u/Aztela

Title is a bit vague because I didn't want to make it a mess.

Traditionally, in fiction, you often see Fae have this magic or power that allows them to bend the rules of reality. If a Fae stole all your coins and you say "I want my coins back," they might hand you two coins because that is technically what you asked for. If you wanted to make a deal with a Fae, they might ask for something like "I want your ability to see constellations in the stars" or "I want the high note in your singing."

It's almost like Fae magic works on the basis of literal meaning rather than intended meaning, or based on the interpretation of the words said. In a lot of fantasy fiction, it works both ways too- the Fae can be trickery, but the person making the deal can be trickery in return. A Fae may say "I want your bag of valuables" and so you dump out the bag and hand it over, which based on the literal words, all the Fae asked for was the bag and thus it fulfills the contract. Or, you often see the Fae ask for something, goes to claim it, and then the person goes "Oh, but you never said when, so I have plenty of time! You'll get it later!"

How would you describe this power, or what terms would fit it? Would it be paracausal? Semantics-based magic? I feel like there is a very specific word for this sort of power, maybe something I've seen in in my time reading SCP documents, but I can't think of it. I'm specifically looking for a term that someone might use in a world where this magic exists. The trope is likely called something like "storybook magic" or something but in a fantasy setting, that wouldn't really make any sense.

Thank you!

I'm going to be running a D&D game for people who are brand new to D&D and fantasy TTRPGs as a whole. I'm doing a little worldbuilding as a way to introduce them to the concepts of D&D in ways they would likely be familiar with, either from common fantasy media (like TV shows or books) or from things they might have heard in passing (like from LOTR).

I could just use the D&D setting, but I find this more fun (for me!), and I don't want to have to try to introduce them to all the wild D&D lore that there is and possibly confuse them more when I can just make up a small setting like what you'd see in an early 2000s MMORPG for tweens.

So far, my idea is to have the world split into regions themed on the classical elements (air, wind, earth, fire) and D&D damage types (necrotic, radiant, psychic, etc.), with a ruling nation of some kind for each. There will have been an ancient war involving dragons, the currency will be with gold coins, etc.

Some examples of what I mean by "cliche" or "stereotypical" tropes:

* Dwarves live in mountains/drink beer/love mining/hate elves

* Dragons love to hoard gold, treasure, and other kinds of loot

* The Totally-Not-Just-The-Roman-Empire Empire

* Nations/regions being split into ruling elements (the Fire Kingdom, the Sea Dynasty, etc.)

* Necromancy is very evil and only very evil bad guys ever use it

I know of sites like TV Tropes but I'd like to see what tropes you all think are fun or interesting! Reading responses and opinions is more fun than just googling a bunch of possible options, and you'll likely have tropes I wouldn't have thought of or even found in my own searching.

Thank you!

Hello!

I'm working on a worldbuilding project and I had an idea for a name for a location. I'm trying to figure out if I have a proper understanding on the suffix -dor.

I see that conquistador is a combination of conquistar and -dor. I've done a bit of research to know that -dor creates agent nouns from verbs.

I wanted to create a noun that basically meant "Enforcer" (like of the law or rules) with the -dor suffix (intended to be a nod towards "conquistador"), so I was thinking of: impor + -dor = imporador. If I'm correct, it should mean an imposer, which seems to be as close as I can get to enforcer.

Would imporador be an acceptable result, or am I missing a vital aspect of the Portuguese language? Is this how the suffix -dor can be used or is it with only specific verbs?

I'm very new to researching and studying languages and how they work, so please excuse any major glaring issues! I've been thinking of taking up studying the Romance languages as a whole and so this worldbuilding project has been my gateway into learning tiny bits and pieces at a time.

r/asklinguistics directed me over here for this question!

I'm working on a fantasy worldbuilding project. Currently, my focus is developing a city and empire inspired by the Roman Empire. I'm trying to somewhat match the progression of words to create a realistic sounding name, something that you can look at and go "Yeah, I can see how that could happen in our world."

I'm going off of the etymological theory that Rome is derived from Rumon/Rumen, an archaic name for the Tiber. I've used the Etruscan language to name the river the Zamthen River after the word zamathi (gold)/zamthic (golden). My idea would be to then derive from this to name the city, something like the City of Zamtha and the Zamthan Empire.

Zamthen is a word/name in Language 1 in the setting (real world equivalent of Etruscan) and Zamtha would be a word/name in Language 2 in the setting (real world equivalent of Latin).

It's just, to me, these don't sound very accurate. They don't sound very Italic or Latin, and this area of my fantasy setting is inspired by Medieval Europe and Romance languages. If I recall from my research, Latin does not naturally have "Z" or "TH" so perhaps something like the City of Damta and the Damtan Empire makes more sense, as the "Z" gets replaced?

To build further for other possible ideas, I'm following the Tiber's history. In my world, the river was called the Zamthen River but was renamed to the Ramethis River after a queen drowned in it (similar to the Tiber's myth on why the name changed). Perhaps I should derive a name from Ramethis instead, such as the City of Rametha and the Ramethan Empire?

To make this easier to understand:

• Real world: Rumon/Rumen --> Tiberis --> Tiber
• My fantasy world: Zamthen --> Ramethis --> Ramet
• Real world (in theory): Rumon/Rumen --> Roma --> Rome
• My fantasy world: Zamthen --> Zamtha(?) --> Zamta(?)

Is there a piece that I'm missing here for the linguistic progression? Do these names sound correct for how languages and words would naturally progress overtime?

I've been struggling to find a good setting for XP gain. I feel like 1.0x XP is too fast, as Construction levels up near instantly, but even on 0.5x XP my Agriculture hit level 2 with five plants growing to their second stage.

Are some skills just prone to leveling up WAY faster than others or should I try 0.1x XP? I'm just looking to make it a bit more fun to level up and so I don't breeze through levels so fast. I feel like once I hit >!Manufacturing!< or >!Cascade!< most of my skills are max or are near max, especially: Reloading, Construction, Blunt or Sharp (depending on preference), Agriculture, Sprint, and Strength.

I want it to take longer so that way it feels more in line with progression, so that way when I hit say >!Hydro!< or >!Reactor!< then my skills are approaching that cap to feel more "endgame-y."

Perhaps I'm just misunderstanding the flow or intended progression of the game, but it just feels like skills are too easy to level up? Is that intentional? Except for Accuracy, Sneaking, and Fortitude, those guys barely budge.

What do you prefer to have your XP sandbox settings on?