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scienceofmasseffect · 6 years

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Canon Turian terminology post

0Today’s post was brought to you by a dive into the original run of Cerberus Daily News, active during the first year from Mass Effect 2′s launch.

There are very likely similar posts existing already out there to mine. I hope mine can add something novel to the available offerings.

Outside interactions between Shepard and turians they came across, the terrorist attack on Vallum and following war on Taetrus brought us a lot of turian concepts and terms as part of news articles covering the conflict. This is a list of them with explanations.

Bareface - Turian individual who lacks facial paint of their birth or homeworld. Early in turian history when they began to establish extra-palavenian colonies, these colonies developed their own identities, cultures and symbols to display that. Facepaint was one obvious way of displaying one’s loyalties to their homes. Lack of facepaint meant unwillingness to commit. Barefaced individuals represented the unknown and were threats. Politicians were quickly saddled with this slur.

Meaning of being bareface was covered in the Codex on turian culture.

Cabal - Turian special military unit consisting solely of soldiers with biotic capability.

Wiktionary defition: A usually secret exclusive organization of individuals gathered for a political purpose. A secret plot.

Turian cabalists are a concept of some notoriety, as they distinctly differ from their non-biotic peers. Hierarchy society generally encourages towards honesty and straightforwardness, and the Cabals’ break from this towards subterfuge, separation and at times isolation marks them as comparable to barefaces in terms of social status. In canonical case of Nyreen Kandros, she was re-assigned to the Cabals due to her biotics manifesting, but was underutilized due to their undeveloped nature. She did not realize her powers’ full potential until Aria T’Loak’s tutelage.

Cabals were first mentioned in Cerberus Daily News article from June 10th 2010.

Claw salute - A salute done with hand, or just the claw. Possibly witnessed in Mass Effect 3 during Shepard’s operations on Menae and Tuchanka.

Claw salute was first verbally mentioned in Cerberus Daily News article from April 30th 2010.

Carifinum - Emergency management agency responsible for public crises on Taetrus. Unknown whether this is canonically generic term for all Hierarchy emergency management agencies or solely the Taetrian instance’s name. Some Earth equivalent agencies: FEMA in the United States of America, Ministry of Emergency Situations/EMERCOM/MChS in the Russian Federation.

Most likely inspired by latin word Caritas, meaning something dear, expensive or charity.

Carifinum was criticized first in the Cerberus Daily News article from May 14th 2010.

Enrarium, (The) - Old post office of Vallum city, serving as museum in contemporary times. Source material presentation seems conflicting, the name Enrarium is presented with the, denoting its unique, and then translated as “old postal office” which is a generic descriptor.

Enrarium directly has no existing translation in real world languages. However, Wiktionary tells us that -rium suffix is used to indicate the setting where a given activity is carried out: for example, auditorium, gymnasium, planetarium. So enra or enrar is implied to be something post or messaging related activity.

A turian child was rescued from ruins of the Enrarium in the Cerberus Daily News article from May 7th 2010.

Facinus - Separatist-slash-terrorist group campaigning for Elurian continent’s independence from Taetrus and its colonial Hierarchy administration. Became infamous when they subverted a commercial freighter’s FTL plotter and set it to accelerate into the colony’s capital city of Vallum.

Facinus translates directly from Latin, meaning a deed or an act, or more specifically crime, wickedness or an evil deed.

Investigations fingered Facinus being the culprit in the Cerberus Daily News article from May 4th 2010.

Hielae - A throwball sports court. Were utilized as makeshift storage spaces for turian remains in aftermath of Vallum blast.

Wiktionary and Latin offer no material. Original construct mimicking latin structure.

Rescue services resorted to using hielae courts in the Cerberus Daily News article from May 2nd 2010.

Haemona Medical Center - Healthcare provision establishment with capacity for 1500 patients, vastly overwhelmed in aftermath of Vallum blast after survivors sought help therein. Served as scene for grizzly activity of harvesting organs from the blast casualties.

Haemona itself means nothing, but haemo means pertaining to blood in ancient Greek, as seen in medical contexts like in haemophilia.

Haemona Medical Center was mentioned in above May 2nd entry and then later in Cerberus Daily News article from May 9th 2010.

Laudatix - Ministry of citizenship rankings. Generic term, as it was presented in the article as “the colony’s Laudatix”. Manages official records and processes promotions and demotions of citizen rankings within its jurisdiction. Also organizes oseruns, or ceremonies where the citizenship rank promotions are publicly proclaimed and entered into effect.

Latin verb laudo, meaning “I praise/commend/eulogize/compliment” conjugates to laudatis, amongst other forms.

Taetrian Laudatix resumed normal operations in the Cerberus Daily News article from May 11th 2010.

Mexta - A traditional turian sword with both ceremonial and practical uses, such as dueling.

Appears to be an invented word.

Turian general Partinax wanted to fight the Facinus figurehead with a mexta in the Cerberus Daily News article from June 3rd 2010.

Oserun - Citizenship rank promotion ceremony. Official ceremonies are arranged by the local Laudatix.

Appears to be an invented word.

See Laudatix for the article where it was first mentioned.

Radiatum, (The) - The Taetrian parliament building. Possibly also a generic name for turian parliaments, but use of the leans heavily on unique building name. Earthly equivalents: The Russian State Duma building, Brazilian National Congress building.

From Latin radiatus, past participle of radiare (“to radiate, furnish with spokes, give out rays, radiate, shine”), from radius (“a spoke, ray”).

It all began in the Cerberus Daily News article from April 28th 2010.

Sevnis, (The) - A building in Vallum that served as emergency government headquarters after the blast. Was targeted by an aircar bombing attempt.

Appears to be an invented word.

The Sevnis made headlines in the Cerberus Daily News article for June 1st 2010.

Signis, (The) - Office of the primarch of Taetrus. Was obliberated in the Vallum blast, and later rebuilt. Seems to denote an unique building.

Fom Latin signum (genitive signī);a mark, sign, emblem, a miracle, (Medieval Latin) a signum (medieval tower bell used particularly for ringing the 8 canonical hours).

Was destroyed in the Cerberus Daily News article from April 29th 2010, and later rebuilt in August 8th.

Viceroy - A Hierarchy political role. A primarch’s second-in-command.

See Signis for the April 29th 2010 article where it was featured.

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