Need a bit of advice
And I thought I'd ask my f-list - among other places.
I have a character in my fantasy, my MC in fact, who has a small grouping of magical powers. For one, I'm using the definitiion of "seer" as in "s/he who sees things". This refers to her seeing the past or future of a person who touches her, and seeing ghosts. But there's another power that I wanted to call "soothsayer", basically taking the word apart and using "sooth" in it's archaic definition of "truth" and adding "sayer" - not because she speaks the truth, but because she makes others speak it.
The problem is: soothsayer has the same connotation as seer - someone who sees the future, a precognitive. I think I can get away with seer, but soothsayer isn't fitting. Are there any other ways to denote this "truth-speaking"? I'd like your ideas/opinions, please. Many thanks in advance.
Crossposting this to the NaNo Forums, and lj_nanowrimo .
ETA: I think I've finally worked this out. The character has an aura that makes people speak the truth, if they speak at all. So I'm taking a hint from lassarina at lj_nanowrimo and giving it a Latin name: aureola veritas. I'm also considering a suggestion from the fantasy boards at NaNoWriMo, and Chromatic there, and making it unique to her or very rare.
Thanks, gang, for your comments! You all really got my thought processes going!
I have a character in my fantasy, my MC in fact, who has a small grouping of magical powers. For one, I'm using the definitiion of "seer" as in "s/he who sees things". This refers to her seeing the past or future of a person who touches her, and seeing ghosts. But there's another power that I wanted to call "soothsayer", basically taking the word apart and using "sooth" in it's archaic definition of "truth" and adding "sayer" - not because she speaks the truth, but because she makes others speak it.
The problem is: soothsayer has the same connotation as seer - someone who sees the future, a precognitive. I think I can get away with seer, but soothsayer isn't fitting. Are there any other ways to denote this "truth-speaking"? I'd like your ideas/opinions, please. Many thanks in advance.
Crossposting this to the NaNo Forums, and lj_nanowrimo .
ETA: I think I've finally worked this out. The character has an aura that makes people speak the truth, if they speak at all. So I'm taking a hint from lassarina at lj_nanowrimo and giving it a Latin name: aureola veritas. I'm also considering a suggestion from the fantasy boards at NaNoWriMo, and Chromatic there, and making it unique to her or very rare.
Thanks, gang, for your comments! You all really got my thought processes going!