Tag Archives: Naming

Coin of the Realms (Part II)

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The easy answer to ‘how do I capture information about various fictional geopolitical entities’ is to make a list. I like lists. This was my first draft:

Organization Name
Flag
Colors
Coin Name 1
Coin Name 2
Coin Name 3
Religion, Primary
Religion(s), Other
Language, Primary
Language(s), Other
State Nickname 1 State Nickname 2

Which in practice translated into a text doc full of entries like this:

I. GAELUS PACT
“The Old Republics”
“Greenies”

FLAG: Green cross with nimbus on white background
COLORS: Green & white
MAJOR CITIES: Caer Denis, Caer Jule
ETHNIC MAKE-UP: PIKS (55%), JUARO (25%), NAHR (10%), KADDIM VADESH (5%)
PRIMARY CURRENCY: Gold lairds, silver gryffids, copper bittins
MAJOR RELIGION(S): Paganism, Way of the Three Sisters, Occult philosophy

And this is what I’ve relied upon during the drafting of WITCH and HEIST. Simplicity means I can dedicate more time to actually writing. But I’m not satisfied. I continue to experiment with maps, but the software I’ve discovered is either too primitive or prohibitively expensive. Which is a pity.

A well-done map fires my imagination like little else.

From Wyverns to Dragons to Worms

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In the background of the Northern Arcadian novels is the threat of invasion from another world, from creatures I have variously dubbed ‘wyverns,’ ‘worms’ and ‘dragons.’ Today, though, the affair is settled, thanks to an extremely interesting (and dubious) article about a proto-language dubbed ‘Eurasiatic.’ The hypothesis is based mostly upon the discovery of multiple cognates (words that sound the same in different languages) for a core vocabulary that includes… ‘worm.’

If you’re trying to sell the notion that, once upon a time, all of mankind had a shared enemy in the great and terrible wyverns dragons worms, this is the kind of thing that makes your story stronger. (And also makes your day.)

Coin of the Realms (Part I)

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In the earliest incarnation of WITCH I tried to avoid naming the currency, opting instead for ‘gold,’ ‘silver,’ and ‘copper.’ One of my first (and best) readers objected. ‘Too generic,’ he told me. ‘Call them pounds, francs or dollars, but call them something.’

I thought about what he’d said. I struggled to differentiate the word ‘franc’ from the history of the French peoples. Pounds, likewise, tilted my thoughts towards the United Kingdom. If I wanted to create a plausible new world, I realized, I needed to learn the history of currency.

Which, you know, thank heavens for wikipedia. But another problem nagged at me. How many different varieties of currency were in play in the American colonies in the 16th century? The British, Spanish, and French (to name just three) all had influence in the New World. I didn’t need to develop a single currency system; I needed three or four.

And I needed to preserve that information so I could refer to it later.

(to be continued.)