I've had a fantasy worldbuilding project for many years now, and since its very inception, it has just been called "Unnamed Setting." I want to give it a proper name but I am really struggling to find something that I feel truly crowns what has been my biggest and longest running project that I hope to someday use to build many, many more projects. I try not to aim for perfection, but with how important this setting is to me, I feel like this name has to be as close to perfect as possible.
All my planets, planes of existence, domains, etc. have names. Everything has a name and a theme. The only thing that does not have a name is the actual setting itself.
You have all kinds of settings out there with names, like Dragonlance and Middle-Earth and the Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft and Lost Omens. I just can't seem to think of one for mine.
The main aspects of my setting are:
- Each world has experienced, or will experience, an apocalypse. The goal of the story on each world is to fix the apocalypse or to stop it from happening. Some worlds have already had their apocalypse happen, so the story is to fix things and either restore the world or prevent the apocalypse from fully destroying it.
- Even in the darkest and gloomiest of times, there is still a chance to try to fix things. There's always an aspect of hope. Light shining through the dark, even if only a tiny beacon on stormy shores. The main point is to send a message saying that you should try anyways, even if it all seems hopeless, because there's still a chance. The world may literally be ending, but you still have a shot to save it, so get up.
- All the planets have a World Tree, a mystical tree that serves an unknown purpose, but is absolutely vital for the world's functions (as tampering with it always has disastrous results). Each World Tree was present long before written history, making them separate from the Gods.
- The setting also heavily explores themes like the relationship between mortals and Gods, fate, what it means to be a God, etc.
Some names I had thought of are:
- Eschaton: Referring to Eschatology, described by Wikipedia as: "expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or the world itself." I thought it was too doomsday-y, since the whole point of the story is to stop the end and calling it "Eschaton" gave me the vibe that it was a setting where the end was inevitable.
- Tenacitas: From the Latin word tenācitās meaning "tenacity." Supposed to refer to the setting's theme about not giving up and refusing to surrender, even when there seems to be no chance at victory. I also thought of Persentia or Perseverantia from Perseverance but I didn't like how either of them sounded.
- Hopian: The Old English root for "hope" – feels too close to just saying "hope" and I wanted a more mystical feeling to the name. A more direct reference- one of the major things is about hope persevering even in the darkest of times.
- Anastasis: From the Greek word ἀνάστασις (anástasis) meaning "resurrection," which is also where the name Anastasia comes from. I thought it could be fitting since the main story plotline of each world was stopping/fixing an apocalypse, so each world would be facing a rebirth from its calamity.
- Something to do with "Lotus": Lotus flowers are often seem as symbols of rebirth, perseverance, and hope. It's also my favorite flower. I thought it'd be a fitting symbol but I don't know where to take the name from there, and just calling the setting "Lotus" doesn't feel very… interesting. I like more poetic names so I'd want more than just "Lotus" but I don't know what exactly. The word lotus just comes from the Latin word lōtus which is where I would usually go so that's not very helpful, at least to me.
The part where I'm getting stuck is I'm just not certain about any of the names I've come up with. There's always something about them that doesn't feel quite right. I love more poetic names so just using one generic word to name the setting doesn't bring me satisfaction as a name for a project that I've been working on passionately for years.
Another hard part is that each world has its own genre, making it hard to use a word that just encompasses the genres. They're also all inspired by a variety of cultures and media, so I can't categorize the whole setting under one concept either. They're all fantasy worlds but you have a high fantasy planet inspired by traditional D&D and Genshin Impact, you have a mix of magitech and dieselpunk inspired by Arcane and Bioshock, you have a Victorian era cosmic horror planet inspired by Bloodborne and Soulslikes, etc.
Any ideas or suggestions?
EDIT: Some inspirations I was trying to use for naming the setting were two songs: Entertainment by Mili, and Hero by Mili. I feel like both songs truly capture the vibe of the setting and the stories that take place within it. I tried to do the Dragon Age method (The Dragon Age Setting –> THE Dragon Age Setting –> Thedas) but with some of the lyrics for Entertainment and Hero, but I couldn't get anything to work.
I particularly liked the lyrics:
- "I saw a star brightening up the dark" [The lyrics I feel fit the absolute best] from Entertainment
- "We refuse to be entertainment" from Entertainment
- "Gonna prove my version of justice is more just than yours" from Hero
Source: r/worldbuilding · by /u/Aztela