Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Green Adam" data-source="post: 5114241" data-attributes="member: 50821">Names and naming are a big thing for me too, although more among the Elves and Dwarves than the Humans.  Since the races of Man come from so many different areas and encompass so many different cultures on my main medieval fantasy world, rules on naming vary from place to place. Some regions have a long standing tradition of naming a person after the family business or profession (John Miller, John Smith (Blacksmith), John Barber, etc.), while others are named for their region, an immediate or famous relative (John Patrickson) or some name whose origins are long since forgotten. My names are far more 'fantasy' and or 'old world' sounding than the above examples but I just needed to illustrate what I'm talking about. Elves are perhaps my favorite, for their names are related to their origins on my world. There are only a set number of Elven Houses (Family Names) descended from the original...shall we say...colonists that landed on the world long ago. High Elf House Names include Rain, Storm, Lightning, Hale and other foul weather elements. Sylan Elf Houses are named for natural things like Tree, Leaf and River but also for things like Day, Twilight, Morning, Evening and Ever. The Arcane Grey Elves have some cross over with the High Elves but more notable are Pale, Light, Shine and Fair. The Dark Elves bare the typical names of Dark, Night, Spider, Deep and others. Now here's where it gets fun. Let's say Velis-Kal HaleFire, son of Valin-Rae HaleSky, a noted knight of the High Elven House of Hale, marries the lovely Sylvan Elf Brenaea MorningReach. Now, she is a member of the house of Hale and becomes Brenaea HaleReach. There are cases of the male taking the female's House name, though this happened more often in the past than my current timeline. Half-Elves are also interesting in that many of the Half-Elves of my world are not really the product of an Elf parent and a Human parent. There is a region where Elves and Humans have been mating since centuries past. The inhabitants of that area have no idea where the Human ends and the Elf begins so to speak. Many arrived on the island as outcasts from other regions who were among the first Half-Elves. As such they would tack an extra word onto their names to seperate them from their House. The end result gives us some of the coolest names in our campaign. Last names include StarsByNight, ThirdNightAngel, LongWayHome, FarRiverWinding and FiveSolemnShields. You can trace the names back (and some PCs have) to learn the character's origin. For example, both Long and Far are Sylvan Houses. Numbered Houses are often associated with a long dead branch of Elves killed off many years ago. ADBarking Alien</blockquote>

Verification