On Names

I have decided to fully embrace the "fuck it we ball" style, or — how I like to call it — the Hirohiko Araki style of not stressing too much over how silly your names sound in other languages. I feel like I have to write this down somewhere or I'll go crazy.

The setting for Fiamme Eterne is (very, very vaguely) based on the domains of Italy around the end of the 6th century, mostly on the Longobard Kingdom (which was my first inspiration for the Kingdom of Himmelheit). Vallendeur was supposed to be based on the Byzantine Empire, but it ended up being French — opposed to the German-sounding Himmelheit. And of course, there's a Latin-Greek Church State.

It's a mix that's pretty detached from its original inspiration, but I'm still following some naming conventions:

  • All Himmelian names should at least sound German, and will be tweaked accordingly in the German localization (sike!! I have no money)
  • All Vallendeuse names should at least sound French, and will be tweaked accordingly in the French localization (no, seriously, there are no funds for that)
  • All Astraean names should at least sound (Ancient) Greek, Latin, or vaguely Italian, and since the first two are dead languages and I speak the last one fluently they may sound as silly as I like forever (HA!)
  • People names come from painfully browsing Wikipedia animal pages in the target language (birds for Fogelians, small mammals for Therials, reptiles for Reptides)
  • Cities in Himmelheit come from cloud formations, dungeons and points of interest from wind names
  • Cities in Vallendeur come from minerals
  • Cities, dungeons and points of interest in Astraea come from star names and, occasionally, mountain terminology