Roccotalarda · 10:19pm Aug 12th, 2015
Hello!
Thank you all for your many wonderful suggestions on a name for the universe in It's a Dangerous Business, Going Out Your Door, A Day for Spike and Twilight, and Besides the Will of Evil. I received some I was particularly fond of. Zocarik and Starbolt-81 came up with "Middle-Equestria," and Lord Max modified it to "Middle Equus," both of which I enjoyed immensely. They made me realize that I really do need to acknowledge the debt this world has to J.R.R. Tolkien's work, has had since its earliest conceptions, since the days when Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity were first crossing the Drackenridge Mountains into Gildedale. At the same time, Hierophant came up with "High Equestria," and I also really liked that, because it gets at one of the fundamental divergences between the universe of Friendship is Magic and the universe of the stories. While the show has elements of fantasy, particularly in the first season, the world of the stories is very much more a high fantasy. There are hidden cities, ancient ruins, great magics, and powerful lords of darkness and light.
What I decided to do, then, was find a way of conveying both the 'highness' and the Tolkien-inspired-nature of the stories. As some of my readers are aware, the name for the planet Earth in the time and reality of Tolkien's legendarium was Arda, which, in Quenya, literally means "realm." Moreover, Laewtil, the invented language of the six deer species, is literally Quenya, so I felt that it would be nice to render the name in Quenya, as well. I received a great deal of help from adavies42, who basically translated my preferred name into Quenya for me.
That name, in English, is "World of Hooves," which I think is appropriate, given that the vast majority of the important races in the world- the ponies, the deer, the pronghorns, the zebras, the camels (whom I know I've never written about)- all have hooves. Unfortunately, there's no single word for "hoof" in Quenya, since Tolkien never invented one. adavies42 helped basically make one out of the words for "horse" and "foot," coming up with the compound word roccotálato.
Thus, rendered in Quenya/Laewtil, "World of Hooves" becomes "Arda Roccotálato." When I suggested that this might be too much of a mouthful, adavies42 suggested a simplification: "Roccotálarda." I liked that very much- so Roccotálarda the world will be.
Of course, I'm open to yet more suggestions and refinements. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
It might just be me, but I do kind of prefer the way Arda Roccotálato sounds in spoken word. Either way it's awesome to see that a name has been somewhat finalized!
"Arda Roccotálato"
I like it, too!
tbh Arda Roccotálato isn't much more of a mouthful than Roccotálarda. Either way it has a 5-syllable word in it, which means it's likely to get shortened even further in chat.
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That's a good point! I just wanted it to be a name that rolls easily off the tongue and onto the keyboard. I want it to be a name people can remember.
And thus, a nation was born! The name is awesome, and very fitting.
I'd still call it 'Middle Equestria' like it was the common tounge equivalent though :D
And so the series is named. Unless you decide to change it, of course. :)
Roccotalarda.
I think it's fitting.
Now I just have to finish reading the darn thing.
The first thing that came to mind when I saw the new name was Almond Roca, hmm delicious universe.
Actually, I think that works out, there's very few races otherwise without hooves as it is in your world-setting, not enough to make any difference, and the important functions are tended to by the hooved-ones.