Hi,

In the creation myth that I wrote for a game that I am going to be the DM for, there are fourteen legendary weapons, created by the Old God, Twilight.  The greatest of these weapons; one forged from his own heart, Twilight kept for himself, and the other thirteen he gave to his children.  His children being the first thirteen Old Gods.  As the weapons are so important to the mythos that I am trying to create, I want to name them, but I am struggling to come up with sufficiently ancient and legendary sounding names. 

The weapons of which I speak were forged by the Old God, Twilight, from his own flesh, and used by him and his thirteen children, in the war against the Primordial beings of Light and Darkness.  Darkness and Light also created weapons of their own, which I am also struggling to name.

That makes sixteen legendary weapons for which I need names. 

Do you have any hints or tips on how I can name these weapons or any suggestions for the names themselves?

Thanks

Forge XD

just start looking up key words in latin, klingon, or valyrian and go from there (depending on if you feel academic or nerdy at the moment).  I've never had to think about it though as at most i've had like one legendary weapon in an entire campaign.

Quote from HeathSmith >>

just start looking up key words in latin, klingon, or valyrian and go from there.  I've never had to think about it though as at most i've had like one legendary weapon in an entire campaign.

 
Normally, I wouldn’t have so many either. I only have so many of them in the game and not just, “weapons of the gods”, because bringing them all together in a ritual, will reawaken Twilight. Who will rebalance the world.  

That is what the BBEG wants. He believes that the world is out of balance, and that is what is causing all the pain and suffering and death, and by reawakening Twilight, he can “rebalance” the world and make it a better place.  

Where he is correct that Twilight will rebalance the world, if he is ever awoken, he is incorrect in his assumptions that it is the right thing to do. However, the death of his wife, and the suffering of his child has driven him so deep into grief and madness, that now he only sees and hears what he wants to. 

He has tunnel vision, and is so focussed on restoring the balance, that he can’t see or hear anything else. 

There is a lot more to it than that though, but I don’t want to go too deeply into the story, in case my players stumble across it. 

I would be looking to gather the names of various day/night balances and events together, as the whole theme (dark, light, & twilight) seems to revolve around light and the sun.

So things like Solar Flares, the Green Flash (a phenomena which occurs at sunrise & sunset), that sort of thing. What do these 14 weapons represent? I'm assuming that they will relate to balances in life, such as life/death, heat/cold, day/night, etc. Where did the number 14 come from? is it merely to do with the body parts from which they were crafted, or did they represent something else?

More information on each sword would be good, and then we can perhaps offer ideas for each of them.

I do one of two things when naming legendary items. The first is to take the name of the type of weapon/object (such as "the sword" or "the blade"). Then put "of," followed by a descriptive adjective, followed by a noun. Using this method, a legendary blade in my campaign is called "The Sword of Radiant Dawn".

Another way is to come up with two words that fit your legendary item. Then put the words together. For example, "Inkveil," is a powerful magical sword in my setting.

The weapons were made from Twilight, who used his own body to forge them. His sword, is made from his heart and represents his passion. Other weapons include a bow, made from one of his ribs and sinews of his flesh.  Another, a spear is again made from a bone in his body. 

Other weapons include slivers of his mind and soul.  These weapon are magic, one combined with his skin, to form a book, and the other formed into a gemstone of great power, and mounted into a case of bone, so highly polished and refined that it is as smooth and pure as marble, which hangs from a chain of flesh, so expertly and finely spun, that it became gold.  

All the other weapons follow the same trend. They’re all made from parts of Twilight, and because they were made from parts of his body, they also, each poses a fraction of his power.  Twilight is darkness and light combined, the child of the two primordial beings of the same names. As such, each weapon he forged also possesses his nature, being that of darkness and light. 

Twilight made each weapon specifically for the one who would wield it.  

The ritual is meant to reunite the weapons with body from which they came, restoring Twilight to his full power, and awakening him from his slumber. 

On the part of the Darkness and the Light. Their weapons were also forged from their own bodies.  Darkness also forged a weapon from his heart, which he called “The Heart of Chaos”.  Light forged a weapon from her soul, which she called, “The Angelus”. These weapons were so powerful, that they in turn, gave birth to beings of their own.  The Heart of Chaos, gave birth to the original demons (lore for the Obyrith, will be used for this); and the Angelus, gave birth to Angels.  Through their weapons, Darkness and Light were able to control these beings, and they became soldiers in the war. 

To counter the armies of darkness and light, Twilight and his children created races of their own as well. The first of the ancient races were created by them.  Beings of tremendous power and blessed with incredibly long lives. 

Each weapon and each race will have their own creation myth and their own story, but the over arching mythos will tie them all together into the eternal story. 

It won’t all be in one game though.  Only the weapons, and the gathering of them to reawaken Twilight, will be in the game, but I want to give my players a rich world full of lore, that I can then use and expand upon for future games as well.  

Quote from Thauraeln_The_Bold >>

I do one of two things when naming legendary items. The first is to take the name of the type of weapon/object (such as "the sword" or "the blade"). Then put "of," followed by a descriptive adjective, followed by a noun. Using this method, a legendary blade in my campaign is called "The Sword of Radiant Dawn".

Another way is to come up with two words that fit your legendary item. Then put the words together. For example, "Inkveil," is a powerful magical sword in my setting.

 
I like this idea. This also forces you to think more about the weapon and the properties that it possesses. Helping you create the lore of the weapon as well. 

That's a cool premise for it. I am still missing a key ingredient in the mix, though - why were his weapons made? The ones made by light & dark have reasons (to create & control armies), so I would recommend giving each of the 14 twilight weapons a reason why he made them, and then using this as a driving force behind their names.

As they said in the Hobbit, the weapons are named for the deeds they have done. So if one was crafted to defeat an unstoppable monster, then it could be named the BeastThrasher. If it was created to allow a settlement to be built in a place where carnivorous vines grew, by forcing back the vines and creating a safe haven, it could be called WyldeTamer. I'm a big fan of weapons named after their feats, it adds a little lore in the palm of a players hand, helps them to feel like they are holding a bit of history. Obviously, in your setting that won't have much of an issue, as they are legendary weapons, but for generic-legendary weapons, IE basic weapons which were used by heroes and became legendary, the names are a good way to add a feeling of reverence - your PC is carrying a greatsword which once slew a frost giant, and now it has a sheen of hoarfrost over its blade - behold Frostsplitter, legendary weapon.

If they came from his body name them after the part it came from. Twilight’s eye is one, Twilight’s tooth, Twlight’s right arm. 
Personally, I think those sound cool. And if you don’t make the connection between body part and weapon obvious (maybe the eye is a flail or something) then it’s a little extra layer of mystery the players need to unravel, They might know they’re looking for the eye, but don’t know it’s a flail. 
There could be a whole story arc of finding the ancient scroll which describes each one so they can know what they’re looking for. Or force them to figure out each one at a time. 
Also, leaving it vague and mysterious leaves you some room to make adjustments without them knowing. 

Trevor.

They're all named Trevor.

Quote from Xalthu >>

If they came from his body name them after the part it came from. Twilight’s eye is one, Twilight’s tooth, Twlight’s right arm. 
Personally, I think those sound cool. And if you don’t make the connection between body part and weapon obvious (maybe the eye is a flail or something) then it’s a little extra layer of mystery the players need to unravel, They might know they’re looking for the eye, but don’t know it’s a flail. 
There could be a whole story arc of finding the ancient scroll which describes each one so they can know what they’re looking for. Or force them to figure out each one at a time. 
Also, leaving it vague and mysterious leaves you some room to make adjustments without them knowing. 

 One more thing to build on your response. If you want to include a creature's name, put it at the end, and put 'of' before hand. Doing this to the names mentioned in the quoted post would make them "the Eye of Twilight," "the Tooth of Twilight," and "the Arm of Twilight." Likewise, for my homebrew setting, the magical crown created by Thauraeln the Bold, the first and only Dragon King, is called the "Dragonhelm of Thauraeln the Bold."

Quote from Thauraeln_The_Bold >>

Quote from Xalthu >>

If they came from his body name them after the part it came from. Twilight’s eye is one, Twilight’s tooth, Twlight’s right arm. 
Personally, I think those sound cool. And if you don’t make the connection between body part and weapon obvious (maybe the eye is a flail or something) then it’s a little extra layer of mystery the players need to unravel, They might know they’re looking for the eye, but don’t know it’s a flail. 
There could be a whole story arc of finding the ancient scroll which describes each one so they can know what they’re looking for. Or force them to figure out each one at a time. 
Also, leaving it vague and mysterious leaves you some room to make adjustments without them knowing. 

 One more thing to build on your response. If you want to include a creature's name, put it at the end, and put 'of' before hand. Doing this to the names mentioned in the quoted post would make them "the Eye of Twilight," "the Tooth of Twilight," and "the Arm of Twilight." Likewise, for my homebrew setting, the magical crown created by Thauraeln the Bold, the first and only Dragon King, is called the "Dragonhelm of Thauraeln the Bold."

 Oh, that’s good. I’d say even mix it up so it doesn’t get stale, put “of” in a few, not in others.

And embellish with some adjectives. The strong left hand of twilight. Twlight’s Angry Eye.

I almost wrote Twilight’s Angry Finger, but then we’d all know which finger it was. The lesson is be careful it doesn’t become more comic than you intend. 

Not sure of you are just looking for names or if you need ideas for the weapons themselves but over on DMsGuild there is a thing called Ancestral Weapons that might give some suggestions. Not really names but suggested attributes or upgrades. Might be helpful.

Weapon and artifact names are difficult for me as well.  But in this particular case I see nothing wrong with naming the weapons after the God that owned it.  The Sword of Valkyrie - Thor's Hammer - Rakvier's Dagger ...

Some weapons should be named for the city occupied by the ruler of the city, which becomes a badge of office.  Sword of Dawnstar - The War Axe of Riften - The Mace of Riverwood ...

Of course, weapons that have magical enchantments against certain critters should be named as such.  Goblin Slayer - Dragons Doom - Giant Bane ...

Then there are just the cool single word names.  Sting - Frost - Storm ...

I have named weapons after notable PCs I have run like The Sword of Marcato - Bartholomew's Mace - Wallace's Claymore ...

And if that doesn't work, just start checking out names of plants, or animals or something in Latin as mentioned earlier.  Something cool will pop into your head.

As someone who is very bad at naming characters, I tend to go onto https://www.indifferentlanguages.com/ (or an online dictionary for something more specific like Latin), search something related to the character's traits, pick a word I like, and sometimes mess around with replacing the letters in the name until something sounds right.

There's probably way better ways of going about it, but that's how I do it.

As long as you are consistent.

If you are going with Sword of X or Y the Axe go with that.

If you are going with Dawnbringer, Pathfinder, Whisperwind, then go with that.

Mixing the two types of naming conventions can be jarring in the mind.

The best part is, you don't have to name them all now. There can just be stories of a spear or dagger made from his fingernail, but no one has seen it. Only the ancients knew the names of them all, that knowledge is lost to time.

Quote from Wysperra >>

As long as you are consistent.

If you are going with Sword of X or Y the Axe go with that.

If you are going with Dawnbringer, Pathfinder, Whisperwind, then go with that.

Mixing the two types of naming conventions can be jarring in the mind.

The best part is, you don't have to name them all now. There can just be stories of a spear or dagger made from his fingernail, but no one has seen it. Only the ancients knew the names of them all, that knowledge is lost to time.

D&D doesn't even use this type of consistency you are talking about. It may be jarring to you, but that is absolutely not a universal problem with naming legendary items or artifacts.

Quote from Korbin_Orion >>

Quote from Wysperra >>

As long as you are consistent.

If you are going with Sword of X or Y the Axe go with that.

If you are going with Dawnbringer, Pathfinder, Whisperwind, then go with that.

Mixing the two types of naming conventions can be jarring in the mind.

The best part is, you don't have to name them all now. There can just be stories of a spear or dagger made from his fingernail, but no one has seen it. Only the ancients knew the names of them all, that knowledge is lost to time.

 

D&D doesn't even use this type of consistency you are talking about. It may be jarring to you, but that is absolutely not a universal problem with naming legendary items or artifacts.

 The OP stated that all of the weapons came from the same source. That being the case, I made suggestions with some consistency with naming. 

I count three sources in the OP.

And then there are 13 children of one of those sources, each of which has an artifact from said source.

So the questions are, within the lore, who named the weapons? The three sources? Did the 13 children name their own weapons? Did the names come about through legend among the mortals of the world?

Then, did those sources or old gods or primordials or writers of legend care about consistency in naming conventions?

You didn't JUST make suggestions with some consistency, you made it seem as if it was required, apparently because you perceive inconsistency in naming conventions to be jarring.