#gheadcanons

More Ghost worldbuilding

We now have more Era 0 ghoul content thanks to the music video for The Future Is a Foreign Land, and since I had so much fun coming up with a name for the Satanic version of the Rosary, I wanted to have some more etymological fun and try my hand at giving these ghouls some names!

Many have noticed that the patches that the ghouls wear in the dystopia sequence feature not only their elemental symbols, but also the symbols of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. This got the gears in my brain turning; since each Horseman is associated with a different colored horse, I wanted to see if I could find names for each ghoul that incorporates both their element and their Horseman color. After some fun research, I've come up with names for all four that meet both criteria!

Water/Conquest: Finn

"And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow..." (Revelation 6:2)

The name Finn is derived from the Irish/Scottish Gaelic name Fionn, meaning "white" or "fair-haired". It's also a homophone for the word "fin", like a fish's fin, which I think is perfect for a water ghoul. 😉

Fire/War: Phoenix

"And there went out another horse that was red...and there was given unto him a great sword." (Revelation 6:4)

Obviously the name Phoenix puts to mind the fiery mythological bird of the same name, which is derived from the Greek word φοῖνῐξ [phoînix]. The word has a rather complicated etymology and multiple meanings besides the mythical bird, one of which is the color crimson.

Air/Famine: Raven

"And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand." (Revelation 6:5)

This one is fairly straightforward; raven can be used as a synonym for black and is also the name of a bird, which I thought suited an air ghoul!

Earth/Death: Celadon

"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him." (Revelation 6:8)

This one is a little tricky as the original words used to describe the color of Death's horse (pallidus in Latin and χλωρός [khlōrós] in Greek) were used to mean either pale/pallid or a shade of green. I decided to split the difference and went with the pale grayish-green color celadon, which gets its name from a type of glazed green pottery. I think that the association with earthenware matches up well for an earth ghoul!

And there you have it! This was really fun to put together and I'm very happy with the results. If you like these names feel free to use them in fanworks. 😊

Thanks for reading!

More Ghost worldbuilding

Since joining the Ghost fandom I've been wondering what the Satanic equivalent of the Rosary could be called. Using "Rosary" doesn't feel quite right, but just saying "prayer beads" or something doesn't pack the same punch. So, I've taken it upon myself to come up with a name!

"Rosary" comes from the Latin word "rosārium" ("rosa" [rose] + "-ārium" [place for, object for]), which can mean either a rose garden or a garland/bouquet of roses. "Rosa" was also used as a metaphor for prayer or devotion, so in this context "rosārium" more or less means "a garland of prayers". I wanted to maintain the grammatical, botanical and metaphorical elements for a Satanic Rosary, and I think I've come up with the perfect solution.

First, I needed a word to replace "rosa". I thought, what's a plant associated with the Devil? An apple, of course! (I know it's not explicitly stated in the Bible that the forbidden fruit was an apple, but you'll soon see why it's perfect.) The Latin word for apple is "mālum", so if "rosārium" means a garland of roses, then "mālumārium" can mean a garland of apples.

This takes care of the botanical nature of the word, but what about the metaphorical? "Mālum" wasn't ever used as a metaphor for anything religious like "rosa" was, so it falls a bit flat. However! Mālum sounds almost identical to the Latin word for evil: "malum". During my research I came across a number of people wondering if this is due to the association between apples and the Devil. This isn't the case, as the two words have different etymological origins, but some think that the similarity might be at least part of the reason that the forbidden fruit came to be represented by an apple. So, "malumārium" = a garland of evil. I think this is perfect, and the fact that it's basically a pun fits with Ghost's goofiness, too.

Taking all of this into consideration, I propose that the Satanic equivalent of the Rosary is the Malumary. Just like with the Rosary, the word would start with a lowercase letter when referring to the beads ("She put her malumary beads in her pocket") and an uppercase letter when referring to the prayer ("They sat and prayed the Malumary together"). If you like it, feel free to use it in your fics/headcanons! I highly recommend this post by @sovaghoul for more inspiration.

Thanks for reading!

More Ghost worldbuilding

A few months ago I made a post where I came up with a name for a Satanic version of the Rosary: the Malumary. I grew up Catholic (albeit not in a particularly devout environment), and while I no longer follow that faith, I still find myself intrigued by the aesthetics and rituals of the Rosary, which was why I was inspired to come up with a Satanic version for the Ghost fandom. After I came up with the name I found myself thinking more about what praying the Malumary might look like, and I began thinking about what the Mysteries of the Malumary might look like...

Before I go into more detail, a disclaimer: I am not a Satanist, a Christian, or a theologist, and I don't have nearly enough knowledge about any faith for this to be taken seriously. This is merely me having fun with what we in the Ghost fandom affectionately call "Scooby-Doo Satanism", and is meant purely for the purpose of worldbuilding within the context of Ghost fanworks. With that understood, allow me to begin...

I'm assuming most people don't know what the Mysteries of the Rosary are, so allow me to summarize: The Mysteries of the Rosary are meditations that focus on significant events in the life of Jesus (and to a lesser extent, the Virgin Mary). There are twenty Mysteries total, divided into four sets of five, with each set unified by a particular era/motif. Each time you pray the Rosary you are meant to pick one of the four sets and contemplate on the five Mysteries within that set as you pray, focusing on one Mystery for each "decade" (set of ten beads). Each Mystery also has an associated "fruit", or spiritual goal (e.g. humility, purity, etc.), but I'm saving that for future posts.

I'm not going to go into a ton of detail about the Rosary's Mysteries, but I think taking a quick look at them can help with understanding the concept a little better. In chronological order, the Mysteries of the Rosary (and the associated eras/motifs for each set) are:

The Joyful Mysteries (Jesus's birth and early life)

The Annunciation

The Visitation

The Birth of Jesus

The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple

The Finding of Jesus in the Temple

The Luminous Mysteries (Moments that revealed Jesus's divinity)

The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan

The Wedding at Cana

Jesus's Proclamation of the Kingdom of God

The Transfiguration

The Institution of the Eucharist

The Sorrowful Mysteries (The Passion and death of Jesus)

The Agony in the Garden

The Scourging at the Pillar

The Crowning with Thorns

The Carrying of the Cross

The Crucifixion and Death of our Lord

The Glorious Mysteries (Jesus's resurrection and the glory of God)

The Resurrection

The Ascension

The Descent of the Holy Spirit

The Assumption of Mary

The Coronation of the Virgin

If you're unfamiliar with any of these events, don't worry about it. All you need to understand is how the Mysteries are structured and that their purpose is to encourage followers to meditate on the life of Jesus.

For the Malumary, I knew I wanted the Mysteries to follow the same structure as those of the Rosary, but focused on the life of Lucifer instead of Jesus. I also wanted to include a feminine presence, since some of the Rosary's Mysteries focus on Mary, and the Rosary in general is very much associated with her. The most prominent "evil" feminine figure that gets associated with Lucifer tends to be Lilith, so I decided to incorporate her into some of the Mysteries.

Just like with the Rosary, I've grouped the Mysteries for the Malumary into four themed sets of five. They're not quite as chronological as the Rosary's, but this is to be expected since I'm cobbling them together from many different sources of inspiration (the Bible and other Abrahamic texts, medieval and modern literature, folklore, pop culture, my own imagination, etc.), and some of them are events that haven't happened yet but are prophesized. I'll be delving into each set of Mysteries more deeply in future posts, but here is a brief description of the Mysteries as an introduction:

The Furious Mysteries (Lucifer's transformation into Satan)

The Pride of Lucifer—Lucifer's refusal to bow to God and acknowledge humans as God's favorite creation.

The Rebellion—Lucifer amasses an army of angels and together they rebel against God.

The War in Heaven—Lucifer and God's armies duke it out in Heaven.

The Fall—Lucifer and his followers lose the War and are cast out of Heaven.

The Birth of Satan—Lucifer becomes Satan and creates his own kingdom in Hell.

The Nefarious Mysteries (Moments when Satan tempted someone)

The Serpent in the Garden—Satan tempts Eve with the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and as a result she and Adam are banished from the Garden of Eden.

The Wrath of Cain—Satan ignites envy and rage in the heart of Cain, leading him to commit the first murder against his brother Abel.

The Trial of Job—Satan and God make a bet to test the faith of God's favorite human Job.

The Temptation of Christ—Satan tempts Jesus in the desert.

The Bargain with Faust—Satan makes a deal with Faust for his soul.

The Lascivious Mysteries (Moments when Satan harvested those crops and fields that others have plowed 😏)

The Departure of Lilith—Lilith refuses to submit to Adam and departs from the Garden of Eden.

The Consummation—Lilith turns to Satan and becomes his first human disciple; the two of them consummate this relationship with the first sexual act.

The Witches' Sabbath—This Mystery is meant to represent all witches/followers of Satan who gained power by devoting themselves to him.

The Unholy Annunciation—Beelzebub appears to the Prime Mover and announces to her that she will bear the Antichrist.

The Conception of the Antichrist—Satan and the Prime Mover conceive the Antichrist.

The Calamitous Mysteries (The end of the world and Satan's victory over God)

The Birth of the Antichrist—The Antichrist is born, which heralds the beginning of the end.

The Seven Seals—The Seven Seals open, releasing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and other abominations.

The Whore of Babylon—Lilith rises as the Whore of Babylon and assembles the abominations.

Armageddon—The final battle for Heaven and Earth.

The Triumph Over Heaven—Satan and his followers finally triumph over God and Satan becomes the ruler of the Earth.

I'm so happy to FINALLY have this written out; it's been so much fun to put together and I can't wait to delve even further. I'll be writing more posts in the near future that go deeper into detail for each set of Mysteries, so keep an eye out for those if you're interested (the green link at the top of this post will take you to my worldbuilding tag). Also! Please feel free to use any or all of this in your own fanworks if you'd like. Keep it as is, tweak it to your heart's content, or use it as inspiration for your own headcanons. At the very least I hope this was an interesting read. 😊

Thanks for reading!