One was "multiple simultaneous names" for inhabitants multiethnic
cities.
The Siebenburgen in Romania are typical: German towns in
Romanian-Hungarian
countrysides, each calling the towns by differen names! Some weren't too
different: Timisoara (R) was Temeswar (in German) and Temesvar (in
Hungarian),
all based on the river Timis. But some of the others are weirder:
Cluj/Kalusenburg/Kozsvar, Brasov/Kronstadt/Brasso,
Sighisoara/Sch�ssburg/Segevar,
Sibiu/Hermannstadt/Nagyszeben(!). Not sure where this would be common --
maybe
in the West?
When one ties this into the potential "mythic bitz," fun can be had: a town where the two (or more) communities living in it call it by different names, have different myths of origin, eaching using their own set of myths to empower their own city magics...
It also *screams* God Learner MGF. ("Oh, c'mon: bet you a beer I can reverse all their place names without them noticing! Quick, to the laboratory!)
Another very suggestive practice for the Lunars is the practice of
making up
names from whole cloth (as the US, Soviet Union and various people's
republics were wont to do) based on ideology (AFAIK, the Romans named things
after local features, local tribes and, of course, egotistical leaders, but
I don't know of an ideological bent). While there were the standards
like "Washington," "Stalingrad," "Blagoevgrad," "Tito Veles," etc, you also
got winners like Otelu Rosu (Red Steel). "Jareelcity" sounds a bit pathetic,
but there's some real fun to be had here ("We've decided to change the name
of Boldhome to 'Flashing Scimitar Decaptitating Duck.' Go inform the
locals.").
It a bit too Soviet, the idea that *real* Lunar citizens give up this pseudo-Latin personal naming malarky and use the Sedenyan equivalent of Traktor, Nenil, Kombayn, Narkom and such is amusing . Any suggestions on typical patriotic names for the tykes? Scimitar? Sickle? And after heroes and gods, of course: imagine all the Jareels being born right now...
A final weird plot: there's a long-standing Alaskan rural legend* that the
name "Nome" came about when USGS cartographers mistook "Name" (as a blank
entry) for "Nome." There's also the classic town of "Chicken," named (this
is true) when no one in the town could figure out how to spell "Ptarimgan"
on the form to name the town, and it then stuck. Now, imagine the fun when
some (possibly drunken) Lunar surveyor in Sartar officially lists a village,
town or tula as "Smelly Barbarian Buggeryberg," or some such; or as
suggested, writes down the native name "Get out of here, you chaos-loving
Moonie bastard." Said name then becomes official in the Empire, until
outraged
village sends a delegation (e.g., heroes) off to deal with the
Provincial
Occupation Authorities to get this fixed. *Endless* bureacratic gaming fun...
Cheers,
James
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