#kaeposting

As I'm sure you've probably noticed, most Saints have three things in common: one, we're all orphans; two, we're from all over the globe; and thee, we mostly all have Greek names anyway despite maybe a fourth of us actually being Greek! Well, there's reasons for that. The first is that most people don't like giving their kids to Sanctuary, because being a Saint is a death sentence. So mostly we get kids whose parents can't keep them - sometimes they're dead, sometimes they're overwhelmed, sometimes it's bad there. The second is because mostly we get new recruits while on mission to gods-know-where.

The third reason is your question: we give the new recruits and kids we bring home new names. This has been practice for basically ever, and it sort of makes sense: if they've been renamed, their families won't be able to find them again, and they'll be loyal to Sanctuary. Hard to be anything else if you don't have anything to go on apart from the country where you were found.

The thing is, though, with tradition, is that not everyone follows it perfectly. And when the point of tradition is cruelty and isolation, well, humans will be humans. Which is to say some will marry the concept and others will completely ignore it when they don't absolutely have to follow it.

You did see this in The Lost Canvas itself, with Rasgado! Rasgado is his birth-name, which I guess for him specifically means he chose it when he assumed that face. But his Sanctuary-name is Aldebaran.

Now, you'll note that I'm specifying it as Sanctuary-name and not Saint-name, and that's because you don't get your new name when you become a Saint. And not everyone gets one. Whether or not you do depends on your mentor, except and unless you're in the running for a Gold Cloth.

If you're a Bronze and you desert, it's whatever, all right? Someone will have the task of chasing you down before you make it off the mountain, but if you actually get out, you're probably free. Silvers are worth the effort until they cross country borders, usually, depending on power and the Pope's inclinations to deal with it. But Golds are special, and powerful, and we can't be allowed to have our loyalties divided.

My birth-name is Kaeneus, which is obviously the name I actually like. My Sanctuary-name is Defteros, in Greek that's δεύτερος, which directly translates to 'second'. My brother's birth-name is Lysandros, and his Sanctuary-name is Aspros, Greek ασπρος, meaning 'white'.

I should be clear about it here, our mentors didn't name us that. Dídymoi Tobias and Thalassa were perfectly happy letting us keep our birth-names, and since we were orphans it wasn't like we had anything to go back to. But Pope Sage insisted, probably because Dídymoi Ascalaph and Ialmen, the Dídymoi pair of his generation, kicked off the Holy War via mutual murder-suicide, and he wanted us under control.

Ultimately, that's what it comes down to, is control. And all of the Gold Saints tend to handle their names differently, because by the time we actually attain our Cloths, we find we suddenly have a lot more sway in how things are run. So it's mostly accepted that Rasgado was Rasgado when he was doing orphanage stuff or at the bar, and he was Aldebaran when he was doing Saint stuff. And it's equally accepted that Elcid refused to tell anyone his birth-name ever, until the day he retired and refused to return to Sanctuary, his cloth, or the name of Elcid.

Lyss and I were special, because we weren't allowed to use our birth-names even outside of Saint duties. He corresponded a lot with Kensington Oxford, but he had to use his Sanctuary-name. And if anyone rightfully refused to call me Defteros and tried to call me Kaeneus, there would be consequences.

… Mostly that meant I got referred to as 'hey you' a lot, if I was acknowledged at all. But there's a difference between someone scornfully remarking that "Aspros' brother is over there" and someone looking me solidly in the eyebrows and saying "Aspros' brother, are you joining us for training?". I could list off all the nicknames I've gained from the few respectful Saints who tried to skirt the rules, but we'd be here all day.

Some of the Gold Saints end up not having any Sanctuary-name: Albafica and Regulus don't. That's to be expected, because Albafica didn't have a name other than that, and it was assumed the same of Regulus. And some, even after retirement, refused to use any other name: Sisyphus remains Sisyphus, I don't know his birth-name and neither does anyone else. Dégel's the same way, but that's because his birth-name is Jean-Pierre and I know for a fact that he hates it. 

No Saint chooses their Sanctuary-name, their mentor does. Kardia and Dégel both got named by Krest, and that's how they ended up with names that effectively mean "the kid with the defective heart" and "the kid that isn't good enough to be my replacement". My and Lyss' parents were overridden, so we ended up with "the one that doesn't tan very well" and "the other one". Sisyphus was named by Toxótis Darren, for reasons unknown but my best guess is that it was some weird insult towards Ilias for whatever reason. Aldebaran's a name that's been passed down the Távros line forever. And so on.

I probably should talk about surnames, but they're pretty standard: we don't really use them except for foreign paperwork. If you like your mentor, you can use their name as a patronym, and if you don't, most Saints just put down the name of their Cloth, problem solved. Spectres do it very differently, but that's a whole other essay.

I can't think of anything else right now, but I'll leave you with a list of the known birth-names of both my garrison and the Classic-era garrison, because they also have them, and honestly? It strips some of the mysticism away, and that's the real point of this post: I've never met a Gold Saint who was cool. We are profoundly, deeply uncool and you should know that always.

-Kaeneus

TLC

Shion: Sonam

Aldebaran: Rasgado

Aspros & Defteros: Lysandros & Kaeneus

Manigoldo: unknown, he refused to tell us

Regulus: doesn't have one

Asmita: unknown, most Virgos would rather be shot

Dohko: Yòu (this started a who's-on-first argument)

Kardia: Thanos

Sisyphus: unknown, I guess because of his fatherly issues?

Elcid: Raúl

Dégel: Jean-Pierre

Albafica: does not have one

Classic

Mû: likely doesn't have one

Aldebaran: Gabríel

Saga & Kanon: Sergios & Kallias

Deathmask: Angelo

Aiolia: Athanas

Shaka: refused to share it

Dohko: Me?

Milo: Taygete

Aiolos: Artemas

Shura: Severo

Camus: Camille