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Old 04-02-2017, 08:49 PM   #1
mysterycycle
 
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Default Banestorm Ytarria Map - Town Names?

I'm in the process of creating a Banestorm campaign set in the Midlands of the Empire of Megalos, and as I was applying a hexmap to the book's map of Ytarria, I realized that none of the towns shown on the map are named. I did find a mention of one town in the book - Thysdretum, northwest of Mehan - but none of the others.

I assume this was an intentional omission by the authors, to allow GMs to name their own towns? Or was there another supplement or publication that named the unlabeled towns on the Ytarria map?
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Old 04-03-2017, 02:33 AM   #2
Phil Masters
 
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Default Re: Banestorm Ytarria Map - Town Names?

Honestly, we mostly had finite space, and a gazetteer of random town names isn't the kind of thing I reckon is worth time and page space when people can do it for themselves anyway.

I forget how much of that map was us, how much was old edition material, and how much was the cartographer. But when one wants to emphasise that a given region is well-settled, the map needs to show some towns and stuff, without necessarily naming them. And too many names make a map look cluttered and hard to use.
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Old 04-03-2017, 02:48 AM   #3
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Default Re: Banestorm Ytarria Map - Town Names?

In that case, Phil, do you have suggestions for how to name some towns in Christian regions? F'rex, after French, Dutch, Slavic, or Scandinavian towns?
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Old 04-03-2017, 05:24 AM   #4
Phil Masters
 
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Default Re: Banestorm Ytarria Map - Town Names?

Well, canonically, the Banestorm pulled people in from all over Europe, and one can guess that when they started founding towns, a lot of them were named for places recalled from Earth. (Ref. any atlas of the USA.) Others would doubtless be called "<name of river>ford", "<name of river>bridge", or "<name of river>port" (the latter mostly on the coast, but one does get river ports), or "<name of founder>stown", "<name of river>ville", and so on. Or just "Newton", "Nouveaumarche", "Ville de Comte", "<region>minster"...

Yrth naming has a bias towards western European linguistic patterns, but with its neo-Byzantine history, Megalos should probably have a bunch of Greek-form names and stuff taken from maps of Greece or the Balkans. Using the name of the (legendary?) founder is a way to hint at the early history of the place and its ruling families. Or just stick a few syllables together that you like the sound of; there will have been linguistic drift and input from non-Earth sources.
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Old 04-03-2017, 08:19 AM   #5
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Default Re: Banestorm Ytarria Map - Town Names?

Here are a West European town name generator, an East European town name generator, and a Roman town name generator.
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Old 04-03-2017, 01:05 PM   #6
mysterycycle
 
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Default Re: Banestorm Ytarria Map - Town Names?

Thanks, Phil! I appreciate the quick and honest answer! :) I figured it might be something like that, and I certainly don't mind filling in blanks myself, especially since names are the element I'm most likely to customize to taste in any fantasy setting, flavorful things that they are. But there's that annoying part of my brain that always protests, "But what if there is an OFFICIAL version?"

And thanks for the name generators, Stormcrow! That'll come in handy.

What I've done for personal names in Yrth is take the lists of names I found on Kate Monk's Onomastikon and run them through Sean Puckett's Word Combiner to create fusions that convey a fantastic-yet-familiar flavor. After so many centuries of varied cultures mingling as a result of the Banestorm, I figured there would be a lot of crossover.
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Old 04-03-2017, 01:09 PM   #7
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Default Re: Banestorm Ytarria Map - Town Names?

Quote:
Originally Posted by mysterycycle View Post
But there's that annoying part of my brain that always protests, "But what if there is an OFFICIAL version?"
That's when Kromm leads the hit squad of MiBs to kick down your door and confiscate all your maps where you've dared alter canon. And you're grateful that they let you off so easy.

(Wait, which world line are we on, again?)
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Old 04-03-2017, 02:38 PM   #8
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Default Re: Banestorm Ytarria Map - Town Names?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anaraxes View Post
That's when Kromm leads the hit squad of MiBs to kick down your door and confiscate all your maps where you've dared alter canon. And you're grateful that they let you off so easy.

(Wait, which world line are we on, again?)
Fortunately, we're in MiB-1, not MiB-666. The Evil Kromm Map-Stealer exists in the latter. Our Kromm is open to altering the canon in play. :)
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Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting
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