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Reformed Changeling (13/23)
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I'm looking for a word here, if you can help me...
See, surely there must be a term for beings like the Changelings, my draconequusona whom literally feeds on attention and my own, personal theory on how daemons literally sustain themselves on energies that correlate to fear & etcetra in the mortal realms they can be inflicted upon in most fantasy tales.
What do you call a being that eats literal emotion & thought?
Emotivore feels too... trendy & modern. I can't help but think there was an old Latin root word for general consciousness... Aether? An Aetervore?... Hum...
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Emotion and thought are fairly different in terms of the level of mental life that each resides on, so it'd have to be a relatively broad root term. If the generalised ability of the sort of creature you're thinking of is to consume the 'activity', so to speak, of any level of mental life, it would most likely have to encompass instinct, will, and a variety of other mental activities as well.
As such, I recommend entelechivore, based on the root word 'entelechy'. It's a very complex term based on a Greek double-portmanteau pun (yes, pun) invented by Aristotle for his particular brand of philosophy several thousand years ago, but the general modern definition is that of a motivation or internal force directing the development of living beings, often associated with some conception of a soul (sense 2 below):
It's niche enough that probably only about 50 people on the face of the planet could authoritatively challenge you on your usage of it, and it's contested enough that this usage of it definitely fits within several of its various meanings. The only downside is that its definition is completely inaccessible to anyone who doesn't have a mild obsession with philosophy, so you'll have to define it whenever you use it if you want people to have any decent idea of what you're talking about.

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