Lit Nobility titles and naming conventions?

Nothing screams lack of imagination like trying to wedge blatant references to real cultures into a completely fictional universe with no basis in our own history. It's never done well, and more often than not it's just going to end up being offensive.

 

Just wondering, when do it become "shamelessly appropriation"?

 

Apostle is also an ordinary English word, though.

 

I actually don't mind the use of Caliph, Emir etc. After all there's a lot of English terms used in the SW Galaxy that specifically came from a sort of specific real-world origin. Genocide for example wasn't even a coined as a term up until WW2.

I assume the titles developed naturally on those planets' cultures.

 

When it comes to caliph so do I think that not that many people, at least before IS, know that it was a also a religious title. To me for example it was just a king/kaiser like title in arabic fairy-tales and franco-belgian comics

 

Have we seen 'pharaoh' being used in SW?

 

And the Rebels should have sung: "Too late to be known as Sheev the First, he should have been known as Sheev the Worst."

 

"A pox on that phony emperor! "

 

YES! So glad I'm not the only one who can't hear the word "caliph" without thinking of that guy.

 

You lot didn't want an aristocracy and look where it got you.

 

you could move to England!

 

Why is everyone treating these titles as timeless absolutes when they varied highly depending on both place and time?

 

I guess this is the thread for this: If Wat Tambor is an emir, does he own emirates? This is a matter I have pondered at great length. Length being relative here to how much time the rest of humanity spent pondering it.

 

I always interpreted "Emir" as a governorial title used by the CIS.

 

Tambor's title being changed to Emir was one of those early TCW changes that just felt weird to me, as if they wanted to make him feel:

A) Exotic and alien

and

B) reflect the fact he was supposed to be running the show on Ryloth I guess?

But I really really liked Foreman better cause it just fit so well with the whole vibe of the Techno Union and Tambor himself. Emir just feels exotic for the sake of exoticness.

That does raise an interesting point with regards to LI's earlier point about the usage of foreign IRL titles in Star Wars. For me, if the title makes sense (like an Emir ruling an Emirate or a Sultan ruling, well, a Sultanate), then alright fair enough. But sometimes things get really weird---say what you will about the Swokes Swokes but at least their Caliphs were governmental figures. I've always wondered who the heck came up with the name for these guys.

 

I interpreted it that Wat as an Emir as well as Techno Union foreman. In Star Wars, it seems common for nobles to go into business - see Baron Tagge.

I have to disagree with that. It is the most mishmash of all mishes and mashes.

Plus, it is likely that there is a large amount of in universe variance, particularly with the possibility of rich people buying planets and then writing the planetary constitutions to make themselves nobles, without paying careful attention to preexisting standards.