What's in a name?

[Sovereign Dixie]

With the new constitution on track to pass later tonight, I'd like to open up discussion for the previously discussed naming changes of various posts and institutions within Taijitu.

For those recently joining the conversation over the last few days, I'll sum it up briefly.

As part as the over all big picture "rebranding" of the region, we wanted to give it a bit of a thematic feel. Taijitu = Balance blah blah.. some kind of mystic/fantasy type feel to it. So, after a few rounds of brainstorming the following were came up with.

1. The Senate becomes the Chamber of the Four Winds.
2. The Delegate becomes the High Guardian.
3. The Cabinet becomes the Chamber of Guardians.
4. The Speaker becomes the Master of the Four Winds.
5. The Lieutenant Delegate becomes the Hand of the Guardian
6. The Court becomes the Court of the Balance
7. The Chief Justice becomes the Master of the Balance
8. Associate Justices become Oracles of the Balance
9. Upper house of Legislature named "The Chamber of Elders"


The results have been mixed, some like them, some have a few concerns. One of the most brought up is a simple practicality issue of use in every day convo. I myself, am not overly concerned about that. Slang and shorthand comes about easily enough on it's own, naturally.

I'd like to see some ideas tossed around, constructively. If ya don't like something, fine! But try to present alternatives as well.

[Amy]

I like them.

[Khem]

"Circle of Elders" flows better but otherwise very very pro rebranding.

[Eluvatar]

One concern that was raised and discussed was the difficulty in using some of these cool fancy names in casual discussion.

One possible solution would be to have each official name also have a separate casual use name associated with it. These could be our traditional names for things, or abbreviated versions of these same cool names.

Any ideas for abbreviated versions of the names SD posted?

[Sovereign Dixie]

One concern that was raised and discussed was the difficulty in using some of these cool fancy names in casual discussion.

One possible solution would be to have each official name also have a separate casual use name associated with it. These could be our traditional names for things, or abbreviated versions of these same cool names.

Any ideas for abbreviated versions of the names SD posted?

My thoughts on this were put in the original post.

The results have been mixed, some like them, some have a few concerns. One of the most brought up is a simple practicality issue of use in every day convo. I myself, am not overly concerned about that. Slang and shorthand comes about easily enough on it's own, naturally.

I think codifying "slang" or "shorthand" to refer to things in every day chat would be jumping the shark in terms of bureaucracy lol

[Eluvatar]

If it's natural short versions, it doesn't codification. What ways do we have to shorten them, and leave them naturally identifiable?

If it's the traditional names we use as short versions, then we kind of do need to write it down somewhere, though

[Delfos]

If it's natural short versions, it doesn't codification. What ways do we have to shorten them, and leave them naturally identifiable?

If it's the traditional names we use as short versions, then we kind of do need to write it down somewhere, though

Easy fix is that there's no repeated names such as "chamber".

Circle, Tribunal, Triad, Troika, Table, Covenant, Gathering, Chosen any work fine

Table of Elders sounds nice.

[Eluvatar]

Triad is cool but probably sounds nefarious

[Allama]

I like all of the proposed names from the first post, though I do prefer "Circle of Elders" over "Chamber of Guardians" as the holy Phather suggested.

As to shortening names, I don't think it's necessary, but if y'all want to I don't truly care. ^_^

[Gulliver]

Dixie mentioned at some point that the name Chamber of the Four Winds was inspired by the four elements. This got me thinking, in Taoist cosmology, which is where the taijitu comes from, there are in fact 8 fundamental principles of reality, the Bagua. Maybe these, either individually or collectively, could be a source of inspiration in lieu of the 4 classical elements of Western philosophy? There is also the five elements of classic  Chinese philosophy as well.

[Delfos]

[Gulliver]

"Hosted on minitokyo.net" is all I can see.

Another point I've found while digging. The Big Dipper, AKA the Seven Stars in Chinese, was also a fairly important symbol in Taoism.

[Sovereign Dixie]

Dixie mentioned at some point that the name Chamber of the Four Winds was inspired by the four elements. This got me thinking, in Taoist cosmology, which is where the taijitu comes from, there are in fact 8 fundamental principles of reality, the Bagua. Maybe these, either individually or collectively, could be a source of inspiration in lieu of the 4 classical elements of Western philosophy? There is also the five elements of classic  Chinese philosophy as well.

Not a bad idea, though, I think that for those who are thinking the new names are too counter intuitive, adding more "elements" would perhaps be counter productive. Though, using the 5 elements may not be so bad lol Not sure exactly how to translate that into the names though, I mean, the idea I originally had was based off of the 4 element idea, but as you can see the actual names themselves don't really follow it that strictly, merely following the idea of balance, everything having it's opposite, etc.

[Eluvatar]

How about this:

1. The lower house of the legislature (Currently Council) becomes the Council of the Four Winds or Council for short.
2. The Delegate becomes the High Guardian or Guardian for short.
3. The Cabinet becomes the Chamber of Guardians or Chamber for short.
4. The Speaker becomes the Master of the Four Winds or Master for short.
5. The Lieutenant Delegate becomes the Hand of the Guardian or Hand for short.
6. The Court becomes the Tribunal of the Balance or Tribunal for short.
7. The Chief Justice becomes the Guru of the Balance or Guru for short.
8. Associate Justices become Oracles of the Balance or Oracles for short.
9. The upper house of the legislature (Currently Senate) becomes "The Circle of Elders" or "The Elders" for short.

[Sovereign Dixie]

How about this:

1. The lower house of the legislature (Currently Council) becomes the Council of the Four Winds or Council for short.
2. The Delegate becomes the High Guardian or Guardian for short.
3. The Cabinet becomes the Chamber of Guardians or Chamber for short.
4. The Speaker becomes the Master of the Four Winds or Master for short.
5. The Lieutenant Delegate becomes the Hand of the Guardian or Hand for short.
6. The Court becomes the Tribunal of the Balance or Tribunal for short.
7. The Chief Justice becomes the Guru of the Balance or Guru for short.
8. Associate Justices become Oracles of the Balance or Oracles for short.
9. The upper house of the legislature (Currently Senate) becomes "The Circle of Elders" or "The Elders" for short.

Works for me!