Hi I haven't posted much before I've mostly just been reading through, I had some questions about which names of races / places from mythology can be used in a fantasy world and also if it's appropriate to use variations of the scientific names for some of the wildlife without it being off- putting to the reader, like in a fantasy world which is based on sea life would it be ok to sometimes describe the whales as "cetaceans" or giant squid as "mollusks" etc? Or would it sort of break the fantasy because it's based on their actual scientific names? Similarly could you name a specific type of animal based on it's Latin name - for example if there was a breed of shark which I wanted to be based on a great white shark (carcharodon carcharias) could it then be called something like "Karcharios" or something else which is a derivative of it's Latin name, would that work or would it be off-putting? Can you name characters based off of other mythological / folklore characters even if they aren't fully based on or carry out the legacy of the mythology of those characters? Like if I wanted the antagonist to be called" Mephistopholes" from the folklore story of Faust, but he didn't actually have any similarities to the character other than his appearance and his evil persona, is that something that can work? Also could there be a "race" of valkyries that live in the clouds similar to how dwarves and elves are common place in fantasy worlds and who live in the mountains / woods? There won't be any Norse gods or any other similarity to Valkyrie lore other than their appearance and how they live in the clouds, similar to how Tolkien's dwarves are described as short, hot headed and live in the mountains etc but they don't actually have any other ties to Norse mythology Lastly is there any sort of measuring system which is ok to use when describing length and weight like feet / miles and stone / ton, or for age and time like 1000 years old / weeks passed / months ago etc, can any of those be used or is it better to create your own? Thanks alot for any help
I don't see anything wrong with using technical names for groups of animals. If the animal would fit into a group of real world animals, then labeling it as part of that group is a quick way to tell people what it is. It just seems overly complicated to come up with completely different taxonomic terms if the creature would fit into existing taxonomies. Actually, I think that's a good idea. For the handful of readers familiar with scientific names, this establishes similarities between your creature and existing ones in a concise manner. For most readers, though, they probably won't be all that familiar with scientific names, and you won't have to even worry about breaking immersion. It's a good way to come up with names for new species, and I've seen it done a lot. People do this all the time. If it's public domain, then go for it. General audiences often times won't be able to place the name, anyway, especially if you're looking at more obscure folklore. Again, people do this all the time. I don't recommend using races like dwarves and elves, though, just because they've been done to death (especially elves). This is something I've been wondering about as well. I've been using real-world units in my WIP (though the time units don't exactly match their real-world counterparts, i.e. a week is eight days, but I digress). That said, I don't know how well it works in purely fantasy worlds, and I might need to make changes in my next draft. I definitely defer to anyone else's opinion on this matter.
All of this is fine. If you read a lot of fantasy, you'll see it is quite common. With respect to units, I think it is better, on the whole, to stick with real-world units. There is very little, if anything, gained from using made up units, and you don't want a reader to have to try to remember how long three d'cans (or other such made up word) really is.
I personally think one must be careful with this.. The mythological or phantastical names evoke a specific picture. It bothers me a bit, when fantasy worlds use real-life things without explaining how they come to know about it. And in particular when the name and the nature of the being don't fit. One could explain it in the way of: "The original fantasy name is a different one but we are translating here, so we're trying to find a word which gives you an idea about how the being looks like". But that should then be a convention throughout the entire book. Mephistopheles, however, is such a distinct character from a very distinct myth/story/folk lore that I wouldn't reuse it in a fantasy world. The easy way out here is of course using "natural" measurements. A foot, an ell, a handbreadth, a step, ... Or if you want time, go for moons, days, seasons... which of course only works if the astronomy of your fantasy world is comparable to Earth's.
Ah ok I had a feeling that using specific character names from folklore like mephistopheles might not work since its an actual specific character's name compared to a group or race like dwarves so I'll make up a name for him instead The reason I was thinking of Valkyries is because the angel type people I'm making will be all female and bare the same physical resemblance to imagery of Valkyries, also I was thinking of using the bifrost from norse mythology which would act as bridges for the Valkyries to connect their sky cities and also at times they are lowered to ground level and let the humans of the world travel up to the sky cities which would sort of be a connection to the actual mythology of connecting Earth to Asgard, do you think that this would work? Since its kind of partially holding true to the mythology but in more of a reference type way, or maybe naming it a slight variation or a different spelling to the most common name, like instead of Valkyrie maybe Valquerie, same for the bifrost etc or would it be better in that situation to come up with new names for each? Thanks for the input
Thanks alot for the input yeah I wasn't sure about adding elves as they wouldn't really add much to the world I was making but I had been planning on adding dwarves because they would fit the race I was working on which live in mountains and are basically the same as tolkien's dwarves or at least the film version and have the same tropes that alot of dwarves have been portrayed as having since then with Scottish accents etc, I'm going to be adding a few other original races so I thought keeping in at least one well known trope species alongside humans might make it more comfortably familiar and not be too much new information to take in for a reader
That sounds close enough to the mythology that the name "Valkyrie" would be justified. Just as you already mentioned: Tolkien made up dwarves and elves who had some semblance to the mythological ones but still were rather original and he got away with it. I would not do the different-spelling thing. ^ ^ Either you acknowledge the real world inspiration or you don't, but half-heartedly showing it but not quite just looks odd. If you think it necessary you could make up paraphrasing names for some things, like the good old "rainbow bridge" for Bifröst for example. Edit: Whoa, that's amazing, there is a list of Valkyrie names on Wikipedia!
Ah ok I get you I'll do that, thanks that's a great list but would it be ok to use their these names though or would it be sort of similar to using the name mephistopheles because I'm using a specific character name? The way I'm thinking of it is that using a known mythology species / race you can get away with it and make them your own as long as they have similar attributes compared to using a specific name of one of the characters - or does it have alot to do with how well known the character's name is? I'm also wanting to make a devil type race that lives underground, they resemble the standard horned red skinned humanoid figure that people imagine for the devil but after research I can't find a group name for them in folklore or mythology other than something like demons or minions, the closest thing would be a Satyr type creature that looks like Pan but they are depicted as half goat I want mine to be fully humanoid aside from the horns and red skin, I had at first considered naming them after one of the seven princes of hell like the race of "Belphegor" or "Mammon" but that probably wouldn't work
It depends a lot on how well known the character's name is, or more specifically how iconic the name is. Example: You certainly don't want to call someone Santa Claus unless you're specifically referring to the Santa Claus (despite having many representations in folklore, they all refer to a single entity, i.e. folklore doesn't make room for two Santa Clauses, at least not that I'm aware of). On the other hand, you can call someone Mary and no one will have a problem with it (unless, you know, everyone else's name is like Trodor or something). As for naming your underground humanoids, "Mammon" has meaning as other than just the name of a demon, though the demon represents that other meaning -- greed. "Belphegor" might work, but the seven princes of hell all embody a deadly sin, so using one of their names might give the expectation that all of your demon people are slothful, or something. How about looking at the names of lesser demons for inspiration?
I'm doing this in my story. I have a bear-like beast that I've named an "Ursai". I spent a lot of time on the Wikipedia page about saber-toothed tigers, because I wanted a similar animal in my story. I kept playing with the Latin name, "homotherium" but couldn't come up with something I liked. Finally I found this fact: "One of the most famous sites of Homotherium remains is Friesenhahn cave in Texas, where 30 Homotherium skeletons were found...." And the Friesencat was born. So there's a lot of ways to go about naming your creatures. I would be careful using specific character names. I think for species/races it's totally ok to use something from mythology...for example, I have all your typical beasties (Pegasus, hippogriff, gryphon, dragon, etc plus a few less familiar, like an Ahuizotl from Aztec myth) but I think character names might be too specific. Also, there is this awesome list of beasties for inspiration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_legendary_creatures
I had previously looked the large list of demons from Ars Goetia but all of the names had their own wiki page which I took to mean they're already fairly well known, Belphegor sort of sounds like it could be a race of bad people like "orcs" or maybe I could slightly change it to be "Belphegorm" with an "M" at the end, are small changes like that ok do you think where there's only one letter added or better to keep it exactly the same? I'll have another look through the Ars Goetia
Fully agreed with the units. Don't overthink it, because it's very easy to take the exit marked "But this isn't Earth, why would they even have feet and inches...?" and get lost very quickly. What you don't want to do is make your reader hit an: And this advice - in my personal opinion - applies to a lot of things. Measurements, curse words, money... Be sensible and practical and remember that the reader has to make sense of what you've written, the words and terms need to "click" in the reader's mind, need to have a meaning that registers and either imparts the data you are trying to impart or has the impact you are trying to make. Call money money. Sure, the actual fiat denominations can be made up, but don't make a fake word that means the generic concept of money. "Slark, you owe me four blechs," said Muckle, holding his tentacle out. "I'm sorry, Muckle, I don't have any money right now." Slark's crockle-flap was purple with embarrassment.
The Friesen are a people in northern Germany and the Netherlands. XD So they don't only have a cock (Hahn) in a cave in Texas but also a cat in a novel. Lucky them.
Well, you learn something new every day. Interesting. I shall do my best to have their cat represent them well. I'm very intrigued as to what, exactly, a "crockle-flap" is now.
Clearly you're not a Megmalorp; else, you would know. The crockle-flap is an area of tissue between the seventh and eight pair of walking tentacles. Where the other tentacles have a rather short piece of tissue between them where they connect to the body, the crockle-flap is much longer and looser. Chromatophores in the crockle-flap are sensitive to emotional state and change color depending on mood. Some Megalorps (especially those in military service) have their crockle-flaps tattooed to disguise their otherwise obvious emotional states. Such tattoos are variably seen as a sign of discipline (again, due to the connection with military service) or as subversive, since the other Megalorp would seem to be hiding something from you.
