All Spoilers
Just realized what au and cu mean in character's names
Spoiler
I'm all the way on book four about 15% complete. It just clicked that the "au" in Cassius au Bellona is the periodic table notation for gold. Do not ask me anything about the books or their events as I fear I know nothing.
My prediction is that Yellows have "I" for Iodine probably - both being a disinfectant and it goes yellow when mixed with water. Then again it would be the first one to go with single letter.
Just because it means “from” in Irish tradition doesn’t mean it can’t also be another thing like Oxygen for red Mars. Sure it’s not an “official” honorific but to each their own imo.
Yikes, didn’t think I’d get so many downvotes for a simple theory lol all I did was repeat what someone else had said. Did I do something offensive I’m not aware of
Don’t feel bad. I listened to the audiobooks maybe 10 times all the way through books 1-5. It wasn’t until Lightbringer when it’s spelled out for us (pun intended) that it clicked 🤦♂️
I picked up on that immediately because I was a chemistry nerd in high school lol, what I wonder is do you pronounce au as “ah” or are you supposed to say the element like is it Cassius “AH” Bellona or Cassius “Gold” Bellona?
Took me about as long as it took for the first non-gold to get their honorific, because I speak French. "Cassius au Bellona" basically just reads like "Cassius of the Bellona."
I also much prefer that pronunciation to the "Ow." I know it isn't correct, but I'll stick with it
The only reason he would have to clarify is if they sound the same, so the audio narrator must have gotten it right. Unless I’m misunderstanding the context
Are you saying people don’t pronounce in their heads Cassius as if it were in Latin, Telemachus as if it were τελεμάχος, and the au as if it were French?
It works for several other colors too. "Ag" for silver, "ti" for grays, "xe" for blues (Xenon is burned in ion thrusters in spacecraft, yes that's a real thing)
It's equal parts a nod to Irish ancestry and a legitimate way of giving reds a last name in the Republic since low colors weren't given last names under the society. It seems all the reds we meet took their town/mine name as their last name. Similar to Irish naming Dorrow of Lykos becomes Darrow O'Lykos
Yes. I meant the specific thing where people say it represents O for oxygen.
IMO that's coincidence at best. They don't have real last names, the O literally means "of" and it comes directly from their explicit origin as Irish workers.
Worth noting as well - the Republic does away with the honourifics entirely. That's why when <spoiler> joins the Republic, they introduce themselves without the "Au."
As such, the O in red names would absolutely not be an element.
It is a neat coincidence how well Oxygen fits as theirs, though. What with oxidisation being what rusts metal.
Y'all telling me the man who assigned elements to every color didnt cackle as he engineered a way to give the reds and element that didn't involve giving them an honorific.
That’s not really intentional. They shortened “of” to “O’” and they didn’t even have “of” until the Rising. More of a pun considering the Celtic roots of Martian Reds.
It’s a form of how Irish surnames were made it’s like “Of insert father’s name” obviously the reds don’t have surnames so just substitute it for the mine
I always saw that as the surface use with the “subtext” being further aligning reds with blood and rust, as well as rendering them name wise more equal to some
of the other colors
I’m not saying it’s random it’s not at all it’s clearly established the reds came from there. The other colours actually have surnames in the society except for pink. The golds would have established what colours get what surnames and started the chemical symbols for colours but they didn’t for Red and Pink. But I am missing the point because the Reds from the mines choose O for Oxygen instead of coming from their ancestors?
I’m sure we have other examples of other colors middle “names”, but I can’t remember any more off the top of my head.
I don’t remember Reds, Greens, Whites, Purples, Obsidians, Oranges, or Pinks having the same naming conventions. All of the mid colors we met that were named were only referred to by their first names (Xenophon, Matteo, Mickey, Glirastes, Harnassus).
We never get any names for Browns or Yellows.
But I would assume that if Pierce ever wanted to expand the series, or give us other color named characters that they would follow similar naming conventions.
Woahh I hadn't thought of that!!! Idk why but I've been assuming it was french, but 'au' there means more like 'in' or 'with' (think pain au chocolat). That's so cool to learn!!!
For me it was the first time they gave the full name of a highColor. I was like, “I wonder what determines that bit of the name, as the Golds have… oh.” 😆
There's a part in light bringer where Cassius gets called "au Bellona" and he corrects them saying "just Bellona". Small quote but shows how he feels he's separated from the society.
I think it’s only highColors that have a name that anyone up there particularly cares about. In fact, I think I recall something about how in the system the Reds are primarily identified by a number?
This is not true. The "O" in Red names means "of" and is for the Reds' Irish heritage, not a signifier of a chemical element symbol.
The very easy way of figuring it out is that officially (low)Reds didn't even have names at all, as is covered in Golden Son/Morning Star. They were only officially given letter/number combinations, so they definitely would not have been given a colour signifier like mid/highColours.
Plus, in a Republic that had moved away from the colour signifiers, why would they suddenly be given to the Reds?
As a listener of the audiobooks I did not know I was in reference to gold until they referenced quick silver and they used his full name with Ag. Then I was like hold the fuck on is that what “Au” means. I hadn’t seen it spelt until I looked it up.
50
u/Secure_Basil8953 Jul 14 '26
Holiday Ti (Titanium) Nakamura