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Now, let me say, hello!
also, if any of you have ever followed my blog, you'd know i'm a fan of writing, I wrote TL Apocalypse (WHICH I INTEND TO FINISH WHEN I GET THE TIME!) but that was mostly messing about, an Ode to the mods of TL to thank them for their wonderful work.
Anywho! on to the gist of my blog post, this one at least. I am writing a novel (or attempting to) it's a fantasy novel, think of a cross between Eragon, A Song of Ice and Fire and Lord of the Rings. with my stuff mixed in as well (i'm not a completely unoriginal moron :D) What I cannot figure out, is the name of the world where the action takes place. Think of the great fantasy novels, places like Winterfell, King's Landing, Westeros, Middle Earth, Rohan, Gondor and Mordor echo in your very hearts as you picture those majestic (or demonic in the case of Mordor) kingdoms!
In this world there are 3 kingdoms,
the Middle Kingdoms that are the largest and most powerful with the capital of Wildsward,
The East Kingdoms that are mountainous, dry in the south and cold in the north with a small bit of land with a fairly small coastline
and the West Kingdoms lush and verdant, with hills and a large coastline.
If you can give me a name for the whole world, or a name for one of the kingdoms that I like, I shall name a character after you! That's right! and it's not your ID, I mean your real First name shall be immortalized!
so get cracking guys, I hope you can help me out 
 
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Name the world Terra Illuminara, or some combination of awesome latin words. Name the West Kingdom Aqueous because it's on the sea, and have it be run by a cartel of merchant guilds led by a single powerful female ruler.
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I must point out that probably one of the reasons Tolkien is so good at naming things is the fact that he was a linguistics expert... even making up his own entire languages and having a great understanding of the construction of words and their mythology.
That said... I really think we need more information about your three kingdoms, unless you want names solely based on their most basic geographic features. Language and culture/ideology have subtle links, and the kind of people and the role they play in the story should have some affect on the names I would think.
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I guess it's unfair to ask this without a little backstory. very little to not spoil anything.
there are 2 conflicts in the world Bad King (who took over the East and the capital and a 1/2 of the middle) vs good king who still holds half of the middle and has allied with west. so no merchant guilds running things. Lords and stuff mostly.
the 2nd conflict is between Rangers and monsters that wander in from the wildlands (hence the capital named wildswards) south and north are uninhabited
The East is made of rugged people, that have had to survive for countless years in a barren wasteland in the south, unforgiving and dry mountains in the middle and cold, tundra-esque conditions in the north. I envision them as Viking types, lots of axes and heavy chainmail.
The middle is a great plain, with only 2 mountain ranges, one at the east frontier, and a smaller one at the west frontier. It's kinda like Rohan, very adept horsemen but also very good archers. Think England 14th century, with Armored cavalry and longbow men.
The west is a very sea oriented nation and the only one to actually trade with the other continent (which is not featured in the story) and are really different from the other kingdoms, there are lots of port cities as well as islands and i imagine them to be great sailors, master assassins and with a somewhat asian/japanese feel to their culture.
Then the north has 2 cities only, on the outskirts, people who wanted to escape the rule of the kings of the 3 kingdoms, the cities of winterwind, nestled between the beginning of the great plain of the middle kingdom and a mountain. and Snow's End, a port city that was basically built to allow the west to trade more since it has such little coastline. Winterwind is constantly under the snow, but Snow's End is mostly a Tundra environment.
as for gods, the Easterners worship the sun and the sky as their main deities because they rely so much on rainfalls to stay alive (only a couple of months in the year allow them to grow crops) the westerners aer not very religious, they prefer to focus on discipline and honor, and the Midlanders have a complex polytheistic system with several gods. Like the Norse or Roman or Greeks
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Well did not mean the story so much as the sense of place and culture.
Like... right now I have this idea in my head of the Middle Kingdom as this more conservative, quiet farmland type kingdom, powerful but not on some conquest to overthrow the neighboring thrones, just content to sit back and manipulate things to their advantage since they are the bigger, better ones. The people have a simple way of life in general, hardworking and industrious, the bigger cities operating as trade centers and hubs through which other cultures come in contact with them.
I picture the Eastern Kingdom as aloof-- not appearing particularly strong in numbers, but the sort that make you uneasy when it comes to things like backroom plots and espionage. I see the people as more worn by their rugged environment-- a lesser quality of life than the average person in the Middle Kingdom. They are isolated by the landscape in which they live, and so wary of strangers, just as strangers are wary of them.
The Western Kingdom I would picture as not politically powerful, but economically powerful because of their natural resources as well as many ports that ensure foreign trade to the continent enters and exists through them. As a result I would suppose it is a generally wealthier nation that enjoys their prosperity and tries to ignore the troubles around it as best they can because they would rather not get involved with anything and sacrifice trade partners.
This of course could be entirely wrong, I don't know, lol. But it would definitely play a heavy role in my thinking about naming.
EDIT: Lol you edited yours while I was typing. Kay now I will go into deep thought about names for a bit.
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On May 09 2011 17:56 RedJustice wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Well did not mean the story so much as the sense of place and culture.
Like... right now I have this idea in my head of the Middle Kingdom as this more conservative, quiet farmland type kingdom, powerful but not on some conquest to overthrow the neighboring thrones, just content to sit back and manipulate things to their advantage since they are the bigger, better ones. The people have a simple way of life in general, hardworking and industrious, the bigger cities operating as trade centers and hubs through which other cultures come in contact with them.
I picture the Eastern Kingdom as aloof-- not appearing particularly strong in numbers, but the sort that make you uneasy when it comes to things like backroom plots and espionage. I see the people as more worn by their rugged environment-- a lesser quality of life than the average person in the Middle Kingdom. They are isolated by the landscape in which they live, and so wary of strangers, just as strangers are wary of them.
The Western Kingdom I would picture as not politically powerful, but economically powerful because of their natural resources as well as many ports that ensure foreign trade to the continent enters and exists through them. As a result I would suppose it is a generally wealthier nation that enjoys their prosperity and tries to ignore the troubles around it as best they can because they would rather not get involved with anything and sacrifice trade partners.
This of course could be entirely wrong, I don't know, lol. But it would definitely play a heavy role in my thinking about naming.
EDIT: Lol you edited yours while I was typing. Kay now I will go into deep thought about names for a bit.
haha, yah i did  the thing is that there is this massive war going on at the start of the story already. but it's kinda cooled down while both sides lick their wounds and then it picks up again in strength. you know what? PM me if you want details, I'm great at imagining worlds and stuff, but I'm TERRIBLE at naming stuff >< that's the worst problem i have when i want to write something
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Just gonna throw some fairly fantasy-esque names out here. A name should be short and easy to remember, in my opinion :D
Aronia
Tirgo
Droma
Ember (If you aren't just looking for completely made up names. I mean, our world is called Earth)
Thandas
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On May 09 2011 18:22 Captain Mayhem wrote:
Just gonna throw some fairly fantasy-esque names out here. A name should be short and easy to remember, in my opinion :D
Aronia
Tirgo
Droma
Ember (If you aren't just looking for completely made up names. I mean, our world is called Earth)
Thandas
But it is named Tellus
Edit: Btw, I totally misread the thread title to "Move help", i thought you were asking for TL'ers nearby to help you move x)
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Well. A good name has subtle hints as to the character of the place. For the Western Kingdom you mentioned an Asian tropic-port type of culture. There are certain groupings/sequences of letters that can suggest an exotic Asian type of place. Typing random stuff into google search I came up with two names of places: "Tashirojima" and "Shijiazhuang". You will notice these are very clearly not Western European type words. So I stole bits and pieces of these words and came up with "Tashrajan", and "Shiji" as possible starting points. Most countries have names that are three or less syllables, so I think it is generally best to adhere to little things like that that add subconscious credibility.
Now, as for the Eastern Kingdom, I picture a place somewhat like Tibet and the region around it. Searching for names of regions and peoples and cities related to Tibet, I find a different series of words-- "Kham", "Amdo", "Mongol", "Lhasa". Notice these words are all shorter, with different consonants and vowels, which of course gives the words a different feel. I really liked the look of the word "Kham" so I played around with it to find names like: "Kharam", "Khordan", and "Khamdor".
In the Middle Kingdom, I thought of Scotland, which has names inevitably influenced by the Roman troops that came there. "Skara Brae", "Cawdor", "Berwick", "Badenoch", and "Lochaber" were words that caught my eye. I really like the word "Cawdor", but for the life of me (probably because it's 6 am) I cannot manage to come up with any combinations that sounds like a country name otherwise. I will think on it and reappear tomorrow if anything comes to mind-- but I'm sure you get the drift of how I'm getting my ideas and may have some yourself.
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Trigaria
Trigonia
Trilliad
Tridoria
Dorgrad
Pyrecrown
pronounced Tri - garia etc. not Trig - aria etc. dunno go the Tri stuck in my head because you mentioned 3 major kingdoms. Best of luck with the novel! please let me know if you use any of these ^^
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Thalarct for any north/ice/snow based places or people?
(Thalarctos maritimus - polar bear)
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Monra for the East Kingdoms (Mountain=Monris, Land=Terra in latin)
Oliris or Collus for the West Kingdoms (Oleres=Greens, Collis=Hill in latin, plus collus makes me think of Collossus )
Merca for the Middle Kingdom (pronounced Merca, with c as an "s" sound [like in "France"], a combination of Middle=Media and Capital=Caput in latin)
For the worlds name.... I tried some brainstorming:
Re tre Wa Bus Regnum Terra Tribus Magna Ingenti
Ergen
Engen
Trouam
Rouam
Trieoum
Reoum
Trewas
...but none really spoke to me at least.
I generally believe names should be short for a good impact, such as the examples you put in the OP. Also, as others have mentioned, referencing latin names generally works well. Or just go the completely opposite direction and take something extremely long and complicated and make it a standing joke in the book - like... Regwalittouermagerious or w/e.
Good luck with the novel!! :D
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And the winners are
Dee-Kej for Rouam now the name of the 2nd biggest city in the Middle
Tenz for Pyrecrown now the capital of the East
And RedJustice for Khamdor as the name of the East and Tashrajan for the West.
one more spot is open! the capital of the West, thinking arabic mixed with japanese/chinese/korean kind of names.
The 3 winners, PM your name so i'll give you a character :D
oh and I named the world Terra. Simple, Latin, easy to remember.
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EPT
