Silly RL names

[HuManBing]

I just realized I never posted my sanitized list of Ravenloft names in this thread. So here goes:

Lamordia: Nortenmark (pseudo-Germanic "northern reach", hinting at a Falkovnian-invasion history)
Mordent: Cosabel (pseudo-French "côte sable" - black coasts)
Dementlieu: Maresotes (marées hautes - high tides, in honor of the many lakes there)
Richemulot: Praquadie (par arcadie - like Arcadia)
Darkon: unchanged, but etymology derives from Darcalus Conclave
Invidia: Întradevâr (pseudo-Romanian for "in truth")

These are just for my own personal use. Feel free to borrow whatever you like and leave what you don't.

[Hazgarn]

Skimming this thread, I may have missed it, but it seems like everyone overlooked Richemulot, which in my opinion has always had some of the worst offenders:

Ste. Ronges - from French "ronger", "to gnaw"
Pont-a-Museau and Musarde River - "mus" being the taxonomical genus for mice

Also Verbrek seems to come from the german "Verbrechen", which means crime or felony. I've excused this in my campaign by giving the region a reputation as a refuge for criminals fleeing justice (think Sherwood Forest, only not so friendly). Though I've worked in some cheesiness of my own. Relating to Anglo-Saxon as the basis for Low Mordentish, people in southern Mordent call Verbrek the "Wargwood". "Warg" coming from the A-S "wearg", which was a word used for outlaws which means both "wolf" and "strangler".

Of course this is just reputation. Just because outlaws fled there, doesn't mean they ever came out again.

[devilfox]

I just realized I never posted my sanitized list of Ravenloft names in this thread. So here goes:

Lamordia: Nortenmark (pseudo-Germanic "northern reach", hinting at a Falkovnian-invasion history)
Mordent: Cosabel (pseudo-French "côte sable" - black coasts)
Dementlieu: Maresotes (marées hautes - high tides, in honor of the many lakes there)
Richemulot: Praquadie (par arcadie - like Arcadia)
Darkon: unchanged, but etymology derives from Darcalus Conclave
Invidia: Întradevâr (pseudo-Romanian for "in truth")

These are just for my own personal use. Feel free to borrow whatever you like and leave what you don't.

These are brilliant! Especially Maresotes and Praquadie. I dunno. They just resonate with me for some reason.

Personally, though, I think Mordent needs to be more Old Mordentish (ie. Old English / Anglo-Saxon) and less High Mordentish (French).


In other news, it is quite possible that Har'Akir comes from the Ancient Egyptian ḥḳr (pronounced something like ha'kir) meaning 'hunger'.