Guildworld - General discussion [place names and other assorted topics]

[Tonnichiwa]

So I guess I was right in putting a bunch of icy tundra looking land in the north part of my country. This will be interesting to see how all of this pans out in the end. Great work guys, thanks for keeping me informed and entertained

[Azélor]

With the ice cap, the northern ocean is a different shape than I had in my mind. I suppose "Great Northern Ocean" isn't very appropriate after all.

Actually, the ice cap is only on top. The rest is all liquid water. Well, I suppose an icecap could form even without land but I'm not sure.

[jshoer]

Attachment 82552

The northern ocean is complicated because it's a huge body of water divided in two by the polar ice, with the southerly part stretching down to fairly warm waters. I'd suggest the Great Northern Ocean covers B and the polar ice, with the A part having a separate name.

All other stretches of water are seas - has anyone else named seas that I haven't spotted?

Ilanthar and I named the sea between our nations the "Trader's Sea." I think there's a "Dragonbreath Sea" somewhere, too.

[J.Edward]

Okay. I'll be updating the map tomorrow.
Dragonsbreath is up above Diamond's country.

[- Max -]

I've added some oceans and sea names on my map but really this was more to have a "finished" look. I'm not sticked to them, change them as your will

[jshoer]

So I am near the point where I need to label the body of water to the east of Maucland. This is sort of an extension of what Robulous has labeled "SEA/OCEAN?" However, looking at the globe, I'm thinking it makes more sense to treat it as having more to do with my country and Meshon's. It's about 500 miles between our two nations, so my question for you is, what's an appropriate name for a 500-mile-wide strip of ocean between two roughly parallel coasts? Would it be a strait, a passage, or some other name I'm having trouble thinking of?

[J.Edward]

One thing people can think about is that these names don't have to be standard - ie strait, sea, ocean, etc.
They can be, but they don't have to be.
For example, it can be a name that doesn't use those, like Il Mareus Kase, or like The Maw, or even Munnen Saer-The Jaw, which are 2 names for the same body of water, just in local tongues maybe.
They can be like i've used in one of my stories - the Farmost Waters, or the Bowl, or the Serene Deeps....
I just need to put in the text, but it can be anything that describes the waters. Grey Shoals, Crystal Main, the Iron Heave, the Blue Beast, Cold Breakers...
or if there's a sea deity... Gaol's Land, Palesmelk, Mieleswaves...
or descriptive of its use - the Merchants Way, Skordpass, or whatever.
Just some ideas for alternative naming concepts.

[jbgibson]

Goombac and I have considered calling the water to the west of us - "Ocean A" on those views - something like Haiyang Sea. Haiyang is 'ocean' in Chinese (loose basis for his Wuqiang), so that's either the Ocean named Sea or the Sea named Ocean. In that same vein I'd like to call the inlet between Ondeet and Wuqiang 'the Bay of Man', since 'man' approximately phonetically is 'bay' in Korean, which my folks in Ondeet use/mangle/approximate. It suits my humor to have a Bay Bay, yet for it to sound like a 'normal' name. Ondeet has men and dwarves both, so maybe we would call the bay/sea between us and Romeinoneday 'Nansingi Bay' (roughly phonetically 'Dwarf Bay' ). That body of water looks like a sea on the equirectangular world map, but that polar view shows it's pretty narrow.

Cool - If Romeinoneday's northern cape is either stuck to icepack or even just beset by constant sea ice, that makes the strait between his island and mainland a really important sea connector route. All KINDS of potential there for storytelling.

[Robulous]

It's about 500 miles between our two nations, so my question for you is, what's an appropriate name for a 500-mile-wide strip of ocean between two roughly parallel coasts? Would it be a strait, a passage, or some other name I'm having trouble thinking of?

500 miles wide is definitely a sea - the Adriatic is only 100 miles at it's widest point, the Mediterrean not much more than 500 at its widest north-south distance. A strait is the narrow point between two larger bodies of water.

But really there's no hard and fast rules for any of these terms. The definition of a sea is a body of water enclosed by land, and an ocean is a body of water not enclosed by land... but all oceans are surrounded by land, and vice versa! Best not to worry about it too much.

[J.Edward]

It suits my humor to have a Bay Bay, yet for it to sound like a 'normal' name.

I laughed at that. Bay Bay