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Considering the naming of 'kats
6 years ago
"I have to ask you the same question people back home are asking about space these days. Is it worth it? Should we just pull back? Forget the whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at home."
So I had some inspiration strike a little while back, and after some consideration, I'm thinking of changing my chakat's name to Chakat Mistral.
This isn't a spur-of-the-moment thing- I'd been thinking on it since the idea came to mind. Mistral is a name I'd used on and off for longer than I have Swiftwind, thanks to Second Life. The name itself refers to a kind of Northern Wind, so it keeps the wind aspect as a reference to hir piloting, while at the same time actually references hir snow leopard patterning.
Finally, there's also an obscure sort of reference here I find immensely satisfying. In SL I went by Llewelyn Mistral. Llewelyn is the name that got attached to my dragon self. So Llewelyn Mistral = Llewelyn + Mistral = dragon + chakat. The whole symmetry there feels right.
Now I'm not going to rename the Swiftwind in the story I wrote, and hir history will likely remain as-is. Putting hir on the Excalibur's crew, while I liked doing so, sort of wrote myself into a corner regarding hir life in the Chakatverse. The timeline of things also butts up against the whole ponyverse merging, when I had specifically jumped a short ways into the future and sent the ship out into deep space to try to avoid any conflicts with Goldfur's timeline and stories. This offers me a chance to slice that whole aspect off into a separate character.
I'm still undecided on what changes I may make to Mistral's Chakatverse background, though a lot of the high points will likely remain the same, just like hir appearance. I may even keep Swiftwind as a callsign of sorts and just retcon the story bit of things out. I wrote a much longer pondering on the idea on my personal site, but it really wouldn't be that big a decision if it wasn't for the existing history attached to the name already, I feel. Heck, if it wasn't for the existing story, chakats have changed names before and hir changing hir name on its own canonically wouldn't have been totally out there.
I'm also not really sure how this sort of thing goes over in the greater 'kat community, but this is more for myself than anyone else.
And honestly? I never did use the name Swiftwind much as an identity since my dragon awoke, even after I reclaimed my chakat 'sona and started to do things with hir again. (I don't use Llewelyn a lot either to be fair - it's mostly Dekafox these days, despite the lack of fox.) Ultimately it's not like this'll make a huge difference, outside of what it means to me. (And it may help reduce any confusion between my Swiftwind and
chakatswiftwind as well!) This is more just a notice to folks who wander by and may be confused about things.
I'm also a bit torn on what to do about all my existing art - I could update my descriptions, but I can't update descriptions on the artists' galleries and I don't want to be a bother PMing them to ask them to change titles and descriptions on something that may have been posted a year ago or more. On the other hand, the look is the same, it's just the name that's changing, so I may just let it be and move forward. We'll see how things work out I guess.
This isn't a spur-of-the-moment thing- I'd been thinking on it since the idea came to mind. Mistral is a name I'd used on and off for longer than I have Swiftwind, thanks to Second Life. The name itself refers to a kind of Northern Wind, so it keeps the wind aspect as a reference to hir piloting, while at the same time actually references hir snow leopard patterning.
Finally, there's also an obscure sort of reference here I find immensely satisfying. In SL I went by Llewelyn Mistral. Llewelyn is the name that got attached to my dragon self. So Llewelyn Mistral = Llewelyn + Mistral = dragon + chakat. The whole symmetry there feels right.
Now I'm not going to rename the Swiftwind in the story I wrote, and hir history will likely remain as-is. Putting hir on the Excalibur's crew, while I liked doing so, sort of wrote myself into a corner regarding hir life in the Chakatverse. The timeline of things also butts up against the whole ponyverse merging, when I had specifically jumped a short ways into the future and sent the ship out into deep space to try to avoid any conflicts with Goldfur's timeline and stories. This offers me a chance to slice that whole aspect off into a separate character.
I'm still undecided on what changes I may make to Mistral's Chakatverse background, though a lot of the high points will likely remain the same, just like hir appearance. I may even keep Swiftwind as a callsign of sorts and just retcon the story bit of things out. I wrote a much longer pondering on the idea on my personal site, but it really wouldn't be that big a decision if it wasn't for the existing history attached to the name already, I feel. Heck, if it wasn't for the existing story, chakats have changed names before and hir changing hir name on its own canonically wouldn't have been totally out there.
I'm also not really sure how this sort of thing goes over in the greater 'kat community, but this is more for myself than anyone else.
And honestly? I never did use the name Swiftwind much as an identity since my dragon awoke, even after I reclaimed my chakat 'sona and started to do things with hir again. (I don't use Llewelyn a lot either to be fair - it's mostly Dekafox these days, despite the lack of fox.) Ultimately it's not like this'll make a huge difference, outside of what it means to me. (And it may help reduce any confusion between my Swiftwind and
chakatswiftwind as well!) This is more just a notice to folks who wander by and may be confused about things.I'm also a bit torn on what to do about all my existing art - I could update my descriptions, but I can't update descriptions on the artists' galleries and I don't want to be a bother PMing them to ask them to change titles and descriptions on something that may have been posted a year ago or more. On the other hand, the look is the same, it's just the name that's changing, so I may just let it be and move forward. We'll see how things work out I guess.
"No. We have to stay here. And there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics, and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-Tzu, and Einstein, and Morobuto, and Buddy Holly, and Aristophanes, and - all of this - all of this - was for nothing. Unless we go to the stars."
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