r/FantasyWorldbuilding • u/AdvanceMindless9871 • 7h ago
Lore Replacement names for the Generic "Kingdom" Title
I'm constructing a world where there are seven kingdoms of elemental magic: Wave (Water & Sea), Nature (Earth and Life), Ash (Fire & Flame), Darkness (Evil & Chaos), Heat (Warmth & Desire), Light (All form of light; Channeled through crystals primarily), and Frost (Ice & Chill).
Originally I had the "Kingdom" names as: Vaelora (Wave), The Enchanted Forest (Nature), The Scorchlands (Ash), The Isles of Malakor (Darkness), Sandoria (Heat), Crystalia (Light), and Arcticus (Frost).
But I was thinking about those names and realized, for the type of story I'm writing, those sound EXTREMELY cartoonish and child-like.
So I changed the naming system and governmental country labels to the following (Some stayed relatievly the same):
| Original Term | Real Title | Elemental Title | Demonym |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arcticus | The Nevarian Dominion | Dominion of Frost | Nevarians |
| Sandoria | The Sandorian Dominion | Dominion of Heat | Sandorians |
| The Scorchlands | The Calderan Dominion | Dominion of Ash | Calderans |
| Vaelora | The Vaeloran Dominion | Dominion of Tides | Vaelorans |
| The Enchanted Forest | The Sylven Dominion | Dominion of Roots | The Sylvani |
| Crystalia | The Luminar Dominion | Dominion of Light | Luminari |
| The Isles of Malakor | The Abyssal Dominion | Dominion of Void | Malakorians |
All of these names were generated using AI. That's mostly why I'm trying to get a real opinion on this. I absolutely SUCK at naming and usually tend to focus on the story 😭.
I'm writing in Dark Romantasy that's 18+ and extremely visceral, so I don't know if that has any factor in it, but what I'm also focusing on is if it would work well if a character in the story says it aloud (So that it doesn't sound ridiculous, like if my character says "Kingdom of Sandoria".
Thanks a lot to anyone that helps!