zeal·ot /ˈzelət/ Learn to pronounce noun noun: zealot; plural noun: zealots a person who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their religious, political, or other ideals. h Similar: fanatic enthusiast extremist radical Young Turk diehard activist militant bigot dogmatist sectarian partisan fiend maniac ultra nut
Maybe find another word for dad in another language like Darth Vader is Afrikaan way of saying dad. Maybe Croatian - Otac.
To be fair, Christians hold more political power in the Western World, but that's a topic for the Debate Room. But yeah, as others said, you don't have to worry about the Pope trying to kill you because you created a caricature of him porking kids and running a sex ring ala Jabba the Hutt. At worst, you'll just get angry Christians mashing their keyboards on their blog about why this hurt their feelings. I do agree with @AnimalAsLeader who said, "However, I still think you shouldn't ask yourself the question "will it offend someone?", because the answer to this is always yes. The question is rather: "Is my intent to offend someone or purposefully misrepresent a religion?" Because if the answer to that is "no" - which I think it is, in your case - then there is no cause for concern." Granted, some fiction do go out of their way to do just that. Check out Grand Theft Auto. It's basically Offensive Things: The Game. No one is spared mockery. Well, except the other two big religions of the world, but still no one is spared mockery in the game. So honestly, it depends on what you intend to do with your writing. Hell, in my own fantasy, I have things like High Priest, Priest, Elder Priest, Priestess, Deacon. Damn, Dictionary!
I think you should just leave it. Honestly, when I think of a bad guy called 'prophet,' I don't think of Islam or any other real religious group, I think of these guys: Interesting, about half of the other names mentioned here were also borrowed by Bungie. Prophets, The Oracle, and Zealots are all characters or groups in the Halo universe. Then again, I'm also in the group of people who couldn't care less if I offend someone with my art work. If anything I write offends you, good, you aren't the target audience so fuck off.
ROFL, so true. Also, the religions that have an aspect of prophecy in them, all have more than 1 prophet. Islam too recognizes Jesus as a prophet, so calling your guy "The Prophet" would be safe in my book, because then you'd clarify that your religion only has one, at which point all parallels to existing religions are kinda gone.
Halo is a neat universe, if not like extreme light WH40K. Though they too have all or most of the same titles for persons within a few of the factions.
I don't think "The Prophet" would be problematic as long as you avoid other Islamic associations, but Muhammad is also known in Islam as "The Messenger (of Allah)", so that could be equally problematic to "Prophet." How about pull a page from the both Christianity and Communism and call him "Brother" such-and-such. "You shouldn't wear green on Tuesdays, Bob." "Oh, and why's that, Jim?" "Brother Peter doesn't like it." "Brother Pe... shoot, help me get this off before anyone sees!"
I really don’t understand why you have a problem, because you are free to write fiction in any way you like, though I would advise you not to change the personality or the advents of a known historical figure i.e., it would be a little silly to change the result of the battle of Waterloo just to suit your storyline. To return to you’re problem, choose a fictitious Cardinal with access and influence to the Pope and give him any name you like. However, you cannot avoid not offending the religious zealots’ of any religion, but you will be company of many great writers who have gone before.
Exactly. People have written fictional orders based off of real-world religion (mostly Christianity), or put fictional religious people in real-world religion (again, mostly Christianity.) And even if you wanted to offend an entire religion, well, people have done that before. Check out Grand Theft Auto as a prime example. They offend, they know they offend and they give zero fucks. LONG LIVE HIS GLORIOUS MAJESTY NAPOLEON BONAPARTE!!
Some junk from my brain: The ascended The voice Herald (Depends on circumstanes) The link The blessed Savior The waves (referring to shipwreck. Alternatively Bobby Bobber of the floatsome floatsam)
I guess what everyone is saying is that i am making a problem where there is none. I'll take some of these suggestions and store them away for when/if the character's title actually becomes a problem
Writing about religion will offend people no matter what you do. I don't think preventing offense is the right reason to change a name. If you think that you can do better though, that is a good reason to change a name. More original, more evocative of the unique nature of this character's role, more in tune with the setting. These are good reasons to use a different name instead.
The title "The Prophet"is also very prominent to Latter Day Saints, and guess what? I'm not offended! Stop trying to write to not offend. It's silly.
If your goal is to create a fictitious world, the fictitious characters may have any name you find fits your alliteration, pace, or era. Sometimes, a name like Helen conjures up something strong and Greek. Or Sylvia, etc. Almost all "real people" names have a literary trope. If the character you want to name has any animalistic qualities, just call him Dog, or Lion or whatever.
A title in itself means little with no connection to the plot or elements of the world. So I would say if you feel the messenger makes the most sense as it is relevant to your story, then go with that. There is freedom of speech. Only limit on such is using that right to slander or demean. Which is obviously not your intention. Don't apologize for something you didn't do.
