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Old 09-18-2020, 07:08 PM   #1
RyanW
 
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Default The Map

I thought I'd share the work-in-progress map for my fantasy world.

Available here. Map created in Wonderdraft.

I am terrible at coming up with names, so if anyone would like to help replace the rather generic placeholders, I wouldn't be insulted. The only things I'm fairly decided on is that the northernmost of the Nine Kingdoms is Norwold and the northern branch of the mountain range is commonly called The Spine of the Dragon.
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Old 09-19-2020, 04:51 AM   #2
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Default Re: The Map

I love coming up with names! What feel are you going for? Do you want them in plain English or some other language?
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Old 09-19-2020, 10:25 AM   #3
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Originally Posted by Anders View Post
I love coming up with names! What feel are you going for? Do you want them in plain English or some other language?
I've been looking for a good generator for inspiration, but most of them I have found produce either unpronounceable strings of random letters or very cliche sounding Adjectivenoun names.

The Nine Kingdoms have a vague Anglo-Saxon feel in my mind. The old empire is the rump of a once much larger empire with a distinctly Roman tone.
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Old 09-19-2020, 12:18 PM   #4
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Default Re: The Map

Burning Island - Fyrenholm ("On-fire island")
Dark Lands - Deorcrice ("dark realm")
Golden Isle - Gyldenholm ("golden island")
Nomad Lands - Graesmolde ("the greensward")
Nine Kingdoms - Nigonrice ("nine realms")
Old Imperial Land - Aergenrice ("Realm of old")

Please don't show this to someone who actually knows Old English, because I probably mangled the grammar all to hell and back. :o)
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Old 09-19-2020, 06:15 PM   #5
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Default Re: The Map

I'd try to fit something like Nesoddtangen in there. The name is a triple tautology , all the words there mean cape (as in the geological feature), so it translates to The Cape Cape Cape
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Old 09-20-2020, 11:41 AM   #6
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Burning Island - Fyrenholm ("On-fire island")
Dark Lands - Deorcrice ("dark realm")
Golden Isle - Gyldenholm ("golden island")
Nomad Lands - Graesmolde ("the greensward")
Nine Kingdoms - Nigonrice ("nine realms")
Old Imperial Land - Aergenrice ("Realm of old")
Fell back on an old habit and tried Estonian for a few. Polevsaar (Burning Island) and Kuldsaared (Golden Islands). Don't know why, but I find Estonian to be a good go-to language when I'm looking for "words that sound like words but are still exotic"
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Old 09-20-2020, 11:47 AM   #7
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Default Re: The Map

You could also buy Vulgar and make your own language.
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Old 09-21-2020, 06:45 AM   #8
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You could also buy Vulgar and make your own language.
In my current fantasy setting, there are seven sapient races, each with several distinct culture areas, and each culture area with multiple dialects and usually multiple languages. There was no way I was going to try to invent a couple of dozen languages, not even simply as naming languages. So I adopted an odd convention: Naming everything in Latin, by analogy to the way Lunar and Martian geographical features are named. It didn't sound as prosaic as Tolkien naming things the Misty Mountains or the River Running; Montes Nubili and Portus Argenti and Dumetum Furtum convey a sense of distance.
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Old 09-21-2020, 09:28 AM   #9
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Default Re: The Map

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
In my current fantasy setting, there are seven sapient races, each with several distinct culture areas, and each culture area with multiple dialects and usually multiple languages. There was no way I was going to try to invent a couple of dozen languages, not even simply as naming languages. So I adopted an odd convention: Naming everything in Latin, by analogy to the way Lunar and Martian geographical features are named. It didn't sound as prosaic as Tolkien naming things the Misty Mountains or the River Running; Montes Nubili and Portus Argenti and Dumetum Furtum convey a sense of distance.
The Misty Mountains, could be explained as being in Hobbit language: at the prime of Arnor's glory the Hobbits would have been more familiar even if they did not travel themselves.

River Running is kind of awkward being a bit far east. The best explanation is that Bilbo translated it to Hobbit-Westron.
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Old 09-22-2020, 04:03 AM   #10
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Default Re: The Map

As the others have said prosaic names, with translation into some placeholder language are a good idea.

Personally I like to push things a bit further and use a mixture of languages, for my last couple of fantasy campaigns I have used Latin, Lithuanian, Scots Gaelic and sometimes a little Greek (sadly all provided by Google translate).

The other thing I find helps to give things a bit of authenticity is, mostly for settlements but it works anywhere, is to reference human(oid) history and geography.
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