The World of Stormfall

I had a question posed about the different languages and names used in the Stormfall Chronicles, and where they might come from. I would best describe the world of Stormfall as being a sort of parallel universe to our own. There are similarities and differences to our own world. Many of the places, languages and cultures have analogs to our own, and I have therefore employed personal names and a similar language pallet to illustrate these similarities.

The City States of Trevio, for example, are organized in a manner similar to the Italian city states of the Middle Ages - although with a military tradition which resembles that of ancient Rome. Many of the individual names, such as Petrus, Sergius, and Julian, were likewise drawn from Medieval Italian sources.

For the fae, I wanted to provide a familiar touch-stone for readers. As some will be aware, J.R.R. Tolkien created two distinct languages for the elves of Middle Earth, one modeled after Finnish and the other around Welsh. To provide this touch-stone for the fae in the Stormfall Chronicles, I therefore chose personal names and a language pallet which was primarily drawn from Welsh. Names like Arwel, Delyth, Glynis, and Maidoc are all traditional Welsh names. Similarly, the name of the "darrow" tree was selected to be similar to the Welsh "derwen" or "oak" tree. Again, the goal was to provide a familiar sound pallet and reference point for readers, not to directly duplicate Welsh legends or fables.

Another example can be found among the giants. I wanted to evoke a sense that the dialect of the common tongue which the giants used in conversation had drifted from that spoken by most of the world - human or fae. The idea was that the giants had less contact with the other races during the preceding centuries, and their pronunciation of the common tongue had essentially been frozen in an earlier state. The giants therefore speak in a dialect reminiscent of Scots in daily use, or exercise their own tongue when among themselves. For their own language, I chose a sound pallet modeled after Scottish Gaelic. Similar, but not identical to.

The Empire of Bateria, meanwhile, borrows from the Byzantine Empire as a template, with personal names which can be traced back to Byzantine, Greek or Macedonian origin. An obvious example of this is Callisto's use of the nickname yah-yah, drawn directly from Greek, to refer to her grandmother.

There were a few exceptions. A few completely made-up names. There are also a few names which were drawn from specific reference sources in legend. Sybille or Sibyl, for example, was the name of an ancient Greek oracle at Delphi. Similarly, Callisto and Makednos were the names of two of the children of Lycaon in Greek legend. Lycaon of course, was cursed by Zeus and transformed into a wolf - from which the term lycanthropy was later derived.

Again, the objective was to provide familiar reference points, providing the world of Stormfall with a greater sense of depth - not to precisely duplicate a particular society, culture or time period. There were intentional similarities, but also intentional differences. A parallel world, but not a duplicate one. The juxtaposition of different societies or different time periods, for example, allowed for contrasts to be drawn which would not otherwise have been possible. Which kingdom or empire represented "proper" or "civilized" society was often a matter of perspective. That contrast was intentional.