"A glory of dragons", collective nouns for Tyrian creatures.

After going through the last episode of season 4, I'm wondering what other collective nouns we've not herd yet for various Tyrian creatures.I think we all know a group of Sand lions is going to be a pride, but what are a group of drakes?And more importantly can we officially have it recognised that the collective noun for a group of Hydra is a gank?

Feel free to add suggestions.

Drakes seems likely to be the same as a crocodile which can be bask, float or more likely nest

• Since historically, Drakes are just a synonym or form of dragon, Honor of Drakes works for me.
• Hydras are considered snakes, which suggests bed, den, knot, nest, or pit. (However, I'm sure people might agree with "gank" even so.)

Here's a few for consideration:

• Ankle of Pocket Raptors (although as raptors, a convocation also works)
• Dole of Smokescales (after the venery for turtles)
• Passel of Rolling Devils (after the venery for Possum, a marsupial, vaguely similar to the Tasmanian Devil)

According to every dictionary I've looked at, a huge fraction of the collective nouns we know (and love or hate) were invented, sometimes relatively recently. It's usually just some author or (what we now call) influencer using the term, accidentally or deliberately.

Some are quite old, dating back to 15th Century hunting terms. My favorite among those is:an unkindness of ravens. (There's evidence that many of these terms were invented. Of course, since we've had over 500 years of usage, we consider them proper parts of English now.)

The same author also apparently coined a superfluity of nuns and an eloquence of lawyers.

Accordingly, I think this is one of the few times when the community can decide for itself (with or without the official blessing of "The Studio"). If we like a term, then it's at least as official as "tweet, to send a message" was before that term entered any dictionary.

I think it's more appropriate in the spirit of the forums to define a group of Hydra as a Kitten of Hydras XD

@"Teratus.2859" said:I think it's more appropriate in the spirit of the forums to define a group of Hydra as a Kitten of Hydras XD

I think the best in game term for seeing a group of hydras is

@Teratus.2859 said:I think it's more appropriate in the spirit of the forums to define a group of Hydra as a Kitten of HydrasXD It needs to be something equally as vicious as they are, like a parliament of vultures.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:an unkindness of ravens. (There's evidence that many of these terms were invented. Of course, since we've had over 500 years of usage, we consider them proper parts of English now.)

Isn't a group of ravens is called Murder of Ravens? I never heard of Unkindness ever used as a collective noun.

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

an unkindness of ravens

. (There's evidence that many of these terms were invented. Of course, since we've had over 500 years of usage, we consider them proper parts of English now.)

Crows are a Murder. Ravens are unkindness or I believe, conspiracy

@Randulf.7614 said:

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

an unkindness of ravens

. (There's evidence that many of these terms were invented. Of course, since we've had over 500 years of usage, we consider them proper parts of English now.)

Can you really tell a flock of Raven from a flock of Crows? Unless you have them side by side, you can never tell. So, I believe, a flock of black birds is a murder.

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

an unkindness of ravens

. (There's evidence that many of these terms were invented. Of course, since we've had over 500 years of usage, we consider them proper parts of English now.)

I Can tell the difference ;)

@Randulf.7614 said:Crows are a Murder. Ravens are unkindness or I believe, conspiracy

I have heard it as consipracy but not as unkindness.

@"Sir Vincent III.1286" said:Can you really tell a flock of Raven from a flock of Crows? Unless you have them side by side, you can never tell. So, I believe, a flock of black birds is a murder.

You can kind of tell at a distance, crow tails tend to fan out like a U in flight where a raven's is more like a V shaped wedge, if they're on the ground or perched it's beak shape and color that gives them away. Also the sound, most crows "caw" but ravens usually "rawk".

I'm a bit of a bird nerd when it comes to corvids. So at least I know for the Clouded Corvus griffs they are either a murder or a conspiracy collectively. By the beak shape

(I'd say Clouded Corvus is raven based more than crow on account of the arch in the beak but I'll listen to it next time it makes a sound and try figure out if it's more a caw or a rawk. But from memory I don't think it sounds like either tbh just standard griffy chirps.)

Giving it a go: A fluther of oozes, or a bob of oozes; a mob of obnoxious moas; a grind of treants; a garland of wind riders; a slither of grubs; a smother of elementals; a leap of skelks; a scourge of imps.

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

• Since historically, Drakes are just a synonym or form of dragon, Honor of Drakes works for me.
• Hydras are considered snakes, which suggests bed, den, knot, nest, or pit. (However, I'm sure people might agree with "gank" even so.)

Here's a few for consideration:

• Ankle of Pocket Raptors (although as raptors, a convocation also works)
• Dole of Smokescales (after the venery for turtles)
• Passel of Rolling Devils (after the venery for Possum, a marsupial, vaguely similar to the Tasmanian Devil)

---

According to every dictionary I've looked at, a huge fraction of the collective nouns we know (and love or hate) were invented, sometimes relatively recently. It's usually just some author or (what we now call) influencer using the term, accidentally or deliberately.

Some are quite old, dating back to 15th Century hunting terms. My favorite among those is:an unkindness of ravens. (There's evidence that many of these terms were invented. Of course, since we've had over 500 years of usage, we consider them proper parts of English now.)

The same author also apparently coined a superfluity of nuns and an eloquence of lawyers.

Accordingly, I think this is one of the few times when the community can decide for itself (with or without the official blessing of "The Studio"). If we like a term, then it's at least as official as "tweet, to send a message" was before that term entered any dictionary.

Good ideas, though I'd be inclined to call a group of pocket raptors a spree, because it describes them perfectly when they catch you.

A gaggle of Asura is a pretty accurate description IMO.

As I mentioned above, collective nouns are largely invented, starting with a particular author 500 years ago (although it's likely many of the items in her list were actually in use, they weren't widespread until her book popularized them).

As for specific collective nouns in use:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unkindness_of_ravens
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Murder_of_Crows
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_terms_of_venery,_by_animal (a pretty good list of the ones from the 15th Century
  • For crows: murder, horde or wake (when feeding)
  • For ravens: unkindness
  • For hawks: boil (sprawling), cast, kettle (in flight), or lease

There's also a kindle of kittens while cats can show up in a clowder, a glaring, a pounce, or a destruction.

So again, I suggest brainstorming whatever sounds good to you and if there's a community consensus, I bet ANet would go along with it.

And, off-topic (while fun), the information age could probably use a few:

• A kindle of e-readers
• A Serial of Podcasts
• A Clatter of Tweets

Aren't all words invented? Some earlier than others, and with varying degrees of logic behind them, but at some point a person or a group of people had to decide that sound meant that thing.

Also how about a squabble of asura?

@Danikat.8537 said:Aren't all words invented? Some earlier than others, and with varying degrees of logic behind them, but at some point a person or a group of people had to decide that sound meant that thing.

Also how about a squabble of asura?

This is the point, since there's not many official collective nouns for many Tyrian creatures I made this post so the community could chime in with their own sugesstions. :)

A squabble of Asura sounds about right. XD

I vote we call a group of pocket raptors a nuisance, and a group of hydras a clusterkitten. Those both sound pretty reasonable.

@Dawdler.8521 said:A gaggle of Asura is a pretty accurate description IMO.

@Danikat.8537 said:(...) how about a squabble of asura?

Hahaha, so true! For a charr, that may be a buffet of asura.

And an asura may see a grumble of charrs.

Also, a hammering of revenants, an arson of elementalists, a blueness of guardians, a flutter of mesmers...

@Lady Celtaine.3760 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:Crows are a Murder. Ravens are unkindness or I believe, conspiracy

@"Sir Vincent III.1286" said:Can you really tell a flock of Raven from a flock of Crows? Unless you have them side by side, you can never tell. So, I believe, a flock of black birds is a murder.

Decided to actually check, and I'm pretty sure it's a conspiracy of Clouded Corvus.

A "bunch", as in I play Guild Wars 2 where I've killed a bunch of Elder Dragons... ;)

As for proper collective noun, I believe it is Thunder or Flight, yes? Also seen Weyr and Pride crop up as alternatives.

@Lady Celtaine.3760 said:

@Lady Celtaine.3760 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:Crows are a Murder. Ravens are unkindness or I believe, conspiracy

@"Sir Vincent III.1286" said:Can you really tell a flock of Raven from a flock of Crows? Unless you have them side by side, you can never tell. So, I believe, a flock of black birds is a murder.

For an untrained eye and ears, one cannot tell the difference, so I'd leave it to the experts. :)

So one question, does the color of the bird changes the groups name? For instance, is a group white Ravens is still unkindness? That's kinda mean isn't it?

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@Lady Celtaine.3760 said:

@Lady Celtaine.3760 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:Crows are a Murder. Ravens are unkindness or I believe, conspiracy

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:Can you really tell a flock of Raven from a flock of Crows? Unless you have them side by side, you can never tell. So, I believe, a flock of black birds is a murder.

It's not mean, it's unkind

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:

@Lady Celtaine.3760 said:

@Lady Celtaine.3760 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:Crows are a Murder. Ravens are unkindness or I believe, conspiracy

@Sir Vincent III.1286 said:Can you really tell a flock of Raven from a flock of Crows? Unless you have them side by side, you can never tell. So, I believe, a flock of black birds is a murder.

It's for the species not the color variety. An albino raven is still a raven.

Dye channels on mounts wouldn't really change anything as it's the species they most resemble in features that are the constant and more useful to base terms from. I made a Magpie looking Clouded Corvus griff' too with dyes but being that the hard features don't change imo I'd hedge bets that it's still a Raven looking griff with magpie colors rather than a Magpie looking griff with raven features. But that's just me. ¯|..(ツ)../¯ You can call yours whatever you want.

@Lady Celtaine.3760 said:

@Teratus.2859 said:I think it's more appropriate in the spirit of the forums to define a group of Hydra as a Kitten of HydrasXD It needs to be something equally as vicious as they are, like a parliament of vultures.

Is this a StarCraft references?