39,327
edits
Humans by Any Other Name: Difference between revisions
update links
m (clean up) |
(update links) |
||
Line 12:
== General ==
* "Terran" (from the Latin ''Terra'', "Earth") is probably the most popular choice by far, which crept into all kinds of settings, from ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' to ''[[Blake's 7|Blakes Seven]]'' to ''[[
** Note that the French for Earthling is "Terrien", which reads and sounds pretty close to Terran. Thus, in many French-translated stories where 'Terrans' are involved, their name does not sound that cool and exotic (it even sounds dull when said with french phonetics).
** ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' uses the term "Terran" not to describe humans, but as a term to encompass any Earth-based sentient species, which includes humans, [[Uplifted Animal|gorillas, chimps, dolphins, and African and Indian elephants]]. And yet aliens still say, [[Fantastic Racism|"All you Terrans look alike to me"]].
Line 99:
== Puppet Shows ==
* Mysteron agents in ''[[Captain Scarlet]]'' would use "Earthman" after having broken, or in order to break, the [[Masquerade]]. The invisible Voice of the Mysterons themselves also announced "We know that you can hear us, Earthmen" each week.
* In the earlier [[Gerry Anderson]] show ''[[Stingray (1985 TV series)|Stingray]]'', various sea-dwelling uglies would call humans "Terraneans," since we come from land (terrain).
Line 105:
* ''[[Traveller]]'' divides "humaniti" into the "Solomani" (humans from Earth), the "Vilani" ([[Human Aliens]] from the planet Vland), and the "Zhodani" ([[Human Aliens]] from the planet Zhodane). The ancestors of the Vilani and the Zhodani were originally moved to those planets by the [[Precursors]]. There are several other minor human races, which were similarly transplanted from Earth.
* In ''[[Nobilis]]'', humans get referred to as "beasts".
* In ''[[Warhammer
** The Tyranids were retconned to actually be named after a world - Tyran, the first Imperial planet they ''ate''. Knowing the Imperium, the name probably came from some filing protocol: the Tyranids were first properly identified on the planet Tyran, and thus the data probably got filed under "Tyran-ID" and the name stuck.
* The chock-fulla-weird-races ''[[Talislanta]]'' game system generally refers to humans by their nationality, and virtually ''never'' as "humans". The fact that some of those "human" nationalities lie well outside the range of physical types known on Earth—green humans, metallic golden humans, purple humans; humans with bat ears or webbed hands or no nose—would make the use of "human" seem incongruous at best.
Line 134:
* In ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins'', the [[Our Elves Are Different|elves]] (particularly the Dalish) refer to humans as shemlen. The shorter term "shem" is used in a derogatory manner (not surprising, given what humans did to them).
* ''[[Albion]]'' uses the expression Celt and Helromier (a portmanteau of Hellenic and Roman) to distinguish the magic using humans of Albion and the technologically advanced Terrans. Terran humans are also referred to as Earthlings by the Kenget Kamulos.
* In ''[[
* While the term "human" is used in ''[[Rift]]'', humans are more likely to be referred to by whichever of the two battling nations to which they belong.
Line 161:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:
| |||