Discussion Choosing a New Name (aka I do not like the name Seraphon)

So one of the biggest reasons I do not like the AOS lore is the new name GW chose for the Lizardmen to use in the age of copyright. While I understand that "Lizardmen" is too generic to fulfill this role, I think the name Seraphon is a bit too bland for my tastes, and does nothing to invoke the rich Mesoamerican lore that the Lizardmen of Warhammer Fantasy were built upon.

So what new name could we use?

First, the two names we already have.

Lizardmen (8th-edition WHF and previous)

• Captures what the first human explorers to the isles of Lustria would have called these beings ("hey look over there Explorer Bob, that thing over their has scales like a lizard but walks like a man! It's a lizard-man!)
• Pro: Easy to recognize what they are in our own language, nice and generic
• Pro: easy to say and spell
• Con: Too simple for GW to copyright
• Con?: Potentially construed as gender specific (though the lizard"men" are purported to be genderless as they arise from spawning pools, opening up a completely different can-of-worms)

Seraphon (8th-edition WHF and previous)

• Derived from seraph or plural seraphim, biblical angels with six wings (one on face), potentially up to three heads, some symbolism linking them to fire and an un-extinquisible light
• Pro: unique name, easy for GW to copyright as the name isn't used by anyone else
• Pro: Suites the new lore of the star-lizardmen, as being "demons of order," filled with heavenly magic and celestial energy.
• Neutral: relatively easy to spell an say, except for some of the old beards of the hobby
• Neutral: used to be the name of Malekith's (he was the dark elf king) dragon steed. No relation.
• Con: calls to mind angelic or fire imagery, not lizards and scales.
• Con: No relation to old Mesoamerican lore or fluff

This last reason is my own biggest sticking point. In both cases however, neither of these names would have been chosen by the Lizardmen/Seraphon themselves. These are both names that they have been given by outsiders to their own civilization.



So what could the Lizardmen/Seraphon actually call themselves? I would first look to the mighty Lustriapedia for this humble entry written by our own @Scalenex :

[the] First: The self-referential term for Lizardmen. “First” is short form for “First Children of the Old Ones”, collectively referring to Slann, Sauri, Kroxigor, and Skinks.



So what other options are there? Here are a few I just came up with:


Kukulkani

• Name is derived from the Mayan god Kulkulkan, worshipped by the people of the Yucatan. Name means “feathered Serpent.”
• Pro: Feathered Serpent imagery calls to mind both scales and feathers, suites the dino-riding Lizardmen really well
• Pro: Lore friendly and inspired by Mesoamerican culture
• Neutral: relatively easy to say out loud, not much harder than Seraphon in my opinion.
• Dealbreaker: name is already copyrighted by CoolMiniOrNot, and is used by their space Mayans in the game Dark Age. Otherwise this name would have worked perfectly

Spoiler: Kukulkani

Also the Mayan God Kulkulkan, from Chichen Itza:

Quetzalcoatli

• Name is derived from the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, also means “feathered Serpent.”
• Pro: Feathered Serpent imagery calls to mind both scales and feathers, suites the dino-riding Lizardmen really well
• Pro: Lore friendly and inspired by Mesoamerican culture. The connection could also be made that the Lizardmen see Sigmar as a new “Quetzalcoatl” figure, as a hero reborn from legend.
• Pro: doesn’t look like it is copyrighted by anybody
• Con: Not really easy to say, and is a bit more wordy than the first option.

Spoiler: Quetzalcoatl

Aztec God Quetzalcoatl:

[the] Itza

• Name is derived from the Mayan tribe of the same name. Looks like it means “enchanted waters” in Mayan.
• Pro: Inspired by Mesoamerican culture.
• Pro: also name for the Lizardmen first city, as in it means “the first” in the old Lizardmen language. Seems very appropriate to be co-opted as the name the Lizardmen might actually call themselves in their own language.
• Pro: Easy to say (its two syllables)
• Con: While it isn’t necessarily copyrighted by anybody, it is the name of an actual group of people living on planet earth as we speak, and for that reason probably won’t work as the name of a flagship race of AOS.

Spoiler: Map of the maximum extent of the Itza empire

I will keep trying to come up with better ideas, that is all I have right now.

 

Chocohixyl

 

Why does the second one have two L’s?

kuLkuLkan ?

 

@Warden

If two of the names translate to feathered serpent, why not “serpentmen”? In fact let’s spell it:

Serpentmann Army

Because Slann uses a dopple-nn.

 

What does this one mean? Google turns up nothing

That was mostly an oversight on my part, however turns out the CMON version is spelled without the first 'L' so that is probably why I spelt it that way without realizing it.

This one also works, for mostly the same reasons that Lizardmen works, but also would fall short in the "GW exclusive" category

 

I'm guessing "Scaly bastards" is out because of a younger audience

 

It doesn’t mean anything.

True story: I was posting elsewhere on the internet. I needed some letters as a placeholder. So I stabbed at the keyboard doing the equivalent of a cat walking across. Chocohxi was what came out. From there I swapped 2 letters and added 2 more. It looked so lizardmanlish I jotted it down, thinking it would be wanted somewhere for something.

Randomly generated: True Story

 

True, it is an easier marketing direction to go towards the "stars" and "celestial" motif. More easily accessible.

 

I'll never get over that weird association Seraphon had with that strange cartoon cat tickle fetish. Once seen, it can never be unseen.

 

Thanks for the warning...

 

It is creepy to say the least. When AoS first arrived in 2015, a google image search of "seraphon" would bring up hundreds of these strange pictures. Luckily now, the same search brings up our beloved Lizards instead.

 

L'azyrdmen?
Azyri / Azyran / Azyrec (like Aztec?)
Sauraphon

I'm not opposed to the name, Seraphon, I guess. I think I see how GW arrived at the name (and it may not be too far from the breakdown by @Aginor).

Age of Sigmar is odd. Admittedly, I haven't read much of the lore, but few of the armies seem to call themselves "human" or "dwarf". Instead we have Stormcast Eternals, Daughters of Khaine, Idoneth Deepkin, or Khadron Overlords. Who knows, maybe GW has BIG plans to redo the Seraphon models, turning them into more "angelic" feathered lizards since they have been bathed in the light of Azyr? That could play off both the root of the name and the Mesoamerican theme. (almost certainly not, but it's fun to brainstorm)

 

While the L'azyrdmen pun is pretty funny, it may accidently make our scaley beasties look too lazy

The play on Aztec isn't bad, Azyrtec or something, especially with the connection to the lore of heavens. Again, it would probably be a name the humans give them, as "azyr" sounds more like a human word? Then again I don't know if their ever were established "lizardmen" names of the winds of magic in the old lore.

Sauraphon, Saurophon, that is playing into the "saurus" aspect a bit more, and the "dinosaur" part of the army we all love. Some google-latin-fu real quick:

old Greek (English meaning)--> modern Latin --> mid 19th century/present​

deinos (terrible) sauros (lizard) --> dinosaurus --> dinosaur​

 

Ha ha ha. Yes, I thought that the first name looked a little too much like Lazymen. But, it was just a pun anyway.
The Azyr-based names were more "serious" and the Sauraphon is a bit of a pun too, and is to play up on the dinosaur aspect.

That said. I really like this thread. An Olmec, Maya, or Atzec based name could have worked great for the Seraphon. I also think a celestial inspired name could have been cool, but all of those were reserved strictly for the SCE.

 

This may sound cheesy but I'm afraid it was the first thing I thought of, and that's "The Scales of time"

 

How about Quetzal Warriors or Warriors of Quetzal? Based on the Quetzalcoatli idea but slightly easier to say and based upon a Mayan elite warrior sect.

 

Lustrians