Okay, I'm really not curious about what happened to bring about a post-apocalyptic, partially submerged, oil-soaked Gulf Coast. I've already placed many details in order to my satisfaction. But I am curious about what to call that terrible event.
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| photo from FEMA |
Humans always want to name catastrophes. Hurricanes have names that are repeated until a named storm turns deadly, at which point the name is retired. Historians refer to the Great Depression like that level of economic collapse could never happen again. World War I was originally called the Great War, under the misconception that such massive destruction could never happen again. And if you refer to 9-11, every American above a certain age remembers so much about that terrifying day.
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| photo from FEMA |
So what would the survivors call the almost End of the World? Judgement Day would be great if it hadn't already been used by Terminator II. Other terms like Armageddon or Ragnarok refer to specific battles, but a nuclear war can occur without either of those conflicts.
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| photo from FEMA |
Lacking an original idea, there is always the fallback nomenclature of "the Great" whatever. In addition to the examples above, we have figuratively weathered the Great Recession, Noah literally weathered the Great Flood, and Ireland suffered so badly when the potato crops failed that the disaster is called both the Great Famine and the Great Hunger.
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| photo from FEMA |
So if this disaster was a Great something, what would be both memorable and evocative? The Great Fire is concise, but lacks a sense of scale. Words like searing, scorching, burning or blistering add more detail but feel weak. The Great Blaze would elicit laughter from players. The word holocaust has acquired a specific connotation. Conflagration and inferno are other excellent synonyms for a large fire, but the first sounds unwieldy and the second sounds literary. But after working hard to find a suitable word, I've now found two. Incineration accurately describes what those directly affected by nuclear bombardment experienced, while cremation conveys a sense of death and an ash-filled atmosphere. I haven't made a decision, but at least I feel closer to a solution.
UPDATE: With consultation of the best word person in the house, cremation doesn't work. But the fire imagery feels suitable to the nuclear annihilation. Instead of looking at burning, there are many wonderful words for or related to fires: bonfire, crucible, torch, and pyre are all evocative of rich imagery. I considered calling the event Torchnight or Torchspring to refer both to the nuclear fires and to the resurgence of torches as a primary light source after most modern power generation was knocked offline. I even played with using German, since almost anything sounds more dangerous in German, but Fackelnacht sounded more like a fake obscenity rather than a world-altering event. But an archaic word for bonfire is balefire. While
bale is literally a bundle of hay, papers, etc., it still sounds like
bane, any source of great distress, annoyance, or even death. Plus, think of all the bales of paperwork and triplicate forms and
TPS report cover sheets that any lingering flames would have to work through. I'm going with the Balefire as the name of the event, no antecedent required!
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