000

Actually, there's a major natural event that happens in the seventh year of the TVW that sets the GTA back substantially - you could say that the Starborn were responsible for that.

You know, this could be start an interesting road...


Anyway, should we decide to adopt it, what's the "official" pronounciation of "Zods"?  I'd guess that most people would say it as it's spelled - rhyming with "Mods" - but a RL contraction of "Zodiac" would probably keep the long "O" and be pronounced "Zoads".

[karajorma]

I could live with Zoads. The fact that it sounds like toads doesn`t hurt either.

As for keeping abreast of the TVW campaign well we do have Hades on our team too so we can get him to give anything the once over to see if we can keep consistancy. If we can do it with only minor changes I say do it but if we have to lose anything big it's not worth it

[Goober5000]

Ugh! It should rhyme with Mod.

[Goober5000]

Here's Eishtmo's official word on the matter, taken from the TVWP internal.

Zod, in real world terms, was taken from Zodiac, which are what the wings are named after. Later I created a backstory where it comes from something called Zodiac Dust, ZodDust, a drug that led to first contact with the Vasudans (the Zods actually make the stuff, trading it for pot, which has some weird effects on their biology). So when the war started, some crews took to calling them Zods while others called the Sudes, which sound enough the same for either. I just like using Zod better as it shorter than Vasudan.

[Geezer]

So what do the Zods call the humans?

[Ashrak]

hmmm seeing the vasudans .... hmmm well shivansd are bugs.....
vasudan fishies and terrans microbrains?!