For those of you who haven't read the opening of this story in a previous post, the basic concept centers around a race of people called the Dianasians (named after the Roman goddess, Diana, who ruled the moon, animals, and the hunt). This race of people are essentially human except that their tangibility phases with the moon -- intangible during the new moon, exceptionally tough during a full moon, and everything else in between.

What I'm struggling with right now are good terms for how these people would refer to their own phases (intangibility, etc.) with their own jargon. It seems like the kind of thing they would have their own words to describe, since it's such an intrinsic part of who they are.

Just how intangible is intangible?

If they fall on a blade of grass, are they speared to death?
Does the wind blow them around?
Can they draw breath when the air is so much more tangible than they?

Tangible?

Are they more massive?
Can they walk without sinking into the ground?

You have probably already figured all this out, no? And, if so, the answer may lie in your words. If the intangible phase leads to misery, then their terms might reflect that? If they exult in the hunt during the tangible phase, then perhaps terms that reflect the exultation?

Maybe they are just out of phase with 'reality' instead? and the world becomes less tangible to them as they become more tangible?

I use intangible to mean ghost-like. They can pass through walls and such, are slightly transparent when you look at them. They can't eat or drink because they can touch anything. They have a great feast each month during the last days of the waning crescent moon to prepare their bodies for the next few days when they won't be able to eat. I'll need a name for this feast, too.

During the full moon, they become so tough/hard that their skin can't be broken, even by a blade or even a bullet (think Superman) -- which comes in handy, since during the full moon they hunt werewolves.

One thing to consider is to keep it a simple term... as often as it's used, the first thing that comes to mind is: The Change.

Since it's cyclic and depending on the moon, it wouldn't hurt to refer to that, such as: Lunality.

Still, I think it would be funny if you referred to it once as that... Once can be funny; too much might wear thin on sensitive people.

EDIT: Wasn't it Mark Twain who said (roughly) that if you didn't offend someone with your writing, then you haven't written anything worthwhile?

I could be completely making that up, btw.

might be a nice interplay between moonstrong and headstrong.

durus -a -um [hard , harsh; tough, strong, enduring]; in demeanour or tastes, [rough, rude, uncouth]; in character, [hard, austere],sometimes [brazen, shameless]; of things, [hard, awkward, difficult, adverse]. Adv. dure and duriter, [hardly, hardily; roughly, rudely; harshly, unpleasantly, severely].

Okay... let's break this down, all right?

We've got mostly-humans who are solid when the moon is full to fight off werewolves. When they moon is waning, they become (essentially) wisps of smoke...

General words to help you come up with something perhaps:

Bodies.. Soma, Somatic,
Moon.... Luna, Lunar, (interestingly, the word lunatic is derived from the moon--1 guess to work out why)

Somaluna
Lunarsoma
Lunasomatic. That's your word.

The Waxing
The Waning
The Fullness
The Darkness

Or synonyms thereof.

http://www.geocities.com/westhollywood/heights/4617/calends.htm

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The early Romans used a calendar based on the Moon. At the New Moon, the dark point in the lunar cycle, the Romans honored Janus, the Spirit of Beginnings, and Juno, the Female force and Queen of Heaven. This day was called the Calends. On this day, the priests decreed the dates of the other two guideposts of the month. At the Full Moon, the brightest point of the lunar cycle, the Romans honored Jupiter, the Male force and the King of Heaven. This day was known as the Ides and fell on either the 13th or 15th of the month. In between the Calends and the Ides, came the Nones. The exact day of the month varied as the length of the month varied, but the Nones fell 8 days before the Ides. There were no names for the period after the Full Moon when the moon was waning because this time was considered unlucky. The Romans counted time from these 3 points of the month, naming a day by how many days before or after the points it came. Predie Calends April would be March 31st, or one day before the Calends of April.

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Based on this, the feast could be The Feast of Janus or Calends. And what better name than Jupiter for when they are more or less invicible (since Jupiter is the ruler of the roman gods -- according to one source I found).

monstrous - 1460, "unnatural, deviating from the natural order, hideous," from L. monstruosus "strange, unnatural," from monstrum (see monster). Meaning "enormous" is from 1500; that of "outrageously wrong" is from 1573. Monstrosity "abnormality of growth" is from 1555, from L.L. monstrositas "strangeness," from L. monstrosus, a collateral form of monstruosus (cf. Fr. monstruosité). Sense of "quality of being monstrous" is first recorded 1656. Noun meaning "a monster" is attested from 1643.

from http://www.etymonline.com/

As far as vulnerabilities, though they can't be hurt during their intangible stage, I'm thinking that since they can't eat or drink either, so they come out of it that phase very weak, which is when they would be most vulnerable. Also, I'm thinking that although their skin can be broken durng the full moon, they could sustain internal injuries like having an organ crushed or something due to the phenomenal strength a werewolf would possess.

Also, during this time of intangibility they are pretty much helpless, which is why they need a human or two around to help keep things together, which is no fun either.

In the meantime, don't let the word you're looking for hang you up... just throw in some ##### or ***** and move on. Eventually, you'll find something you do like and you can just "EDIT-REPLACE" all in one go (or two if you need to conjugate).

quote:

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I don't like the subtle infiltration of 'something for nothing' philosophies into the very hearthstone of the American family. I believe that 'Thou shalt earn the bread by the sweat of thy face' was a benediction and not a penalty. Work is the zest of life; there is joy in its pursuit.

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The phases of the Moon are as follows in technical reference:

Full
Crescent (waxing and waning)
Gibbous (waxing and waning)
Half
New

Then you have

Blue Moons (light blue hue, due to humidity and atmosphic conditions near sea level)
Harvest Moons (yellow to orange in hue, due to particulates from field work, etc.)
Hunter's Moons (very large full moons, due atmospheric magnification)
Blood Moons (red in hue, due to forest fire or smoke of disasters or war)

I don't know how you could play with this terminology, but it would be fun messing around with the language.

Also, go get a latin to english dictionary, as well as greek roots, then mix them up to get cool new words.

Here a nifty site about phases of the moon.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/moon/Phases.shtml

Alright, rock on, and write hard!

If you're looking for some ideas about werewolves in the modern world.

I've only ever used their Vampire books, but I've heard good things about Werewolf as well.

Here is a link to their website and their books are generally available in gaming and some comic stores.

Solar eclipses tend to be separated by about a half year because the orbit of our moon doesn't align perfectly with the ecliptic. If two solar eclipses are closer than six months, they will probably be in different hemispheres.

quote:

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Solar eclipses tend to be separated by about a half year because the orbit of our moon doesn't align perfectly with the ecliptic.

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This was the answer I was looking for. If you've ever paid attention to where the full moon rises each month, you may have seen that it comes up in a different part of the sky from where the sun rose on most months. Sometimes it comes up north of where the sun rose, and sometimes it comes up south, and this isn't entirely because of the seasons (and the sun rising in different parts of the sky).

The moon's orbit is slanted out of the elliptic one way part of the year, then, as the earth goes around the sun, the moon's orbit crosses the elliptic (when eclipses can happen) and is slanted out of the elliptic the other way for the rest of the year. (The elliptic is the plane in which most of the planets orbit around the sun. Pluto's orbit is also at a slant in relationship to the elliptic, so that there are times when it is actually closer to the sun than Neptune is.)

If you had a satellite around a planet that did orbit exactly in that system's elliptic, you'd have some kind of eclipse twice a "month" (at new "moon" and at full "moon"), and you could create cultures/religions for your planet's inhabitants based on that.

If the same kind of eclipse happened the same way at the same time of year, I would expect the eclipses to be even more a part of the calendar--each kind and time having its own name, perhaps?

Of course, the orbits would have to match in a certain way for the same kind of eclipse to happen the same way at the same time of year, but in all the universe who's to say that might not happen?

Here's the thing: if it's a common thing that happens to everybody, then it's probably going to have a simple term in the language a lot of people can easily understand.

One of my biggest gripes with science fiction and fantasy stories revolves around the way the characters talk about some truly common element like "breath" and call it "The Life Giving Thing Which Exudes Out of My Lungs and Is Part of the Star God's Essence."

It should have a simple name, preferrably an English name. It's too bad that terrible scifi and fantasy has co-opted so many of the words for ghosts, because a simple term like "wraithing" would be perfect: short, capable of being modified ("I wraithed, he's wraithing, I can barely wraith right now").

That's the SORT of word you should be looking for...

One problem with statistical studies of erratic behavior is that the more erratic the behavior, the more normal it looks from a statistical point of view, divergent erratic effects cancel each other out.

In the same way that putting a traffic light on an intersection "causes" a spike in the number of traffic accidents or increased contraceptive use "causes" increased pregnancy rates, most consistent behaviors alter statistical behavior in noticable ways.

But the statistical behavior of a population will only reveal causes that have a consistent effect. More people "acting wierd" is by definition not a consistent effect.

quote:

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I'm always amused by the fact that people always "debunk" the effect of the full moon by asserting that people are more likely to percieve and remember the behavior of others as being strange during a full moon.

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It's possible to show a correlation between the amount of ice-cream eaten in a given day with the crime rate.

Does this mean eating ice-cream causes one to go out and committ vicious crimes?

No. It's the HEAT that has been shown to be a factor, as it agitates people and they become more violent and aggressive.

So there's a correlation, but not a direct one.

The better question for your story might be, "WHY do people change like this at the moon's phase?" My presumption would be it would have to have been some kind of action done by man that caused it in the past, perhaps some kind of technology that has been forgotten and coincidentally ties in with the phases of the moon...

This is fantasy, not SF, so the why issue and the specifics of how are not going to be explored at length. These are the descendants of humans who were cursed thousands of years ago, and the curse remains unbroken.

Just trying to keep the conversation from drifting too far off course...

"Star Wars" is fantasy because The Force isn't explained. That's why it's pretty dumb for GL to come back later and, ripping off an idea from the sickbed of Charles Wallace, create his "midichloridians" because people needed to know how it all worked (and it still doesn't!).

If you have no intention of explaining the moon madness, then you need to ask yourself ONE big question: WHY is it there? In the story? If it's not central to the action, then maybe as painful as it is, it needs to be excised. If it's not essential to the plot (ie, the plot is all about the ghost powers, or the moon, or these ancient people's reactions to the moons), then you've got no valid reason to put it into the story. It's extraneous, and might make a good paragraph here or there but is otherwise a distraction from what IS important. Imagine if The Force never figured into the Star Wars story but somebody decided to put it into there anyway just "because I wanted to do it."