Abrasax wrote:

Sorry. I don't like it. Anything that sounds like it was named by the United Empire doesn't properly reflect the idea of naming an ancient alien race. I am a bit disappointed by the recent change from great names like Sophon, Sheredyn, Horatio, etc. to names like Riftborn or Unfallen. It just seems generic in general and lacking sincerity.

yeah, same here.
i think a name should be something unique, a single word, not a brief description or something one would expect from a tooltip.
afterall i.e. dogs are called ... well ... "dogs" and not something like "barking quadrupedal carnivore".

(yeah, i know that there are a lot of race/species-names [in RL] where the description kind of morphed into a name, but all those names were given by another race/species, meaning they did not have a name for themself [i.e. animals] or the "namer" just ignored it / didn't care [unknown cultures] ... i would imagine a spacefaring ancient species already has a name ... so, are we ignorant and don't care about that?)

still, "Umbral Choir" doesn't sound that bad ... i think i could live with that (but no vote from me, sorry).

Whit these names included... The competition will be hot.

JamesHarrison wrote:

Intrestingly I posted this name on my list of names on the frount page of the "vote for a name contest"... :-)...I'm super pleased you've had the same idea, or even mreseo if you saw the name and wasted to run with it - I missed the prelude to this contest! I should quickly put one of my others up! 

How about
 - The Gathering Darkness,

 - The Unbral Choir,
 - Shades of Shattered Memory,

 - The Hidden Conclave,

 - Keepers of the Eclipsed Tomes,

 - Abyss of Lost Dreams...

So many good choices! Whichever name wins this is going to be one badass faction. 

Edit* I really like "Keepers of the Eclipsed Tomes" you should post that one too!

Drakonyan wrote:

The "choir" thing just gives me the chills, man. Sound doesn't propagate through vacuum and they are a spy faction. What is this sinister choir I don't even hear? And a choir usually echoes with lots of reverb. It's a f***ing silent choir of ghosts! Damn, that idea is good!

Hah I love it, a ghostly choir singing dirges and hymns no one else can hear. I didn't even think of the sound aspect of it but here's to collaboration!

Intrestingly I posted this name on my list of names on the frount page of the "vote for a name contest"... :-)...I'm super pleased you've had the same idea, or even mreseo if you saw the name and wasted to run with it - I missed the prelude to this contest! I should quickly put one of my others up! 

How about
 - The Gathering Darkness,

 - The Unbral Choir,
 - Shades of Shattered Memory,

 - The Hidden Conclave,

 - Keepers of the Eclipsed Tomes,

 - Abyss of Lost Dreams...

Simple explination - Umbral can mean:

1. shade; shadow. 

2. A phantom or shadowy apparition, as of someone or something not physically present; ghost; spectral image. 

In my mind they're ancient, mysterious and powerful from spaaaaaaaaace! ;) Like the opposite coin of the angelic choir of chirstian thology.  You'd also have a good base of names to draw from for ships (Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones that kind of thing). 

At least that's my reason but anything with umbra or umbral is fine with me. Elder scroll geeks unite.

Edit* I also loved this idea so much I'm updating my orignal post with feedback from Drakonyan. Adding to the mystery and background, more collaboration is welcome!

Drakonyan wrote:

The "choir" thing just gives me the chills, man. Sound doesn't propagate through vacuum and they are a spy faction. What is this sinister choir I don't even hear? And a choir usually echoes with lots of reverb. It's a f***ing silent choir of ghosts! Damn, that idea is good!

Waltari wrote:

This sounds very nice and leaves space for a creepy backstory, something we´re missing so far. I like it!

Yes, this is why I like it as well, it gives room to grow rather than having a very specific backstory. Kind of like the wraith themselves never truely fixed but ambiguous, unknowable and amorphic. That's why I did't necessarily want a true name as I liken it to the concept of giving things a name to gain contol and understanding over them.

Abrasax wrote:

Sorry. I don't like it. Anything that sounds like it was named by the United Empire doesn't properly reflect the idea of naming an ancient alien race. I am a bit disappointed by the recent change from great names like Sophon, Sheredyn, Horatio, etc. to names like Riftborn or Unfallen. It just seems generic in general and lacking sincerity.

I kind of agree in this respect.

umbra - Latin for shadow, is a respectable choice. But I believe it to be a bit weak on it's own in this form: umbral

umbra is used in a few english words, one of them being Umbrella, (keeps you in the shadow of the rain.)

I think the name could be upgraded to something more like Umbrian, maybe?

Umbria in real life is a province of Italy who's coat of arms is actually a heraldry of three candles, 

which would be cool to have if the faction symbol wasn't already chosen (-.-)

Maybe a candle aesthtic can be worked into the artwork?

I really dig the choir part as I think it synergizes very well with Amplitude's Superb sound design.

So I think I'll go with The Umbrian Choir, Nation of the Umbri. 

Candle Keepers of the Darkness.

Gives them a real Dark Angelic vibe, eh?

I guess i'll post my iteration as submission and see what people think of it. I'll give credit to Domokun as well.

edit: posted some small lore as to who the umbrian choir would be.

I do like it. However, how are we going to refer to a specific individual from this species ?

I mean, the Humans are the United Empire's species for example. What would the Umbral Choir's species name be ?

Soulinet wrote:

I do like it. However, how are we going to refer to a specific individual from this species ?

I mean, the Humans are the United Empire's species for example. What would the Umbral Choir's species name be ?

Good question, depending on how they decide to go forward we may end up having another contest or they could just go with Umbrians or some other derivative like one of the previous posters had suggested (if this wins). I haven't seen this subject brought up a whole lot with respect to faction naming and whether it is inclusive or exclusive to the contest. Presumably, as part of this iterative design philosophy, it would be brought up later since they wanted very broad strokes as we don't know a while lot about the faction.

Since we haven't really moved to "round 2" so to speak more feedback from the devs would be helpful to clarify next steps.