So, I'm working on a new children's novel; I've written 3,887 words so far.
I needed a name for a country in a made-up fantasy world. In the past, I've frequently used fantasy versions of real-world places, which has gotten me off the hook for the task of making up a name completely from scratch. In this case, I want to avoid even the appearance of any sort of real-world parallel. The first name for a fantasy country that popped into my head was "Rhiannon," possibly because I'd heard the song a few hours earlier. I kind of like it, even though it's the name of a Welsh horse goddess, so that's my tentative pick. But I also need another name that a different group of people uses for the same place. I came up with "Kotelia," which sounds vaguely like sanitary supplies (or else the Hebrew word for the Western Wall), which is unsatisfying, but sometimes you have to just name a thing and move on in the hopes that you'll think up something better later.
I was looking at my font just now, Cambria (I'm using Word 2007) (and I like it, by the way, but I can understand why some people loathe it with the fiery passion of a thousand hot suns), and I thought, "oooh, that's a nice name for a country," so I googled it. It turns out it is a nice name for a country -- Wales, to be specific -- as well as a geologic era. That got me thinking about other geologic eras; were there any that would make good fantasy-world names? Ordovicia works for me as a name for a made-up country. It is also Welsh, or at least Welsh-ish; it's named after a Welsh tribe. Devonia and Permia are OK but not great. There was a supercontinent during the Cryogenian era named Rodinia, which has a nice fantasy-world sound; I could use it (it's gotten much less publicity than Pangaea), but any geologists who read it will snicker.
Back when I was a kid, it was simple: the imaginary world was always named Drinia, with residents called Drinians. I just liked the sound of it.
I suppose I could just embrace the Welsh theme. The thing is, the imaginary world has been engaged in a bloody civil war; it is not supposed to parallel any specific real-world civil war and I don't want people thinking that I'm making specific comments on a real conflict. (Any commentary I'm making should be considered general.) Wales has been pretty calm since (::checks Wikipedia::) about 1415, so it's unlikely people would think I was commenting on events there.
Character names are so much easier than made-up place names.
The first paragraph of the new novel, along with some other details, are below the cut.
( Read more... )
