Princess Penumbra's Aunts...

[Nik]

This isn't as silly as it sounds...

Who are Princess Penumbra's aunts ??

A couple of names needed, due brain-lock...

( NOT antumbra-- I'm enough of an amateur astronomer for that...)

[Boneman]

Aren't they Titan and Rhea?

[Nik]

Well, Boneman, your suggestion's already achieved a google hit, but I thought Titan was a guy.

Titania, now...

Um, need a few more ideas.

[Boneman]

Maybe Titian and Rhea, then... there must be other moons around saturn that are named after females...

[Nik]

D'uh, after tossing that alliterative gem into my lap, my imagination has gone back to sleep.

I've spent evening (except Flashforward 2100--2200: Didn't MJ Fox / McFly solve same issues in BTF ?) scouring gothic name lists, mineral lists, synonym lists etc etc in hope the right two will pop out.

Never mind. I'll beat the problem to death before I get to the final chapter, where its mention will prompt ret-con of several characters' names...

Time to grab supper, feed cats and load washers...

[Teresa Edgerton]

Is this meant to be a fairy tale or a fable? (Because Princess Penumbra certainly sounds like she belongs in one.)

A penumbra is a shadow. Maybe you can work out something from that.

Tenebria, Stygia, Erebia. Pellucidia (as the opposite of shadowy).

Or, if you want to stick with the P's:

Phantasma (or Phantasmagoria), Phenomena, Palaestra, Pandemonia, Parabola, Panacea (except that she's in A Funny Thing Happened to Me On the Way to the Forum, Parsimony, Perpetua, Persephone, Pharmacopoeia, Polarity, Psyche.

Or a shadow as something immatierial:

Fantasia.

[The Judge]

Do the aunts have any special defining characteristics? Any hidden talents? Are they young, old, wise, stupid...? Are they meant to be figures of fun who adore the Princess; or are they evil, frightening creatures who abuse her?

And are they the sisters of the Princess's mother or father? Do the different families have different naming traditions?

Perhaps if you could tell us a little bit more about them, we might be able to offer some further ideas.

In the meantime, I love flower names, particularly those which aren't over-familiar eg Eglantine, Jonquil, Artemisia, Cedronella, Tansy, Valerian, Girasole. A battle-axe aunt would be Euphorbia; someone more delicate and sweet-natured, Aloysia.

J

[Nik]

Thanks, Judge !

There's some, um, tangential context in recent 'Long Weekend' thread in critique area. Princess Penumbra's aunts are not really (d)evil-queens, but they're certainly drawn that way.
;-)

'Euphorbia' would be good, as notoriously toxic. I'd short-listed her from my own search, also 'Atramentia', which has an interesting ring. I've found a list of ~900 dark minerals which may provide a few more candidates after I cull the many kin of 'JohnSmithite'...

Funny, there's a distinct lack of dark synonyms beginning with 'J'.

Thankfully, I've several unwritten chapters before I *must* pick names.

What really bugs me is that 'PP' just popped up, prompting a creative cascade, but my brain then froze.

FWIW, I've retconned the 'no name' issue into the story. To make their pet demon-spawn fully cognizant of her heritage, the Bretheren must tell her her name. (Is that grammatical ??) She'll recognise her spawn-name when she hears it. Of course, fully empowered, she may then tear them limb from limb for impertinence, claw out their livers and gorge on their gizzards...

[The Judge]

Might just have been a typo, Nik, but it's Atramentaria I think.

And it's toxic you're wanting, eh? I can't think of anything off the top of my head that would sound good as a name, apart from Atropa and Datura, both of which seem a little too short, somehow. Ooh, what about Mandragora? That's an evil-sounding name if ever I heard one! (Though it's perhaps a little obvious and has probably been used countless times before.)

If you want any more suggestions in the plant-line, let me know and I'll start going through my books.

J

[Ursa major]

I found only two Js that you might consider.

From Wiki's list of poisonous plants (List of poisonous plants - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia): Jequirity; and there a poisonous fungus: (Lepiota) josserandi.

[Boneman]

Or consider borrowing the trait that Shakespeare used to denote female 'nasties' - Goneril, so close to venereal disease and Regan, so close to...erm... prescient president? But both were hard-sounding names, with the 'g' as a pointer. Of course their sister (the good girl) was gentle Cordelia, sounds so much like 'accord' doesn't it?

Since 'J' is soft, I'd add some hard consonants into it or it will come over as too nice. Jagged, Jerked, Jinxed, Jermed, Jorged could be turned into female names quite easily: Jaggelle, Jerkora, Jinxoul, Jermima,(maybe not) Jorgeda, and so on...

[Peter Graham]

Princess Penumbra? Weren't her aunts Riemmelth and Gwytheria?

[Nik]

AD 600-ish ?

Sweet !!

Thank you !!

[Peter Graham]

AD 600-ish ?

Spot on, sir! Penumbra sounds decidedly Romano-British, so I thought we'd stick with the theme

Regards,

Peter