the iris embraces u

To be honest, there’s a lot of other sources that have compiled information and resources on Echo already, so I’m not terribly interested in doing much more than those individuals or groups already have.  As always, this is mainly for my own future reference purposes, but feel free to use or share them as you need to.

To start with, we need to clarify two major points immediately:

1. Echo will NOT be Hero 30.  Jeff Kaplan has stated this himself.

2. Echo is NOT the same character as - or related to - Athena.  Again, Jeff Kaplan himself stated this.

Direct quote:

Was that Echo?!

Jeff Kaplan: It is Echo.

Jeff Kaplan: In the old picture… Sometimes what an artist like Arnold does is say, ‘There’s too much white space, I want to put a logo on,’ so he just put the Athena logo on the model. And the community embraced that model as being Athena. Athena is actually Winston’s AI, which is a separate thing - this character is separate from being Athena. The players also know Athena as the narrator of the competitive matches as well. But this is Echo, who is somebody completely different.

Have you always known Echo would come to the game, then - since that original picture?

Jeff Kaplan: We always wanted that character to be in the game.

(More under the cut.)

Michael Chu confirms the name Gwishin for the giant Omnic.

Civilian Omnic References [ 1 | 2 ]

Legend:

“Some Like It Bot” movie poster, “Hero of My Storm” movie poster, picture of Thespion 4.0 in the Route 66 Diner (Thespion appears to change faceplates for different roles, going by the posters), “Love, Hacktually” movie poster (appeared in the winter event on King’s Row)

Frames of Maximilien from the comic “Masquerade”

Frames of Okoro from the comic “Mission Statement”

Numbani omnic from the animated short “Infiltration”, Los Muertos omnic from “Sombra Origin Story”

Mondatta, Shambali monks, misc. omnic from “Uprising Origin Story” (art for this is by @nesskain)

Numbani omnic on a scooter from “Orisa Origin Story”, Numbani bad driver omnic from “Orisa Origin Story”, Mondatta press conference from the animated short “Rise and Shine”, magazine cover from “Rise and Shine”, news report screencap from “Rise and Shine”, an omnic brain getting poked from the comic “Mission Statement”, store clerk from the comic “Reflections”, table attendant from the comic “Masquerade” (uses an identical design to the waiters in Oasis), omnic workers at a checkpoint in the comic “Uprising”

Ad for Old Glenwales Organic Oil in Numbani, ad for fashion week in Numbani (this might be a cyborg, I’m not sure), “Dance” spray, “Omnics” spray

gather round folks because i’m going to make a quick and easy guide on how to name your omnic OCs or unnamed canon omnic characters, using canonical omnic characters as examples! tl;dr at the bottom.

Zenyatta & Mondatta

so, funny thing – “Zenyatta” is actually the name of a famous racehorse known as “the queen of racing”, but we get the actual origin of these nerds’ names when we just… put them together! Zenyatta Mondatta is the name of an album released in the 80′s by the American rock band The Police. maybe they listened to it and liked it? (though i’m trying to listen to it rn and full disclosure it’s a snorefest sorry i have no taste)

Zenyatta and Mondatta probably saw the album art in a virtual rock & roll museum or something and they were like “ok i’ll be that one and you be this one”

or they found it in the garbage

someone named a background character in their fic “Sunyatta” and I thought that was really cute. who was responsible for this.

in conclusion these two named themselves to be a pair and that’s really gay

so basically nonsense words and pop culture references are fair game – and this one also has significance to their life goals and desires, since the Shambali take much of their spiritual inspiration from Zen Buddhism.

Hal-Fred Glitchbot

you can’t fucking make this shit up. okay so. there’s a famous omnic film director and they named themselves after Alfred Hitchcock, which is significant bc Hitchcock was also a film director and called by some “the master of suspense”. so again, you have an omnic naming itself something it considers significant to their life goals and desires for the future. 

this absolute child put three robot puns in its name. THREE.

omnics are memelords and they probably make dad jokes

Bastion

literally named after their make/model.

probably bc they can’t talk.

this just makes me wonder what the bipedal omnics were called before Omnica shit itself and they all spontaneously gained sentience and began naming themselves?

like if Titan/Bastion/??? is a formula, then i’d put it somewhere in the ballpark of Custodian, Companion or, concerningly… Minion…?

Thespian 4.0

a prominent omnic actor that stars in some famous films, including at least one with Hana Song

named themselves “thespian” which is a synonym for “actor” bc they wanted to be an actor, making their name significant to their life goals and desires for the future.

im proud of them

EDIT: there are multiple canonical Thespians and Thespions and this shows that omnics don’t argue about who gets to be what they just calmly add a new numerical designation when the name they want is already taken, i just? look at all these thespian-aspiring omnics who have achieved their dreams?

i want to see them grow up strong

Okoro

ok so this poor buddy is a lot lesser well-known, but they’re an omnic mercenary and they feature in the digital comic Mission Statement

spoiler alert: the god AI Anubis tries to take over their body so Okoro suicides in order to protect their comrades ):

rip okoro

Okoro is a surname of Igbo origin (the principle language of the Igbo ethnic group in southeastern Nigeria) meaning “the child of the freeborn man”

so again we have packaged in the name SIGNIFICANCE TO THEIR LIFE GOALS AND DESIRES FOR THE FUTURE

Unnamed Oni Omnic from the “Dragons” animated short

gets an honorable mention because i love and support them

someone wrote a fic where they named the omnic Nobunaga and i support this decision and also any other names ppl come up with this lovely child

tl;dr: so to sum it up, things that have canonically been used to name omnic characters:

an omnic literally names themselves the profession (”actor”, “Alfred Hitchcock”) or virtue they aspire toward (”zen”)

real life names (only one though, they don’t seem to use surnames?) (a good bet is something that means freedom – also consider using a name from a language near their omnium of origin!)

sidenote: Tekhartha is a Shambali title, not a surname or given name or anything. i guess it means, “best and most tranquil gay leader” or something  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

pop culture references (80′s rock album titles, Alfred Hitchcock)

ridiculous robot puns/memes (HALFRED GLITCHBOT. HOW DID THEY GET AWAY WITH THIS…)

freedom (Okoro (rip :’c))

other cool ideas you might consider:

an omnic names itself after a human or human family that cared for it

an omnic names itself after a significant life event (potentially the one in which they acquired sentience?)

honestly omnics name themselves like a bunch of teenagers and young adults on an internet forum – it’s not their FIRST online account, they’ve grown past the “xxxRoBoTiC_JuSTiCexxx” sort of embarrassments, but it’s literally just.

what does your omnic like.

FIRST OF ALL THANK YOU SO MUCH!! im glad you like my designs enough to come to me for advice its super nice of you!!!

but as for ur question: be ready . long omnic design musing under the cut. im very passionate about character design lol