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[Philster401]

Hello My name is Phillip. I'm a beginning writer still in high school and have one story i'm working on but has lots of problems what i need help on right now is coming up with names for kingdom's capitals for a world based on ten elemental magics and one that doesn't the elements are fire, water, wind, earth, lightning, ice, light, dark, nature/forest, and chaos. There is one more nonmagical kingdom of knights and blacksmiths. The nonmagical kingdom could also be considered kingdom of order. Please message me if you can help me with problem.

 

[CupofJoe]

Hail and well met Philster401
Every journey starts with the first step so they say.
Learn what you need and share what you know.
Leap on in to the threads when you feel the need or have half a mind.
When it comes to names for things, I use the near-enough approach. I know the first name I find might be good but I'll usually find a better sounding/more apt one as I write. So I pick one that is near-enough and get ready to change it later. The idea will usually hit at the worst, most inconvenient times, so get ready to carry round a notepad and pen [I know old school] or some way to get your ideas down all the time...

 

[BronzeOracle]

Welcome Phillip. I'm pretty new here and thoroughly enjoying reading and contributing to the posts, I hope you have fun and learn valuable things for your story and craft in general.

Re: names, do you have a feel for the type of culture in terms of historic earth cultures? Middle age european? Dark ages germanic? History is a great treasure trove of inspiration, just ask George RR Martin. Sometimes its a big mix - Tad Williams drew on several different Earth cultures for Ostern Ard in Memory, Sorrow and Thorn... sometimes is was very plain (OK so those guys are romans...) and sometimes it made for some interesting takes on 'traditional' fantasy races - eg the Sithi being elves with a japanese cultural 'flavour'.

 

[CupofJoe]

Middle age european?

I now have the images of a 50ish year old Frenchman [stripy jumper and string of onions and all] shrugging their shoulders sayibg "Meh..." or was it "Merde..."
Thank you for that!
I'm going to have to watch Water Lilies to get rid of the image...

 

[Philster401]

Thanks for tips, I have names for nations, rivers and a few other things. Would any one like to comment on them if so I'll post the names

 

[Tom]

I would. I'm interested in etymology and linguistics, so I'd be more than happy to comment. Post away.

 

[Philster401]

places
Kingdom/ Nation
Knight and blacksmith, or order kingdom: Blithnight
Chaos: Aosnperia
Nature/forest: Nagiopa
Lightning: Clarginlight
Ice: Teicblight
Light: Raslim
Dark: Ethrad
Earth: Merthia
Wind: Tienderoupos
Water: Waxerdra
Fire: Eicheria

Rivers
Dark: Margettes
Light: Rexior
Ice: Oxiger
Order: miscollar
Fire: Flamana

Lake

Order: Pryta

Volcano

Fire: Volceria

Desert

Light: Dure

 

[Tom]

Looks good. I'm getting some strong Latin vibes, as well as some Greek and German. I like that. Also some French, too, in the case of 'Margettes'.

Tips:

I would recommend finding a substitute for the -light in both 'Clarginlight' and 'Blithlight'. Since most of your other words are definitely not based on Modern English, it just jars a little to see a common word among them. Might I suggest lēoht, the Old English word for light? It has the same meaning, but it's sufficiently different from Modern English that it doesn't look out of place.

Also, 'Raslim' looks like the odd name out here. It sounds Middle Eastern to me, and the rest of the names sound either Romantic or Germanic in origin. Nothing wrong with the name itself--it just doesn't sound like it has the same linguistic origin as the rest of the names, which might be a problem if they share the same kingdom or region.

Heh. Yeah. You can tell how into this stuff I am.

 

[Philster401]

Thank for the tips, but i think u might have read one of the names wrong it Blithnight not light with a N not L. Also I didn't purposely make the names that way i actually combined the names of a few of my friends and the element they wanted to be, except Blithnight it was a combination of knight and blacksmith. Also raslim is a country with a desert so, middleeastern kind of fits. I like leoht thanks ill try and find a way for it to fit

 

[Tom]

You're welcome, and sorry about the mistake. I'm always happy to help with language stuff, but I don't always completely register what I'm reading! ADD does not a good proofreader make.

That being said, you might want to do the same thing with 'Blithnight' as I suggested for 'Clarginlight'--finding a substitute for -night, just because it's a common word in our everyday language. The Old English for 'night' is nyht, but if that's a little too close to the Modern English word you could use the German, nacht.

...Sorry if I'm scaring you with my linguistics obsession.

 

[Philster401]

I know how u feel I'm ADHD and my younger brother has ADD.

 

[Philster401]

Blithnight is the one name people I've talked with don't mind. Also the kingdom has British/roman feel and on of oldest cities I'm not sure whether or not it should be name of capital or of kingdom itself or both!

 

[Tom]

It could be both. I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, but there were some real-life kingdoms in history that shared a name with their capital. Mostly small German kingdoms during the Middle Ages, I think.

A good way of distinguishing which you're talking about--city or kingdom--is to designate the city with the actual label 'city'. So the kingdom might be called "Blithnight", and the capital "City Blithnight".

 

[Philster401]

Yeah that's what I've done so far and one example is Rome

 

[Philster401]

Thanks for jelp today I've got to go getting tired thanks for all the jelp maybe talk more tomorrow.

 

[Tom]

Got any more questions for me?

 

[Philster401]

I posted a picture of my map