Welcome to (insert name)! On how places get named

Valendale. Courtesy of Freemaps.org

I’ve been thinking lately about how names of places come to be. It’s an especially jarring task when you are world building either for a book or for your role playing sessions.

Most authors (and DM at that) try to go for the Tolkien route: create bombastic sounding names to put in their locations, buildings, even family names. I have done that. But it usually reads and feels hollow, forced, unnatural. It feels like a tacky label glued onto something. The other route is to create a weird sounding word and use it. This is the method I usually use (taking advantage of the frequent misspellings I have by typing too fast on my phone). While useful for minor things, it sounds forced as well with bigger things, namely location names.

I’m not saying this a diss to anyone, as I said, I have done it myself, both in my D&D sessions and in the first drafts of Tempest Blades (when it had other names like Curry -don’t ask why-, Wings of Thunder and so on). But lately, while I’m revising and editing the novel I find myself pondering more on the topic.

The thing is that Tolkien could get away with it because before being a writer he was a superb philologist that had read, translated and studied several old texts such as the Kalevala and the original Beowulf. He studied how the words came to be before doing it himself. It is said that Middle Earth came to be from the need to give a home for the languages he was creating. Thus every elvish word he used had an etymological origin within the language and context of the LOTR universe. That’s why places like Rivendell or Mordor feel like real places. While we are not Tolkien, the process he followed is not different from what happens in real world.

That made me realize something: most location names in real life are not created that way. Regardless of how they sound now, most of them are not all were derived from ancient words used to describe to others where you lived. It was a way to tell your address in a time where there was no concept of addresses or maps. Rivendell has a meaning like The Shire for their inhabitants not related to any mystic word, but usually coming from a descriptor of a place, like ‘clear water’ or ‘under the waterfall’ or ‘mud city’. There are some names that came from real or legendary persons, usually the ones that founded the place such as Alexandria (Alexander the Great) or Rome (Remus), or where people believed their deities communicated with them or were blessed by them, like Athens and Athena. A few of them come from actual events, legends of what happened there. Names reflect either the place or the history of the people that dwelled there. Even humorous confusions can be used for that.

Let’s take a few examples from real life. In Mexico, there is a state called Yucatan (where Cancun and the Mayan Ribera are located). There are two theories about the actual meaning of the name ‘Yucatan’: one that means ‘yu ka t’ann = listen how weird they talk’, which was said by the locals when the Spaniards arrived and the later thought it was the name of the place. The other says ‘Ci u t’ann = I don’t understand you’, again the locals trying to explain the Spaniards that no, not everybody spoke Spanish back then (kinda what happens now with some English speaking tourists, but I digress).

Now take a look at the home of the Bard: Stratford-upon-Avon. Let’s examine it by parts. Stratford is the result of the combination of the Old English strǣt, meaning ‘street’, with ford, indicating a shallow part of a river or stream, allowing it to be crossed by walking. ‘Upon’ is the relative position of the place with respect to the nearby river the Avon. In turn, Avon comes from the Celtic ‘abona’ (or so I have read, please correct me if I’m wrong). So a literal translation of the name would be ‘Street upon the shallow part of the river’ or something like this. There are plenty locations around the world that sound exotic to us Spanish or English speakers but that to the original inhabitants of the place were common descriptors to explain the place where they lived and which words, with the pass of time became nouns by themselves.

Now, writers in the science fiction, fantasy and science fantasy genres tend to get very ‘imaginative’ with the names of the places and institutions, even the last names (more on this one later) but there are truly a few memorable ones. Everybody knows that ‘King’s Landing’ is the nominal capital of Westeros in ASOIAF. But the name has its history explicit on it. It is the place where Aegon the Conqueror settled from Dragonstone to start his campaign to conquer the Seven Kingdoms. That little piece of world building makes the place feel more real for the reader and not just a wild invention to get out of the issue fast. It can happen that the name was quickly created, but so many things happen there through the story that the name becomes ‘solid’. Which is arguably what happens with most names in Star Wars. Regardless, if you are going to use a locale for more than a passing reference, then dedicating a bit of thought on how that name came to be can help to make the place feel ‘real’ and even get plot points across.

This has changed my approach to how I name places in my stories, mainly in the Tempest Blades universe. I go with the descriptor route, with the memorable event/person or with something inspired in my real life.

For example, in Tempest Blades one of my characters studies at a university that has ‘Mercian’ as a name, because it is located in the Mercian region of the Emerald Island. Yes, it sounds weird, but I chose it for a reason. Mercian comes from Mercia, an ancient 6th-century kingdom in England. I obtained my Ph.D. at Loughborough University, whose coat of arms includes the Offa of Mercia´s cross, and whose current location falls withing the old borders of that kingdom. So while the name sounds weird, it is, in reality, a veiled reference to my alma mater which now has a counterpart in my setting (which in turns facilitates describing the place in the novel). Yes, it is a bit of projection, but I want to see it as an homage to a place that has importance in my life. Some places in my novel are derived from real world places that have captivated my mind.

Then there is Saint Lucy’s, the capital of the Emerald Island and the place where the final battle of the first novel takes places, which was named after a saint that blessed the war effort. You have Ravenhall and Ravenstone, both places named after the Raven, aka the Trickster Goddess (the main deity of my setting) or The Maze, which got its name due to the weird spatial configuration of the place that makes people get lost inside it.

Finally, I have Belfrost, the city of spies. This place will appear in later stories (since it was cut from the first novel). Its name is a contraction of ‘Belger’s Frost’. It’s a city on a mountain range that separates the Ionis continent from the as yet unnamed continental mass where the mysterious grasslands are. It was founded by Belger the explorer on a frosty peak and was the last place where he was seen alive before leaving to explore the grasslands, to never been seen again. Thus the name of the city is a homage to its founder.

I think for the most part this has helped me to give the cities of the setting a little bit more of personality and a connection to the characters and the history of that world. I don’t know if this method will help anyone, as often worldbuilding tends to distract from the actual writing, but at least in my case, it has helped me to solve the issue of naming places while writing without making them feel empty or unreal. They feel more tangible (at least in my head). It has also helped to move plot points in way I didn’t expect but now make sense within the story and have as well allowed me to think on more ideas for future stories.

Before closing this post, I want to mention the last name issue. Most last names in the world were created as descriptors of an animal totem, a  work the person was doing like Archer for example; from the place where they lived (most Spanish last names); derived from first names to denote ancestry (again like most Spanish names or nordic names, e.g. Johansson = son of Johan) or to denote important events on the originator’s life (e.g. my last names comes literally from victory, as my great, great grandfather changed his mouthful of last name to Victoria, to celebrate a battle he won against the Spaniards during Mexico’s Independence War). It’s not a rule of course, but it could be a good guide when it comes to giving last names to your characters.

Sisters of Mercy

As I mentioned before here, I will be sharing my notes on the world building of the Tempest Blades setting. I will start by the organization that molded one of my three Main Characters, Gaby Galfano: singer, heir and kickass one woman army.


While a common name in the modern popular culture around Theia, the Sisters of Mercy are a mystery to many outside the order. An ancient order of nuns founded after the Reformation, their original objective was lost during the following conflicts that marred Theia. Nowadays, it’s officially recognized as a private educative organization, with the main abbey located on an island in the Inner Sea, south of Ionis. It provides to chosen girls (not more than thirty to sixty per generation if rumors are true) the education and knowledge required to be an upstanding citizen and a proper lady of the upper class. And in truth, the education offered there is top notch and many of their graduates often enter prestigious universities and high ranking jobs, while marrying into powerful families.

The sisterhood takes girls from the entire world and of any social background to train them as healers, singers and most important but less well know, spies and assassins of high level. They recruit them young, at least since they are 6 years old and the training ends around 18 years old. Some of the girls are orphans, street urchins recruited thanks to their smarts and sneak abilities; others are daughters (often unwanted) of rich and powerful families, usually merchants or politicians who send their offspring there so when they come out of there can help to the business of their parents.

The school is divided into three major houses: Light, Dark (also known as Shadow) and Caring. Most girls are placed in Caring, where on par with their elite education are taught performance arts, healing and other offered tools to survive in a tough world, as the sisterhood honors the name. Of those few selected for the Light and Dark houses, a lot is expected and thus special training is provided. No one really knows what entails the special training, but rumors of mind enhancing drug treatments, mystic rites and weapon and hand to hand training are often heard. Graduates from the Light house tend to work as public figures  and diplomats at least in the open, while Dark house graduates are usually ushered to be spies and assassins under the guise of hostesses, executives and wives of powerful men and women or for their families of origin (in the case of those that come from rich families).

The students from The Light & Dark houses have to undergo a Last Rite in order to graduate, a rite that binds them to the order. If they fail or refuse it, they are thrown into a labyrinth carved inside the mountain, beneath the main abbey. If they solve it, then they are free from the order. But the place is so dangerous, dark and devoid of anything than the few unfortunate students cast there end dead by starvation, dehydration, broken bones or the three of them. In some cases, not even their bodies are recovered as the students gossip about a creature lurking inside the Labyrinth.

These graduates, the ones that gave fame to the school are known for their hand to hand combat prowess, tactical knowledge and for an ability known as ‘Ice State’. This ability, witnessed a few times allow the user to enter into a trance that allows a certain degree of precognition and telepathy, enabling the sisters to be fearsome opponents in combat against many foes. However, it is said that entering the Ice State constantly or for long periods of time leaves the user with severe emotional damage, unable to feel anything afterward.

Usually, no girl leaves the school before her 18th birthday, though there are exceptions, depending on how advanced is the trainee or because of special decisions made by the Superior Mother before the Crone Gathering, the supreme ruling body of the sisterhood. Of those that choose to remain with the order (or those that after many years decide to return), they are offered food, work, and refuge.  Those that decide to leave the order after the 18th birthday… well, that’s another matter, as is not unheard that two sisters can found themselves often in opposing sides and while sisters in the sense of shared teachers, they don’t own any honor or respect to each other, competing even to deadly ends. There are cases even of renegades that take darker paths and can be found in the even more mysterious Allara Circle. In truth, across history, both heroines and villainess can be found that are members of the sisterhood.

Although not unheard of, it is extremely rare for a man to be accepted in the school, usually orphan babies that are raised to be bodyguards of the sisters and the graduates. They are known as the Brothers of Silence and while their services are highly regarded and expensive, they are rarely seen and even more rarely heard as they either take their vows of silence too seriously or as legend has it, their tongues are cut off. The sisterhood is not a man-hating organization, on the contrary. However, their main task is to provide protection to the women.

And in truth the order, despite its apparently sinister motives, are actually keen to help others, especially the infirm, the dispossessed, abused women and orphan children. Despite these shady elements, the Sisters of Mercy have a well-earned reputation as stand up citizens of the Free Alliance, usually keeping themselves as organization neutral regarding the many squabbles between Alliance members, and sometimes even participating on the Alliance side in major conflicts.In both peace and war times, their medical training has been considered invaluable.

The Sisters of Mercy are the most well-known mysterious organization of Theia. But they are a power to be recognized. Where it stands with the changes that the world will face, no one knows. What is known is that it will play a role on the dueling fates of the realm.