Changeling Expletives in Cultural Context · 3:21pm Nov 11th, 2014
(This started as a reply to a thread on the Writers' Group)
These are all, of course, Translation Conventions, as Equestrian isn't English and the Changelings are even more alien to us than are the Ponies. and much of the time aren't even speaking Equestrian. And some of this applies specifically to my Changelings. And it should be noted that this only applies to unassimilated Changelings -- a Changeling who has spent years dwelling in Equestria does understand Equestrian mores and expletives, and may well use them to blend in better (especially if he's actually Infiltrating).
The first thing to remember is that sexual expletives don't translate well to Changeling culture. If you're a Changeling, you're either a Royal (in which case you have sex with anyling and everyling whose genes you think would make good offspring); or (like most lings) you're part of some other caste. If you're not a Royal, sex with a Royal is an honor (you've been deemed worthy of contributing to the Hive's genetic future) and sex with any other ling is recreational (because the mating is sterile). Changelings know Friendship, but almost all of their Love is reserved for their Hive.
Sometimes, a very strong Changeling Friendship is, essentially, Loving, but the only link between sex and Friendship or Love is that a ling is much more LIKELY to have sex with a friend or really good friend, because he or she is around friends more than non-friends, and is more likely to share all social pleasures with them. And Changelings in Changeling societies are not at all prudish about sex; they'll have sex right in front of non-participant lings with the only issue being that it might be rude not to invite them to join in. So to Changelings, sex isn't shocking and sexual insults are meaningless.
The second thing to remember is that scatological expletives work. Changelings don't like touching their own bodily wastes any more than do other Ponies. Their Hives have perfectly good waste disposal systems, mostly consisting of the wastes being used as fertilizer to grow their mushroom gardens or (in the case of liquid wastes) being reprocessed by genengineered organisms to produce drinking water. Emotionally- and physically-healthy Changelings are quite cleanly -- it's necessary to prevent plagues from sweeping through their Hives -- and bathe and otherwise groom themselves at frequent and regular intervals.
In fact, scatological expletives work better for Changelings than the other Kinds, since to a Changeling failing to clean and groom herself properly implies bad things about her health and sanity. Changeling Hives smell strange to Ponies because of Changeling pheromonal emissions; they do not smell like feces or urine (unless the Changelings are mistreating their Captives, in which case said Captives may be physically dirty, and Changelings almost never mistreat their Guests -- a Guest is a non-member of the Hive who is voluntarily visiting a Hive and whom the Hive has voluntarily agreed to Host).
The third thing to remember is that the Changelings do have something of a religion, based on ancestor-worship and supported by aphorisms. All Changeling ancestors are Royals, and the highest-status Changeling Royal remembered in legend by most Changelings is Rosedust, the last High Queen of their race back when they were the Flutter Ponies. They may swear by Rosedust or by her various body parts and other personal attributes (which ones depend on the extent to which they are being serious versus intentionally blasphemous). They may also swear by various Royals of whom they have more personal or at least historical acquaintance.
Other prominent Changelings -- or anypony who has done an especial favor for the Changelings as a race, may wind up essentially "sainted" (in more normal Equestrian terms) -- venerated during his life and after his death as a benefactor of the whole Kind. This, for instance, is the ultimate fate of Landscape Carrot, who saved Hive Evergloom and went on to save many thousands of Changelings during the war of 1513-15. The fact that he began as a Captive, and yet came to love the Changelings and thus help both Equestria and the Hives, utterly awes the Changelings as a expression of eusociality beyond even their own normal display of this virtue.
This religion also has devils. The worst devil of all is Discord, who originally warped the Flutter Ponies into the Changelings. He is almost never referred to by his right name, as the Changelings are afraid to attract his attention by saying it. (This was, pathetically-enough, true even during the millennium and a half he was imprisoned in stone -- the Changelings are simply that terrified of him). Since the Reconciliation, the Changelings have accepted that Discord is no longer their enemy, but they neither like nor trust him, and still try to avoid his notice -- though his diabolic status in their culture starts to slowly fade.
For a long time, the Changelings were also terrified of Celestia and Luna, whom they referred to as the Burner and the Slayer, or the Sun-Witch and the Moon-Witch. They were much more afraid of Celestia, because sunlight reveals, and the Changelings are a naturally secretive Kind. That is beginning to change with the Reconciliation, as the Changelings greatly respect Celestia's Sacrifice (it strongly appeals to a eusocial race that honors their own Royals) and have come to trust Luna's honor. It helped that the Sisters were never particularly hostile to the Changelings, save in war, and then only against enemy Hives. (In their youth, both Celestia and Luna were friends to the Flutter Ponies, though after 2500 years this was not much remembered).
A recent devil -- who became one starting around YOH 1510 -- is Nightmare Hunger, aka Queen Chrysalis. Post-Reconciliation lings remember her as a monster of madness and malice who nearly caused the destruction of their entire Kind, both directly (through attacking all Hives who refused to honor her claim to be High Queen) and indirectly (through leading her subjects in suicidal wars against Equestria). She is generally referred to by post-Reconciliation Changelings as the "Nightmare Queen," and tales are told of unwary lings (often nymphs) encountering a strange and menacing Royal when they venture into unused portions of their Hive or (worse) leave the Hive itself (especially in the former Badlands).
She is said to eat other Changelings -- especially naughty little nymphs -- an increasingly-confused memory of Chrysalis' actual technique of violently-draining the life force of her victims, to the point of rapidly and gruesomely killing them. Nurses use her as a bogey-spirit to warn nymphs to be obedient and not stray beyond the Nursery. In more serious education, she is the standard example of a Royal who completely forgot the responsibilities of leadership that come with the power of Royalty; a cautionary example for all Changeling Queens to avoid.
Beyond this, there are persistent rumors that when she died in 1515 she actually cheated death to become an undead spirit of hatred, who now despises all Changelings for betraying her through the Reconciliation. It is also said that she yearns to return from Beyond, to force her former Kind to submit to her, and once again lead them in a suicidal war against all the other Kinds. Fearful stories persist that if she can ever so return, her Stare will be utterly-irresistible: all the Queens will have to serve her, and life will once again become as terrible as it was during the Great War of 1513-1515 -- and this time, the Changelings will be entirely destroyed.
The Changelings blaspheme with all these ancestral spirits and devils, but in the case of the devils tend to refer to them by euphemism. It would be a boldly and shockingly-blasphemous ling indeed who dared to actually use the names "Discord" or "Chrysalis" in any reference other than the drily historical.
Changelings also consider some things greatly shocking which other Ponies would consider either mildly bad or bad but not horrifically bad. For instance, being a more eusocial race than the other Kinds, the concepts of betrayal and isolation utterly horrify them, and "traitor" is a dreadful condemnation (keep that in mind when evaluating Compound's opinion of Nictis); similarly "outcast" or "lone-mad." (Solitary's name verges on the blasphemous, as Hunger intended when she named him). Changelings don't much like direct sunlight, even after the Reconciliation, and hence "sunstroke" and "heatstroke" are swear-words (the Hives are lighted by glowmoss and climate-controlled by a variety of ventilation techniques; the Changelings are claustrophiles and find their Hives quite comfortable).
Anyway, this is my brief overview of Changeling expletives. Hope you find it useful.
Ah, I do so love world building.
Very fascinating as always.
You love your world building. :-)
I feel like I just read an essay...
Joking aside, this was a brilliant way of designing changeling culture and a logical as well as understandable one at that. Your changelings are not that different from the concepts that other people use, however your's are far more detailed and further allow the reader to recognise them as a race, a people, rather than animals with a semi-advanced understanding of culture. Well done on your behalf!
Few things say more about a culture than its expletives. They'll tell you what that people reveres and reviles, sometimes in the same sentence. Thank you as always for a look into your take on Equestria.
Heh, I do see ways this might be used in future stories of my own (and with your permission, of course). Especially the idea of the Hive Queens going to 'Lings and non-Changelings for healthy genetic material to contribute to the future of their swarm and hive. "I consider you a strong male worthy of respect and whose line would be a splendid contribution to my Hive. May we engage in a mutually pleasurable mounting now?"
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Oh, I actually love when someone uses my ideas in their stories, especially in the context of fanfiction where none of us have any copyrights (and even in original fiction, copyrights are of expressions rather than ideas anyway).
Heh, there are numerous differences between Changeling and Equestrian culture which create problems and mutual embarrassments during the Reconciliation. And that's one of them. Changelings and Equestrians are both afraid of cross-cultural contamination, and it in fact happens -- it's unavoidable.
2588809 Also, Jordan, do you think that Changelings are cross-fertile with other species? I take it for granted in Wolf in Pony's Clothingand its related stories that Changelings can have young by members of other races/species (I've seen this in many a fanon). It may not happen very often, but it does happen. Though then I need to explain why it's live birth rather than the normal egg-laying or however the Changelings reproduce. Maybe when Changelings are shapeshifted into another species it changes not just their form but their biology?
For that matter there'd be the problem of 'Can Changelings turn ponies and other creatures into Changelings by cocooning them'? It seems to be taken for granted in many corners of the fandom that they can, though there seems to be little canon in support. And if they do then how do the ones living as part of Equestria handle it? I doubt they drag ponies in off the streets and toss them into a metamorphic cocoon. And if it can restore a pony to a younger stage of their life and/or heal otherwise crippling injuries (as I suggested in Diamond Tiara versus the Changeling Invasion, and as was suggested in the works that inspired it), then how would the Changelings and Equestria handle the inevitable requests to 'May I become a Changeling and be healed'? Do the Changelings sometimes approach ponies and other beings they respect and ask them if they want to make the shift?
Wow, did I ever go on there. Sorry about that & thanks for the response.
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I think that they've kept cross-fertility with the three main Pony Kinds.
Yes. This is expensive in terms of time and effort (both magican and physical) so they only do this to beings they particularly want to add to their Hives.
Changeling bio-technology and medical magics are in advance of Equestria's. One of the benefits of the Reconciliation to Equestria is that the Equestrians are able to learn or at least make use of Changeling medical techniques. So the short answer is "yes," and among the services the Hives trade after the Reconciliation, in order to get love, are medical.
2589039 Thanks for the response, it's really helpful.