In A Cauldron of Bitterness, Siobhan’s misguided… let’s call them “followers,” are going to get some attention. I know a lot of you have been excited about the snowballing rumors and some of the consequences of that, and I am, too.
But I’ve purposefully kept myself from naming the Cult of the Raven Queen because I thought you guys might enjoy a crack at it.
Do you have an idea for what they should call themselves?
(Because I don’t know about you, but I certainly wouldn’t sign up for an organization that called itself “The Cult of Ignacious the Dark Lord” or some such, and I think a lot of Siobhan’s followers would consider themselves reasonable people, too.)
If you’ve got idea, let them flow.
If you like someone else’s idea, give them a heart or a response to vote.
I will end up picking not based on popularity, but whatever name I like best.
FYI, there are two other widely spread religious organizations in this world: The Stewards of Intention and the Order of the Radiant Maiden.
Since a group of ravens is an unkindness, what if the followers call themselves as individuals The Inclementia? Or Inclementiae for the actual plural spelling?
Maybe a pun name, like The Ravening? Playing off her theme of the Raven Queen being a creature that hungers, while also being a way to show that the ones that follow her are more likely to be those hungry?
How about something like “The Rookery” to represent that they are a little confused?
Alternatively “Court/League of Shadows”, with them attempting to act like superheroes and/or vigilantes?
I could see two groups of people as being in said cult: petitioners who are attempting ask for some service and those who have decided to act in her name on their own initiative. The former would have more humble names like “Feathery Petitioners” and the latter more grandiose “Raven Knights”
The collective noun for a group of ravens is an “unkindness”. They could call themselves “The Unkindness of the Raven Queen” or “The Raven Queen’s Unkindness”. The work “unkind” has so much potential.
Ravens’ Shadows would be fun, but maybe a little dark if you’re trying to make this something nice people would want to join?
Maybe to match your existing religion names, The Watchers of the Raven? I like this because, from what we’ve seen, the cult is both witnessing and documenting RQ’s journey, while also helping and protecting ravens. So both meanings of the word “Watcher” here.
Her domains (to public perception) are shadows, dreams, and ravens… something with dreams perhaps? Watchers of the Ravens’ Dream?
My take on this is that they should essentially have two names. One used internally, and another that is a more coded use of language designed to be appropriate for public usage where one might be overheard, where the word choice is obscure enough to not be frequently mistaken, but common enough to go under the radar of most casual observers.
I feel like the internal name should feel cool to the reader, but also fundamentally annoy Siobhan, either by being overdramatic/pretentious, based upon some sort of fundamental misunderstanding, or blatantly missing the target of some other name she feels is better, and was right there.
Anyway, here are my attempts at that.
Official name:
The People of the Feather
The Undreaming Order
The Noble Petitioners of the Capricious Mistress
The Shadow
The Pi Ying Court (This would also work with any other shadow puppetry tradition in place of “pi ying”. Worshipers probably don’t want to directly call themselves puppets in their own language, but shadow puppetry has several aspects that could resonate. Literal shadows, but also spectacle that is deliberately crafted and missleads, and also hints at possession).
Innocuous Name to refer to each other as:
Watchers (as in birdwatching, but also kind of as in all who look for signs of her in their dreams and elsewhere)
Wagerers (As in, one who gambles, or one who offers tributes and seeks deals with a capricious mistress?)
I feel like “feathers” as a name has a lot of potential. Have her follows have a longer official name like “Feathers of the Night” or something suitably spooky. It also has a lot of potential for idioms, with the followers having secret call signs along the lines of “birds of a feather” and the response “flock together”, you know, the kind of stuff that secret society members who think they are really clever would come up with.
I imagine it would be useful from a writing perspective as well, there’s already a lot of feather related items, and symbiology that can be referenced, a feather bed (conflatable with dreaming themes), light as a feather (could be used as some kind of double entendre with light vs shadow), featherfall, feather in your cap, etc.
Real cults and religion movements love to co-op existing symbols; you could have your cult co-op quill pens from raven feathers as a symbol similar to Christianity using the little fish symbol.
First let’s brainstorm some random words and phrases that might be associated with Siobhan: Cloak of night. Watcher. Guardian of dreams. Ravens. Flock. Protector. Queen. Ethereal. Shadow. Healer.
Next, how do her followers think of their relationship to her? They feel themselves guarded. Protected. The ideas of bargains and service are a big theme. They wish to help her, as she has helped them.
“The dark flock” - it is not very catchy but a name that a group of discrete individuals could agree on. A more epic name would need some form of organizational structure with a PR team.
“The courtier flock” - a courtier is someone serving royalty (such as a queen) trying to gain their favor. It would put the raven queen in opposition to the royals (and those nobs are not well liked by the ravens followers). If this name was chosen, it would imply that someone is trying to have Siobhan as a campion of the revolution.
I definitely think “the [something] flock” would make for a good cult name.
Options for [something]:
dreamless:
Becoming dreamless is definitely a key objective of the raven queen, but would her followers make that association? She is known to have some dream-related powers.
midnight:
iirc the raven queen does often operate at night, or at least outside of school class hours.
shadow:
manipulating shadows is probably the most recognizable thing about the raven queen, and shadows are also associated with staying hidden/ out of sight.
bleeding:
The raven queen is known to perform blood magic. She has also asked others for blood (blood transfusion) on at least one occasion.
Bleeding can also be associated with martyrdom, suffering, persecution, etc., which members of a cult that worships a known criminal (theif, blood mage, etc.) might experience (if that is the direction in which you want to take the story)
I also thought of the dreamless but came to the same conclusions as you. As for bleeding I fear that it has too strong associated with blood magic. As common folk are fearful of blood magic, I think it would make a bad fit.
I really like your other two suggestions.
Her followers believe her to be a benevolent and sometimes vengeful shape shifting being of shadows and dreams… also… so maybe we should look at cross over naming that… elderich is another term used in places…
…just some ideas to sprur thought…
Diciples may be another name for the followers…
Disiples of the Queens Court ?