Umbra i feel like is kinda similar to umbreon and might confuse people I’m with goovat and kitty on this one as people will probably say albino/melan out of habit I think some Pokémon are known as day/night Pokémon just like absol is known as the disaster Pokémon.

tbf, stygian in terms of colors isn't just about greek mythology, there's a chimerical color called stygian blue. you can only see it by staring at a yellow circle for a while, then looking at a black square, and it produces a blue circle that somehow seems darker than the black. i know that's, like, really obscure but i really do think it's fitting in that aspect <:D

That's basically it. It's not about the mythos and more about the modern definition of the word meaning "very dark" and the concept of this illusion really helps tie in how we look at the shiny and then get a different melan. The mythos just explain how the word doesn't have the evil connotations people think it does.

Honestly I don't really see the need to rename them since I think it would be be pretty clear that not all of them are going to be white/black...plus most people are still going to call them melans and albinos anyways and introducing another If it had to be changed though... Firstly, I agree with Sneaky Shadow...blessed does have a lot of religious connotations and I think that it should be avoided since not everyone on here is religious/is comfortable with religion. I had a lot of "blessed" items forced on me by my aunts to try and save me from being ace and demiromantic Albino For Albino I like the idea of pearlescent, opalescent, or iridescent as its replacement. All three have connotations of being light colored, but avoid the issues that some people have mentioned with "pastel" and not all albinos being pastel. I also would like to suggest stellerian (from stellar, like stars) since stars are both bright, and come in multiple pale colors aside from just white. Melans I like the names stygian, umbral, or inky. All of them have connotations of being dark or darker, so I think it would be nice. For this one I would like to suggest eclipsian, after eclipses since those shroud the world in darkness, and are also rare.

Other considerations which I personally think are important: Does not start with S: A lot of people use S/A/M as an acronym and it would be quite problematic for the community to adapt to the new names having the same first letter as Shiny, or as each other (so Dawn/Dusk would fail this criterion; to make matters worse they share a starting letter with Delta). This is a hill I will die on. A real word, or very close to it: Easier for newbies to understand. Short, clear name: "Shiny" is both short and clear and ideally any new name would also be short, clear and intuitive to spell.

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I don't strongly feel that the names need to be changed. My opinion is that this is a fangame of a fantasy franchise, so the creators can call them whatever they want and I'd still suspend my disbelief. To me it's much more important that the specials look good, rather than what they are called.

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That being said, I'm surprised "Bright" hasn't been suggested for Albinos yet, maybe it's too close to Shiny but I think it sufficiently captures the meaning. And I quite like "Ebony" for Melans. I'd also like to echo others' sentiments against "X-blessed" names. Aside from the religious connotations, this name format is a bit too long for my taste. I'm willing to bet that if we adopted, say, "moon-blessed" as the new name, in less than a month everyone would have dropped the end and we'd just be calling them "moons".

Hm, the more I read up on this, the more I agree with others saying the names as is are fine. Maybe PFNew could have some different terms, but PFQ? I think just keeping as is would be the best option. I know that the fact albino/melanistic aren't "in line with real-world" versions is something that's been addressed, but.... who cares. It's a game abt raising creatures, some of which are possesed swords and an icecream cone that has life! Pfft. But if a change MUST happen, please avoid "blessed", like others have pointed out. It's a pretty term, but steps on toes way too much.

I have to agree with this part tbh. If we are changing the name then would it also mean that the bbcodes would have to be changed as well? so if you have [pkmn=riolu (S)] then that S would mean Shiny normally but if the Melan name gets changed to something that starts with a S then wouldn't that get confusing/hard? Or would the BBCode have to stay with the (A)/(M)? (Plus if it does stay won't that be confusing as well for newer players as they wonder what the A/M stood for in the past?) IDK just my random thought pattern

I've already addressed the portion about the BBCodes.

Oh Sorry Cele I missed that post~

I have some pretty strong opinions on this proposal, all of which are my personal opinions as an avid special hunter, not as a MiT. To be blunt I think changing the name of albinos and melans after they've been referred to as such for almost half a decade is unnecessary. I would not be against a 're-branding' for PFNew but PFQ? I think it will just lead to confusion especially since there will be people who continue to use the terms 'albino' and 'melan' if a change is made that is potentially four descriptors that new players would have to learn and know the differences of, which will most likely lead to a lot of confusion. I also think a lot of the proposed terms are either unnecessarily complex (this is a game played by young children, pokemon uses the word 'shiny' because it is so straightforward and easy to understand that it means 'rare', albinism and melanism are real-world 'rare' occurrences in animals/people that are recognizable terms.) or the terms will not be a 'catch-all' for what the current albino/melan sprites look like, which is why this conversation is being had in the first place so won't it just lead to the same issue with the terms albino/melan. The idea that "Hey, this is our take on albinoism/melanism in creatures that are make-believe and come in a variety of colors!" is very believable, I think it's solid reasoning behind why albinos and melans work that way on PFQ. I also wanna echo what another user said earlier about bringing greek mythology terms and them being unrelated to PFQ and its lore. If anything using albino/melan which are biological terms making more sense for organisms like pokemon. overall I think my issue is over-complicating what albinos and melans are called with 'fancy' terms that frankly, children would struggle to recognize/understand. The only term that was proposed that I am fond of is "enigma" for replacing melan, as I feel that a descriptor that states melans are rare is more important than stating they are dark since melans aren't as dark as they used to be.