Out of curiosity, are there any backstories behind why different regions of the Stollen Lands are named as they are? The Narlmarches I can kind of guess at, assuming it's a mutated name referring to the forest's gnarled branches and a 'march' being a region of land.
But what about the Kamelands or the Tors of Levenies? Were those named after anybody or for any specific reason?
Alternately, does anybody have any good history they want to make up for this?
Wow. Two Kingmaker naming threads in just a few minutes.
"March" means frontier; appropriate since the forest forms the southern border of the Brevoy and the northern frontier of Mivon. I suspect you're right about "narl" being short for either "gnarl" (as in the knot on a tree) or "gnarly" (informal for dangerous or challenging). So "Narlmarch Wood" would mean "gnarly forest frontier".
Kame is actually descriptive, it being a Scottish geological term for a steep-sided mound of gravel and sand deposited by a retreating glacier. So the "Kamelands" are likely dotted with many such prominent geological formations.
A tor is simply a rocky hill or peak. Possibly "Levenies" is the proper name of the explorer who first discovered the Tors. Alternatively, it might be a corruption of the word "leaven", describing how the tors resemble rising loaves of bread. "Leaven" itself is derived from Latin, meaning "to lift", so perhaps "Tors of Levenies" simply means "Lifted up peaks of rock".
A "slough" is simply a muddy swamp. "Hooktongue" is likely a reference to the unusual form of attack of the swamp's most numerous inhabitants; the frog-like boggards. Perhaps "Hooktongue" was the name that early Taldane explorers gave to the exotic boggards or possibly it's the name of the area's once most powerful boggard tribe. Either way, "Hooktongue Slough" simply means "swamp of the ensnaring tongue people".
All in all, I'd say it's easy to see why the Stolen Lands were never successfully settled; it's a wasteland of muddy swamps, thick gnarly woodlands, treacherous rocky badlands and barren stone highlands. There's little to no arable land for thousands upon thousands of square miles...
hooktongue is the name of the water orm that lives in lake hooktongue.
hooktongue is the name of the water orm that lives in lake hooktongue.
True, but I suspect that this might be a chicken & egg situation. The entry on water orms says that they're often named after the body of water that they inhabit. And "hooktongue" is a more appropriate name for boggards (who have a distinctive sticky tongue attack) than it is for a water orm (who instead has a bite and tail slap attack routine).
The way I see it, the lake was likely named for its boggard inhabitants first and the local water orm was later named after the lake; much like Nessie (after Loch Ness), Ogopogo (after Okanagan Lake) or Champ (after Lake Champlain). That's just my guess though. =)
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The way I see it, the lake was likely named for its boggard inhabitants first and the local water orm was later named after the lake; much like Nessie (after Loch Ness), Ogopogo (after Okanagan Lake) or Champ (after Lake Champlain). That's just my guess though. =)
And that would be an entirely 100% accurate guess.
The name "Hooktongue" came first. Before the Taldan explorers came to the area, it and the water orm that lives in the lake didn't have names.
The way I see it, the lake was likely named for its boggard inhabitants first and the local water orm was later named after the lake; much like Nessie (after Loch Ness), Ogopogo (after Okanagan Lake) or Champ (after Lake Champlain). That's just my guess though. =)And that would be an entirely 100% accurate guess.
The name "Hooktongue" came first. Before the Taldan explorers came to the area, it and the water orm that lives in the lake didn't have names.
And JJ picks up the spare.
The entomology of names in the River Kingdoms, and the PF setting in general, is pretty well thought-out. Spending some time on google or wiki and you should be able to come up with a reasoning behind most of the names. I find it pretty refreshing that instead of 'Mt. X' and 'Desert of Y' everywhere, someone picked up a thesaurus.