Want opinions on names (Realms of Eastden)

[RN3G8 4E]

Hey everyone- this is my second post.  I know Jake Norwood, the guy who made Riddle of Steel and I made a New Year's resolution to write a rough draft of a book set in this sci-fi world I've been creating in my head and many notebooks for the past five years.  But turns out I'm having lots of problems with the story still so maybe I'll make it a rough draft of an RPG instead and flesh out the galaxy a little more.  Anyhow, I thought it would be fun to post some names of the factions in power and see what people thought of them. So take a look, tell me what you think, maybe yell at me, praise me, just keep it civil.

Jovian Legion
Central Alliance
Auldorin Empire       (not sure whether to put accent on Aul or dor)
Pochynia Dominion  (poh-CHAI-nya)
Feanor Kingdom      (FAY-ah-nor)
Archon Wastelands
Kor Isyn Federation  (kor ICE-sin)
Interstellar Republic
Northstar Union/Polaris Union
Rhineduin Command (RHINE-doo-in)
United Systems of Phoston

These are all names of governments or factions in power that have the power to create change in the Eastden Galaxy.  They all have their strengths and weaknesses and I'll probably be writing lots more about them in this forum but I wanted to see what opinions you had of just the names, what images (if any) they conjured up for you, etc.

[Eric J.]

Archon Wastelands

This one confuses me a slight amount.

Also, I wouldn't be as concerned with how the names sound as with how they apply to the empires.

It would help much more if you explained what feel you're attempting to accomplish.

BTW- Welcome to the Forge. ;)

[Ben Morgan]

Just a couple of points:

There's a game called Jovian Chronicles. I know the name's been around a lot longer than that, but there is bound to be a certain amount of  association (the fact that it's also a sci-fi game doesn't help).

Feanor is a name from The Silmarillion. If this was done on purpose, then that's fine.

Auldorin Empire: I'd place the stress on "dor". Otherwise it ends up sounding like Alderaan.

Other than that, some really cool names.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

I'm the dissenter, I guess. All of these names sound like pop fantasy to me. The use of "Command" and "Republic" are pretty 50s-SF and don't connote much beyond that, to the point where they're cliched; same goes for "Centrality" which is more 60s or Star-Treky.

Then again, as far as I'm concerned, most stuff labeled science fiction these days is fantasy in my book. I have an unusual view about these terms and perhaps shouldn't be attended to.

Best,
Ron

[Valamir]

To be honest all of these names sound like they just came out of a Master of Orion video game.  Meaning they sound like labels you'd assign to something so gamers know which ball of rock they're about to bombard.

I have trouble envisioning any real people having such names for their states.  Perhaps its the painfully unique "government" typology appended to the names.  Sure there are a smattering of such names here on earth, a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or United States, or the like...but having every single power with such a tag line smack of contrivance to me.  For the most part I see them as an attempt to boil down government and cultureal issues to a single world.  "Oh they must be the good guys because they're a 'federation' and these guys are an 'empire'".

[RN3G8 4E]

Perhaps the best thing to do would be to just come up with one word names for the different regions of space these factions control?  Much like how Europe, although called the European Union, is made up of France, Germany, Austria, etc.?

Hmm... I mightbe onto something there.

[szilard]

What sort of tone are you going for in this game? What sub-genre of SF? Giving us some literary/film inspirations might help.

Stuart

[Jasper]

I agree that the names sounds a little video-gamey, and that you might want to change them but.... is this really the most important thing to you right now?  Are you working on the mechanics for the game yet?  I think these would be more interesting subjects to address.  We can't really suggest names for you, especially until we know more about the world.

[RN3G8 4E]

Well I don't know much right now, especially since I am rethinking a lot of the initial ideas I had about it, but I know a few things for sure.

Its in a galaxy far away (just so that its not Earth's future)
There are no aliens
There are worlds where man has adapted to environments a little diff. from earth and so, over generations man has changed a little there
It will feel fantasy-ish rather than sci-fi at times

Oh by the way, there's a reason why they're called the Archon Wastelands, and it refers to a bit of Eastden mythology- I'll tell the story here becuz its not long:
The powerful wizard Proroko served the great king Actdoreh. One of Prorehko's most promising students turned to evil and desired the kingdom for himself. In the evil one's assault on the castle, he unleashed an army of men and monsters that laid waste to all in their path. Proroko had a spell to summon a terrible demon of awesome power. At the last moment he summoned it, in a last desperate effort to save the kingdom. The awful demon was called the Archon, and he destroyed all the enemies' forces, but also destroyed much of the land of the kingdom as well. In the end, many people began to believe that Proroko was wrong to have done it, although he saved them all from the terrible yoke of a tyrant king.

The Archon Wastelands are filled with asteroid fields, huge nebulae, and radiation. It seemed like such a mess that the whole region came to be called the Archon Wastelands. Like?

[Jasper]

Sounds like you're off to a good start, with a rich history for the place.  Now, the demon/wizard battle takes place at a castle...and then the wasteland is asteroid fields and such.  Are the "castles" really immense and virtually celestial bodies onto themselves?  I think that would be a really cool idea.  Fantasy at a HUGE scale, with knights riding around on space-based creatures (or ships, either way).  Maybe this isn't quite what you'd intended, but it's still neat :)

One thing I would suggest, since I usualyl do, is to read some medieval romances, since you are developing a fantasy-ish game, and fantays is ostensibly medieval-esque.  The setting isn't nearly as important as the themes, and I think a lot of good adventures and histories could be gotten from such literature.  Anything by Chretian de Troyes would be good, and there have been movie adaptations of his romances too (Excalibur being one maybe?).

[ADGBoss]

Hello,

I'm the dissenter, I guess. All of these names sound like pop fantasy to me. The use of "Command" and "Republic" are pretty 50s-SF and don't connote much beyond that, to the point where they're cliched; same goes for "Centrality" which is more 60s or Star-Treky.

Then again, as far as I'm concerned, most stuff labeled science fiction these days is fantasy in my book. I have an unusual view about these terms and perhaps shouldn't be attended to.

Best,
Ron

I tend to agree with Ron on this, those names do sound rather fantasy like and if thats the point then right on, but remember they are Human Terms, and if any of the above are Non-Human or perhaps non- Terran (say they have been off Earth for 200 or more years) then their languages would be different. concepts would be different. Aliens are more then funny foreheads and their language is more then a Translation of English.

I do like the idea that your giving these empires life and trying to use Language to evoke a responce, but frankly if we ever meet any Aliens they could just as easily be called

Former Vegetarians
People of the Pantyhosed Goddess
Large Mouth Basss

or any other of a hundred Combinations.  The idea of a Kingdom (with its Patriarchal root) would be completely Alien to MAtriarchal or all female race.

Its one thing in Seraphim I am striving for. Very ALIEN Aliens even though they play a small part in the story

Sean

ADGBoss

[ADGBoss]

Well I don't know much right now, especially since I am rethinking a lot of the initial ideas I had about it, but I know a few things for sure.

Its in a galaxy far away (just so that its not Earth's future)
There are no aliens
There are worlds where man has adapted to environments a little diff. from earth and so, over generations man has changed a little there
It will feel fantasy-ish rather than sci-fi at times

Oh by the way, there's a reason why they're called the Archon Wastelands, and it refers to a bit of Eastden mythology- I'll tell the story here becuz its not long:
The powerful wizard Proroko served the great king Actdoreh. One of Prorehko's most promising students turned to evil and desired the kingdom for himself. In the evil one's assault on the castle, he unleashed an army of men and monsters that laid waste to all in their path. Proroko had a spell to summon a terrible demon of awesome power. At the last moment he summoned it, in a last desperate effort to save the kingdom. The awful demon was called the Archon, and he destroyed all the enemies' forces, but also destroyed much of the land of the kingdom as well. In the end, many people began to believe that Proroko was wrong to have done it, although he saved them all from the terrible yoke of a tyrant king.

The Archon Wastelands are filled with asteroid fields, huge nebulae, and radiation. It seemed like such a mess that the whole region came to be called the Archon Wastelands. Like?

Ok so there are no aliens, I need to read threads better :) All the same ideas still apply though, as they have been off Earth for a very long time and their societies may have changed and with that, their language.  More then likely they will take Words and Concepts and try and fit the two together.

They may not say Child of a Wizard,

They might say Wizkid! because they sift through the history of their language and find Wizkid and some associations with Magic and fantasy...

I am sure there are better examples.

Sean

ADGBoss

[RN3G8 4E]

Well what I meant is the name is based on ancient mythology, when there were castles and vassals and such. Since so many of our planets and constellations are named from ancient mythology I knew I'd want to come up with some mythology of my own.

But I was fully intending to create a place (or two) where they have set up a monarchy and feudal/vassal system. With "knights" protecting the realm. From bad raiders. Heh.

[clehrich]

If you're describing the sort of universe I think you are, then there's a strong (though perhaps not overbearing) element of semi-medieval Europe floating around; as someone noted, good guys in spaceships are more or less knights in armor on horses.  I don't mean that this is an identity, but the point is that this isn't really "hard" SF, and I don't think that's your intention.

Now it seems to me your choices of names draw inspiration from the same sorts of sources as did the old D&D Greyhawk countries, which you'll recall were all called the X of Y (The Archprelacy of Jamok or whatever).  I don't know if this is intentional, but it sounds like authors like Burroughs are sources for this game setting.

If what I've just said sounds right to you --- that is, if your game is indeed grand Space Opera, ripping yarns in space and damn the torpedoes, John Carter of Mars (without the 4-armed guys), and so forth --- then I think your names are wonderful.

If you are horrified at the idea that your game might be anything like this, I think you need a big overhaul of the names.

I think this is why Ron thought it all sounded rather 50s-60s, and some have mentioned videogames (which all draw on SF books, after all), and so on.  These names sound like they come from a certain sub-genre of SF.  I happen to like that subgenre (which ranges from Buck Rogers [NOTE: the comic!] and Flash Gordon to that novel _High_Crusade_ [Poul Anderson?]), but regardless these names are strongly reminiscent.

Does that help?

[RN3G8 4E]

Yes, that does help!

I am trying to set up the world so that someone COULD do "what if" sci-fi if they wanted to, but also so that there can be a good deal of epic sci-fi going on that doesn't have to feel totally complex- someone could understand it on an innate level, like Star Wars.  Its so easy for people  to get confused with the ideas in sci-fi...

Not to say that I don't want any new ideas in there, though. I think that sci-fi needs some new ideas, like some others brought up in my thread in RPG theory.

In truth, I am stealing a lot of ideas for the world as it is from Legend of the Five Rings- if any of you are familiar with that, let me know!