>Czechs, Slovaks, Romani, Franks, Kyrgs, Scots, Bulgars, Serbs, Turks, Kurds, Poles, Armenians, Greeks, Slavs, Magyar, Finns, etc- I'm planning on running a game soon that's based around spooky Gothic horror aesthetics and the 17th-19th centuries. I had a thought that it might better fit such a setting to give players choices of different human races instead of the usual elves, dwarfs and humans. Each "race" I guess being closer to a cultural identity, many of which posses long histories and unique traditions of living that MIGHT occasionally interact with each-other but rarely mix. One race might allegedly learn to ski before they walk and get a mechanical bonus to represent that snow-bound way of life, while another might be amazing horse-riders and keepers, and yet another might just be an exceptionally depressive people.
However, I've found it difficult to generate names for such peoples that don't sound made up. I was wondering if Veeky Forums or any eurobros around might have any knowledge to share about the linguistic traditions that gave rise to the names above, or advice for naming demographics of that type.
I don't understand. You need personal names, or what?
Jeremiah Davis
I mean names for fictional cultures. Like "the somethings", where a member of "the somethings" would be called a "something". Similar to saying something like "the scots" and "a scot", if that makes any sense.
Owen Phillips
Use obscure real ones and hope your players don't notice. Vlachs have to be in there somewhere.
Try using names of dialects as well. For example, Torlakian, a dialect of Serbian, always sounded like a perfect name for a made-up Eastern Euro ethnicity.
Carson Rivera
Shit. Which part of Serbia and how does it sound like?
Do you think someone who isn't a Slav (Americans especially) knows who they were?
Josiah Martinez
Any Rage Against The Machine fan knows who the Visigoths were.
Nathan Torres
I went to school in Western Europe, they were touched upon in history classes. Also they both were in some form in Age of Empire 2, IIRC.
Gabriel Jenkins
>yfw C19th New York was far more culturally diverse
Jack Harris
>Carni *kizarny
Zachary Ramirez
Another good idea its simply steal the name of a city from the zone you want to steal and use it as a name for the people , I Really like to use the Archaic names (pre roman) from the cities for my settings and base the people in them, like the Egarians or Arraonans for the two biggest cities near me.
It sounds quite a bit like Bulgarian/Macedonian. Here's a joke 'love letter' written in the dialect: youtube.com/watch?v=jr9nL2Lhrj8
Jaxon Howard
>Gothic horror aesthetics and the 17th-19th centuries
I'd like to hear more about your setting, if you'd care to share.
Brody Powell
Cool, this reminds me of Kočo Racin
Jackson James
Do you at least understand naming conventions? For this shit to work out, you would need few dozens of different languages and their users - along with their neighbours in their respective languages - calling themselves and everyone else. This or being called by someone who just bargained into their land with expedition.
>Obscure >Then that list By obscure you mean "I never had any historical education at all in my life and expect others suffered the same"?
Logan Baker
>yfw
Kevin Brown
Depends on the naming convention, but I'd say I have a "baby-tier" understanding of the most common ones; anglo-saxon comes from the angles and the saxons, who were named after their fish-hooks and their axes respectively. Basic stuff. I haven't hammered out much. Really humans are the only PC race, as beings other than humanity keep to themselves mostly and want to be left alone. Sorcery is something that imperious cultures don't understand but don't deny at all; even the most organized of monotheistic religions believe word for word in the miracles of their clergy and past saints, and though they say other magical traditions are works of the devil and the like, they still take the stance that it actually works. People live the teachings of their own one religion yet guiltily fear the forces present in every other theology as well, and aren't completely wrong to do so. It's a world where the march of technology has brought some conveniences, yet at the same time hasn't even scratched the surface of what it co-exists with yet and has created misery for the human race it hasn't fixed. No one has the whole picture, and the farther someone goes, the more they find things beyond their current understanding of the world. Centuries-old mystics, fountains of youth, silver bullets, lots of monsters, centuries-old treasure and alien human societies past the edge of the map. All of it has the potential to be extremely dangerous, but at the same time human advancement forces people into exposure with the new.
Aiden Gomez
Anyone who was taught about rome has an idea of who the goths were
Ma always said ya was a clever 'un. Now likely as not you'll be 'lected County Reader, and do the readin's at the hall meetins.
Christian Smith
Yeah old germanic names such as Rodrik find themselves in normal fantasy anyway, so thats a good start if you are looking for something most audiences will be able to say and remember unlike something like Zestralo Alenov or Sidi Hamete Benengeli.
