Pronk and Fleem have become cornerstones of the “bad” words we use on the show. But in a universe as large as Starfinder’s, there are a multitude of cultures, all with their own swear words and exclamations. This month, we challenge you to create expletives fit for use in the Starfinder universe. Show off your creative use of toilet language and you could earn a prize (along with a bar of soap in the mouth).
Send Us Your Swears!
Send an email to cosmiccrit@gmail.com with your submission, and include the following:
The Word – Hit us with the swears! These can be single words like “Pronk” but also expressions to get your point across like “By my Vesk Scaly-Tail!” Enter as many times as you’d like.
Create the Culture (Optional) – Swear words are a part of many cultures, so include how your cuss word or expression is a part of a local environment. Is the swear word in Common or some other language? Is it a new trend or old archaic curse? How severe or insulting is the word? Does your swear word have any historical context? No matter how your word fits in it should feel ingrained in the area which it was birthed in. Bad words from Akiton shouldn’t feel the same as those which come from Verces.
Prizes
At the end of the month, the Crew will vote on the #1 mother of all swears. The grand-prize winner will receive a gift from the Cosmic Crit store, and our runners up each get a Starfinder PDF worth $10 from the Paizo online store.
Guidelines for Submitting
By submitting to this challenge, you give us the right to use your submitted work/piece on Cosmic Crit and distribute it for free.
To receive a gift for your selected submission, you must have an active Paizo account and provide that to us after we use your submission on the show. Please include how you would like to be contacted and credited for your winning submission. Submission can be sent to us via our gmail account, cosmiccrit@gmail.com.
Please nothing offensive or mean-spirited. Be kind and nice to your fellow Shirren and Lashunta.
This is an amazing contest idea. I can’t wait to see the winning entries.
This is an amazing contest idea. I can’t wait to see the winning entries.
Thanks! I will be sure to post the winners here as well for this challenge so everyone can see them.
Starfinder Design Lead
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Not for the contest, but for fans of the idea:
I've explored this concept a couple of times over on my blog.
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Not for the contest, but for fans of the idea:
I've explored this concept a couple of times over on my blog.
Oh man I love this. I really want use "Walking Suitcase" on a Vesk sometime. Plus I might have to use some of those Vesk exclamations for Edrass. "By the three blades" sounds pretty sweet.
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In Wrikreechee culture, a "Zorkfeld" is a person who claims to be an expert, but who actually knows either nothing about it or worse, actively harmful wrong information.
Example 1:
"So this ysoki comes up to me and tries to sell me an aftermarket Drebulon R drift stabilizer, but everybody knows those got recalled after the Corpse Fleet figured out how to remotely overload the Drebulon R to blow out your life support. Everyone uses Drebulon Qs now. What a Zorkfeld!"
I don't know if its becuase your example uses a Ysoki or what but this sounds like a great insult to use against Gnak. Thank you for the submission and fuel against Drew.
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Less of a outright swear, and more of an exclamation. Protiumize. Verb. In the realms of theoretical physics, it is possible for an atom to be decomposed into it's constituent particles should a vastly powerful force be applied, rendering the object into a highly ionized cloud of hydrogen (lone protons, or protium) and neutron radiation. Or in other words, energized so dramatically the object in question undergoes spontaneous nuclear fission.
In scientific communities and highly intelligent races, to Protiumize something is slang often used to describe something destroyed with an excessive, obscene amount of force. This is almost always used in hyperbole, as the given energy magnitudes involved are far beyond any known technology, and to use it literally would imply rather dire circumstances.
Example 1:
"Are you insane?! The Vesk would protiumize us if we tried to play chicken with the Vindicas Tyrant!"
Example 2:
Science Officer: "Sir, you're not going to believe this, but I've just detected a brief energy discharge measuring in at 214 yottawatts from this empty region of space twenty degrees to port, several light years away."
Captain: "What does that mean?"
Science Officer: "Either a wormhole opened up in the wrong place, or we just saw someone get protiumized with wrath on the order of a small star directed at them.
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I once had an alien race idea for a species which was a cold, souless, corporate type with crews arranged by corporate rank (manager, supervisor, etc.)
Their biggest profanity insult translated to entrepreneur. Yes, they saw anyone who went against the corporation as individuals to make money and succeed as reckless and disrespectful, plus their success went against the difficult to rise in ranks of the incorporate, where crew members rising in rank is rare, and most citizens stuck in factories on their home world have no hope at all.
WhiteWeasel, I love this, but you have a higher opinion of us than you should if you think we would be able to use and/or explain this, haha. I am having trouble pronouncing it let alone using it in a sentence.
Thanks for the submission though, and everyone else here!
WhiteWeasel, I love this, but you have a higher opinion of us than you should if you think we would be able to use and/or explain this, haha. I am having trouble pronouncing it let alone using it in a sentence.
Thanks for the submission though, and everyone else here!
You quoted the wrong guy, but yeah, I do have a tendency to lean towards complex ideas as I really push the science fiction part of starfinder. (It would be pronounced Pro-Tee-Um-Eyes if you were curious) Plus, I wanted to 1-up disintegration. Getting disintegrated means getting destroyed so thoroughly your body turned to dust, getting protiumized means getting destroyed so thoroughly your body's atoms shatter into hydrogen. Now that's overkill.
Though that said, it would be a rare use case swear, as using it would mean extreme hyperbole, or someone is about to lose a game of chicken to Vegeta or Admiral Holdo.
Alright, I got a secondary/alternate submission that is a little more understandable. (Maybe too understandable...)
Change-Face.
One might think it's an alternate take on "two-faced". But no, a change face is something far worse than someone with conflicting behaviors or morals. They act like they are your friend. Like they are someone you should care about. But the reality is, they don't give a rat's ass about you. You are little more than pawn, only worth your usefulness to them. They leech off of the goodwill of others, and take the feelings of others and twist it for their own gain. Every problem is your fault, and you need to apologize for your incompetence if you are worth their friendship.
If you ever dare to speak out against their passive-aggressive manipulative behavior, they'll say your overreacting, downplay their actions, say things about you to your friends, and poke and prod at every chink in your self-esteem to get you back in line. And if all else fails, they'll discard you like trash because you are no longer eating their pudding-pop b$+$&+@@.
Despite the wide and varied lineages of the pactworlds, "Change-Face" is near universal in it's understanding. Everyone who carries knives in their backs, emptied their hearts into a trash can, wasted their empathy, had a pretend friend, or danced with a soulless avatar, knows what a change-face is at the fundamental level.
Whether they betrayed a vesk's honor, warped skittemander's will to help into something they never wanted, or spat upon the honesty of an urog, a change-face is a swear that carries an intimate pain to it that is reserved for the vile and the abusive.
To openly call someone a change-face is a supreme insult upon their character, and those who use the term wantonly quickly find themselves carrying the word's weight in blood.