Names for antagonists

[Ripheus23]

After doing some mathematics having to do with forms of the "will to evil," I came up with a problem: for this to apply to a story, I would need roughly nine names for the evil beings who satisfied certain parameters for this willing.

There is an overarching protagonist in this context, known as "the Sielier." Though what that title means, I haven't decided yet (it's not an elf-like take on "someone who seals evil away"). So, one quick anti-name, here, is "Xielier," as long as the quasi-evil connotations of the letter "x" are taken into account. However, the primary strategy I've come up, to assign the nine their names,* is something like

Mr. Auschwitz

Ms. Treblinka

Lord Sobibor

Cardinal Kolyma

Captain Jasenovac

... as well as, for now, Doctors Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. The in-world reason for these words is not the literary reason; that is, Earth's history is not part of this story.

So, the first name on that list, and the names for the doctors, are indicators of what category I'm drawing on, here. The highest of the nine, so far, isn't on this list. I mean, part of me would just have "Mr. Auschwitz" be the name for the ultimate foe, but I'm toying with phrases like "Echthros-champion" also. However, if I were to pursue the theme, I'm not sure what to do as "Mr. Auschwitz" sounds (i) horrible (horribly evil) but also (ii) subordinate somehow. And I know I could find plenty of names for atrocity-sites IRL but I'm not supersure if any others would have as horrific connotations as the ones I'm already working with ("President Dresden" isn't very intimidating, for instance). A theological variant would be something like, "General Golgotha," or, "Prince Calvary," or something, but again, not menacing enough to my ears...

*The Nine Commanders of Darkness is my tentative title for the entire set. The mathematical details allow these nine to rule over seventeen others in an encompassing set of 26, with several ranks within the range of the nine. (There's supposed to be a genre-level Easter Egg in this, with the main evil being the nine "servants of evil" (e.g./c.f. the Nazgul and the Unmade).)

Edited August 26, 2018 by Ripheus23

[Quantus he/him]

So the long and short is you are trying for a naming convention of The Nine, and you want them to reference RL locations/events of major loss of Life and/or evil acts, yes?

First thoughts:

1) Make it three sets of three (unless that runs afoul of your larger Mathematical themes), 

2) Make the Honorifics match the nature of the tragedy, and

3) spread them out culturally (helps them seem equal but distinct rather than subordinate to each other). 

 

So for example "Cardinal" would pair with a Christian Religious atrocity (something from the Crusades maybe), and then you'd have two others that were religious atrocities from the East and maybe Africa, with corresponding titles (a Lama or something maybe?). As for the Three sets of Three, you already have Religious atrocity, I think Id go with military ranks paired with non-religious warfar, and Dr/Lord titles paired with your more innovative examples of mass death (Dr Hiroshima/Nagasaki would fit nicely here).

 

I took a stab at a few for kicks

1. Cardinal Gzerot Tatenu
2. General Normandy
3. Dr Auschwitz
4. Dr Hiroshima/Nagasaki (how would you feel about one of the Nine being a represented by a pair of Twins?)
5. Lord Diyarbakır
6. Ambassador Pitt
7. ...

[Ripheus23]

#5 is a good one. Actually I'd totally spaced on the encompassing Armenian history. I always thought "Ittihad" was a fairly quasi-evil-sounding word, and IIRC it's Turkish for the phrase used to describe those who controlled the immediate post-Ottoman government (the Committee of Union and Progress?), and I saw a propaganda poster from France that referred to an "Enfer Pasha" (a play on "Enver Pasha," where "Enfer" means "Hell" (as in "enferno" = "inferno" or something)). Also the Armenian Holocaust is relatively well-known enough that it would fit in with the "easily calls to mind an atrocity/similar episode" theme (why I hesitate to put "Hue" on the list, despite its being (either due to the US or the communists or both) the site of one of the largest Vietnam massacres during the war---not enough people are aware of this debate or its details...).

Actually, this subject brings to mind a whole other level of this theme: special names for different overarching genocides/etc. E.g. the Shoah (holocaust of the Jews) and the Holodomor (famine imposed on the Ukraine by the Soviet government), or the Maafa (I think is the name given to the combination of transatlantic/related enslavement-of-Africans and the landgrab by Europe that led to e.g. the Congo Free State).

I think "Porajmos" is for the genocide of the Romani(?) (often called "gypsies" though that borderlines as an offensive term nowadays).