So my new made-from-scratch sandbox setting needs a frickin' name. Mythologically speaking, all the astronomical bodies of my universe are little bits of smoke floating up from the Three Fires of Creation. The Common Tongue name of the two suns are Ember and Spark. The three moons are Ash, Speck, and Mote. Ash and Ember are roughly the same size, as are Spark and Speck, to facilitate scary Double Eclipses of Doom. The world itself would be called Cinder in Common, but I'm not sure if that pops out enough. I'm not a big fan of the letter C in proper names as it leads to pronounciation confusion. And I just like playing around with words and letters, like this:
Sinder
Sindar
Sindro
Zindar
Zintar
Zinthar
Sinthar
Zinthro
Zindaria
Zindara
So far I like sticking with the original idea of Cinder, to keep it in line with the rest of the heavenly bodies, or Zindar, just because it sounds cool. The letter Z carries some weird weight to me, between Oz and the number zero.
Mince Pie Fest 2024: Non-Cornish Cornish Pasty Lemon Mince Pie
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Special #MincePieFest2024 special feature special day four! I've had the
lemon flavour before and it's been a firm favourite, but how will it fare
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Posts
Synnibar?
ReplyDeleteHa! I think that one is already taken!
ReplyDeleteI'd probably go with "Cinder", or possibly "Sinder" - too many letter changes make it seem like you're trying to sound "kewl" and at least with my group is a good way to break the mood. They'll start cracking jokes about whether that's "with one Z or two" and then it's all over.
ReplyDeleteI also see from the online etymology dictionary (etymonline.com) that "cinder" comes from the Old English "sinder", so you're on good solid historical linguistic ground if you want to change the "C" to an "S".
Szindar
ReplyDeletejer: Good call on checking the etymology!
ReplyDeleteXinder?
ReplyDeleteZoso
ReplyDeleteMe, I like "Sinder".
ReplyDeleteThesaurs.com says a synonym for cinder is clinker. Synonyms for clinker are clamor, discord, dissension, failure and imperfect.
ReplyDeleteOne of the definitions for clinker is 'The scale of oxide formed on iron during forging'.
Xin Zin Xzalabin!
ReplyDeleteI'm dubious of Xinder & Xandar. They look good on paper, but I'm not sure how to pronounce them. Is it the standard 'ks' sounds of X or a z sound?
ReplyDeleteSzindar looks even cooler, but again I'm not sure how to say it.
My vote was for "Other". Not as a name, of course. The World of Other!
ReplyDeleteI like "Zinthar." It has a nice, heavy, epic, Howard-esque sound to it that makes me think of the types of games you've told us you run.
But if given the choice between the two you listed, I'd go with Zindar.
You're right that Zinthar has a heaviness to it that I quite like. With that 'th' in front of it drawing out the 'ar' pirate style is very easy.
ReplyDeleteXinder & Xandar would normally be pronounced with a "z" sound. Think Xylophone.
ReplyDeleteThey could also be pronounced with a "ch" sound, but I don't think Chinder and Chandar are what you're looking for.
Szindar is tricky. You can just pronounce it like a "z" if you want, but "sz" seems to be used mainly in languages such as Polish. There, it is pronounced "sh". In Hungarian, however, is seems to be a straight "s" sound, while a normal s is pronounced "sh".
So it would likely be pronounced "Shindar" or "Sindar", depending on how you wanted to do it.
Re: Szindar. Then I would spell it Shindar or Sindar. One of the requirements of the name is that it be absolutely obvious to an average gamer in the American Midwest how to pronounce the name of the world.
ReplyDeleteCinder.
ReplyDeleteI say Cinder, as well.
ReplyDeleteNot really following the etymological conversation, but I'm sure you'll want to by physics-ally correct in your history of Burnt (or whatever you end up calling the planet).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050517_binary_stars.html
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ReplyDeletehttp://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/
050517_binary_stars.html