I need help trying to name a Gerontocracy(Elders preside over this society. In some cases, long-lived races such as elves or dragons are entrusted with the leadership of the land.) nation that would be made up of all the Dragonborn types, I had one idea Draconica but I'm curious what other people could come up with.
Draconia was the name of the equivalent location in Critical Role.
That said, nations are frequently either named after a discoverer, such as "America" being named after Amerigo Vespucc, the italian explorer who proposed that Cristopher Columbus discovered an entirely new continent, or after a concept such as "Liberia" being named after "Liberty". (Skim the wiki of its origin, if you are unfamiliar.)
So, I would recommend starting with asking what you want "Draconia" to represent in your world. "Draconia" is a perfectly reasonable option for highlighting its racial qualities, but it would be like calling New York "Humanville".
Questions I would ask are:
Why are all the dragonborn types willing to live together?
The world im making the nation was created before Bahumat and Tiamat were really gods and so the idea is that the whole good and evil with the Dragonborn by color isn't a thing when the nation was created. It's a very old nation, unified, and I'm not too sure how they would see outsiders.
The reason I ask for this is a plan to have an event in my world where Bahumat and Tiamat actually become gods and fight each other, then most Dragonborn races fight and the nation splits between them. Where most Chromatic Dragonborn take on a dynasty system by the true dragon children of Tiamat and wanting to end metallic Dragonborn, and the metallic keeping the old name of the nation.
IDK if this is even a good idea I'm decently new at world-building and I'm not good at naming things also I had no idea that name had anything to do with critical role haha.
So, basically, this would be the "Origin Nation" for this race, as opposed to one that appeared as a part of transitional historic events. Depending on your creation mythos, "Draconia" is a perfectly sensible name. The only change I might suggest would be translating it into Draconic. However, nations tend to re-translate the names of other nations for their own tongue, so most people would probably still call it "Draconia", even if that is not what the natives call it.
What I like to do is either pull from FR dictionaries, or real world root languages like latin, romantic, germanic, etc. It gives the nomenclature a little more meaning. It's also a good way to spice it up if you don't want something to be so on the nose. Now, the root word "draco" is already latin for dragon, so maybe something from draconic like Strix'Okarthel. "Strix" translates to "invigorate" but "Strixiki" is "dragonborn". "Okarthel" means "home". A fairly simplistic name that still has an air of mystery and hidden meaning at first glance. You could probably come up with a more appropriate name given that it's you city.
"Egg" It's what Dragonborn hatch from. It make sense as the name for a nation they come from. Feel free to translate it into any language you like. People throughout history have been terribly inventive with names. They usually translate out as something pretty simple. Earth. Terra. "dirt". The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
What does a name matter? You could name it Confabula. Or Wibjamun. Or Pakajak. Literally meaningless.
Far more important is you address:
When the elderly kill the young to prevent them from reaching old age and thereby holding political power, how clandestine do they have to be? Is it just accepted? A well known public secret? Do they actually keep it hush hush?
Aside from the obvious - longer-lived races live in better districts with better facilities - how is racism implemented? Some of that is obvious - red, gold, and brass will live where it's warmer, white and silver where it's colder, green in the jungle - but black, blue, and copper are resistant to and deal an uncommon damage type, making them the best at murder. Do they all hang out together, or what?
Practically speaking, there's a good reason to keep it simple: players don't remember things. If you call it something like Draconica, Drakehome, or Wyrmcradle, that clearly communicates the identity of the place without sounding laughably stupid (to my ears, anyway). Easy to pronounce and hard to misinterpret or misremember.
Since it's the ancient homeland of the dragonborn and has long traditions, you could just call it Ancient Draconica, or even Old Draconica. Timeless Draconica, perhaps.
I think if you told a player there's a place called Timeless Draconica, they would instantly understand most of what it is without you having to say anything else. And that's perfect. No need to make them work to get their heads around it.
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I need help trying to name a Gerontocracy(Elders preside over this society. In some cases, long-lived races such as elves or dragons are entrusted with the leadership of the land.) nation that would be made up of all the Dragonborn types, I had one idea Draconica but I'm curious what other people could come up with.
Draconia was the name of the equivalent location in Critical Role.
That said, nations are frequently either named after a discoverer, such as "America" being named after Amerigo Vespucc, the italian explorer who proposed that Cristopher Columbus discovered an entirely new continent, or after a concept such as "Liberia" being named after "Liberty". (Skim the wiki of its origin, if you are unfamiliar.)
So, I would recommend starting with asking what you want "Draconia" to represent in your world. "Draconia" is a perfectly reasonable option for highlighting its racial qualities, but it would be like calling New York "Humanville".
Questions I would ask are:
Why are all the dragonborn types willing to live together?
Is the nation old, or new?
Is the nation unified, or more tribal?
How does this nation view outsiders?
The world im making the nation was created before Bahumat and Tiamat were really gods and so the idea is that the whole good and evil with the Dragonborn by color isn't a thing when the nation was created. It's a very old nation, unified, and I'm not too sure how they would see outsiders.
The reason I ask for this is a plan to have an event in my world where Bahumat and Tiamat actually become gods and fight each other, then most Dragonborn races fight and the nation splits between them. Where most Chromatic Dragonborn take on a dynasty system by the true dragon children of Tiamat and wanting to end metallic Dragonborn, and the metallic keeping the old name of the nation.
IDK if this is even a good idea I'm decently new at world-building and I'm not good at naming things also I had no idea that name had anything to do with critical role haha.
So, basically, this would be the "Origin Nation" for this race, as opposed to one that appeared as a part of transitional historic events. Depending on your creation mythos, "Draconia" is a perfectly sensible name. The only change I might suggest would be translating it into Draconic. However, nations tend to re-translate the names of other nations for their own tongue, so most people would probably still call it "Draconia", even if that is not what the natives call it.
What I like to do is either pull from FR dictionaries, or real world root languages like latin, romantic, germanic, etc. It gives the nomenclature a little more meaning. It's also a good way to spice it up if you don't want something to be so on the nose. Now, the root word "draco" is already latin for dragon, so maybe something from draconic like Strix'Okarthel. "Strix" translates to "invigorate" but "Strixiki" is "dragonborn". "Okarthel" means "home". A fairly simplistic name that still has an air of mystery and hidden meaning at first glance. You could probably come up with a more appropriate name given that it's you city.
Here is the draconic dictionary I used.
"Egg" It's what Dragonborn hatch from. It make sense as the name for a nation they come from. Feel free to translate it into any language you like. People throughout history have been terribly inventive with names. They usually translate out as something pretty simple. Earth. Terra. "dirt". The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
<Insert clever signature here>
What does a name matter? You could name it Confabula. Or Wibjamun. Or Pakajak. Literally meaningless.
Far more important is you address:
Practically speaking, there's a good reason to keep it simple: players don't remember things. If you call it something like Draconica, Drakehome, or Wyrmcradle, that clearly communicates the identity of the place without sounding laughably stupid (to my ears, anyway). Easy to pronounce and hard to misinterpret or misremember.
Since it's the ancient homeland of the dragonborn and has long traditions, you could just call it Ancient Draconica, or even Old Draconica. Timeless Draconica, perhaps.
I think if you told a player there's a place called Timeless Draconica, they would instantly understand most of what it is without you having to say anything else. And that's perfect. No need to make them work to get their heads around it.