Post your name submissions for the world here

[The Cartographist]

I haven't yet come up with the word that I want to use, but I think that we should just call it "The _______ Lands"

Let's remember, the project is (currently) only one small portion of a very big world, therefore IMO there is no need to name the world itself. We should just name the region that we are mapping.

EVERY different culture on the planet will have a different name for the world. Picking a name in such a world would mean that we pick the name that ONE of those cultures uses, which then elevates that culture in importance (otherwise, why would we have chosen their name over the others?).

Back to what I said at the top, I think the name should be a simple adjective that captures the feel of the world in its present form. Since we don't really know what that is yet, we should just leave it blank. Therefore, I propose, for the time being, "The (blank) Lands" or "T(b)L" for short. Once more of the world is fleshed out, we can replace (blank) with something that is truly meaningful to the setting.

Just my deranged two cents...

[ravells]

I haven't yet come up with the word that I want to use, but I think that we should just call it "The _______ Lands"

Let's remember, the project is (currently) only one small portion of a very big world, therefore IMO there is no need to name the world itself. We should just name the region that we are mapping.

EVERY different culture on the planet will have a different name for the world. Picking a name in such a world would mean that we pick the name that ONE of those cultures uses, which then elevates that culture in importance (otherwise, why would we have chosen their name over the others?).

Back to what I said at the top, I think the name should be a simple adjective that captures the feel of the world in its present form. Since we don't really know what that is yet, we should just leave it blank. Therefore, I propose, for the time being, "The (blank) Lands" or "T(b)L" for short. Once more of the world is fleshed out, we can replace (blank) with something that is truly meaningful to the setting.

Just my deranged two cents...

That, my friend is a superb and excellent point. Are we talking about the name for Region 1 or the entire world?

[Torq]

My undertanding, which seems to accord with the understanding of most of the posters in this thread, is that we were seeking a name for the whole world, not the specific region we are all now busy with.

I am quite happy include the option "we shouldn't be naming the whole world yet" in the poll. If that's the most popular we can set about naming the region instead.

The name of the planet is as much for our own convenience as for the world itself. There will always be a multitude of different cultures on any world (I hope) and one need only look at our own to know that "earth" is the way only certain cultures refer to it. So yes, coming up with one name to describe the whole planet is over-simplistic, but the need for a name seems strong from what I can gather from this board so I believe we should go ahead and poll for a world name (or not if thats the decision).

Torq

[The Cartographist]

Torq - I guess that I would have to disagree with you on this one. I think that what we really need to do is figure out the name of the project, which is NOT the same as the name of the world.

For instance, "the Forgotten Realms" is the name of the published campaign world originally created as Ed Greenwood's homebrew campaign, but it is not the name that the inhabitants call it.

Likewise, the World of Greyhawk was originally Dave Arneson's (I hope I'm right on that) homebrew campaign, but that is not what the inhabitants of that world call it.

I think that we should be looking for a "brand name" if you will and not the world name.

[Robbie]

I've already taken the liberty of naming the project by installing a wiki on a sub-domain So you're stuck with that part at least Details will be announced as soon as all the configuration stuff is done with though.

So the world/region name will only be as important as how big you make it on the front page of the Wiki. I personally think that world name is "kinda" important because in our various cultures all the words for earth basically translate to the same thing except in a few rare cases...Also look at Toril/Faerun...Because you're eventually going to have a cosmology and pantheon, I think world name is important...ESPECIALLY from a cosmology standpoint.

Suns, moons, other system planets, all of that is important...

[The Cartographist]

Arcana - Don't get me wrong--I think a world name is important. I just didn't think it was of great urgency.

At this point, the majority of the effort is in the mapping, and I would say that a world name is not important for the mapping of a small part of it.

Now by all means, once the other aspects of world creation get going (the creative writing aspects), the name of the world is important. As you say, the cosmology, the astronomy, the pantheon(s), etc etc, ie all the things that make up a believable culture and world are vastly important. I just didn't think that it was as important at this stage of the project.

[Midgardsormr]

To be honest, I have never thought a world name was important at all. I don't think I've ever named the planet of one of my campaign settings. Actually, I tend to avoid naming anything at all--I'm just not very good at it. I had thought that naming the world was merely a way to give us a way to reference the project, but since Arcana's already selected something for that purpose, I concur with whatever name we come up with being applied to this region, or perhaps the continent.

[Gamerprinter]

World name suggestions:

Celanta

Cer or Cera

Dern

[Robbie]

The original rush was my fault...I wanted to name the subdomain after the world, but I don't think that would do the project as much justice...feel free to backburner this topic if necessary. Its important, but its not rushed.

[Torq]

Seeing as the wiki has a name and there is no rush to name the world, maybe we should go ahead and pick a name for the region. If you have any objection to your previous suggestion going into the poll as a potential name for the Northern region we are currently mapping, please post a note to that effect. If not they will go into a poll for region name.

Torq