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Cealocanth
2010-08-05, 09:22 PM
I've been working on a campaign of my own lately. It's very abnormal and is based off of exsisting Earth that was populated by DnD creatures. If the creatures were raiders from a different plane, what would the playable races call the planet?

jiriku
2010-08-05, 09:37 PM
Githyanki: "Who cares? It's just another dirty provincial backwater."

Ethergaunts: "Target World 07H23AE5."

Mind Flayers: "Slaughterhouse World 00732598"

Native Races: "The world" (really, people are terribly uncreative about naming their planet when they don't grasp that it's not unique)

Starfols
2010-08-05, 10:36 PM
Bob. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kw-oZkfDgU#t=3) :smallbiggrin:

Anasazi
2010-08-06, 01:41 AM
Gaia is often used.

Reynard
2010-08-06, 02:07 AM
Earth's called Earth because earth is called earth, and Earth is completely made out of earth. Same reason as Terra, that's just Latin for 'ground'.

So yeah, find the oldest/most proliferated language in the setting, find the word for 'earth' or 'ground', done.

Andion Isurand
2010-08-06, 04:09 AM
I like the combination name "Terragaia"

Morph Bark
2010-08-06, 04:12 AM
I've been working on a campaign of my own lately. It's very abnormal and is based off of exsisting Earth that was populated by DnD creatures. If the creatures were raiders from a different plane, what would the playable races call the planet?

Wasn't that the premise of Oerth?

Eldan
2010-08-06, 06:05 AM
Wasn't that the premise of Oerth?

Especially if you pronounce it the same as "Earth".

But yeah, people aren't creative. Just look at how many names of tribes all over the world mean "the people".

hamishspence
2010-08-06, 06:09 AM
Terry Pratchett mentioned something like this- most tribes call themselves something that means "The True Human Beings" and everyone else something that means "Not True Human Beings" or, in some cases "The Enemy".

"Some Other True Human Beings" would be ideal- but it doesn't happen that often.

snikrept
2010-08-06, 06:10 AM
I agree with the above, call it whatever sounds cool, and that word means "dirt" or "the land" or something in the most common native language.

Xuc Xac
2010-08-06, 07:59 AM
Terry Pratchett mentioned something like this- most tribes call themselves something that means "The True Human Beings" and everyone else something that means "Not True Human Beings" or, in some cases "The Enemy".


This seems especially common among American Indian nations. The names by which we know them are almost never their original names for themselves. Rather, we know them by the names they were called by another tribe that was met first. For example, Europeans met the Creek before they met the Cherokee. The Cherokee are known as "Cherokee" because the Europeans asked the Creek "Who are those people?" and the Creek said "Cherokee" which is Creek for "people who speak another language".

Cealocanth
2010-08-06, 06:13 PM
I'm not trying to crib off of Oerth for those who think I am. I think I'll search for names in ancient languages.

Subotei
2010-08-06, 06:35 PM
Arda - from Tolkien

Urpriest
2010-08-06, 11:41 PM
Would your raiders be coming in from outside the crystal sphere, or from portals? If the former, Blue seems appropriate...Earth looks pretty blue from the outside. If the latter, what traits did their homeplanes have? Does Earth have functioning magic in your world?

The Vorpal Tribble
2010-08-06, 11:44 PM
It'd depend on what the world is like. In my arctic homebrew setting for example the name for the planet is basically translated as 'The Hearth' which is warmed by the sun whose name is translated as 'the dying ember'.

Outside the box names are always fun.

Evard
2010-08-06, 11:47 PM
RumRazorFeatherBum would be a nice name for a planet... :3 RRFB for short

herrhauptmann
2010-08-06, 11:51 PM
ERF! (while pointing a magic ring of earth control at the sky)

Urpriest
2010-08-07, 12:25 AM
ERF! (while pointing a magic ring of earth control at the sky)

Fill it with twolls, dwagons, and gwiffins!

The Pressman
2010-08-07, 12:58 AM
In relation to the above "call it Blue" post, why not Azura? Or since one of astronauts favorite terms is 'big blue marble', look up latin for marble or something.

Ragnarok'n'Roll
2010-08-07, 01:19 AM
Best bot ever.

The Pressman
2010-08-07, 01:30 AM
I would agree, except it got it's video-game spewing nonsense all over one of my threads.:smallmad:

Scarey Nerd
2010-08-07, 01:55 AM
Tee hee, funny Bot, it thinks it's people.

In relation to the thread, how about Metis? In the Greek myths of old, Athena sprang from the head of Metis fully formed, something that could be akin to Human creation myths.

Calmar
2010-08-07, 02:54 AM
I've been working on a campaign of my own lately. It's very abnormal and is based off of exsisting Earth that was populated by DnD creatures. If the creatures were raiders from a different plane, what would the playable races call the planet?

In my own setting it's simply called the World. 1) because it's easy and simple, 2) because adventures won't be taking place on other worlds, and 3) because I don't use "Earth" to referr to my own planet most of the time, so anything even slightly more exotic would be completely impractical. :smallwink:

I think riders from another plane would simply call it the human planet, or planet of the humans (well, if humans are the dominant sentient species of your Earth, and don't control any other planets). And if that's too boring, just invent some word in their language(s) that has this meaning...

Malificus
2010-08-07, 04:09 AM
Assuming these raiders have a mindset similar to Humans, the following results are most likely:


The name of the person who discovered the planet
The first name (not necessarily the planet's) given by the planet's inhabitants ("Earth", or "New York")
The first name given by others who saw us first <Chumpland>
A name taken from a mythological figure of theirs
<Alienland>
Some name based on the predominance of a certain element, like trees, water, or dirt. If you want to hide this fact, obfuscate it in obscure, or foreign terms.


Otherwise, you can get names that correlated letters to position, like 5er0 (pronounced Vernon) (http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20060419.html), or they named it by a mixture of the rotational pattern, the gravitational force, and what the local preference of food is, or maybe they just name it after what the 4th child of the race was feeling when they landed (perhaps they call the planet Kinda Dizzy)

The_Admiral
2010-08-07, 05:37 AM
How about calling it water for a change

Cealocanth
2010-08-07, 08:47 AM
In relation to the above "call it Blue" post, why not Azura? Or since one of astronauts favorite terms is 'big blue marble', look up latin for marble or something.

Azura. I like it! Before the species left underground when the blue had left from the planet, the name Azura was the fantasy of a future world where the blue had returned. Long since have the races left the Underdark, but the name of the blue world has remained.

Thanks!

Dmatix
2010-08-07, 10:51 AM
How about something biblical, like Aretz( meaning land and the Earth's name in Hebrew)?, Adama(ground), Afar(dirt) or something of the sort.

Lord Vukodlak
2010-08-07, 03:36 PM
You could also call it Prime, in most cosmologies the material plane lies at the center of it, creatures may refer to the planet as prime.

Another idea is Pondera[latin] for balanced,
Other planes have some type of trait, be it elemental, alignment, magic, time etc that helps define it.
What defines the material plane is its in balance, neutral.

Coidzor
2010-08-07, 04:10 PM
Assuming these raiders have a mindset similar to Humans, the following results are most likely:


The name of the person who discovered the planet
The first name (not necessarily the planet's) given by the planet's inhabitants ("Earth", or "New York")
The first name given by others who saw us first <Chumpland>
A name taken from a mythological figure of theirs
<Alienland>
Some name based on the predominance of a certain element, like trees, water, or dirt. If you want to hide this fact, obfuscate it in obscure, or foreign terms.


On that note, if it was part of a constellation visible from their home area, they might name it something to do with that constellation.

Darius Rae
2010-08-07, 04:53 PM
"Yes... Yes... This is a fertile land and we will thrive. We will rule over all this land and we will call it... This Land. "

Dr.Epic
2010-08-07, 04:55 PM
Bob. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kw-oZkfDgU#t=3) :smallbiggrin:

Matt Damon is the last person who should name a planet.

Lord Vukodlak
2010-08-07, 04:56 PM
Matt Damon is the last person who should name a planet.

Well no one said you had to live on Planet Bob

Damocles74
2010-08-07, 05:12 PM
I like the (name) Prime idea but i always felt its more suited to Sci Fi games. Where there is expansion to other planets. But has anyone really gone to those other planets that is'nt the Prime? Like does anyone really want to visit Cybertron Beta?