Wednesday, February 02, 2011

The Big Announcement

As the first post of this blog (with no introduction, explanation, or description involved), I'd like to make an announcement!

In the act of converting DreX to a less 'real-world-references' setting, I've changed the name of the primary star in the centre of the system of Drex; this dyson-sphered hub of light-and-life is no longer named Eta Carinae (a name used in the old days, when Drex was a binary-star system, and wasn't even called Drex nor DreX). The name has served me well, and I wish a fond farewell to Eta Carinae (who is, infact, set to self-extinguish in the [astronomically] near future due to SCIENCE! and all). I hope we can still be friends.

There was a little competition (see: Facebook thread) that lasted about 4 hours before it became utterly derailed (at the moment, by Dragon Age) where I asked people to select their name for the new star in this little world of mine. Most came by post, a few came through private message, and I even had one text pertaining to this astronomical wonder. I'd like to give a run down of the top three, and then announce the winner here! (Who wins, as I promised, something nice.)

4) Schtig - posted by Rachel 'Gary the Slug' Atkins

At first I was wondering if she'd just seen the Facebook advert about the Stig and thought, "Why the fuck not?!" It didn't take long for the name to grow on me, and looking up to the sky and muttering about the brightness of the Schtig on a glorious day seems like an interesting prospect (which I may one day do, to the confuddlement of co-workers). In the end, it took a hefty fourth place.

3) Qliphoth - posted by Thomas 'Clay Coate' Dunn

My 'WTF?!' gland has grown pretty strong over the year, but when I read that, I WTFed big time. It just seems like a random jumble of letters. But as I did my research on stars, I realised their names generally were random letters unified into a word. Reminding me somewhat of a Lovecraftian horror, I shall use the name in the near future (probably for a Lovecraftian-esqe horror), but it sadly won't be the name of the star.

2) Dys - submitted by Emma 'No-I'm-Not-Adding-You-On-Facebook' Reese

Submitted by text shortly after the opening of the Facebook thread, Dys struck me with it's simplicity, but also by the simple fact that, the first time I read it, I read it aloud as 'Dice'. What greater sense of meta-humour is there than naming something important 'Dice' in a pen and paper roleplaying game? Dys may not be my star, but it's almost certainly going to be a new God.

X) Honorable Mention - Sphincter - by Shaun 'Dirty Jew' Watts

Seriously, Shaun? Seriously?!

And now, the moment we've all been waiting for..

1) Eta Aristillus - by Obi-wan 'The Amazing' Mikenobi

So.. it's not a huge secret, nor suprise. Look at the hyperlink for this blog.. see it? Yeah, Eta Aristillus. But still.. as soon as I saw the name, I thought it fit in perfectly with my idea of DreX; you can see and explore the surface as much as you want, but the moment you begin to look deeper and discover more, the more you realise that nothing is as it seems, that everything has a meaning or a direction seperate to what you originally saw.

To add meaning to the name, Aristillus  was a Greek astronomer who created the first star catalogue in approximately 300 BC, with the help of Timocharis. He worked in the Great Library of Alexandria. And I think he is a worthy and fitting individual to name my star after.

Eta Aristillus, I will forever look at you and think of your namesake.

2 comments:

  1. Looking good, keep up the hard work.

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  2. Thanks Obi-wan, for the reply, the name, and for being my first follower. Now, to decide what you win...

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