PDA

View Full Version : Help With Homebrew Setting



Vknight
2011-03-02, 11:39 PM
I am currently working on my own Homebrew Campaign setting with Homebrew gods.
Sadly I know one thing. I suck at naming things. I suck alot this often leads to towns and citizens having last names. Along with me giving people similar names. This is why when names come into play my players and I work together for stuff they can know about ahead of time.

Anyway this setting I'm building here is some notes. the notes going into some history what has happened the new gods and kingdoms. None of which I have names for.

History
A group of 8 Wizards near 1000years ago decided they were greater then the gods and waged war upon them. The war eventually destroyed the old gods both evil and god along with the wizards but the damage they did to the Material Plane has stayed with the world.

The South, West, East, and North
To put is simply the south is burning hot all the time with savvanh areas being the only hospitable spots.

The West has become flooded with water and most of it is muddy, swamp land or rivers and oceans.

The East is jungle and overly lush with a large variety of jungle style animals.

The North is constant storms. It may be snow, blizzards, rain, but it is almost all the time with maybe once a day clear every week to month.

Then there are Desolate Lands places were things are worse.
Here are the two that are truly magical the rest are just extremes of already extreme enviroments. Such as the Ash Pits or Fire Swamps.
Storm Rakes are areas were the storm does not stop but will change destroying what was and could be there.

A Black Forest is a place were undead magic has stewed far to long this means anything which dies within come back as an Undead

Burning Woods are places were the trees seem dead from the heat but latch onto things near them draining it of water and other things

Then there are Sacred Rings places were the land is not as corrupted and highly liveable. The Sacred Rings are areas that dot the land far to few some people have to make do in the rest of the land.

I know there will be 7 larger kingdoms. Ones that control a few Sacred Rings close together letting them have a large amount of control.
Here is what I got for the 12 so far

1) A Human Kingdom. Leader is powerful spellcaster and neutral in his views. His kingdom is neutral but several smaller officials are becoming greedy and evil.

2) A Dragonborn/Draconic kingdom. They have a Senate of 20memebers they range from spellcasters to fighters. It is a conquering majestic empire keeping its control and attacking others for the slightest wrong to expand

3) A Tiefling Empire, in the south. There King is a warrior of blade and magic. Powerful and authoritarian those that go realize that this powerful and rich nation is not evil but controled through strict heirachy. The Kingdom is Lawful Neutral/Evil.

4) A Elven Kingdom. Only 2 Sacred Rings, this small kingdom and its king keep alive because of trade and alliances.

5) A corrupt and evil alliance of evil peoples. They have called upon demon, devils, and evil gods to power themselves. Horrid and retched slavery and any form of evil is supported were they can.

6) A Dwarven Kingdom settleted under a dangerous Storm Rake. They are the classic Dwarves, elf hating and beer swiging. They control a powerful underground city and are traders with those that come through.

7) A Human Empire, they live on a island far to the west. They are tribals and live along the island in several different tribes.

There will be several smaller settlements that I cannot think of ideas for either living within Sacred Rings or they live outside surving some how.

The Gods (Got no names for them either)

Good Gods
-A god of Peace, Harmony, and Civlization. A figure that rose from the ashes of the war after bringing the peace and civilized style of life he deems the world need. Alignment: Good

-A beautiful creature of scarlett wings her followers describe her part beast part man. Nature, Life, and Water. Alignment: Chaotic Good

-A god of Sun, Moon, and Order. Radiant Sun Glowing Moon, The Sun is his face and the moon his eyes. The cycles of the earth's Sun and Moon are his the beauty of the world to view at all times. Alignment: Lawful Good

-A god of Skill, War, and Honor. Laws and honor war should not be for evil skill will perserve those that are honorbound and skillful. Alignment: Good

-A goddess of Creation, Agriculture, and Beauty. Straight simple building from the base creating beauty. Alignment: Lawful Good
Neutral Gods

-A god of Secrets, Shadow, and Time. The black shadow of secrets the keeper of time. Alignment: True Neutral

-A god of Storms , Travel, and Change. The stormy travel twisting world god. Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

-A goddess of Luck, Fate, and Love. The shifting dies of fate the lucky draw. Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

-A goddess of Knowledge, Magic, Art. The beautiful creature of patron of artistry of magic. Alignment: Lawful Neutral

-A god of Death, Mercy, and Justice. Those who have done crimes fear the iron sickle, those of good heart fear nothing. Alignment: True Neutral

Evil Gods
-A god of Fire, War, Tyranny. Massive beast of black flames and pain fire and war are what he uses to corrupt and conquer. Alignment: Lawful Evil

-The Dark Storm raging storm of black secrets. Storm, Destruction, Darkness. Alignment: Chaotic Evil

-A god of Poison, Undeath/Necromancy, and Lies. The secret shadows and undeath black lord. Alignment: Evil

-A god of Illusions, Knowledge, Greed. The collector of secrets wealth and power. Alignment: Lwaful Evil

-A goddess of Envy, Doom, and Slaughter. Those not under iron heel will be slaughtered before her armies. Alignment: Chaotic Evil

I got no ideas for names for any settlement or major people within the setting as already stated so all the help will be aprreciated.
Along with ideas to expand the kingdoms and gods I've already listed/made.

Thanks to any that help be it a settlement name, a kings name, a gods name or by adding more gods and settlements to this world.

Also don't forget the cardinal rule of homebrew: Have fun.

begooler
2011-03-03, 02:57 AM
When stuck on names I usually type in some word or phrase that describes the nameless entity in question in the search bar in Wikipedia and then aimlessly click on links until I come across a random word that sounds good, feels like it makes sense, and doesn't stick out as being something too familiar.

Vknight
2011-03-03, 07:17 AM
That. That could actually work, though part of me fears results.
That should solve most naming issues, but may leave a few here or there.

So that leaves ideas for town and villages. You can if you think of one post it because it would be helpful because currently I only have those large knigdoms.

Amnestic
2011-03-03, 07:33 AM
Running words through translators to fancy languages can help too, I've found. Other than that I just start writing letters and add other letters around it until it feels correct.

When in doubt, mash the keyboard and delete at random until something looks good :smallamused:

Example:

t jhnuiorehh

becomes:

Jhuir, a small town primarily populated with humans and dwarves.

Easy-peasy.

EccentricCircle
2011-03-03, 07:40 AM
whne designing a homebrew world I always try to think about how to make each region distinct.
so you have a strong idea of what each of the nations in your world is going to be. thats a nice place to start. i'd give each nation names of a slightly different sort,

so maybe the human nations have "english" names like Eastmark or Riverfall. you could draw on the way old english and danelaw placenames work by using suffixes like ton or ham, beck, how, and so on. but link it back to real and recognisable words. dalen's how, greenham shimmering beck.

then you might have another race with a very different cultural background so you could give them very different sounds names. the cliche is elves having hard names like Kazrak, Jergoth and Z'han whereas elves use longer names like Maerisal, Varistea, Loristess and so on. by using more vowels for the elvish names and less hard sounds you give those names a slightly different feel. I often use the letters Ae together in elvish derived words to make them stand out.

of course in creating made up names be careful that they remain legible. your players will enjoy exploring Maerisal more than Z'harkis'tromarkt'ehey simply because it's easier to pronounce. I always get cross with drow names in published games, as they are hard to remember.

of course one thing that can give your world more depth is to mix things up. prehaps the elves once ruled the lands that the humans have and though they have moved on their names still remain. so you might have human towns called Maerisal Beck. or prehaps Maerisal is no more but Salham is built on its ruins, it was once called Merisalham (a corruption of the old elvish name.) but over time the name has changed.

or prehaps you want to subvert the cliche's the humans have strange names while the dwarves use very down to earth. prehaps tieflings have lots of ss sounds in their names because their forked toungs give them a natural sibelance.

maybe the dragonborn look up to the elvish culture of a past age and are trying to emulate it in their buildings and architecture, prehaps they use elvish names too but in their own way. building the Mighty Keeps of Maerisal Towers in a neoelvish style.

by changing things around you create a world with a sense of history,the trick is to use cliches to your advantage, to play into them and use them as a short hand for getting an idea to your players while subverting them enough to create a different but recognisable idea that will mean more to the players because it won't be just another Lorien or Kazhad Dum with the serial numbers filed off.


I hope that this Helps.

Vknight
2011-03-03, 05:40 PM
Yup I got plenty of help for the naming of things. Now to put that into practice and flesh out the world. Which is the second part of this topic.

Doc Roc
2011-03-03, 08:35 PM
When stuck on names I usually type in some word or phrase that describes the nameless entity in question in the search bar in Wikipedia and then aimlessly click on links until I come across a random word that sounds good, feels like it makes sense, and doesn't stick out as being something too familiar.

You win a cookie. I am delighted.

begooler
2011-03-06, 06:06 PM
Sounds like you actually want some examples of names. To start, here's a few suggestions for the good Gods...

Feng-Velorun; Yavapai; Sonoran -A god of Peace, Harmony, and Civlization. A figure that rose from the ashes of the war after bringing the peace and civilized style of life he deems the world need. Alignment: Good

Yakutia; Diaphanee; Nepheline -A beautiful creature of scarlett wings her followers describe her part beast part man. Nature, Life, and Water. Alignment: Chaotic Good

Inness; Leiden; Altair -A god of Sun, Moon, and Order. Radiant Sun Glowing Moon, The Sun is his face and the moon his eyes. The cycles of the earth's Sun and Moon are his the beauty of the world to view at all times. Alignment: Lawful Good

Fichte; Khaldoun; Caliphate -A god of Skill, War, and Honor. Laws and honor war should not be for evil skill will perserve those that are honorbound and skillful. Alignment: Good

Kheti; Faiyum; Moeris -A goddess of Creation, Agriculture, and Beauty. Straight simple building from the base creating beauty. Alignment: Lawful Good

The Evil Gods...
Debye; Wurm-Saha; The Dirac-A god of Fire, War, Tyranny. Massive beast of black flames and pain fire and war are what he uses to corrupt and conquer. Alignment: Lawful Evil

Sturmaz; Chiindi; The Raging Adagash-The Dark Storm raging storm of black secrets. Storm, Destruction, Darkness. Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Paracelsus; Villach; Distich; Phosgene-A god of Poison, Undeath/Necromancy, and Lies. The secret shadows and undeath black lord. Alignment: Evil

Itzhak; Liguori; Amphetami-A god of Illusions, Knowledge, Greed. The collector of secrets wealth and power. Alignment: Lwaful Evil

Lex Talionis; Sphyxis; Volaemia-A goddess of Envy, Doom, and Slaughter. Those not under iron heel will be slaughtered before her armies. Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Vknight
2011-03-06, 08:40 PM
Thanks Begooler I like those and I may use a few actually.