Ireth
Myth Weaver
Fictional Place Names:
-Narnia
-Andalasia
-.........?
Moria might also count, though it's technically a compound name ("mor" + "ia" = "dark chasm" in Sindarin).
Fictional Place Names:
-Narnia
-Andalasia
-.........?
So I'm guessing you got really bored in geography class? If real places have names like this then what is wrong with fictional places having them? I think, if not overdone, it lends a touch of credence to the story.
Helleaven, Saigonnus, what I did in naming some of my countries was to just pick another syllable to stand in for "-ia" as a suffix. [- -]
Or just put "-land" on everything, throw in some "-marks" or even "-reichs" for variety at least. Or why not "-stan"? I think if I picked up a novel and all the countries had "-stan" names I would be tickled. I'd love to know if anyone's ever done that.
Maybe few others get annoyed when they see more recent fantasy creations take the same well-beaten path and stick the familiar suffix on, but to me it shows that the author has not bothered to look closely -- maybe not at all -- at something that matters to me as a reader.
If you have nature and use english,
the nature based names are safe:
Brookwood, Ashglenn, Riverdale, Oakridge, etc.
No matter what planet you base your story on, if there is are the things in the name, you can name.
If there is no such thing as an ash tree, then Ash glenn might not work, unless there was a big fire, and they named it after this.
I created the map many years ago and have forgotten much of the history I wrote for the area but if I remember correctly, the Ys comes from the name of the kingdom that disolved (it was something like Ys'alamiri or some such) and they simply kept the names of the principal cities the same in rememberance of their heritage and culture. Those principal cities became the "capitals" of the seperate regions and they enjoy a tentative peace even amid the occassional assassination (in their view; if a regent in such a hard land is incapable of defending themself, or can't provide an adequate protection for themself, they deserve to die so someone new and possibly more capable can take over). That attitude is part of the reason they haven't been able to reunite as a larger kingdom again.
Think of the area almost like a persian flavor, their cities with low walls, round domes on many of the larger buildings and slanted roofs on the rest to keep the snow from building up. They typically built with granite blocks instead of sandstone (which should be obvious why) and doors and windows tend to be round or at least rounded at the top with thick, crude glass to keep out most of the weather. The people are pale and typically wear their hair long and usually dress in thick woolens for commoner and wealthy alike, though generally the more wealthy you are, the more layers you wear, even incorporating bearhide or seal skins into the clothing for added warmth and waterproofing.
In one of my projects, the Druids tend to use names contrived this very way... one of their main settlements is "Ash at the Ford" (orginally Ashenford for a gaming campaign) and is literally in the massive boughs of oversized ash trees (they grew them that way) near a river with a ford. They "grow" chambers into the trunks of all the trees (basically rerouting the veins of the trees into columns within the chambers) for living space or whatever.
And I must say I like the vivid picture you paint with words. I only wonder do they use wood at all in their buildings, though. Are the buildings for instance lined inside with wood? Might be expensive, of course, if no forests are to be found too close, but in the middle of winter and snow wood is delightfully warm material. Plus, if I make a swift return back to the topic on this thread so that I won’t anger anyone, I’ve this far liked the names you have mentioned here and there. Solid names with underlying history all of them, it seems.
I actually have one pretty similar place in my world... and still very much different, luckily. First of all I have no druids and there is no ford. And only one tree.
Nevertheless, druids living inside huge trees sound like intriguing to me. Maybe because, first of all, I find druids interesting and, secondly, I'm fond of well written nature imagery. I'm also quite friendly towards names derived from nature.