Dear WotC - You suck at names.

[Xyl]

A portementeau is a word made up of two different words combined together. The term itself is based off the french word for coatrack, which is "Coat" and "Rack" put together.

Half-right. Portmanteau refers to a word made by taking part of one word and part of another, such as "brunch" or "cyborg". As MerricB posted, the term (in that usage) comes from Through the Looking Glass. "Feywild" and "shadowfell" aren't actually portmanteaus, they're regular compound words.

 

[Baduin]

Some alternative names for the Feywild

Faerie, Faery etc.
Otherworld
Elfhame
Tir Na mBeo - Land of the Living
Tir na n'Og - Land of Youth
Tir Tairngire - Land of Promise
Tirfo Thuinn - the Land Under the Waves
Tirn Aill - the Other World
Tir na mBan - Land of Women
Hy Breasil
Mag Mell - Pleasant Plain
Mag Mor - Great Plain
the Realm Perilous
Avalon

 

[Branduil]

Mmm, Emerald Frost...

 

[rounser]

"Hail! I am Badgertooth Bladeblade the Hexblade, Redblade of the Emerald Frost bladeclan. I have called you all here with my Infinitysimal Summonhorn to the Ogredagger Inn of Greydale to discuss a dire threat to all of us who live here on Eberron, this planet on which we all live. A vile eldritch villain, an Eladrin Oozemage by prestige trade and Archanomagemage by heritage, threatens to devour all of the Feyweld with his Shadowfart powered Achiles Oufertoffensphere!"

LOL.

If half-anteater half-dragon half-warturnips were the bane of 3E, maybe portmanteaus are the bane of 4E? Oh fane that it not be so!

I also gather that Eberron was originally going to be called Warforged, so a bullet was dodged there, maybe. That "war" word is sure creeping into a lot of their favourite portmanteaus. A world named "Warblade" would have won even more, maybe. Words like "blade" and "war" are pushing someone's "kewl" button over there...erk.

 

[wedgeski]

I think 'Feywild' is okay, and 'Shadowfell' much more than okay. It trips off the tongue and evokes instant images of he place... what more could you want?

Interestingly, I find the vast majority of efforts by other posters to come up with different or 'better' names to be abject failures. Those MtG names in particular just flat out suck IMO. They're akin to the very worst captions I would slap over my campaign maps when I was 11.

'Avaracadavrous' though. That made me laugh.

 

[Plane Sailing]

* An upland stretch of open country; a moor.

I'm glad you posted some definitions for 'fell'.

Maybe it is because I'm British, but I automatically read '-fell' as meaning a remote, wild location (I often used to go walking in the fells north of Yorkshire).

I wonder whether some people are not familiar with that usage of the word and so are reading it as the past tense of 'to fall'? That would perhaps explain why I don't think of Shadowfell as cheesy, while others might, perhaps?

Regards

 

[jasin]

I wonder whether some people are not familiar with that usage of the word and so are reading it as the past tense of 'to fall'? That would perhaps explain why I don't think of Shadowfell as cheesy, while others might, perhaps?

I first read "fell" as an adjective, and it souded a lot cheesier than once I found out about the "moor" meaning.

 

[jasin]

"Feywild" and "shadowfell" aren't actually portmanteaus, they're regular compound words.

I think they're kenning-wannabes, like many fantasy names.

 

[jasin]

I think Kirin is a great fantasy name... because it's too weird for real life.

That's our interior minister's last name.

 

[Simia Saturnalia]

I'll take an evocative compound word - or phrase, or regular word - over some more unpronounceable apostrophe-laden 'ae'-happy fantasy names, thanks. It fits in better with a world largely unmapped and unknown, too - all the sages have is the name they gave it in a vain attempt to describe an alien world.

And lay off Verbobonc!