So how about NAMES- did you name the characters of Pangaea with any particular real-world significance or meaning in mind, or just because they sounded cool? (Lazuli strikes me as an obvious one...) How about in-universe? Does anyone's name have any meaning or cultural significance in the context of Pangaea? (I remember the cool worldbuilding detail about Maqaxha!)
When I create characters for stories set in our world/derivatives of our world, I’ll often backwards-engineer something that fits. (Or just get lucky - it turned out I had accidentally named my protagonist in my Gothic Victorian Fantasy universe something very very close to a name meaning “to reveal” and the villain the equivalent of “hidden”, so… that worked out well. Totally intentional. XD)
But for my pure fantasy verses, like Pangaea, it’s all about how the name tastes. I’ll try my way through letters and syllables until I find a combination that sounds right and is reasonably possible to spell. With a feel inspired by some cultures in our own world, sometimes, but mostly just wildly made up.
Then I google it, these days, to make sure it isn’t already used for a well-known existing character or thing somewhere, and doesn’t mean something stupid or offensive in another language. Had to put Relonia’s family name back on the drawing board just a while ago, for that reason - still need to either tweak it a lot or start over.
The Machralese are the exception, of course, since they’re all named after things. Most end up with noun or adjective-names, but it’s a big city with lots of people, so the lesser-fancy words of the tongue no doubt get used as well. It also means they do, to the greatest extent that they’re able, choose their own names. So that’s important to take into account, since their choice of name says a lot about the character. :)
As for in-world meanings…
Rylerion, the way it’s written in the Kayalana equivalent to kanji or hieroglyphics, would translate to “night eye”.
Tenotaka has the “taka” in there, another name for the great Roc of the Kayalana zodiac.
Na-Merate was only named Merate, but became known as “the sweet” for her gentle and kind nature, so the Na-prefix ended up always used, until it became permanent.
Akari and Kenji are my headaches - they were named through the “arrange letters into something that sounds nice” method without the googling-part, and so ended up with Super-Common Names A and B. I didn’t know “akari” actually meant something, and I didn’t know Kenji was the Japanese equivalent of Bob. But it stuck, so here we are. “Akari” isn’t a bad name for someone so bright and cheerful anyway. I’ll just own it.
It’s also common at least in the royal family of Kayalana for children to inherit syllables from parents, relatives, close friends of the family or great forebears.
Rion got the “ri” from Shayari, Isokell got the “is” from Rion’s mother Islinn, Meimere got the “re” from her grandmother Relonia. (”Ziradess” sounds super-strange to the Kayalanians, it’s a very Sirn name. Possibly they stuffed a “ra” from Na-Merate into the spelling?)
Some cases are more complex - Isokell named Karaon after a historical/fictional character who was royal but married for love at the cost of his crown, but she changed the spelling to incorporate Rannon’s specific “ra”-sign instead of the classic way of spelling it.
And conversely, Rannon would officially have inherited Na-Merate’s “ra”, but in order not to piss off the King (who so clearly resented the child and wouldn’t appreciate him named after the Queen he “killed”) the priests/astronomers charged with picking an auspicious name changed the spelling to a “ra” of same sound but different look and meaning.
Corrin is named after the naming tradition in Carryn-yehl, where all royal sons get variations on the same name, with different wowels. So in-world, he would be recognized as Carrysh royalty with that name. (Even the capital of Carryn-yehl is named after its founder, Kherann.)
Lylacra is named after the Carrysh name of the brightest, whitest lodestar in the sky. It’s named something similar in Sirn, just differently spelled.
Lapis Lazuli obviously chose the name of the most precious dark blue gemstone he could find, and along with his rise to power and glory, gemstone-names have become very popular.
Ebenholtz is the Scandinavian/German spelling for ebony, soo. apparently that’s the Machralese spelling, too. >.> She was named before I knew the English spelling, and now it’s stuck that way.
Kestrel just liked bird names, and was probably very pleased to score a relatively fancy name like “Crow” for his courtesans. I’m sure it didn’t come cheap.
And the Ku’Ombian royal family has the “xha”-suffix for kings and crown princes; Koqonoxha, Maqaxha and first woman to claim it, Shaqanixha. (If that’s what you were thinking of? :)
