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There's a fairly complete discussion of cursing and insults in this thread: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 768#p11768

I know you chose the name 'Loroi' because you felt the sound of it seemed right, but would that have anything to do with the elflike descendents of humanity from The Time Machine being called 'Eloi'?

RedDwarfIV wrote:I know you chose the name 'Loroi' because you felt the sound of it seemed right, but would that have anything to do with the elflike descendents of humanity from The Time Machine being called 'Eloi'?

No. It's chiefly a mangling of lorelei (a German mermaid/siren), and le roi (French, "the king").

Arioch wrote:

RedDwarfIV wrote:I know you chose the name 'Loroi' because you felt the sound of it seemed right, but would that have anything to do with the elflike descendents of humanity from The Time Machine being called 'Eloi'?

No. It's chiefly a mangling of lorelei (a German mermaid/siren), and le roi (French, "the king").

Ah.

Still an interesting coincidence though.

No. It's chiefly a mangling of lorelei (a German mermaid/siren), and le roi (French, "the king").

And I was wondering why Loroi sounded so similar to Loreley... Thanks for explaining that.
However, what would the Loroi most likely think of that old fairy tale, do they have similar stories and what are they like?

Suederwind wrote:However, what would the Loroi most likely think of that old fairy tale, do they have similar stories and what are they like?

Sure, the Loroi have legendary stories that have a similar character to Greek or Norse myths, and many of them feature mermaid-like entities. The Loroi sea-spirits have a lot in common with our mythical sirens, except that instead of being alluring, they are portents of doom or the onset of storms.

An example of such a story would be the Legend of Tempest. Tempest was a member of the ruling clan of a coastal city-state. Jealous of her personal power and growing influence, Tempest's wicked sisters conspired to assassinate her. While on a naval mission far from shore, she was drugged and thrown overboard, and left to drown. Instead of drowning, Tempest survived and allied herself with the local sea-spirits, adventuring through the depths and recovering powerful artifacts, including a glowing orb that gave her powers over the weather. Then she marshaled an army of sea-spirits and marched on her former home, killing pretty much everyone.

Next time you see her, try to get that weather-control orb, so I can stop cold weather and hurricanes from being a thing in Florida

Arioch wrote:Then she marshaled an army of sea-spirits and marched on her former home, killing pretty much everyone.

Lots of happy endings for the Loroi, no doubt.

I imagine the Loroi might have a lot to say about hubris in their legends, but that's just a guess.

Arioch wrote:

Suederwind wrote:However, what would the Loroi most likely think of that old fairy tale, do they have similar stories and what are they like?

Sure, the Loroi have legendary stories that have a similar character to Greek or Norse myths, and many of them feature mermaid-like entities. The Loroi sea-spirits have a lot in common with our mythical sirens, except that instead of being alluring, they are portents of doom or the onset of storms.

An example of such a story would be the Legend of Tempest. Tempest was a member of the ruling clan of a coastal city-state. Jealous of her personal power and growing influence, Tempest's wicked sisters conspired to assassinate her. While on a naval mission far from shore, she was drugged and thrown overboard, and left to drown. Instead of drowning, Tempest survived and allied herself with the local sea-spirits, adventuring through the depths and recovering powerful artifacts, including a glowing orb that gave her powers over the weather. Then she marshaled an army of sea-spirits and marched on her former home, killing pretty much everyone.

It seems like the moral of the story is, make sure your enemies are dead or they -will- come after you. Loroi are rather vindictive, aren't they?

When you say she marched on her former home do you mean the city state or clan compound because it seems just a wee bit jerkish to massacre everyone for something your sisters did to you.

Also yay for possibly discovering psi amps.

More than a bit, yes. Alas, typhoons and sea-spirit armies are not precision instruments of justice.

Also, a lot of mythical figures are jerkasses. By modern standards at least, Perseus was quite the arsehole, at least in some versions of the myth. Take his slaying of Medusa, who in the Roman verion was originally a very beautiful woman... and then Poseidon raped her in Athena's temple. Athena was furious, and in response, turned Medusa into the gorgon we know her as, with a face so hideous that would turn onlookers to stone.

Depending on the interpretation, this was either a punishment or protection that Athena put on her, but either way, Perseus saw it as a punishment, and endorsed it, considering it 'what she deserves'. Theeeen he went off to go kill her, and afterwards, used her severed head as a weapon.

... that's not something you'd see in most modern depictions of 'heroes'. We have very different values now. Presumably, Loroi values changed a lot between Tempest's time and 2160.

RedDwarfIV wrote:Depending on the interpretation, this was either a punishment or protection that Athena put on her, but either way, Perseus saw it as a punishment, and endorsed it, considering it 'what she deserves'. Theeeen he went off to go kill her, and afterwards, used her severed head as a weapon.

... that's not something you'd see in most modern depictions of 'heroes'.

RedDwarfIV wrote:Also, a lot of mythical figures are jerkasses.

Very much so, and very often such myths end with the fall of the hero due to his own flaws. Heroic myths are often as much about the excesses of hubris or other human vices as they are about heroic deeds.

RedDwarfIV wrote:Also, a lot of mythical figures are jerkasses. By modern standards at least, Perseus was quite the arsehole, at least in some versions of the myth. Take his slaying of Medusa, who in the Roman verion was originally a very beautiful woman... and then Poseidon raped her in Athena's temple. Athena was furious, and in response, turned Medusa into the gorgon we know her as, with a face so hideous that would turn onlookers to stone.

Depending on the interpretation, this was either a punishment or protection that Athena put on her, but either way, Perseus saw it as a punishment, and endorsed it, considering it 'what she deserves'. Theeeen he went off to go kill her, and afterwards, used her severed head as a weapon.

... that's not something you'd see in most modern depictions of 'heroes'. We have very different values now. Presumably, Loroi values changed a lot between Tempest's time and 2160.

Yeah.. Athena comes off as rather bitchy there too, blaming her for being raped. Blame the victim much there? It's accurate though, most mythical 'heroes' were anything but heroes. Not even Hercules was much of a real hero. He was pretty much a jackass to everyone.

actually his name was Heracles not meaning "glory of Hera", the romans used Hercules.

I'm not sure if this has been answered before, but since they seem to be artificial intelligences, can the Loroi Farseers detect the Historians with their powers?

hi hi

I've come to the realization recently that a lot of our old mythological stories are essentially fan fiction. Every mythical being gets shipped some time or another, and what they're like depends on who is the writers favorite character.

and a lot of the problems are caused by someone not keeping it in their pants.

Mythic heroes tend to be rife with the classic human foibles... hubris, greed, lust, wrath, excess. Not so much sloth, though.

Zakharra wrote:I'm not sure if this has been answered before, but since they seem to be artificial intelligences, can the Loroi Farseers detect the Historians with their powers?

The Historian personality constructs cannot be detected or interacted with by Loroi telepathy.