Felmyr Place Names (WIP)

[Weery]

Hi all,

Maybe this is an unusual step but I thought I'd create a WIP thread explaining some of my thought processes in developing the place names for my world Felmyr, where the city I am currently mapping (Grimmsmouth) is located.

I know that this sort of thing has the potential to become very wordy so I'll try to keep focussed and brief (where possible) and begin with only a high level explanation of the continent names.

Please, this is only a WIP thread so I'm as much threshing out ideas and thought processes as anything else, so if you find it interesting I'm delighted. But if it doesn't go anywhere interesting then at least we'll have gone there together


World Name

• Felmyr

Honestly, I've had this name for years now and I'm still not 100% on it. I'm a great believer that in fiction place names need to communicate something to the viewer/reader beyond just being the noun for that place. Felmyr needs to tell people what kind of world it is and I don't think it does what I want it to.

I think it conjures up Arthurian images, Merlin and the sort. That's not what I want though. I want something that reeks of fantasy but has a distinct whiff of nineteenth century reality, too. Very much a WIP. But for now Femlyr's what I got.


Continents

• Helgarrd
• Rushmore
• Aluine
• Sulaam
• Wu
  

There are a couple more but the above are almost finished and decided upon. I believe they each communicate something to the reader (perhaps to English speakers is what I really mean) that explains something integral to that place before you really learn anything about them.

I'll outline briefly.

Helgarrd is a mountainous, snowy and harsh continent to the north. Pretty obvious right?

Rushmore is a large newfoundland across the Behemoth Sea, recently free of the shackles of colonisation. Obvious again surely?

Aluine is, I feel the most difficult to extract anything from for Western people without an explanation of context. It's the bastion of the imperial civilisations, at the fore of industrial development. It's the location of Midleset (the country where Grimmsmouth sits) and is my proxy for Europe. Again, it's what I got.

Sulaam is a sub-equatorial continent where civilisations first bloomed and thrived. Hot and deserty and harsh.

Wu, the lands to the east (unless you live anywhere other than Aluine of course!). Probably clear what I'm going for here.


So that's all broad strokes stuff. Settled(ish) in my head but still very much part of an overall place names WIP. I think it provides a context to allow readers instantly have some insight into the character of the area. These lands diversify from Earth by having different races, creatures, beliefs, technologies etc. but it is all hopefully in a context that the viewer can relate to quickly.

I hope to post more on this (with some visual aides) to explain how I approach naming locations and features on my maps and beyond. I intend on drilling down into some details (such as street names) that appear on my WIP Grimmsmouth map.

Thanks for sticking with this post. I aimed for brevity. I missed.

Weery.