Character names in Rainbows After Rain, part 1: Changelings (and Moony) · 10:17am Aug 28th, 2022
First of all, chapter 2 is about a third done. There'll be a sneak peak at the end!
- Moonbow Shine is a partial reference to a line from "A Kirin Tale": "'Cause rainbows won't light up the sky unless you let it rain." A moonbow is basically a rainbow at night. Kirin and hippogriffs both have similar naming conventions to ponies, which makes coming up with names for them so much easier.
- Solifuges are a kind of arachnid, also known as sun spiders or camel spiders. I didn't want to name all the changelings after body parts because you can't get many good names that way, so I named a few after arthropods instead. I also wanted to give Sunny a name that had something to do with the sun, hence why it's shortened to Sol.
- A phalanx is a military formation, which fits with Hitch being an authority figure who protects. It's also a kind of finger bone, which fits the body parts theme naming, plus I learned while writing chapter 1 that all the show's changelings' names contain "S" or "X" sounds. (Chrysalis, Thorax, Pharynx, Ocellus. Urtica from the comics is the exception, but she's also named after a genus of nettles, so yay there's precedent for non-body-part names.)
- The viceroy butterfly is a mimic of the monarch butterfly, and a viceroy is someone who rules a colony on behalf of an emperor, just like how Sprout is a wannabe dictator. Both butterflies are toxic.
- A rostrum is an insect's mouthparts, and Phyllis is snooty.
Sol didn’t want to run. Curious to see this nirik, she perched on top of one of the hive’s sandstone spires to watch from a distance. The highest-ranking guards formed a wall around the edge with their bodies, with the lower-ranking ones standing behind them as backup. She saw a red smudge — almost certainly Viceroy — try to shove himself into the front row, only to be pushed back.
When the nirik came close, the guards closest to it pointed their polearms horizontally. It didn’t seem afraid in the slightest, though, because it leaped over them with the grace of a pebble skimming on water before breaking into a mad gallop towards the beach. There was a lot of commotion from the guards, but even on a windless day like this, Sol was too far away to hear what they were saying.
REALLY good description on the name origins. Yeah definitely makes sense.
And it is even more ironically appropriate in the case of Izzy's counterpart as her counterpart's FIRST name is the same as Izzy's LAST name
Plus, some good foreshadowing for the next chapter.
I love all the names! I already knew what some of them were (I only didn't know Rostrum and Solifuge) but I loved hearing why you picked these words for the character's names. I can't wait to see the next chapter!
5682371 Aww, thanks.
5682413
No problem!