Alien Names

[Pumpkinhead]

Where do you think they got the names for each alien and whose job was it to come up with the names in the first place? The scientists studying them? The soldiers who first encountered them?

 

The Snakeman and Floater are blatently obvious... The Cyberdisc is, well, a cybernetic disc... The Silacoid is a Silicon-based lifeform so that's not much of a stretch either... But what about the other 7?

 

Any ideas??

[BreakMage]

Mutons sound like Mutants, which are commonly associated with being more powerful.

 

Cetalid, no idea.

 

Reaper: Something with giant threshing teeth. Threshing and Reaping coming from terminology to gather food [grain]?

 

Chrysallid: Not a clue.

 

Sectopod: Not a clue.

 

Ethereal: So thin they look transparent? Dunno here either.

[Pumpkinhead]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary defines "Ethereal" as:

 

Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc.

 

And "Reaper" as:

 

One who reaps.

 

And "Reap" as:

 

To gather; to obtain; to receive as a reward or harvest, or as the fruit of labor or of works; -- in a good or a bad sense; as, to reap a benefit from exertions.

 

The Ethereal definition makes sense, but the Reaper doesn't exactly gather or receive anything

 

I think Sectoids get their name from their "religion" being Sect-like because the suffix -oid means "like" (eg. Humanoid means Human-like)

[JellyfishGreen]

Ah, off the top of my head - with a bit of research -

 

Reaper - you reap grain with a scythe, if you're doing it by hand, which is why the Grim Reaper carries one. Give the Reaper scythe-like jaws and you're nearly there - or picture it charging into a crowd of civilians and cutting through them like so many stalks of grain.

 

Sectoids - the "sect" part bothered me, I tried to link them to "insect-like" in the 'fic but maybe there's a cult of sirius worshipping the visitors already?

 

Sectopod - insect-foot, or sectioned-foot (being a robot or mecha foot, it has a distinct joint in the middle).

 

Chrysalid (note spelling) - dictionary.com, "resembling a chrysalis" which is the hard pupa or shell a butterfly or moth hatches from. So it loosely refers to the life cycle, these things hatching from the implanted eggs. Don't know if the eggs are hard-shelled but the aliens sure are. :alien2:

 

Muton - actually this is in dictionary.com as the smallest chromosome of DNA that will show a mutation, so maybe it refers to their genetically engineered nature. Any other ideas? Not counting that their cooked flesh smells like mutton?

 

Celatid - I'm not satisfied with what I've found - "Chelatid" is "like a lobster claw" and "Cellulose" is the material of cell walls. I'm sure there's something better.

[NKF]

Celiac? The US spelling for coeliac. According my copy of the Oxford dictionary, Coeliac is 'of or relating to the abdomen'. Hmm... a bit of a wide shot there.

 

Silacoid probably borrows a bit of its name from 'silica'. The -oid, if I'm not mistaken, means 'like'.

 

Anthropo means human. Anthropoid means man-like in form. Therefore, a silacoid would be mineral-like? Well, it leads back to silicon.

 

Sectoid... hmm, 'insectoid' comes closest to it. Although, sectoids don't look anything like insects beyond their bug-eyes (which aren't multifaceted like bugs, I shouldn't think).

 

Muton...mutant automaton! Nah.

 

- NKF

[Neorapsta]

I guess at some point we might have to give in and accept perhaps that some of the names were just made up or put there because they sounded cool.

[Pumpkinhead]

I was only curious from a fanfic perspective, trying to imagine the scientists or soldiers coming up with the names in the first place... With names ending in -oid, I'd imagine that it's the scientists coming up with them because the soldiers would just call them "Greys" or "Greenmen" or something nice and simple... Snakeman and Floater sound more like soldier-created names!

[JellyfishGreen]

Makes sense. As I mutter to myself, I've called Snakemen "snakes" or "snakeboys" or even "snakebait" when they walk into a trap. I may have called Floaters "floating gasbags" because they deflate pretty quickly when you poke holes in them But if I ever had my own term for Chryssalids, I can't remember. Usually when a scout sees one I just say "Aaah! AAAH" until my hands steady enough to search for a sniper who can bring heavy weapons to bear.

 

Strict fire discipline and clean underwear, that's how you fight Chryssalids.

[Nightshade]

Yeah u rip off your underwear and strangle them with it. The strict fire discipline part is disclipling yourself not to shoot.

[Pumpkinhead]

But if I ever had my own term for Chryssalids, I can't remember.

What I've called Chryssalids in the past can't be posted on a site such as this

[Psy Guy]

Ethereal makes sence concidering it's one bad ass psionic critter.

Snakemen and Floaters do sound like names given by the troops that encountered them.

Sectoids are broken into 2 parts

sect

1. A group of people forming a distinct unit within a larger group by virtue of certain refinements or distinctions of belief or practice.

2. A religious body, especially one that has separated from a larger denomination.

3. A faction united by common interests or beliefs.

oid

1. Resembling; having the appearance of; related to: acanthoid.

2. One that resembles something specified or has a specified quality: humanoid.

(Thank you dictionary.com)

The reaper name should be given to a critter with more power and threat but i get what there going for.

Chrysalid is chrysalis which is the protected part of birth cycle. I assume that a chrysalid is the final form but again i get where there coming from

Muton's definition makes no sence. I think muton is commonly used for something thats a superpowerful creature.

Cyberdisk is a given

Sectopod

Sec means protected and pod is something that is compact. don't know where the to came from. guess it sounds nice

Zombie..... thats a hard one

So is The Brain

Celitid and Silicoid are ??? to me.

 

As i recall the x-com history encounters with the "sectoids" have occured before the formation of x-com so i think they gave them a scientific name. Floaters and Snakemen where probly first encountered by x-com ground forces so they probly named them. Ethereal also sounds like it came from ground forces but secotpods has some sort of meaning so i guess ground troops didn't have a catchy name for the bugger. After the first encounter with chrysalids there where no ground forces left to name them so the scientist had to do the job.

 

The main questions i have is where the hell the game designers come up with these aliens.

Sectoids are rather easy to figureout

Ive seen a book that had a report of an ethereal like alien. (even used some sort of psionic type of ability. Book made around 1990 so not influenced by x-com)

Cyberdisk is sorta easy to see where that came from but the rest are ??? for me.

 

-Psy Guy-

[M. Hoz]

Ive seen a book that had a report of an ethereal like alien. (even used some sort of psionic type of ability. Book made around 1990 so not influenced by x-com)

 

Maybe X-Com* was influenced by the book.Who knows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*The game of course.X-Com does'nt really exist.

[the_dead]

I think they got given all their names because it was a bit better than calling them Dave or Steve.

[Neorapsta]

But then it would be fun getting the extra info on the battle report.

 

Congratulations, you successfully killed Steve,Bob,Dave,Martin, Phil and George

 

And you geta semi-story going...ie. Aleins going after a certain guy because he killed Steve

[FullAuto]

Some of the names, to my twisted mind, don't fit. "Sectopod" makes me think of something with tentacles, for some reason.

[BreakMage]

Actually, if I remember my suffixes correctly, -pod means foot. Like, a snail is a Gastropod because it's a stomach (gastro) and has a large sucker for a foot (pod).

 

A sectopod would probably be named as such because secto- (no idea) but it is a bipedal robot, or has 2 feet. So that explains the -pod part.

 

EDIT: I somehow misspelled 'robot.'

[Pumpkinhead]

The main question i have is where the hell the game designers come up with these aliens.

I remember reading somewhere, when the game had just come out, about the design crew taking all of the aliens from "real" abductee reports from UFO books and the like...

 

Except for the Chryssalid I suppose, which is a blatent rip off of the Xenomorph from the Alien Saga

[EclipseDog]

Actually the Xenomorphs are based on 'real' abductee reports as well if I'm rememberring correctly. Think they were called Pankras in the reports however since the alien larva before it hatched from the body was housed in the pancreas or however it is spelled. I even saw a report that the whole reason we humans have that organ is because of genetic meddling way back when in order to make our species the perfect host for them. Of course if that report were to be taken as truth then it would mean that aliens have been meddling with humans for many thousands of years... which really makes those reports of Angels and holy spirits in the various religions such as Christianity really creepy if you let yourself actually believe any of those alien abduction reports.

[JellyfishGreen]

As I've said before

Julian Gollop (in EDGE #131) said he read "Alien Liason", a purported piece of nonfiction by Timothy Good, and incorporated elements of this into the background and flavor text for X-COM:UFO Defence. (Along with SHADO from the "UFO" TV series.)

 

I recommend https://www.abovetopsecret.com/ if you REALLY want your fill of leaked XCOM information. :alien2:

[Neorapsta]

lol, I find people who blatantly ignore tried,tested and proven science really annoying...

 

I also checked that abovetopsecret site before, and I always get a laugh from that 'Dimensional Gates by Dr. Hon Lee' or whatever its called in Future-Tech.

 

Like the part about you have to bypass someones encryption in order to put a virus on their system..moron

[FullAuto]

Good old Above Top Secret. You have to wonder what these people do when they're not sobbing in fear in front of their computers.

[EclipseDog]

BTW: I do kid a lot but I was actually serious about those pankras or whatever they're called. Supposedly the world's governments coverred it up by telling the victim's relatives that it was a case of parasites from undercooked food.

 

And speaking of parasites in the food... here's a case of truth stranger than fiction...

 

Animal Planet yesterday ran a show called "Eaten Alive" which was an in-depth look into parasites that can prey upon humans. This included 50 ft long tape worms in the intestines, egg sacks within the liver that when inspected contained over 50k eggs which could have become more parasites, spiney fish that swim into the urinary tracts of both men and women (perhaps the most painful *wince*), roundworms that infect the brain stem and cause periods of blackouts and sleepwalking among other things, an insect which enters the mouth while sleeping and in a suicide mission seeks out the stomach and its high acid contents which eats away the bug but not the eggs inside it which then gestate before hatching and allowing thousands of baby larvae to eat away at your stomach lining...

 

Ah the fun of the natural world... who needs aliens hopping out of your body when you can get the same results without them.

[Ki-tat Chung]

eeeiw! i really did not want to know that! that is creeepy! no to worry, me hadoken and i can fend them all off! i just go HADOKEN :: shoots a ball of energy :: and let my energy ball surround me. :: watches in horror as the energy ball just goes streight forward and hits DH in the head :: uhhh....whoops.