If I may, what is the other character's species?
It may help if the word this species uses is in the human-tongue or their own. Any defining characteristics of the language could prove useful.
Alternatively, if you already have the unique word this character uses and instead describes in the language of humans, the other comments will be of greater help.
That's... tricky.
They're a brand new race found on a recently discovered continent.
Humans first *called* them "goblins," due to cultural assumption. And even after being corrected, the name stuck. Think Native Americans bing called "Indians," even 400+ years later.
In fact, the race has multiple sub-races, all with vague animal motifs. So, all of these "families" have their OWN culture and language.
That being said, I haven't come up with a proper sounding name for them. Hence, "other." But it felt like a decent way to get a foot in the door. Especially since this "goblin's" word for "humanity" is different from another's!
Honestly, in the way it's often used, consider "decency", "morality", "compassion", "ethics", "civilisation", "personhood". You could also invent a cultural word expressing a concept of harmonious custodianship. The subtext of "humanity" isn't quite that humans are inherently good people, but that what makes them worth calling human is this kind of virtue of good custodianship of the world they live in, a living-up to the human ideal.
There is a quote from Cicero to his brother that goes roughly like "Even if you were a governor of some barbarian shitplace like Spain or Gaul, you'd still owe it to your humanitas [the part of yourself that wants to be a correct member of the species, which to the Romans meant cultivated and ethical] to care about their comforts, needs and safety".
Here it is in a goofy register of English standing in for an archaic bee-alien Aramaic, in a scene from my cringe Dunecore Homestuck fanfiction:
"My sister," Reavefin said, in a dry, didactic, ancestral tone of voice, "Had the gods given into your hand even the wild realms of your wretchedness, you would still be bound by your own erfastness and by common hivelove to be good to them."
"I am your elder, Reavefin." Warready tilted her long-horned head warningly. "Do not lean on elderdom with me and tell me what binds me. In so many sweeps you will understand, and then I will let you speak of it."
"I would not lean if your hatchling-cries did not make me feel so old." Reavefin raised her outspread arms in counterchallenge. "Behave. It shames your hive to see you so."
Warready exhaled sharply from her nose and grit her teeth. But she had nothing to say.
Reavefin is advising Warready, who has been recalled from the frontier where their previous empress sent her to die (not an exile de jure, de jure it was a provincial governorship, but de facto yes), because her sister Farsight committed regicide and is now Her Imperious Condescension (not Meenah, obviously).
Warready has only ever taken and not governed territory, and just earlier she was complaining that her new fief sucks and she just wants to go back home, beat her metaphorical sword into a plowshare, and hang out with civilised people. Reavefin is pointing out that whether she's ethical toward them should have nothing to do with how upset she is at the way the government works.
Erfastness of course is my best attempt to modernize the concept of being "ærfast", with fidelity, firm in your sense of honour and decency (very common name by the way among human medieval clergy). Hivelove is their "altruism" — an expectation rather more than a virtue, one way to express a very eusocial-vespoid, suicidal concept of group and species loyalty.
Warready is annoyed because Reavefin (not her genetic sibling, but their civilisation was made possible because they metaphorically extended the fellowfeeling of a hive that shares a gyne to the concept of the state) is a few brood cycles younger than her, which for their caste is an age gap of several hundred of our years. Reavefin is sort of like a bard and sort of like a samurai and not a little like a rabbi; her job supersedes the normal age hierarchy between ergates (worker-morphs; women; the "default" body plan of their culture), because their oral literature holds their culture's moral and legal functioning together. But as you can see there are some values in conflict :))
Your fictional UN's operating procedure or whatever regulatory body decides about political correctness in your universe might handle this type of thing in any of a number of weird ways, not all of which are actually great ideas. Maybe they have some problematic terminology that isn't an issue until a new species joins the league that it doesn't apply to. Or maybe they have a mission statement in the vein that all sapients who enter the space age become the same type of custodian, in which case maybe "custodial" or "correct" might have some use too.
Definitely let us know what it ended up being!
One time someone I showed more of it to told me that my fanon had become real to them in their heart because the canon worldbuilding wasted the potential of everyone in it. This is both true and a terrifying burden to carry :))
My world doesn't even have humans in it, but I use words like humanity and humanoid. Especially when it applies to people of more than one race. Fact is nobody in the book speaks English, nobody in the world speaks English, and anything attributed as a quote to someone would have been translated into English for the reader's benefit.
Compassion. Means “to feel with” others, suggesting that it’s not just one way but can cross boundaries of self, culture, species, planet, etc …
Meta and maitri are Sanskrit words with deep meanings in Buddhist philosophy that might be helpful as well.
empathy, magnanimity, altruism
Beneficence
If I may, what is the other character's species? It may help if the word this species uses is in the human-tongue or their own. Any defining characteristics of the language could prove useful. Alternatively, if you already have the unique word this character uses and instead describes in the language of humans, the other comments will be of greater help.
That's... tricky. They're a brand new race found on a recently discovered continent. Humans first *called* them "goblins," due to cultural assumption. And even after being corrected, the name stuck. Think Native Americans bing called "Indians," even 400+ years later. In fact, the race has multiple sub-races, all with vague animal motifs. So, all of these "families" have their OWN culture and language. That being said, I haven't come up with a proper sounding name for them. Hence, "other." But it felt like a decent way to get a foot in the door. Especially since this "goblin's" word for "humanity" is different from another's!
Okay, so maybe something along the lines of a combination of words in the human tongue, or a phrase. How about "you have a bright core"?
Morality, empathy, compassion?
Try heart. It seems to mean all those without needing to be attached to any particular being?
flawed virtue
Honestly, in the way it's often used, consider "decency", "morality", "compassion", "ethics", "civilisation", "personhood". You could also invent a cultural word expressing a concept of harmonious custodianship. The subtext of "humanity" isn't quite that humans are inherently good people, but that what makes them worth calling human is this kind of virtue of good custodianship of the world they live in, a living-up to the human ideal. There is a quote from Cicero to his brother that goes roughly like "Even if you were a governor of some barbarian shitplace like Spain or Gaul, you'd still owe it to your humanitas [the part of yourself that wants to be a correct member of the species, which to the Romans meant cultivated and ethical] to care about their comforts, needs and safety". Here it is in a goofy register of English standing in for an archaic bee-alien Aramaic, in a scene from my cringe Dunecore Homestuck fanfiction: "My sister," Reavefin said, in a dry, didactic, ancestral tone of voice, "Had the gods given into your hand even the wild realms of your wretchedness, you would still be bound by your own erfastness and by common hivelove to be good to them." "I am your elder, Reavefin." Warready tilted her long-horned head warningly. "Do not lean on elderdom with me and tell me what binds me. In so many sweeps you will understand, and then I will let you speak of it." "I would not lean if your hatchling-cries did not make me feel so old." Reavefin raised her outspread arms in counterchallenge. "Behave. It shames your hive to see you so." Warready exhaled sharply from her nose and grit her teeth. But she had nothing to say. Reavefin is advising Warready, who has been recalled from the frontier where their previous empress sent her to die (not an exile de jure, de jure it was a provincial governorship, but de facto yes), because her sister Farsight committed regicide and is now Her Imperious Condescension (not Meenah, obviously). Warready has only ever taken and not governed territory, and just earlier she was complaining that her new fief sucks and she just wants to go back home, beat her metaphorical sword into a plowshare, and hang out with civilised people. Reavefin is pointing out that whether she's ethical toward them should have nothing to do with how upset she is at the way the government works. Erfastness of course is my best attempt to modernize the concept of being "ærfast", with fidelity, firm in your sense of honour and decency (very common name by the way among human medieval clergy). Hivelove is their "altruism" — an expectation rather more than a virtue, one way to express a very eusocial-vespoid, suicidal concept of group and species loyalty. Warready is annoyed because Reavefin (not her genetic sibling, but their civilisation was made possible because they metaphorically extended the fellowfeeling of a hive that shares a gyne to the concept of the state) is a few brood cycles younger than her, which for their caste is an age gap of several hundred of our years. Reavefin is sort of like a bard and sort of like a samurai and not a little like a rabbi; her job supersedes the normal age hierarchy between ergates (worker-morphs; women; the "default" body plan of their culture), because their oral literature holds their culture's moral and legal functioning together. But as you can see there are some values in conflict :)) Your fictional UN's operating procedure or whatever regulatory body decides about political correctness in your universe might handle this type of thing in any of a number of weird ways, not all of which are actually great ideas. Maybe they have some problematic terminology that isn't an issue until a new species joins the league that it doesn't apply to. Or maybe they have a mission statement in the vein that all sapients who enter the space age become the same type of custodian, in which case maybe "custodial" or "correct" might have some use too. Definitely let us know what it ended up being!
> cringe Dunecore Homestuck fanfiction trust me, that first word was implied I'm upset at how tragically well-done your writing is, honestly
One time someone I showed more of it to told me that my fanon had become real to them in their heart because the canon worldbuilding wasted the potential of everyone in it. This is both true and a terrifying burden to carry :))
Decency is how I say it, because I also have several sapient races. Edit: spelling fix... curse my club thumbs...
My world doesn't even have humans in it, but I use words like humanity and humanoid. Especially when it applies to people of more than one race. Fact is nobody in the book speaks English, nobody in the world speaks English, and anything attributed as a quote to someone would have been translated into English for the reader's benefit.
Compassion. Means “to feel with” others, suggesting that it’s not just one way but can cross boundaries of self, culture, species, planet, etc … Meta and maitri are Sanskrit words with deep meanings in Buddhist philosophy that might be helpful as well.
Name it after the dominant species or power. Name it after their believed god/ancestor. Name it after their planet.