Luna Dieum! Lunar Creature Creation: Name Development and Research

So! After a little bit more development and research, we've got most of the base work ready for our creature. In our design process, we've decided to ask a wide range of questions so we can understand our creature better, which now has a name! The Luna Dieum! 
So in this post, I'll be breaking down how the name was made, as well as some of the other questions we ask to flush out the creature further.

Tom's Research

So let's start with the name, I looked at very simple words, some in Latin, few Norse, but a lot of just standard English words.

Moon Monster Name Generation

Basic Words:

• Moon
• Lunar
• Máni (Norse for Moon)
• Crescent Moon
• Dark Moon
• Apogee
• Earthshine
• Full Moon
• Apollo
• Perigee
• Eclipse
• Lacus, (The craters on the moon)
• Rille, (Canyons on the moon's surface.)
• Umbra (The name given to the shadow cast by a celestial object that entirely blocks out illumination.)
• Shrill
• Piercing

Different Words:

Te Deum

(Latin for Monster)

Draco

Pallidi

(Latin for Ghoul)

Venandi

(Latin for Hunter)

Moonborne

Borne/Rome

The Great Eye/Magna Oculus

Myths/Legends:

(We didn't know about this legend until the end of the name creation process.)

Why is the moon scarred? They’re fang marks left by Alklha, a monster with huge, impenetrably black wings. Alklha is a personification of the darkness of the sky. It feeds on the moon every month, slowly nibbling at it until it disappears. But the moon does not agree with the monster, who vomits it out into the sky, bit by bit, eventually re-creating the full moon.

Alklha is a dragon that eats the moon.

Izanagi, performed a cleansing ritual after returning from Yomi.

Hakuja no Myojin - A white serpent God.

Name Pitches

Alklha, Pallidi (Latin for Ghoul), Lunar, Rille (Canyons on the surface of the Moon.), Te Deum (Latin for monster), Hakuja no Myojin - A white serpent God.

Alk lha

Pilliard, Shrille no Myojineum, Lunadeum, Te Pallideum, Draklha, Drailli, Lunadium, Lunidom, Palli Lunadeum, Pali Lun’a’jin, Luna’kolha, Omulum, Muen, Lacus, Macus, Mocus, Mooncus, Looncus, Lunotic, Rille, Wyrm, Myrum, Maiurum, Lyroon, Lyrille, Lunideim Lunar Dillium, Lunaris Dillium Allidis, Daelaus + Lacus Credalaus

Luna’dolkha, Lunadeum, Palun’a’Jin, Lunidom, Lunotic, Mooneuillur, Myrum.

Rachael's Research

My word idealization began with a list of basic visual descriptors:

• Creature
• Animal
• Monster
• Being
• Moon
• Celestial
• Crescent
• Lunar
• Satellite

I then explored Greek mythos, beginning with research into 'Selene', the goddess of the moon who is identified sporadically across history as a triple deity with 'Cynthia' and 'Diana'.

Greek Mythology already has a history of lending the names of its gods/goddesses to the planets. In fact, the International Astronomical Union (the association responsible for naming and record keeping within the field of astronomy through “international cooperation”) has recognized astronomy as ‘old science’ with close ties to tradition and religious beliefs across history. Presently, they’ve agreed thereby to adopt this tradition of naming in the future.

'Kylix, Selene and Gigantomachy' by The Brygos Painter (490 BC.) 

Other forms of ‘identification’ include the go-to Latin/Greek system for systematic naming. Taxonomy is the science of classifying biological organisms into groups according to their shared traits according to a hierarchy of domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family genus and species.
This use of Latin/Greek words comes partially from Carl Linnaeus’s formalisation of binomial nomenclature (i.e. the modern system for naming organisms). His books were published during a time when Latin was considered the common language of science across Western Europe. 

Although we've yet to encounter alien life, humans have already been anticipating potential forms of classifications for years. The naming of planets and satellites again falls under IAU territory, and there's already a preference to name extra-terrestrial terrain after acclaimed scientists/explorers (i.e. the moon's craters include Daedalus, Icarus, Racah, Lipskiy etc.)
I considered naming this creature after the craters it dwells in/creates.

Riccioli's Moon Map (1651) features craters named after notable scientists

The concept of planetary and satellite nomenclature is a controversial topic. There's a necessity of sorts to 'naming' things beyond Earth for identification purposes. But it also implies ownership which opposes the United Nations 'Outer Space Treaty' claim "[that] outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty", i.e. governments are barred from claiming ownership over extra-terrestrial land.

There's also the issue of using an Earth-centric classification system. Most are not universally accepted, and harbour unquestioned beliefs that while usable here, may not applicable elsewhere. For instance there's an assumption that "intelligence, technology and civilization require life or society [as we know it]".

So there's been many alternatives proposed!

Peter Ward (2005) suggests an expanded "tree of life", to account of life forms we've not encountered yet. Viruses, life on RNA, and life based on silicon or elements away from what's common on Earth (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen etc.) would be accounted for.
He suggests placing the existing highest levels (bacteria, archaea and eukarya) into a larger dominion called "terroan", relating to Earth origins.
Other dominions include "ribosa" (life based on ribonucleic acid), and potentially life formed with an alternative base than DNA/RNA. These groups would be placed within "broader classifications called 'arborea', which contain[s] life that does not mix with other 'arborea'". So 'Earth arborea', 'moon arborea' etc.

There's argument for categorizing life forms according to their 'location' within the universe (this is problematic when we consider what 'location' is in respect to spacetime. And that's not even accounting for species relocation); or even on a subatomic level, according to "chemical composition and respiration type".

Some argue eradicating current Latin and Roman wording from modern classification altogether, (on the basis it's "still a biased devotion to the culture of the Old world"), in favour of a new international extra-terrestrial nomenclature. Countries that have had to resort to alternative writing systems because of problems translating their language to the European Latin Dialect, may be unintentionally barred from meaningful naming (ex: Soviet planetary naming is not fully adopted by the IAU as Russians had to transform the Latin names to accommodate their use of Cyrillic alphabet which did not translate easily. Their own names were not acceptable in IAU standards, but were too important to Russian history to discard).

For design purposes though that latin-esque naming will be relatable to us visually, and a touchpoint for many viewers.

‘The Man in the Moone’, (1657)

Finally, I researched briefly the language of the time (Jacobean and Caroline era to English Civil War) using text written the same years as ‘The Discovery of the World in the Moone’ (1638), and ‘The Man in the Moone’ (1657) to see if we could imitate any language nuances. A few things stuck out:

1] The inclusion of certain letters at the end of otherwise recognisable words, e for ‘Moone’, ‘looke’, proofe’ ‘aime’, ‘downe’, 'aire' etc. 

2] The text being an amalgamation of both Early Modern English and Latin.

3] The author as a strong presence within the text they produce. It's quite pretentious and often relates to class (i.e. who is intended to read it) 

4] Admissions to past theorists and philosophers ("Plutarch" etc.)

5] Fictitious creatures are described in regards to the characteristics they share with other more common animals:

"...partly of Fish, partly of

Birds, having (which is also no lesse

strange) one foot with Clawes, ta∣lons,

and pounces, like an Eagle, and

the other whole like a Swan or wa∣ter-fowl."

Potentially the name could take these points into consideration.
So: changing modern words slightly to fit in with 'early modern English'; harkening back to antiquarian philosophers; merging Latin and English words etc.

I liked this idea of naming better than the Greek mythology, because so far none of our research had related to that. So it made more sense to link it specifically to the periodical context of our research, and perhaps to something we ourselves knew slightly more about (being geographically closer to Europe than say China or Japan).

Monster Hunter: World, Iceborne, Velkhana Concept Art, Capcom

That being said, our research into ‘Monster Hunter’ (A game developed by Capcom, a video game company based in Chūō-ku, in Osaka, Japan) takes an alternative stylistic direction. So if that’s the way to go, I say we go full out with Japanese heavy visual development.

Rachael Holyhead | Notes [pg. 1, 2, & 3]

References: 
https://www.iau.org/public/themes/naming/#outss
http://www.rfreitas.com/Astro/NamingETL.htm
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226793235_Planetary_Nomenclature_a_Representation_of_human_Culture_and_alien_Landscapes
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/379b/b3fbf0884f4c0ab524d03576ea74126fe998.pdf
https://scientific-speculation.codidact.com/questions/214169
https://www.washington.edu/news/2005/10/31/new-book-expands-biological-classifications-to-account-for-alien-life/
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DOdiAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1973966/
http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/evolvingenglish/accessvers/1600s/index.html

So we went away for a short while, then came back to call about the final name ideas, which were the following:

• Luna Dieum - (LOO NAH DEE UM)
• Allidras

(Merging of Alklha, the Latin word for dragon, and the scientific name for a moon crater)

- ALI DRA S or AL EE DRUSS

• Palun'a'jin

(Japanese word for monster mixed with scientific moon terms and some Latin.)

- PA LOO NAH GIN

• Eli'Kura or Elicura

(A mixture of the Icarus, Eclipse, and Lunar to give a name which could mean a creature stuck on the moon, or thrives on the moon.) 

- EE LIE CURE RAH

Luna Dieum Name Breakdown. 

There are a few inspirations for the name. Firstly there is Luna, which is Latin for the moon and is usually associated with and moon-esk topics. Then the Dieum is a mix of a lot of words.

Dieum is designed around the word Te Deum, which is Latin for monster, shortened to Deum. The "i" has a few reasons for being in there, firstly as the creature is the reason craters exist on the moon is because of this creature, so looking up the definition of the holes/canyons is known as Lacus and Rille, so the "i" was used for the representation of canyons, and the "u" was kept for the massive craters.

The two letters "Di" are taken from the word, Pallidi, which is Latin for Ghoul, and seeing as the creature will be colorful in ways, it will have mainly a white, ghoul/ghost-esk body, so that's where that comes from. The "D" I would say comes from Dragon, but it comes from the Shortened version of the word known as Draco, which is dragon in Latin, but also does have its recognizably in terms of a dragon. So in translation, in theory, the name of this creature broken down is this.

The Moon Dragon, Monster of the Lunar Craters, and Ghoul of the Lunar Surface.

~Luna Dieum

Following this, we asked a few questions in regards to this creature's design. 
It's possible any noticeable characteristics could be later added to its longer Latin classification name!

Q&A

Q: How does it generate energy to move on the moon surface?

A: It ingests the particles in the air via creating the craters and meteorites.

Q: How has it stayed hidden for so long?

A: Potentially, blends into the surface due to a mirage, and it burrows from time to time.

Q: How big is it & How big can it get?

A: TBD

Q: How does it make the massive craters on the moon?

A: So far we have discussed either 1- a roar that can be translated into vibrations, weakening the lunar surface, and generating a massive crater, potentially via a shockwave, and 2- a more gradual process of erosion, as a consequence of burrowing. If this is a underground creature, the tunnelling could weaken the structural integrity of the rock above. The ground could partially collapse, sink down (which perhaps could looks similar to a crater?)

Q: How does it travel?

A: This will depend on whether it’s predominately underground or above the surface. With the latter, it could jump and glide huge distances which could work seamlessly with the concept of ‘sound’ and ‘screaming in space’. Echolocation would become a means of travel and to 'see' the environment around it.

Q: How does it deal with the vacuum condition?

A: It has a layer of hollow skin/armour that it can regrow like scales or segments.

Q: How long does it live for?

A: Potentially for thousands of years, maybe akin to how lobsters can age indefinitely.

Q: What colours can generate on its skin due to the radiation and solar winds?

A: TBD

Q: How intelligent is it?

A: It has a level of intelligence high enough to avoid detection for so long, and to learn not only on its own and develop a system to exist in such a barren landscape.

Q: How does it see?

A: Potentially via infrared waves, ultraviolet waves, and vibrations on the lunar surface. It also has a second layer of skin that goes over its eye due to the vacuum and another layer to deal with dust particles and debris.

Q: Why does it have the name it has?

A. Ghoul of the Lunar Surface, The Moon Dragon, Monster of the Lunar Craters.

Akin to dragons in Mythology, its appearance seems to match older dragons, probably closer to older Chinese dragons.


Finally, the reason some of these silly questions we're asked in the first place, wasn't just to waste time, it helps us plan artistically and creatively, and therefore will make our final product look as good as possible! Thanks for having a read!