Talk:Familias Regnant universe

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[edit] Wikification

Steven.gilberd - What exactly needs to be changed to wikify this article? I am happy to help but don't understand what needs to be done to it.

[edit] Pronunciation

Is the pronunciation of the "Benignity" known? Has the author ever stated or implied the right way to pronounce it? It uses a consonant that is irregularly silenced in English, and so the proper pronunciation can only be guessed in English, and would be impossible to determine for someone without excellent English phonetics. --NotTires

True, but we can make a guess at Moon's intentions. It's based on 'benign', and even better, is not a neologism but a pre-existing English word. The OED has its pronunciation as "(b{shti}{sm}n{shti}gn{shti}t{shti})". (No, I have no idea what that means, it's just copy-paste.) --Gwern (contribs) 17:11 4 February 2008 (GMT)

[edit] R.S.S. Ranks

I'm pretty confused by the ranks in use in the Regular Space Service. There are both Majors and Lieutenant Commanders (the same rank for different services in most rank structures) and there seem to be Commanders but no Captain rank. And what the heck is a pivot? A corporal? My point is, does someone have a table of ranks, and could they toss it into the article? Thanks... Ray Trygstad 19:33, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, a pivot can't be a corporal, since in one book a corporal is busted to pivot IIRC. --Rhwawn (talk to Rhwawn) 03:31, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Supposition: It appears to be a hybrid of the US Naval / Marine rank system, likely due to the 'Fleet' terminology and the author's experience in the US Marines. More careful examination of the duties of the characters might differentiate the Navy / Marine split by roles. For the Enlisted Ranks Pivot appears to be the aggregate of PFC, Lance Corporal, and Seaman i.e. a general initial rank. If there was a differentiation of Pivots (I don't recall) then it likely is E-2 vs. E-3 or PFC - Lance Corporal & Seaman Apprentice - Seaman to 'Pivot' and 'Pivot Major'. There are Corporals. 'Petty' and 'Petty Light' are likely to be Naval Ranks Petty Officer Second Class and below it Petty Officer Third Class, with the venerable 'Chiefs' being some gradations of Chief Petty Officers (equivalent to senior NCOs or senior Sergeants in other services).

The officers' ranks appear to follow US Naval practice largely. The insertion of US Marine rank of Major (e.g. Major Pitak) may imply a parallel track (US Navy - Marines; Fleet - Marines; Command Track - Technical) or be simply forced into place to avoid explanations of who ranks whom in complex hierarchies when two people have similar rank (e.g. Hull and Architecture section inside the larger Heavy Maintenance Command). The curious Captain / Commander problem pointed out by Ray Trygstad above probably is equivalent to the Commodore (United States) dilemma. Captain appears to be a title associated with a ship, or a role, not a rank. Thus, a captain would be whatever officer commanded a ship, who could be of any rank. As with Commodore at times in its history, people can come in and out of the title Captain without promotion / demotion, and it also avoids the narrative dilemma of explaining to readers unfamiliar with Captains holding desk jobs that Captain Someone could not be the captain of any ship. A similar dilemma is explained in the article Captain (Naval) for referring to Captain ranks that aren't captain of a ship. It may have been simplest to abolish the rank for narrative clarity. Perhaps Major was inserted and (Lt.) Commander were raised one rank to account for the use of Captain as a role instead of rank below Admiral? --NotTires