Semi-random question which may or may not become relevant to my Narnia Big Bang

[edenfalling]

Okay, so. Background. My version of Calormen has a nine-deity pantheon: five gods, four goddesses. (Three of them are even mentioned in canon, yay!) The fifth god, Azaroth, is god of death, darkness, and silence. Also deserts. Anyway, the clergy of the other deities are gender-linked; women serve the goddesses, men serve the gods. In big temples, Azaroth only has a priesthood, but in rural areas and smaller city shrines and so on, it's basically equal opportunity. His clergy do funerals, mostly. Also sometimes they're healers if there isn't anyone around who serves Soolyeh or Nur.

There was, actually, a way for Aravis to get out of marrying Ahoshta without killing herself. The catch is that by Calormene lights it might be worse than death. It involves renouncing your name, your family, your possessions, your afterlife -- basically everything. You give all that to Azaroth. In return, you get out of whatever obligations were making your life unbearable, because you are not that person anymore. After your death, Azaroth will recycle your soul. You will be reborn as someone else and maybe do a better job the second time around.

Calormenes do not think reincarnation is a good thing. Not at all. The idea is for your soul to live in the lands of the gods after death, as part of your family. Also, breaking family ties? Very bad. Throwing everything away is more shameful than suicide. At least suicides keep their selves and their blood ties, and can make it to the heavens after a time of torment if they're very determined. Even if twice-born souls make it through life faultlessly on the second try, they will always bear a mark to show they gave up the first time around.

(This is theology, btw. Whether it bears much relation to reality... eh. It's a world created by a talking lion. And Tash, at least, is unquestionably real. Either everyone goes to Aslan's country regardless, or your afterlife -- because Narnian cosmology does canonically have immortal souls, even in Lewis's version of England -- is determined by your own gods. Pick whichever option makes you happier. My opinion on Aslan's attitude toward comparative religions need not determine yours.)

Back to the main subject! Nobody will help people who've sworn away their lives to Azaroth. They are not his clergy. They're just empty.

So they help each other. And since he's the god of death, generally what they do is band together and either do a lot of dirty jobs nobody else wants, or follow armies around as mercenaries, last-resort healers, and burial squads.

I need a name for them.

Nicknames include the walking dead, the living ghosts, the black-robes, the forsworn, the hollow ones, the nameless, etc. But the only official name I am coming up with is the Renunciates, which, well... shades of Darkover. And while there are similarities to the concept, this is not a female-only thing. Sacrificing your entire self to Azaroth is an option of last resort for anyone, and it's a LOT more severe than Bradley's Free Amazons.

If I called them the Renunciates, would that throw anyone out of a story? And does anyone have a better name?

Comments

[marycontrary]

The Eaten? The undead?

[marycontrary]

Note, these are not better names, per se, just the first alternatives I thought of.

[doire]

They're throwing life away, discarding it. Discarders is wrong, but might be a nickname. Not just rejecting, but being ungrateful. Something from ingratus, ingrata, maybe? Ingrates? Google gives me INGRATIFICUS but my latin is too far behind me to be sure of its nuances.

[annotated_em]

(Here via network)

Could you do something with relinquish or abnegate, perhaps?

[branchandroot]

Unfortunately, I think anyone who ever read Bradley would be thrown out pretty hard; I know I would, and it's been, like, decades since I re-read the Free Amazon books.

Actually, the Nameless strikes me as a good official option; it seems to get at the most important thing people would think they were sacrificing--blood and family ties.

[edenfalling]

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. It would throw me, and I'm the one who'd be writing it! (Ah, Darkover. I imprinted HARD on that series from about 12 to 18.) But sometimes a word or name gets stuck in my head and won't let any other options in, so I thought I'd ask for help. :-)

[pineapplechild]

I'm with Branch; that would really throw me. I also like the Nameless as the official option.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

I keep thinking "Revenant" myself. They're "dead" to their old lives, but there they are anyway, like a ghost.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Also, revenant? Means "one who returns".

[askerian]

I like renunciate, personally, though you could also look up synonyms to "renounce" and make up a word with it. The Apostates? the Discardants? Recanters?

I dunno about revenants because to me it evokes more a person who did that in a previous life when she was someone else, not the one who does it in this one, and I'd think the two would be clearly sepatared in their worldview.

[joisbishmyoga.livejournal.com]

Maybe something about shunning?

[rthstewart.livejournal.com]

I am not bothered by Renunciates at all and I really like the Foresworn and the nameless too. Sounds terrific!

[lady_songsmith]

Maybe something like the Surrendered, since they gave up?

[animus-wyrmis.livejournal.com]

I kind of like the Nameless, since it seems like that is pretty key for Calormene culture. Could you do something about families, maybe? All I can think of atm is Bloodless, which is probably not where you want to go, but something like that? Orphaned? Lost? Abandoned? Alone? Disinherited? Cast off?

[snacky]

Maybe a name they give to themselves? All the other names seem to be what others would call them, but how would they think of themselves? I'd go with something like, "the Reborn" because they've entered an entirely new life. Or maybe "the Alterans" because they've been altered.

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

I would go with something shorter and with an insulting edge to it - Renunciates is too respectful.

[explodingfrogs.livejournal.com]

Maybe "the Nameless" should be their official name? They have, after all, thrown away everything that makes them them, and it's a common concept in folklore and mythology for there to be little to no difference between the name and the thing being named. For someone or something to be truly Nameless would have...certain implications. Many of them decidedly unsavory.

Or possibly "the Silent." They've given themselves to a god of silence, after all, and have given up their voice in Calormene society proper.

Or maybe they have no official name, per se. No one acknowledges them (except to make use of their services, and even then, no one will ever acknowledge having needed to do so), no one helps them, no one talks to them, no one does business with them, censuses and surveys never include them...people just pretend they don't exist. But when word gets out that someone in a terrible bind has "given himself to Azaroth", everyone knows what happened to him. And never speaks of him again.

[edenfalling]

All interesting ideas, thanks!