Tag: Character names

Worldbuilding Wednesday 8/16/23: Centaurs (Narnia XLIX)

Centaurs are one of the mythic creatures most associated with Narnia, along with fauns and nymphs. They appear in four of the seven books (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle) where they are renowned for being wise teachers, prophets, healers, and stargazers, as well as …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 7/26/23: Rilian’s Brothers (Narnia XLVI)

  A few days ago, in the Narnia subreddit, I discovered a glaring discrepancy in The Silver Chair I had never noticed before. At the end of The Voyage of The Dawn Treader, Lewis has this to say about Caspian and Ramandu the Star’s Daughter: Caspian married Ramandu’s daughter and they all reached Narnia in …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 6/28/23: Elegant Es

E is not one of my favorite letters, I’ll admit. True, it can be elegant, extravagant, enticing, enjoyable, and a slew of other en- words. But it’s also enormous as an elephant, with an old-fashioned, outdated, Victorian feel. Sound out the words Elizabeth, euphonious, evangelist, and Euphrates, and you will see what I mean. Though …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 6/14/23: Dickensian Twists

Victorian writer Charles Dickens was known for the odd and whimsical names he gave to his characters, presumably so readers would better remember them. As his stories were first serialized in publications over many weeks or months, this makes sense. These odd names also served a satirical purpose.  Some of the more memorable of these …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 5/3/23: Hungarian Names

Above is a portrait of the most recent of Hungary’s exports: the Vizsla, wearing a traditional peasant outfit courtesy of AI art. The speedy, good-natured hunting dog joins the rank of other notable exports like paprika, ghoulash, video pioneer Ernie Kovacs, and Gene Simmons (by way of Israel) to name a few. Situated in Central …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 2/22/23: Return to Melniboné

I went to generate a pic of Elric on a Melnibonéan dragon by using the prompt “Albino warrior, black armor, rainbow dragon” and look what I got! But it’s so cool looking I’m going to keep it. A more conventional Elric was generated later and you can see him to the side. I did an …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 2/15/23: House of the Dragon (Dragons)

The dragons of House of the Dragon are equivalent to B-52 bombers and almost as large, with unprecedented, literal firepower. They are what the Valyrians used to dominate the continent of Essos in ages past, building up an empire that was Roman-like in its scope. But unlike the jets, Valyrian dragons are sentient, and bonded …

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Worldbuilding Wednesday 2/8/23: House of the Dragon (People)

Now that Game of Thrones has wrapped, House of the Dragon has become HBO’s next blockbuster fantasy series. It’s about the history of the Targaryon family who ruled over Westeros two centuries previous to the events of the former series. They are Valyrians, George R. R. Martin’s equivalent of Imperial Romans, with the addition of …

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