Fanon wanted: Evil Rebel Leader

[mecurtin]

So, in drama!canon this guy doesn't seem to ever get a name:



This is dumb and we need to come up with something to call him, especially when we're thinking about Ye Zun's backstory and characterization.

1. Is he present in the novel, and does he have a name there?

2. Does Chinese-language fandom have a fanon name for him, either on AO3 or on the other side of the Great Firewall?

3. What names have people come up with in fic so far? In Two circumference uses the name "Sima Tao". Anyone got a better idea?

Comments

[mecurtin]

I was pretty sure I'd seen something like that in a fic, and it was from you!

You raise another question: what name to use for Ye Zun before his powers activate. What name did the rebels use for him in the camp, and what name would Shen Wei use in his heart (besides DiDi).

[naye]

I have spent WAY too much time thinking about all this. ♥

But: drama canon is extremely annoying in that it doesn't give us anything other names for Ye Zun. When they're tiny children in the flashback, Shen Wei calls him "didi" the whole time. And then as soon as we see him in the rebel's camp, he's being addressed with "Ye Zun".

In this thread foxghost suggested a name to match 'Wei', taken from an old Chinese poem? Which is a lovely idea if going outside of canon.

[extrapenguin]

Ooh, that's a nice name! Though I suppose anything that sort of matched and had a mountain radical would fit, as Shen Wei explains that his wéi means that he "comes from the mountain". As a more Anglophone-friendly alternative, I've toyed with 嶪, which a) is pronounced yè, so he'd be called Shen Ye and less people would wonder who this OC was, and b) is part of 岌嶪, which has a similar meaning to Shen Wei's 嵬 and 巍.

Alternatively, Dixingren of Shen Wei and Ye Zun's generation are in the stage of ancestral language loss where they don't speak it anymore but still have names using the pattern and words of the old language Dixingren used to speak before assimilating, so any introductions would go like this:
Shen Wei: "Hi! My name is Wrtjheisopfhdafijsöahuteruafhdsköjafbhdjkshalsf!"
Rando: "Uhh... Shen... Wei?"
Shen Wei: "Close enough."

[tinny]

"Hi! My name is Wrtjheisopfhdafijsöahuteruafhdsköjafbhdjkshalsf!"

This is hilarious. ("You won't be able to pronounce it anyway..." :D)


And I love the idea of using Ye.

[extrapenguin]

No but look I've even got half a conlang going on so I can come up with consistent names for Shen Wei and Ye Zun that would be terrible to pronounce! Also the names' meanings!

(Shen Wei's given name is very tentatively "Veifþrkëħtkvëzdrk", in which case Ye Zun's would be "‘iedznrvëzdrk". Their surname would start with "Šëǧn-" I have put perhaps way too much much thought into this. Also the transcription system is probably way too involved, but I hate digraphs.)

[tinny]

You are awesome! *applauds your linguistic diligence*