(copy+paste from a reply elsewhere)
As for the names I have a whole (overly complicated system). Basically each language in my world is a mix between multiple real world dead languages. I use chatgpt or open assistant (ik that using ai in worldbuilding is controversial but all the names are still mine) to generate words in the dead languages then smash them together. Sometimes i’ll have a word or phrase that I have it translate and then combine and shrink until it’s one word. To me, this is easier than conlanging but still original and fun.
Sometimes I create a fake language, sometimes I just make up cool sounds, other times I do the classic human and go “town is called silver tree because there is a silver tree there”
Nice. How advanced are your fake languages?
Actually I’ll second that question. I used to conlang marginally just for the map and naming process, and it always ended up so cheap and awkward.
This is probably heresy to “real worldbuilders”, but:
I find a place in the world this region is roughly based off of, zoom all the way in on Google Maps, and copy the names of small towns (towns too small for anyone but a local to recognize).
If I’m running games online (i.e. not with locals), I’ll use street names from my commute.
I don’t have a single unified process, but I usually create name in focused sessions, trying to come up with all the toponyms for a region in one go for instance. This to avoid having names that sound too similar or too different, while still having some unified approach and feel.
I will take basically whatever the place inspires me, including dank memes and private jokes, and twist it until it fits with that “feel” that I’m going for. As a result, many names in my projects are recycled and adapted from previous projects.
On a different note, tbh AI to me is a tool, if it lets you focus on what you dig in your WB, that’s great. Art has always been about reinventing what others did before, following and improving on existing patterns. AI made the process much more accessible, giving people without artistic skill the power to express themselves in a visual fashion. Personally I find this awesome and liberating.
I’m really bad at truly creative names and tend to have names that that just describe what it is. I blame Warrior Cats for getting me obsessed with this naming style, and for getting me obsessed with cats in general.
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The Feline capital city in my world is called Moonpeak, because it’s on the top of a mountain and you can see the moon really clearly from there, and the moon has cultural significance to the cats in this world. The metro area/county that Moonpeak is situated in is called Moon District.
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The Unified Territories capital city is called Central Valley. Valley is obvious, it’s situated between two mountain ranges for protection, and central is symbolic because it’s where all the government agencies are based out of, not because it’s in the geographic centre. It’s in the metro area called Central District.
I’ve fully embraced this naming format and am now pretty much naming all the cities in this world this way.
Another place that my story partly takes place in is called Whisker Valley, which is the valley directly below and to the north of Moonpeak. Whiskers are important sensory organs for cats, and Whisker Valley once played host to various radar and other early warning systems for an air attack on Moonpeak by the Unified Territories. But nowadays their relationship has gotten way better and the Felines might actually want flights coming from the UT, so Whisker Valley has pivoted from hosting mostly aircraft defence systems to aircraft navigation aids (there is still a military presence to guard against enemy aircraft, but it is now a very busy flight corridor feeding traffic to and from Moonpeak). Which many cats think is an ever more accurate use of the name because whiskers are primarily range finding organs, not early warning organs.
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