What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry

pervocracy:

pirozhok-s-kapustoj:
ten-and-donna:
my-fair-ladybug:
my-fair-ladybug:
Something that’s almost never covered in fantasy mediums is common names.
Like we all know fantasy names are unusual, but any name to a foreign culture is considered unusual English names to Indian people are very unusual for example. But naturally, given that it’s an entire culture, there will be some common names, it’d be refreshing to at one point here this exchange.
“So I was talking to Vicnae and-”
“Wait which Vicnae? You can’t just say Vicnae. There are ten Vicnae’s in my village alone.”
This has 100 notes yesterday and 300 this morning what the fuck happened.
People understand the truly important things.
DSA (a German fantasy P&P RPG) actually has the name Alrik, which is hugely popular in the universe. Everyone is Alrik.
This is also a great excuse to use “X the Y” or “X of Y” type names without being pretentious. Calling someone “Thognor The Stout” goes from pomposity to practicality if he lives down the road from Thognor The Small.

Katharine Kerr’s Deverry series, which is Celtic-inspired, makes a point of mentioning which names are common or unusual, with the common ones often duplicated; as it’s set over hundreds of years (the characters reincarnate!) you also see both the society and the trends in naming change. It’s an awesome series in its own right, but if this kind of attention to detail is something you like, check it out!

(via living-for-fiction)