Demesnedenoir
Myth Weaver
I think I have an issue where there isn't a good answer, or at least, there isn't a perfect answer. So, just curious what folks think.
I have a rather complex system of magical elements and how they interact with various gemstones... When I created this system, I considered there to be 396 gem quality stones. So what's the problem? Well, not all gems have cool names like diamond, ruby, topaz... there are a good number of stones out there named after Earth geographical locations... Tanzanite or Afghanite come to mind pretty quickly. Sure, I might refer to them by more scientific names, but they lose all context and meaning to anybody but hard core rock hounds. I could call Tanzanite a blue zoisite, but yeah, not much fun. I could also make up names, but then even the hard core rock hounds don't know what I'm talking about unless I say something like "Jin held up the fist sized bulderun gem, a blue zoisite....". For that matter, even names like zoisite sound more "earthy" than diamond or ruby.
So! When trying to avoid Earth terminology, I'm a bit torn here. I could certainly make up a pile of names and assign them to stones, but want do you folks think? Do Earth names screw everything in this instance?
I have a rather complex system of magical elements and how they interact with various gemstones... When I created this system, I considered there to be 396 gem quality stones. So what's the problem? Well, not all gems have cool names like diamond, ruby, topaz... there are a good number of stones out there named after Earth geographical locations... Tanzanite or Afghanite come to mind pretty quickly. Sure, I might refer to them by more scientific names, but they lose all context and meaning to anybody but hard core rock hounds. I could call Tanzanite a blue zoisite, but yeah, not much fun. I could also make up names, but then even the hard core rock hounds don't know what I'm talking about unless I say something like "Jin held up the fist sized bulderun gem, a blue zoisite....". For that matter, even names like zoisite sound more "earthy" than diamond or ruby.
So! When trying to avoid Earth terminology, I'm a bit torn here. I could certainly make up a pile of names and assign them to stones, but want do you folks think? Do Earth names screw everything in this instance?