Worst Misting/Ferring Name?

[Steel Speedster ♂]

Which Misting/Ferring name do you think is the worst? It can be the name that you like the sound of the least, or that you think least fits the power that it goes with.

You can also reply with your favorite names. That part wouldn't fit in the poll.

Edit: Also vote for the best name here.

Edited July 25, 2024 by Speeding Steelrunner

[Trusk'our he/him]

For me, most of the Allomancer and Feruchemist names fit their abilities pretty well. Only Pulser and Slider feel a little ambiguous for Allomancy, and Sparker seems like it's the most disjointed with Feruchemy.

[Steel Speedster ♂]

16 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

For me, most of the Allomancer and Feruchemist names fit their abilities pretty well. Only Pulser and Slider feel a little ambiguous for Allomancy, and Sparker seems like it's the most disjointed with Feruchemy.

I agree that most of them are good, (although Pulser, Slider, and Sparker are actually some of my favorites.) I personally don't like the term 'Coppercloud' for a copper Misting, because that's already the name of the thing that their power creates. It would be like calling a steel Misting a 'Steelpush.'

I also think that 'Windwhisperer' doesn't sound very good, and it's also a bit ambiguous in my opinion. I guess it's saying that they can hear whispers in the wind? (Although the phrasing makes it sound more like they're the ones doing the whispering, which doesn't really make sense.) Admittedly, F-tin must have been difficult to name, mainly because it has at least five separate applications.

Edited July 25, 2024 by Speeding Steelrunner

[+robardin he/him]

I don't see why A-pewter Mistings get called "Thugs", and of course in-world they surely prefer to be called "Pewterarms", LOL.

As for Ferrings, "Windwhisperer" sounds vaguely like they play too many Zelda games, plus it only refers to the ability to tap for hearing when the ability allows storing of ALL the senses for later enhancement.

Then again "Tineye" for a tin-burning Misting also emphasizes the use of burning tin to enhance vision specifically, so I guess you have to pick one of them to make a nice name, rather than something terrible like "Dynosenser"

[Quantus he/him]

For Mistings Im not personally a fan of "Pewterarm" or "Nicroburst" or "Tineye", just compared to the more evocative and purely functional names of the rest that dont feel the need to include the name of the actual metal (I give the Gnats a pass because it's supposed to capture the presumed uselessness of the metal itself).

For Ferrings, it's definitely the "Subsumer" which I've never figured out because Subsume means "To be included as part of a Comprehensive Whole" but it doenst have anything to do Food&Hydration or anything relevant to the actual Power... is it just rhymes with "Consume"?  Consumer could make more sense, despite the RL economic connotation.  Seriously, if anyone can explain that one to me somehow, Ill take any headcanon you can offer.  

[Returned he/him]

I think that they're all kind of dumb, because they remind me of when authors try to create slang to make their settings distinctive but end up using 1:1 word substitutions and mimicking slang patterns that happened to exist when they were paying attention. A non-Sanderson example that stuck out for me was a character calling someone she thought was cool "the slam" in a Brent Weeks book: it's so obviously the same as "the bomb" as to not seem creative or original at all, but even "the bomb" was fairly dated by the time that book was published; lazy and pointless, given that all of the characters were already speaking contemporary American English anyways. "Deevy" might be a similar Sanderson example. It's not that the real slang isn't dumb, too, but at least it exists organically-- it became popular because enough people liked something about it.

I think that the Misting/Ferring names are intended to sound aesthetically interesting and still be related to the powers they describe, but it's still arbitrary and doesn't fit with the settings and characters' speaking patterns. It's about filling out a list of names which must exist to describe each category that we know exists, but who in the Mistborn setting would even know what a Spinner is, let alone pick the definitive name for them? (I know, it's Khriss, but still). I can't help but get a real "this paper is due tomorrow and I haven't even picked a topic" vibe for some of them. It has to be something, and absent sudden inspiration it's probably going to end up being good enough at best. At least for a few out of thirty two.

They all seem overwrought to me, but back in the old days when there were only eight types of Misting to know they didn't feel so... forced. At least "coinshot" described something characters actually did on Scadrial.

Edited July 25, 2024 by Returned

[Steel Speedster ♂]

1 hour ago, Quantus said:

For Mistings Im not personally a fan of "Pewterarm" or "Nicroburst" or "Tineye", just compared to the more evocative and purely functional names of the rest that dont feel the need to include the name of the actual metal (I give the Gnats a pass because it's supposed to capture the presumed uselessness of the metal itself).

For Ferrings, it's definitely the "Subsumer" which I've never figured out because Subsume means "To be included as part of a Comprehensive Whole" but it doenst have anything to do Food&Hydration or anything relevant to the actual Power... is it just rhymes with "Consume"?  Consumer could make more sense, despite the RL economic connotation.  Seriously, if anyone can explain that one to me somehow, Ill take any headcanon you can offer.  

I guess it refers to what you do when you eat? Eating food makes it “a part of a comprehensive whole”, that is your body. It is a bit odd, but then again, coming up with a cool sounding name for a power that revolves around eating must have been difficult. Subsumer sounds decent, even if its definition doesn’t fit too well.

Could anyone explain to me why an iron Ferring is called a Skimmer?  It’s not a bad name, but I’ve never quite understood what it’s referring to.

Edited July 25, 2024 by Speeding Steelrunner

[Quantus he/him]

32 minutes ago, Speeding Steelrunner said:

I guess it refers to what you do when you eat? Eating food makes it “a part of a comprehensive whole”, that is your body. It is a bit odd, but then again, coming up with a cool sounding name for a power that revolves around eating must have been difficult. Subsumer sounds decent, even if its definition doesn’t fit too well.

Could anyone explain to me why an iron Ferring is called a Skimmer?  It’s not a bad name, but I’ve never quite understood what it’s referring to.

The image I got from Skimmers was people that made themselves so light they could "Skim" across the surface of water like a king fu movie.  

[Steel Speedster ♂]

17 hours ago, Quantus said:

The image I got from Skimmers was people that made themselves so light they could "Skim" across the surface of water like a king fu movie.  

Is that physically possible with F-iron? Even at minimum weight, you have to be carrying heavy pieces of iron.

[Trusk'our he/him]

18 hours ago, Speeding Steelrunner said:

Could anyone explain to me why an iron Ferring is called a Skimmer?  It’s not a bad name, but I’ve never quite understood what it’s referring to.

I always imagined it as just referring to skimming one's weight off.

[Steel Speedster ♂]

Just now, Trusk'our said:

I always imagined it as just referring to skimming one's weight off.

Yeah, I guess it could be as simple as that!