(First things first: this should post to the Luther Siler Facebook page, a change I’ve been meaning to make for a long time; posts have been showing up on my real-name page instead.  We’ll see if engagement drops; it’ll be interesting to see.)

Okay.  So.  I’m trying to name some characters, and I’d like to hear some suggestions from those of you who have read THE BENEVOLENCE ARCHIVES ($2.99 cheap!) or even those of you who haven’t, if you’re able to form an opinion just based on what you see here.  I need to name some characters, and I’m not sure at the moment what direction to go.  They’re literally named NEEDANAME and ALSONEEDANAME in the manuscript right now.

Some background information: I use traditional high-fantasy races as stand-ins for “aliens” in this book; the two main characters are a gnome and a halfogre.  Let most of the stereotypes take over, although I’ve twisted a few of the races in ways that please me.

GNOMES:  Gnomes have, for lack of a better phrase, standard fantasy names, such as Brazel, Rhundi, Darsi, and Gorrim.  Only female gnomes have surnames; Rhundi’s is Tavh’re’muil, and I haven’t decided if most gnomic surnames are as flowery as that.  Males technically have their wives’ (or mothers, if unmarried) surnames, but Brazel would never refer to himself as Brazel Tavh’re’muil.  It’s not done.

OGRES:  Also standard fantasy names, although I’m trying to make them shorter and a bit more guttural-sounding.  The one named ogre so far is Grond.  No surnames.

HUMANS:  All humans have personal and surnames, which work much as they do in the Western world, although they can be more fantasy-style or more mundane, much in the same way that the main character in Dune was named Paul Atreides.  So, theoretically I could have a human character named Bill or Steve or Jim.  Or, uh, Angela.  Who is technically an Iklis sniper’s longbow, but she has a human name.

GOBLINS:  Goblins do not share their personal names with outsiders, only their surnames.  If there are multiple members of that clan around they tend to number themselves; Rhundi talks to a goblin named “Twelfth Corvix” in one of the stories because she has a number of goblins of that clan working for her.

DWARVES:  Dwarven females and high-ranking dwarven males (generally, only the children of incredibly high-ranking dwarven females, such as clan leaders) have what I’m thinking of as “story names,” such as Shocks-the-Mountains, Smashes-the-Stars, Majesty-of-Nature or Glow-of-Twilight.  I’ve only used three-word dwarven names so far but there’s no reason they can’t be longer than that.  Dwarven males have three-letter names and they or may not be pronounceable.

TROLLS:  Trolls are kinda complicated.  They’re shapeshifters, and their name is dependent on their current shape.  So is their personality, to some extent, although it’s important to realize that they’re all one being– just a complicated one.  The “base” name for a troll is generally tripartite, such as Sirrys ban Irtuus bon Alaamac.  Calling a troll by name depends on which shape you’re looking at; the troll I refer to here is generally known as Irtuus-bon, but his shortest, most childish and petulant form is addressed as Sirrys.

ELVES:  Here’s the problem.  Elves are kinda a spoiler, although they’re a spoiler that gets spoiled within about the first fifty pages of BA 8 and I’m not sure that the way elves work is really all that terribly important as far as spoilers go.  I cannot decide how to name my elves.

Actually, let’s do this:  If you want to make just a random suggestion on how to name elves, go ahead and put one in comments right now, but you probably don’t want to read anything anybody else has to say.  I’m putting the rest of the post under a jump in case anyone really wants to avoid spoilers for BA 8.  It’s not a huge deal, I promise:

Continue reading “Thinking out loud: THE BENEVOLENCE ARCHIVES” →