At first I thought it was obvious that Pico was a Fox.

But now I think it is a Red Panda, or maybe just a racoon that is ginger.

Has it ever been explained specifically what kind of animal Pico is?

Red Panda


Fox



Pico

Pico is an “empos.” This is only ever mentioned in the components list of the first edition manual: “1 Pico the Empos Marker,” “1 Skye the Falcon Marker,” and so on for other familiars.

There was a rat (Boggs), two ferrets (Mata and Kata), a falcon (Skye), and an empos (Pico). What is an empos? I have no idea.

It is a red panda, like precised in the FFG page of bonds of the wild

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/7/16/into-the-wilderness/

I guess I assumed that empos was terrinoth's equivalent of a red panda. I haven't been able to locate a meaning of that word as far as animals on earth.

They do sometimes use invented Mennaran words such as we've had both Pegasus and Yeron for the same/similar winged horse- so I'm thinking it is indeed a Mennaran word for red panda and their equivalent.

Alternatively maybe Pico was going to be something else as it's only 'Empos' in the 1e components list- this could be an oversight.

Another maybe- empos exists in various languages, including meaning 'after' in Portuguese (Google says ), "the name panda is said to come from the Nepali word ‘ponya,’ which means bamboo or plant eating animal.", so maybe they invented a word around these sorts of things- it's also a bit of an echo of possum and empathy. (Me thinking through the kind of indirect ways I invent names/words for Mennara)

So a red panda Terrinoth style - and very cute, another one for the Mennaran dictionary!

On 12/5/2020 at 9:00 PM, Watercolour Dragon said:

Another maybe- empos exists in various languages, including meaning 'after' in Portuguese (Google says ),

Lol, no. It's just google 'figuring' you typed wrong, and put the most 'similar' word.

"After" in portuguese is " depois ", not empos

But if Google Translate says it it must be true

Any native Portuguese speakers / linguistics experts here?

Amusing web result when search for "Google Translate":

"People also ask

Why is Google Translate still so bad?"

Cute animal at end if you make it past the wordage

There is maybe "empós" where the 'm' may be an approximation of a different letter and its associated sound and also two words or word elements "em" and "pós"combined but I didn't really get any further with finding any useful results (and it's not something I want to spend time hunting down )

For any word nerds like I mentioned " the name panda is said to come from the Nepali word ‘ponya,’ which means bamboo or plant eating animal." https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/red-panda

and this led to 'to eat dry food' https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=oIkCAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA469&lpg=PA469&dq="empós"+meaning+english&source=bl&ots=K1Wl-ouJ2H&sig=ACfU3U0fSYVOm4EuBIXGAQAIp99tHyN-uw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjXjMyFoMHtAhWREMAKHYGWDjUQ6AEwA3oECAEQAg#v=onepage&q="empós" meaning english&f=false

As a lot of words and more often parts of words have common origins - often from Greek/ Latin/ other long-established languages there may be some logical explanation somewhere.

For example there is 'impose' "Word origin C15: from Old French imposer, from Latin impōnere to place upon, from pōnere to place, set" https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/impose

and re. 'pose' "Word origin C16: from obsolete appose, from Latin appōnere to put to,..." https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/pose

I'd always wondered as 'Empos' jumped out at me from the first edition rulebook 'Pico the WHAT ????', but what seems really odd is how they ended up at that being in the rulebook. An error and the wrong word got typed there? Somebody didn't know it was a red panda and thought it was more like a possum and invented a Mennaran name for it? It was going to be something else? It is a possum/racoon etc like creature inspired by the red panda? They invented a Mennaran word for red panda and somehow ended up at 'Empos'?

Pico itself seems safe to assume means 'small', that's less ambiguous.

This is as bad as the unsolved DJ06 mystery *grins*, can see why they just went for 'red panda' when describing the Hero and Monster Collection.

Yeron for Pegasus makes more sense - it's clearly 'the flying horse that yer on'

Anyway, talking of possums aside from red pandas this would make a cute if probably not much help companion (not really obviously, endangered species):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-australia-55240839

18 hours ago, Watercolour Dragon said:

But if Google Translate says it it must be true

Not really

18 hours ago, Watercolour Dragon said:

Any native Portuguese speakers / linguistics experts here?

I'm far away from being an expert, but native speaker

18 hours ago, Watercolour Dragon said:

Cute animal at end if you make it past the wordage

Agreed. I'd like to see one in person