Orcus in Real Life (astronomy)

[Draz74]

So it turns out there's a large lump of rock, just slightly smaller than the dwarf planet Pluto, out there circling our Solar System. OK, there's actually lots that fit that description. But this one is the same distance from the sun as Pluto, and orbits with exactly the same period, such that it is always opposite Pluto. They're calling it "the anti-Pluto." It's the 8th-largest known Kuiper Belt object (meaning, if they hadn't changed the definition of "planet," we'd probably have to be memorizing at least 17 planets by now).

And its official name? (drumroll) Orcus, just like the classic D&D Demon Lord.

Orcus was discovered in '04, but they've just recently discovered that it has a moon. And they're taking suggestions for the name of that moon.

I don't know much about the extended D&D mythology surrounding Orcus. But for those that do, is there a name that goes well with Orcus, that it would be fun to see the moon get named? If so, go to that link I posted and send an email voting such!

Obviously it would have to be an appropriate name for non-D&D people, too. Meaning one that existed in real-life mythology and has a Latin name of some sort.

[Mando Knight]

I don't know much about the extended D&D mythology surrounding Orcus. But for those that do, is there a name that goes well with Orcus, that it would be fun to see the moon get named? If so, go to that link I posted and send an email voting such!

Obviously it would have to be an appropriate name for non-D&D people, too. Meaning one that existed in real-life mythology and has a Latin name of some sort.

The first one that comes to mind for me is Doresain the Ghoul King... but that wouldn't make sense to anyone who doesn't know D&D...

[kamikasei]

That's pretty cool. And based on this Wikipedia article, if you want a RL-mythology and D&D-canon double whammy for the moon, how about Dispater?

[Nightson]

Demogorgon

[RTGoodman]

I'd go with Tenebrous, for several reasons. First, it's awesome. Second, it was the name Orcus went by when he was an undead god after he was killed, and it's the name of the vestige that was left when he went back to being Orcus. Third, it means "shadowy" or "obscure," which would make sense for a small object so far away from Earth and the Sun's light.

[afroakuma]

Tenebrous most definitely, with Thanatos coming a close second, since it has a better shot overall.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Demogorgon

The Prince of Demons rejects the very thought he is but a moon of the pig-imp Orcus!

*cough* Must have been something I ate.

[Heliomance]

/tg/ must be informed of this. The power of 4chan is formidable.

[Samb]

Voting for a name???? How about Stephen Colbert? Orcus and colbert ftw

[Neithan]

Uh, interesting.

Seems like Orcus was the son of Eris.

Under the guidelines of the International Astronomical Union's naming conventions, objects with a similar size and orbit to that of Pluto are named after underworld deities.

In any way, it will probably something cool. ^^

[CaptainCommando]

Obviously it would have to be an appropriate name for non-D&D people, too. Meaning one that existed in real-life mythology and has a Latin name of some sort.

In Roman mythology, Orcus was a god of the underworld, punisher of broken oaths, more equivalent to Pluto than to the Greek Hades, and later identified with Dis Pater. He was portrayed in paintings in Etruscan tombs as a hairy, bearded giant. A temple to Orcus may have existed on the Palatine Hill in Rome.

The origins of Orcus may have lain in Etruscan religion. Orcus was a name used by Roman writers to identify a Gaulish god of the underworld. The so-called "Tomb of the Orcus", an Etruscan site at Tarquinia, is a misnomer, resulting from its first discoverers mistaking as Orcus a hairy, bearded giant that was actually a figure of a Cyclops.

'Orcus', in Roman mythology, was an alternative name for Pluto, Hades, or Dis Pater, god of the land of the dead. The name "Orcus" seems to have been given to his evil and punishing side, as the god who tormented evildoers in the afterlife. Like the name Hades (or the Norse Hel, for that matter), "Orcus" could also mean the land of the dead.

From Orcus' association with death and the underworld, his name came to be used for demons and other underworld monsters, particularly in Italian where orco refers to a kind of monster found in fairy-tales that feeds on human flesh.

The French word ogre (appearing first in Charles Perrault's fairy-tales) may have come from variant forms of this word, orgo or ogro; in any case, the French ogre and the Italian orco are exactly the same sort of creature. An early example of an orco appears in Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, as a bestial, blind, tusk-faced monster inspired by the Cyclops of the Odyssey; this orco should not be confused with the orca, a sea-monster also appearing in Ariosto. This orco was the inspiration to J. R. R. Tolkien's orcs in his The Lord of the Rings.

In a text published in The War of the Jewels, Tolkien stated:

Note. The word used in translation of Q urko, S orch, is Orc. But that is because of the similarity of the ancient English word orc, 'evil spirit or bogey', to the Elvish words. There is possibly no connexion between them. The English word is now generally supposed to be derived from Latin Orcus.