I'm working on a story that is set in a fictional city. A place full of corruption, where organized crime generates most of the revenue. The top source of money is assassination. In this city of betrayal everyone wants someone dead. Everyday, there is an increasing demand for skilled assassins. I'm trying to pick a name for the city. I just can't pinpoint a solid name. All I've got is "Crimson City". I don't know if that will suffice. Do you guys got any suggestions?
I feel like "Crimson city" is a bit too cliche... Legerdermain, according to thesaurus.com means deceit and all that lovely awfulness and it kind of sounds like a nice city name. Or the city name Caracas. Caracas is a real place in Venezuela but it has some of the highest murder rates in the world. You don't have to base your fictional city in the original Caracas, but personally I think the name itself sounds devious. Reminds me of the word "carcass."
Gotham City? Only joking. I agree that Crimson City is cliché. Caracas reminds me of maracas- which is a bit too cheerful. Legerdermain- is that German derivation? No, French apparently from 'sleight of hand'. It is a good name but it depends where it is set- it doesn't sound very American. Devilhurst?
Love it. It'll come in handy when I need ethnic names :3 Though, I wish it could show you 50 names at once rather than one at a time Edit: http://www.behindthename.com/ First result from Google Now my post makes more sense.
I used a city name generator and I got it down to three: Riverburn, Coldmoor and Wolfcoast. Still indecisive but hopefully that will change over time.
Caracas immediately reminded me of carcass. The city of dead animals! Sounds inviting. I've got quite a few now, I'll be considering Legerdermain and Caracas.
How was the city founded? Who founded it? Why? Think about its story, and the name might claw out at you.
nicetranslator.com Toggle all the languages on then type in a word you want for meaning, scroll through till something catches your eye. I use this a lot for place names and just sort of blend the words so they sound nice.
I agree, how was the city named? Who named it? Was it always this type of city. Naming it after its current manifestation seems to discount how places are founded.
Somewhat off-topic, but your premise is a little illogical. Organized crime NEVER generates revenue, it just creams off what somebody else has generated. It's a little like being taxed by a local warlord...certainly the Krays regarded themselves as ruling over "their manor". Not that you have to be too obsequious about real-world economy within your fictional world, just pointing out that the wealth of the city will actually be made by people working, producing goods that people want and pay for.
How can the main source of revenue be assassination? I could see drug money possibly working in a fictional setting since then at least something tangible is being bought and sold if you ignore people need to earn the money to buy the drugs, but assassination? How many people would have to be killed every day for it to be the most profitable business and where would people get the money for it? Would there be a city left or just a bunch of dead people after a couple of months?
Maybe the top crime lord of the city has banned drugs, and sends his hitmen to any and all who sell it. That would require a lot of skilled assassins, which escalates into every other crimeboss and corrupt official also getting assassins on the payroll. Basically an arms race with hitmen, originating from a war on drugs.
The problem is there is no actual source of money, anywhere. If everyone is busy killing each other, who's making products, purchasing said products, investing, etc. Assassination contracts are just that: contracts. Someone gets money for killing someone, but where in the world does that money come from? It would quickly exhaust itself, as no additional money is introduced into the system. Contracts would slowly get smaller and smaller as I doubt everyone is willing to invest 100% of their wealth into assassination contracts. It wouldn't make any logical sense. Eventually money would dry up, and there would be no way to pay for the assassinations.
Yes you do need a sound economic base for your city and then you can add in; organised crime laundering their money through "legitimate" businesses; black markets; bribery; corruption etc.
I understand this, that doesn't concern me right now. The setting does, this all just brainstorming right now.
There are cities in Italy today where organized crime produces the majority of the income, and I'm sure there are other cities like this elsewhere. The city isn't isolated from the rest of the world, so it doesn't need to rely on production for itself. Also, I wouldn't use Caracas because it's too well-known. It is the capital of a fairly large country, after all.
Aye, Caracas would make everyone think your book was set in Venezuela. That's probably not what you have in mind.
But the setting would be affected--in fact, to a substantial extent, defined--by the economy. And if almost everybody is a criminal, is it really crime? To have "crime", you have to have non-crime, presumably some sort of government.
You could pick a word from the original assassin group. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassins i.e Alamut or Sabbah
