[Scourge of Ages]

You're more than welcome to use my naming method: drop something heavy on the keyboard, take the results, and whittle out letters until you have something that sounds good. If that doesn't work, do it again.

[SypheDMar]

Amazing method.

hsijjds;jod

hsiids;jod

Hsiid-jods or Hsiid-ios. There's my alien.

[Herra Tohtori]

Seriously? I am shocked. Shocked, I tells you! No wait, it appears that Endor has been used in quite a few places.

No kidding...

[FreeSpaceFreak]

You're more than welcome to use my naming method: drop something heavy on the keyboard, take the results, and whittle out letters until you have something that sounds good. If that doesn't work, do it again.

Heh, that's pretty much how we came up with Aesdher and the other system names.

[General Battuta]

I have to admit I thought the Aesdherians were a little sloppily named compared to other FreeSpace races (though you'll note BP tips the hat to them anyway  ).

It's just too much to believe that an alien race separated from us by this vast gulf of time and psychology would use the '-ians' suffix  so common in tired serial SF stories and Trek reruns.

I'm still of the opinion that the best decision is just to have the Ancients call themselves the Race and to have other alien races use the Alastair Reynolds/Iain Banks style of alien naming - give them an evocative name based on an English, foreign, or mythological word rather than something made up. If you're willing to call Gamma Draconis Gamma Draconis, then go the distance!

[ShadowGorrath]

I know this is repeated a thousand times by now, with noone quite getting it: ASW is viewed by a Vasudan, roughly saying. Watch the intro cutscene again.

And I claim the name of Aesdher. It's something I came up while being bored in class... No keyboards

[General Battuta]

I know this is repeated a thousand times by now, with noone quite getting it: ASW is viewed by a Vasudan, roughly saying. Watch the intro cutscene again.

And I claim the name of Aesdher. It's something I came up while being bored in class... No keyboards

I can tell - it's a pretty generic SF name. I think you guys could have done better with a bit more thought.

And if 'no one is quite getting' that ASW is being viewed by a Vasudan, then why did I cite it in the last post? It's the reason that calling Gamma Draconis Gamma Draconis makes sense.

[ShadowGorrath]

I know this is repeated a thousand times by now, with noone quite getting it: ASW is viewed by a Vasudan, roughly saying. Watch the intro cutscene again.

And I claim the name of Aesdher. It's something I came up while being bored in class... No keyboards

I can tell - it's a pretty generic SF name. I think you guys could have done better with a bit more thought.

And if 'no one is quite getting' that ASW is being viewed by a Vasudan, then why did I cite it in the last post? It's the reason that calling Gamma Draconis Gamma Draconis makes sense.

Then if you 'get' it, what's wrong with calling Ancients as Ancients, and what's wrong with the '-ians'?

And how is 'Aesdherians' generic? Just cause of the suffix?

[Marcov]

Just finished ASW: act 1.

I'm a bit frustrated, I wish Act 2 had already been released 

Anyway, the Aesdherians are actually the coolest species I've seen in the entire FSverse (except perhaps, by a small gap, the Shivans) so far. Their are literally painted grim black, with those creepy "tentacles" the best addition I've seen for any ship so far. Too bad their beams were nerfed...or is it just the Akrotiri?

Also, their fighters and bombers are outstanding as well. The Aesdherians are definetly fine addition to FS SCP.

Can anyone release an Aesdherian juggernaut  ?

[Snail]

The Aesdherians were originally the "Nightmares", who were intended to be a race as old and as powerful as the Shivans (and were waging a millenia long war against them).

Originally created by Aldo for his Reciprocity and Lost Souls campaigns, eventually re-purposed by numerous campaign makers...

[Androgeos Exeunt]

...especially Droid803...

[General Battuta]

Anyway, the Aesdherians are actually the coolest species I've seen in the entire FSverse (except perhaps, by a small gap, the Shivans) so far. Their are literally painted grim black, with those creepy "tentacles" the best addition I've seen for any ship so far. Too bad their beams were nerfed...or is it just the Akrotiri?

Also, their fighters and bombers are outstanding as well. The Aesdherians are definetly fine addition to FS SCP.

Can anyone release an Aesdherian juggernaut  

There's a lot of history you don't know here, Marcov. The tragically named Aesdherians use Aldo's Nightmare models, which he originally built for a campaign called Reciprocity. They've been used in many campaigns; ASW is only the latest.

He eventually stopped making them because he thought they were too generic and terrible-looking, so the odds of getting a Nightmare dreadnought are low.

If you want more of them, just go get some Babylon 5 Shadow ships, which are in a similar design vein.

Then if you 'get' it, what's wrong with calling Ancients as Ancients, and what's wrong with the '-ians'?

And how is 'Aesdherians' generic? Just cause of the suffix?

Because you can do better.

'Aesdherian' contains the Tolkienesque 'Ae' and 'dh' sound clusters and the '50s pulp-SF 'ians' suffix, which is a generic and unimaginative suffix used to indicate 'a species from a planet named (in this case) Aesdher'. The word is meaningless, so it fails to evoke much of anything except possibly associations with 'Aether'.

[ShadowGorrath]

But the Aesdherian name being meaningless was the point.

[Snail]

Can anyone release an Aesdherian juggernaut  ?

Yes!

Reskin this. It was originally supposed to be a Nightmare juggernaut.

[General Battuta]

But the Aesdherian name being meaningless was the point.

You can get a meaningless name that doesn't sound like it came from TENTACLE MENACE ON JUBULON-9!

Plus it's aesthetically inconsistent. If the Ancients are gonna be Ancients because they think of themselves as Ancient, have them call their hapless victim Abominations or Sullied or some **** like that. I dunno, man, expand yourself.

[BengalTiger]

I'm still of the opinion that the best decision is just to have the Ancients call themselves the Race and to have other alien races use the Alastair Reynolds/Iain Banks style of alien naming - give them an evocative name based on an English, foreign, or mythological word rather than something made up.

Well there are a few good made up words out there that mean nothing, such as:

-Kodak
-Dektol
-Ektanar
-Aesdherian
-Tiigran-Merisst

And I agree with the Ancients calling themselves the Race. It would fit rather nice with their somewhat racist philosophy.

[General Battuta]

The first four of those are pretty bad, no matter how widely they're used.

I actually don't mind your invention as much, but it's got the 'let's double some letters to make things alien' syndrome.

One of the big problems with these types of made-up names is that they still tend to obey English or English-derived phonetic patterns even though they're supposed to be 'alien'.

[Mongoose]

Just use the name of that Icelandic volcano no one can pronounce.  That looks nice and alien.

[Snail]

Just use the name of that Icelandic volcano no one can pronounce.  That looks nice and alien.

Islandmountainglacier?

[Ravenholme]

Just use the name of that Icelandic volcano no one can pronounce.  That looks nice and alien.

Islandmountainglacier?

If you've read Peter F Hamiltons Commonwealth Saga, that's actual very similar to what the big bad in that calls himself.

His name, translated to english, means "MorningLightMountain". It makes sense if you read it. The humans just call them the Prime Immotiles.