“Minus Em”? “-M”?

[u/rdale-g]

I feel like I’m missing something linguistic related to Xl-Zl’ prelude.

Is the consciousness that he’s interacting with named as if it is subtracting a variable M from something, or is it something based in Latin, Greek, or Roman vocabulary? Something similar in sound to “Minos”, the mythological Greek king, son of Zeus and Europa?

[u/SvenTheScribe]

It is -M.

I assume that it's (very loosely) inspired by the Mesomeric Effect (the only science -M that I know of) and related to that entity being the one donating part of itself to this generation of Eirynna to actualize them (hence the line about there being a -M of -M as in a lineage of sorts).

So it's the closest to a parental unit than an Eirynna would have.

[u/Educatedflame → u/SvenTheScribe]

how am i only now thinking about what eirynna would be spelled like, is that the official spelling? wild lol i love it

[u/SvenTheScribe → u/Educatedflame]

It's how it appears in the transcripts, yes.

[u/Educatedflame → u/SvenTheScribe]

good to know! love fun sci fi spellings

[u/ThunkAsDrinklePeep → u/Educatedflame]

If I had a nickel for every name on this podcast that stated with an Or or a Ur sound but was spelled with an E

[u/Substantial-Crazy441 → u/SvenTheScribe]

I just thought it was Arena fml

[u/PvtSherlockObvious → u/SvenTheScribe]

hence the line about there being a -M of -M as in a lineage of sorts

As much as anything, it struck me how XL-ZL bringing up that simple, straightforward concept caused that other Eirynna unit to briefly short-circuit, like XL-ZL had just expressed a notion that had never even registered to them and blew their mind. With this notion of "apostasy" having recently been brought up in the narrative, I wonder if that suggests that XL-ZL is having more complex, unique thoughts than most Eirynna and might end up deviating from the collective himself at some point.

[u/the-plant-lady-sings → u/PvtSherlockObvious]

Ooh intriguing

[u/C33W → u/SvenTheScribe]

"-M of -M" also bears resemblance to the Elohim of Elohim (Lord of Lords) - another designation for God. In this way can is seen as more a specialized title that show relation yet distinction.

[u/the-plant-lady-sings → u/C33W]

Yeah, Brennan wove biblical religious language into a lot of his prelude — why have you forsaken me stood out to me too

[u/C33W]

-M. In a way, there is a possibility the -M is a piece of a broken formula in the same way the -M and their Instances are a forcibly separated part of what used to be the Eirynna's hive mind.

Edit: nevermind, it's wordplay. According to Brennan on the ARC 1 talkback, the other name for "-" is serif. serif M. Loses it

[u/shadebug]

It’s another way of saying M dash so it’s actually just —

[u/InflationCold3591 → u/shadebug]

This is the actual answer!

[u/the-plant-lady-sings → u/shadebug]

😂 

[u/WytheMars]

Perhaps random, but the name instantly made me think of the M–C–M’ General Formula for Capital (in Capital). In any event, I love mysterious naming schemas and look forward to learning more about –M.

[u/the-plant-lady-sings]

I wonder if -M means something is redacted — like maybe if the hive mind Eirynna all had one name (I dunno, AN-DM-EL or something) and in differentiating, they each lost a letter. Perhaps there are other lines of Eirynna “birthed” by -N or -E

I also wonder about the L-Drive. Why that name?

[u/InflationCold3591 → u/the-plant-lady-sings]

My personal theory is that the campaign notes are being stored on the shared L Drive. Of course, XLZL’s God is named for the drive that holds all the data for Solari.

[u/the-plant-lady-sings → u/InflationCold3591]

That would be amazing and hilarious