Theme Names for Default Nations

[RedRover]

With Dom3 around the corner, I'd like to reopen an old discussion and try a little brainstorming.

1. All the themes have names
2. Two nations have theme names
3. Nature abhors a vaccuum
4. So let's do some more naming!

Ideally, the names should be short, evocative, and not clash with existing theme names.

Here's my short list...where's yours?

Theme Names for Default Nations

Ermor: Broken Empire*

Jotunheim: Iron Woods*

These already exist. Ideas for the rest:


Abysia: Lava Land

Arcoscephale: Mystic Kingdom

Atlantis: Coral Towers

C'tis: Swamp Land

Caelum: Ice Lords

Machaka: Spider Lords

Man: Avalon

Marignon: Inquisition

Mictlan: Blood Priest

Pangea: Wild Lands

Pythium: Imperium

R'lyeh: Sunken Realm

T'ien Ch'i: Celestial Kingdom

Ulm: Forge Lands

Vanheim: Sea Lords

[Gandalf Parker]

I like those and I agree that something should be there. Well.. maybe Lava Land and Swamp Land could be improved on though I have no suggestions at the moment. And I understand the Sea Lords thing but it might be misleading to newbies, maybe something Valkery-ish?

You might want to send that directly to Kristoffer, I think its kindof his area.

[Edi]

My suggestions for the following (did not like the ones in the opening post):

Abysia: Lavaborn / Magmaborn / Fireborn
Vanheim: Northmen
C'tis: Lizard Lords / Sauromancers
Ulm: Master Smiths / Steel Kingdom (Iron Kingdom would be better, but is too easily confused with Iron Faith)
Man: Mists of Avalon (There might be that pesky copyright issue with the estate of Marion Zimmer-Bradley, though...) / Lords of Avalon (no such problem)

[Zen]

I don't know about some of the original suggestions:

But here are some suggestions:

Abysia: Trueblood
Machaka: Voudu

[Gandalf Parker]

Edi said:
My suggestions for the following (did not like the ones in the opening post):

Abysia: Lavaborn / Magmaborn / Fireborn
Vanheim: Northmen
C'tis: Lizard Lords / Sauromancers
Ulm: Master Smiths / Steel Kingdom (Iron Kingdom would be better, but is too easily confused with Iron Faith)
Man: Mists of Avalon (There might be that pesky copyright issue with the estate of Marion Zimmer-Bradley, though...) / Lords of Avalon (no such problem)

I like those. They would help give new players the idea of the differences.

[Endoperez]

Abysia: Fiery Blood, Brothers of Fire, something else. I don't think Lava Land is mysterious enough.

Arcoscephale: Same for Mystic Kingdom, as strange as it may seem! I can't do better, however. Kingdom Reborn, Ways of Old, Era of Steel...

Atlantis: I *really* like Coral Towers. Short, mysterious and tells what it is about. Perfect! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

C'tis: Swamp Land - a swamp, a land, so what about it? Desert of Life and Death, Kingdom of the Lizard Kings? Something Egyptish would be nice. Desert Kings/ Kings of the Desert?

Caelum: Ice Lords - too many lords, too many lands. The Magocracy, Seraphs' reich, Way of Blizzard, People of Winds

Machaka: Spider Lords is nice, but Spider Kings is better. Kings chane often, that's why I chose this over Land of the Spider King.

Man: Avalon
Marignon: Inquisition
Both could use something explaining it, but they can do without it. Witches if Avalon is the only one I came up with.

Mictlan: Blood Cult, fromt he description.

Pangea: The Beastlands, Forests of the past, Taming of the Wild

Pythium: Empire, as Illwinter writes it, or Emerald Empire to make it different from Ermor.

R'lyeh: Sunken City, from description.

T'ien Ch'i: Celestial Empire, as in description.

Ulm: Iron Kingdom, from the description.

Vanheim: Vanaheim is the home of Vanir, Midgård is the home of humans, Helheim is for the dead (IIRC). As the name Vanheim is already in use, it would need something poetric akin to the "Coral Towers". Masters of the Seas would do, but I think something better can be done.

[Edi]

Zen, I also like the Trueblood suggestion for Abysia, it fits with their theme.

Endoperez, Northmen would be a short and to the point description of Vanheim. It is a synonym for Vikings, which is what the Vanheim nation represents, and the term itself conjures images of Norse mythology.

C'tis already has Desert Tombs, which is the specific desert related theme (as opposed to the Nile delta related basic theme and Miasma), so it needs something else, not another desert-related tag.

-------

Another couple of good ones for Pangaea could be Wild Woods or Primal Forest.

Edi

[Vicious Love]

Arcoscephale: Portents and Conquest

Caelum: Seraphs' Will/The Unsullied Crags/Blooms of Frost

C'tis: Elder Fens/Shrouded Cities/Crafts of Old

Pangaea: Untamed Hearts

Marignon: Cleansing Fires

Pythium: Exile Empire

R'lyeh: ELDRITCH Realm. Trust me, it's gotta be eldritch.

T'ien Ch'i: Heaven's Mandate

Ulm: Steel Ascendant/Triumphant/Shiny and Pointy

Man: Emerald Isle/s. Bit of geographical dithering, but that's why it's a fantasy nation.

Trouble with naming the default theme for themeless nations is that the purpose of a theme name is to distinguish A from B. A nation without themes is all default, baby.
Things are even less convenient if we can expect Dom 3 to include new themes. We can't very well call Machaka "God's Children", "8 Legged Freaks", or whatever, only to find that their new theme has twice the spidery goodness.

[Chazar]

Caelum: "Rule of the Seraphs", "Frozen Flowers", "Arch Seraphs" --something distinguishing it from "Return of the Raptors"
R'yleh: "Void Gate" since the Void Gate seems to be an important feature; "Old Ones" or "Calamari Rampage" would be appropriate too.

[Wauthan]

Why can't I ever read this kind of threads and not post suggestions?

Abysia: Bloodfire, Demonborn, Infernis.
Arcosephale: Kingdom of Stars
Atlantis: The endless reef, Lurkers below, Empire of the deepths
C'Tis: The eternal marches, The elder kingdom, Serpents of life and death
Caelum: Storms of Winter, Winds of Ice, Age of Ice, Might of the Seraphim.
Machaka: Dark Forest, Spellweavers, Web of Magic.
Man: United Kindom, Age of Man.
Marignon: What noone expected, Quest for the Chalice, the great crusade.
Mictlan: The Empire of Blood, The Crimson Jungle, Jade Jaguars.

[RedRover]

I like Gandalf's solution to send in a list, but it would be nice to send the strongest list possible.

Looks like we have pretty much finished the first round of responses. Anyone interested in round two?

Abysia: Trueblood
runnerups: "Lavaborn" "Fireborn"

Arcoscephale: Mystic Kingdom
runnerup: "Kingdom of Stars"

Atlantis: Coral Towers
runnerup: "Empire of the Deeps"

C'tis: Sauromancers
runnerup: Lizard Lords

Caelum: People of Winds
runnerup: "Ice Lords"


Machaka: Spider Kings

Man: Lords of Avalon
runnerup: "Witches of Avalon"

Marignon: Inquisition
runnerup:"Cleansing Fires"

Mictlan: Blood Cult
runnersup "Blood Priests" "Crimson Jungle"

Pangea: Beast Lands
runnerup: "Wild Lands"

Pythium: Emerald Empire

R'lyeh: Sunken City
runnerup "Eldritch Realm"

T'ien Ch'i: Celestial Empire
runnerup: "Heaven's Mandate"

Ulm: Steel Kingdom
runnersup: "Steel Ascendent" "Forge Lands"

Vanheim: Northmen


I’ll kick it off again:

At this point, Abysia, Atlantis, C’tis, Man, and R’lyeh look really strong to me, and I’m out of idea on a few others, but here goes:

Abysia: Blood of Fire (which I’ll propose only because it exactly matches the structure of the other theme, “Blood of Humans”)

Arcoscephale: Kingdom of Fate, Kingdom of a Thousand Stars

Caelum: Wizards of the Wind, People of the Wind (this Last a slight variation on a previous suggestion), Land of the Ice Mages, Cabal of the Seraphs, Wind Riders.

Machaka: Spider Priests (maybe a little more thematic, since priests are actually running the show).

Vanheim: Sea Raiders, Wave Riders

[deccan]

RedRover said:
R'lyeh: Sunken City
runnerup "Eldritch Realm"




How can you have a R'lyeh theme name that doesn reference Lovecraft! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif

How about some story titles like: "The Shadow Out of Time", "The Colour Out of Space", "The Nameless City", "The Night Ocean" or variations thereof.

[Ivan Pedroso]

RedRover said:
Abysia: Trueblood
runnerups: "Lavaborn" "Fireborn"




Trueblood is a cool name, but since BoH is more "bloody" than basic Abysia, I feel that Trueblood is a bit of a misnomer.

Blood of Fire actually sound pretty cool. A spin on that could be Blood of Demons, hinting that demon blood is a rarer "commodity" than human blood (basic theme is less "bloody"), but on the other hand demon blood is more pure in an Abyssian sense of pure. That would fit nicely with the flavour text of BoH, that state that the theme is a "diluted" Version of the more demonesque standard Abysian theme.

I know that the word True in Trueblood refers to the very pureness I'm talking about, but it does suggest (to me at least) that basic Abysia is the blood heavy of the two themes, and it isn't.

The rest are pretty nice, although the word Kingdom is used both in Arcoscephale and Ulm. Perhaps Ulm could be changed to Realms of Steel or something similar.

[Vicious Love]

Abysians aren't demons, they just breed with them. "Blood of Demons" might be an apt name for a presently nonexistent demobred theme, but is otherwise a misnomer.

[Alneyan]

A second vote for Emerald Isle here (for Man). Or, if you wanted to remain based on Avalon, perhaps the Summer Lands.

[Sphinxhouse]

Random thoughts regarding our reptilian friends' additional themes:

C'tis:
-Scales of Justice
(Crusading enemies of the undead.)

-Heart of the Naga
(T'ien Chi meets Serpent Cult)

-Venomwing
(Couatls, Draconians and other flying reptiles, astral/nature magic)

-Jade Marsh
(Amazon/tribal/barbarian and lizard alliance)

-Hydra's Fury
(Regeneration and fire/death magic)

-Crooked Fang
(villains, unholy and stealthy units emphasized. Because sometimes it's better to BE the snake in the grass.)

-Defanged
(The Empoisoner's Guild betrays the lizard kings and the high priests, leaving them terribly exposed to their enemies. Can C'tis survive without the slingers and empoisoners?)

[Vicious Love]

Sphinxhouse said:
-Defanged
(The Empoisoner's Guild betrays the lizard kings and the high priests, leaving them terribly exposed to their enemies. Can C'tis survive without the slingers and empoisoners?)



No.

[Vicious Love]

I mean, yes.

[Cainehill]

Sphinxhouse said:
Random thoughts regarding our reptilian friends' additional themes:

C'tis:




Don't forget, "Revenge of the Lizardskin Boots" - no units to recruit, but a _snazzy_ shoe collection. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Endoperez]

Does anyone who posted his ideas here have anything against someone (me) using them in modding projects, especially in the case of doubling the default nations?

ATM, I doubled Ulm to Second Ulm, would Iron Kingdom etc. be enough if the description (both in the popup and after choosing a nation) told what the nation is question is?

[RedRover]

No objections here.

[Gandalf Parker]

Fine with me. Especially since I would love to see that project progress

[Endoperez]

I have almost finished writing nations' information down, and will start writing the .dm files soon. I hope to have all the base nation themes except for Atlantis (only possible replacement would be R'lyeh, which gets foul spawns in coastal forts) and Mictlan.

After that I will probably do the nation-spesific themes, at least easy ones like Vanheim's Helheim and Midgård and Pangaea's New Era.

I have extender weekend thanks to Finland's Independence Day, and this is the first day in three days I have time for doing what I want. Last week I had 5 exams in a row and 40 pupils my father teaches visiting us (parents counted in). Only one showed promise to become Dominionist, but I think I managed to convert couple to Ur-Quanism. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Vicious Love]

W00t! Path of Now and Forever 4 eva!

[Endoperez]

Yep, especially after I found the music in .mod files, and ModPlug Player. I rarely listen to music, but those are quite good. My computer opens up by playing shortened-up Ur-Quan theme! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

[Vicious Love]

Heh, there're some pretty sweet remixes out there, too. Though none can compare to the original Pkunk/Ur-Quan themes. And that 3 second Androsynth victory ditty is pretty catchy, too.