A demon that lives in a hive like cluster. Takes young prey like lambs, calves and children. Stings them and sends them into anaphylaxis. Then takes them back to the hive where the hive feeds off them for a few days/weeks. They look like a hybrid human insect with a general humanoid form but large compound eyes, teeth for tearing rotted flesh rather than chewing and stingers on their wrists. I'm writing a suburban fantasy and need to name this demon. I've got nothing. Waspies? Stinger demons? They aren't central to the plot but play a key part in my main character's past as they killed her sister when she was 8 and she's telling her daughter about the experience.
Are you looking for a more colloquial name like 'buzzers' or a proper name like ... iuno, 'gigas cimex'? Or potentially both?
Proper name. The paragraph it appears in is something like: "Tess followed me. She knew why we weren't supposed to stray from camp but I guess she didn't want me to get into trouble or she thought she could handle herself. I don't really know. When she came across me I was half way to the lake and she tried to convince me to come back but I wouldn't. I was determined to get a rock from the lake so Bobby wouldn't think I was a wuss. She went with me and we stumbled right into a nest of _____ demons. They're scary looking creatures with buggy eyes and pointy teeth. I had no idea what they were so I just screamed. Tess had been training for two years and she threw me into the bracken fern started fighting but there were too many. Mum and Uncle Merv would have gotten there minutes after I screamed and they took them all down but they'd already stung Tess. She had gone straight into anaphylaxis- her throat had swollen up - and by the time the demons where gone and Dad and Mum and Uncle Merve were trying to get Tess to wake up...she'd gone." It's an intense moment emotionally for the main character who is talking to her daughter whose best friend has just died in a similar incident involving a different big bad. She knows about demons etc. now and has spent her adult life fighting them.
Different kinds are fought in different ways and have different characteristics. My MC has been training since she was 8 years old to fight demons so knows her stuff. To be non-specific would be against her character which is very detail oriented, controlling at times. Her knowledge has become a part of who she is - Stephanie Fitzgerald, Mum, wife, Warrior Queen. Every good warrior knows - know thy enemy. Also this is a vivid and defining memory of her sister dying saving her which also forced her to be next in line a queen. It needs to be vivid in its description.
izzybot's questions were really great in helping me pin down what I wanted, thanks! I think vespula demon has it. Relates the demon to the European wasp which is a pest every Aussie kid knows and fears. 90% of readers may not get the reference but for those that do....
I would think about how it would have got it's name. Is your character naming it? or has it been given by the media? Scientists are likely to give it a fancy name, maybe in latin or they would use a naming convention that already exists. When the media gives a name they think about what will sell papers and likey to give it a simpler name. The general public is likely to name it based on it's function, if it stings them they are 'stingers', if they scratch and cut them then they might get the name 'rippers'. Thats my opinion anyway.
Thanks, that's helpful. It would have been named by The Council (would like a better name for them too!) A brains trust of Dowager Queens (warrior queens who reached menopause and their "gifts" - strength, quick healing etc.- pass on to the next in their line) and other assorted researchers, experts, magic practitioners, historians etc. who advise also offer financial aid to the 14 warrior queens. They are not supposed to have governing powers over the queens but they do hold purse strings so thing can get complicated. A latin/Greek name appeals because of the historical angle.
That suggests to me a quite official sounding name, unless the warrior queens are more like amazons than charlies angels. As for the council and what to call them, again it's about what feeling do you want people to have. Call them the 'Dowager Queen's Council' and I get images of 19th century gentlemen and ladies all prim and proper. 'The Queen's Council' sounds much more like modern UK government. When you just call it the council it sounds more like a small part of a bigger organisation to me, kind of like 'the elders' which are often mentioned in these kinds of stories. What kind of sound and feeling do you want for it, offical and high class? mystical? rogue group?
I have to ask, why are you calling them demons at all? Hopefully I'm not being too fussy here, but these creatures don't strike me as being demons at all. These sound more like monsters of some sort, somewhat like vampires.
My MC's nick name for them is The Hot Flush Club in reference to the menopause thing. She has a complicated relationship with them as her Mum is on the council. A traditional, somewhat cumbersome organisation which takes itself seriously. It views its recommendations as vital but it can be out of touch. It is also a secret organisation as most people are unaware of the Queens and their work. Queen's Council has a good ring but still pondering. The Advisers?
They remind me of spiders in that they collect food, then store it for later. I like the Latin term: Fatum - meaning fate, destiny, doom. Certainly, anyone captured by this demon has a doomed fate.
Might I recommend finding an academic name (vespula, fatum...) and a colloquial (hive demon, stinger demon...)?
