/worldbuilding

Naming Languages

Names carry a culture's sound. A few rules per culture make names feel related, keep cultures distinct from each other, and prevent accidental look-alikes that confuse readers.

Phonology sketch

For each culture or language, write a short sketch in a system file (story add system "Vellish tongue" --type social) or the culture section of a location or faction:

• Sounds used: consonants and vowels the language favours (k, t, r, s, v, l; a, e, o), and sounds it never uses (no th, no w)
• Syllable shape: CV, CVC, clusters allowed or not (str- yes, final -ng no)
• Stress: first syllable, penultimate, or last
• Common endings: -ar, -ek, -issa and what they mark (place, person, gender, rank)
• Spelling conventions: how sounds are written (k never c), apostrophes and accents (use sparingly; each one slows the reader)

Keep two cultures apart by changing at least two of: sound set, syllable shape, and endings.

Naming rules

Record how people and places are named in each culture:

• Order of given name, family name, patronymic, clan, or title
• Names that change at life events (adulthood, marriage, office)
• Place names built from features (-ford, -holm, Kel- for hill)
• Words that are taboo or reserved (the dead, gods, royalty)

Build a short list of roots (hill, river, iron, grey, old) and make place names from them, so a reader who notices Kelmar and Kelvoss feels the pattern.

Pronunciation

Give invented names a pronunciation field on characters, locations, systems, factions, artifacts, and glossary terms:

pronunciation: "SEER-sha"

Use plain respelling with the stressed syllable in capitals, not IPA, unless the user asks for IPA. story build --format narration collects every pronunciation into a guide table for audiobook narrators (see the adaptation skill).

Collision check before naming

Before committing to a new name, check it against every existing name:

story names "Mira" "Kelvos" "Oda"

story names compares candidates with character names and aliases, locations, factions, artifacts, systems, and glossary terms and aliases. A candidate's given name (the first word that is not a title or article such as The, Lord, or Captain) is compared with each character's given name; everything else is compared as a whole name. An exact match with either is a clash: an error (exit 1). It warns about look-alikes (the same first four letters, or the same initial within an edit distance of 1, or 2 when both words have five letters or more) and about given names sharing an initial with a major character. Multi-word names such as Ashen Citadel are only checked for exact clashes, so pass a distinctive word on its own (story names "Ashen Reach" Ashen) to catch look-alikes. Readers skim names by shape: Mara and Mira, or Kelvar and Kelvoss, blur together. Change the initial or the length unless the resemblance is deliberate (siblings, a namesake), and say so in the file.

story prose . also warns about similar character first names.

When renaming an existing entity, use story rename, then run story reindex ., story links ., and story validate ..