#name not actually being used for any actual death goddess and her surname toth is likely derived from a medieval german word for death

[k1rishiki]

my naming scheme for the resurrectionists causes me undue stress a lot of the time but when it works it Works

#edgar mortis is obv edgar allen poe + latin word for death. and his surname plays off the fact that there are four other resurrection men #only identified by their surnames which are pallor livor rigor and algor. rigor mortis should be easy to clock but the rest are all stages #of death as well when you attach -mortis to the end of them. which cements edgar's identity as a resurrection man even when he's farrr too #consumed by morana's world of magic and mystery to be actively working. #morana faust is a slavic death goddess + faust. the most famous necromancer in all of fiction. once again her surname cements her identity #as a necromancer specifically even when she gets swept away by unrelated magical happenings #nine and shi aren't their real names but their identification numbers are 9444999 and 4999444. 9 and 4 are both associated with death and #each of their numbers are the other's but reversed. also nine was a classical composer in life and there's a superstition that classical #composers will not live to write their 9th symphony (he sure as hell didn't lol) so it's fitting that he's the one who ended up with the #nickname. abberline isn't his real name either so he doesn't count. valdís has ancient norse for 'death' (val) + 'dis' (goddess) despite th #name not actually being used for any actual death goddess and her surname toth is likely derived from a medieval german word for death #her name isn't glaringly out of place with the rest of the cast but doesn't immediately let you catch on to her whole deal #which is good bc valdís is meant to sort of blend into the backround of reader's minds until The Reveal. #mara is a minor hindu goddess of death and her surname grave is. well. self explanatory. i tried to give the more non-magical side of londo #more straightforward names to contrast with some of the others and obv her dad was created before her and dr grave seemed like a good name #for someone who only popped up in the story while he was hiring professional grave robbers (now he pawns that task off on mara lol) #ereshkigal kore is just queen of the underworld + queen of the underworld but def has a very grandiose feel which is good bc that's #absolutely the vibes she should be giving off. all her servants' names boil down to figures associated with the greek + mesopotamian #underworlds. mainly attendants of aforementioned goddesses. which fits bc they all serve her #but i'd like to give special consideration to the maid trio here bc they're a set of triplets. and their last name is cerberus. #which famously had 3 heads. and the older two feature a similar naming scheme as persephone + eurydice (they even both end in the same e #sound) but the youngest's name is aisha which means 'living' or 'alive'. and obv her departure from the naming scheme makes her more easily #differentiated from her sisters + more memorable in the long run which is good bc she's the most important maid but it also gives me room t #have a 'my name means alive but she's named for the queen of the underworld so i'm willing to not live up to my name if it means being #closer to her' moment w a shitton of lilies in frame in case it isn't clear to anyone what's going on ('her' means eresh not persephone btw #and then there's dysmas. the patron saint of undertakers. which fits bc catholic. and sanson. as in the executioner. for a character heavil #inspired by the nasuverse's church executioners like kirei and ciel #rosette comes from the rosette nebula which looks like a skull. hayden is from one of my kids at work who said that next time i wrote a #murderer into something i had to name them after her so. here you go hayden. you get to be the cannibalistic child. (the topic came up when #i had to make a murder mystery for class so i stole the names from my kids and i told the ones whose names i used abt it later and she was