A weird coincidence I noticed that probably means nothing but is interesting.


Lost Omens Campaign Setting General Discussion


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

In Rise of the Runelords, on page 200 of the pdf in the section referring to the other giant tribes around Jorgenfist we are introduced to the Jormunsir lead by Vlorian.

Vlorian... like the Vloriuan Cythnigot... as in from Vlorus, the realm of Xar-Azmak, dead Demon Lord of Rust!?

This is likely just a coincidence and means absolutely nothing, but I AM going to use this in my homebrew followup to Rusthenge. Thank you, almost-two-decades-ago Paizo for giving me a tiny little throwaway reference.

I love Golarion so much. :)

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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That is for sure a coincidence, but also an interesting one.

Spoiler:
While in the real world there's obviously duplicates in names all the time, in fiction it's weird to have things do that, so we do try to avoid it. But that said, every person who creates for anything has their own style and method and preference in how to create nonsense words that are names for things like this, and if you have someone, like me, who ends up naming literally thousands of NPCs and locations and monsters and gods and more, you'll now and then see some similarities in word construction—especially given when I make up names, I generally don't just jumble letters together, but construct the names in a way that sounds "right" to the situation at hand OR simply sound fun to say to me.

The syllable "Vlor" is one of those I happen to like, so it gets used now and then.

This is also, for example, why the name "Staunton Vhane" got used twice in Pathifnder—once for a villain in Magnimar, and once for a villain in Wrath of the Righteous. Neither of those two have any links or connections other than I recycled the name from one to the other accidentally (the name itself was the name of a warlord villain from my homebrew in a campaign I ran back in college).


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I love the insight into the process; makes a lot of sense!
I never noticed the two Stauntons, actually. That's really funny. I own the Magnimar book and Nethys knows I've read through parts enough for campaign planning, guess I missed him!
Then again, maybe the Vhanes are like the Vancaskerkins and there's one of them every time you flip over a rock.


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One unexpected source I've used for names is the Spelling Bee game online by the NY Times. Here are seven letters, kinda random, but kinda not because it leans toward more useful letters. How about this viable syllable with this one? Not a word, so maybe a good NPC name. Because yeah, it's easy to fall into one's linguistic habits.

I've also used a d20 for consonants and d6 for vowels (including Y as a vowel). Pick which type likely follows next (in the given language) and reroll if unsatisfied. Just occurred to me the Japanese "alphabet" would also be a good table to roll off of, especially for Minkai names (though double check for unintended meanings). Could also be used in reverse.

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