I heard you talking about how the Quintesson judges were multi-personalitied beings, and it made me wonder why each judge has one name instead of 5 names.
For instance: Judge Deseeus, Judge Klementia, Judge Brinn, Judge etc…
Do each of the 5 Quintessons have names before becoming the judge and then the judges name is decided on after they are turned into it. If that’s the case, how is the judges name decided on?
Dear Name Needful,
While a Quintesson Judge lacks a central personality to unify themselves, unlike a Cybertronian gestalt megaform, they are still a collective entity. It's for this reason that most Judges only decide on a new name after their "ascension." Sometimes this will reference their previous incarnations—for instance, when the Quintessons Sanctia, Equitus, Verdictus, Adversaria, and Xenius ascended to Judge rank, they each took a letter from their name to reflect their new self, becoming Judge Sevax. At other times, they choose names based on how they intend to live their life together—as was the case with Deliberata, Heirodyus, and Kledji.
The choice of name is, like most things in Quintesson society, a matter of deliberation and consensus. A Judge is not considered a proper "individual" until they have reached an agreement on their new name; indeed, a Judge who has failed to do so would never be trusted to reach a verdict. I once met a Judge called Sartoria/Calimitus/Dictatora, who had been exiled from Quintesson society over their preference for a trine of names.