Map 05 - Lands of Nahadua [J.Ed land]

[J.Edward]

Nice. I like the place names. I have always had a hard time with more realistic place names. So I can come up with things like " The burning mountains" or " The Seraphim Sea"

But I have a hard time with things like what you've done here. I love it, great job! And thanks for updating that. It's nice to see how my neighbors are getting along.

I can really get into naming things. My biggest problem is sticking with a name or names.
The power of words is huge - the sound and feel of a word conveys so many preconceived notions for people.
I used to read through foreign language dictionaries [nerd!] and come up with fake languages and alphabets.
It's one of the things I always loved about Tolkien - his attention to language. Of course he mainly used or manipulated old existing languages but still very thorough.
I'm a big history lover too so trying to think about how names came to be what they are is important, and trying to think about the changes and perversions of those place names too.

That first word - Nahadua - will likely color the whole culture of the region.
My first thought was something somewhat african... then some indian influence came in. I think there may even be some ancient middle eastern influence with names like Nekral, maybe Gemel and Beuzud.
I will say a word and play with the sound before deciding on a name. Then try to sound out similar words as I go along.
I'll have to post the quick phonetics I did before doing the actual type.

That looks awesome so far!! Love your names!

So I've come up with a bit of culture for mine now. I'm afraid most of my border with you is warring tribes.. but there is some border with the more civilized empire. I'm still deciding whether the secret monks dudes hate cheese and are secretly trying to eradicate it from the land or if the empire outlawed cheese and the monks guys are trying to reintroduce it... probably the first one.

That's okay. As you can see, along that border it's a little less populated. Up on the plateau in Gokal and then the mountains running down into Nehimre.
It will add some interesting elements over there.

I'm thinking, due to the latitude of that area, that we may have some nice jungles and strange grass lands around there, which is perfect for some eerie tribal warfare and bizarre beasts and creatures of the wilderlands. I still need to work out the vegetation [forest/grasslands/jungles/etc.] for most of this country.
The dispersion of cities was based on waterways and possible mining areas, then began to include cross roads towns.
I know I have 2-3 or more variances in culture, and had thought about having some foreign peoples still extent in the region - like peoples from an earlier time.
I think my main peoples came here from the sea... maybe from ancient times coming from Max's lands or up from Abu's lands fleeing the god-empress.

Edit - here's the early phonetics for those names.
Guild World Map - JEd country 05 - update07.jpg