Talk:Vol.2 Ch.203: 39F - Hell Train: The 'Name Hunt' Station (6)/@comment-28686446-20160624180424/@comment-26484417-20160625000000

@Tony: That's not as much thinking rationally as it is thinking within a bureaucratic box of the Tower.

So far there has been no indication of qualitative difference between any two names aside from the prestige that comes with the more-difficult-to-obtain names (e.g., 10 Great Families, etc.). Moreover, the announcer is fed names from the Pocket registry, which suggests they have some importance. This suggest that the name in the Pocket registry represents the identity as far as the Name Hunt station is concerned. In other words, it doesn't really matter what name Baam has in the Pocket registry, or what people call him, should he lose--assuming an Irregular is subject to the Name Hunt mechanics--he would lose his identity and it would be represented by whatever his Pocket had on register at the time.

This further suggests that an individual can have only one name in the Pocket registry at any one time, and that the Name Hunt mechanics take care of all the loose ends (e.g., prevention of registering new name after losing, etc.).

The real mess begins with the Zahard Princesses. We know that Zahard's name cannot be stolen, therefore Zahard Princesses risk the part of their identity that isn't Zahard. Either way, they are stuck at the station--and can be enslaved--should they lose, so it doesn't really matter that part of their identity is immune. The real question is why is Zahard's name immune to the Name Hunt mechanism. It couldn't be simply because of the blood relation to an Irregular or the Irregular's name, because 10 Great Family Regulars are apparently a fair game. ((Though it would support the distinction between 'proper' Irregulars and 'follower' Irregulars if that were the case.)) In any case, I can think of a couple of ideas why Zahard's name is beyond the mechanics (e.g., the contract prevents it by design), but this only matters if Baam's identity turns out to be immune as well.

PS: I think the comment got a bit out of hand, but there were just something on my mind. ^^