Why I hate 's 

They are annoying. They stop the flow of reading. They chop up names like so much raw meat. They are apostrophes, and I cannot abide them in a fantasy language. Try reading the next sentence fluently. Cor ara noalmen veri thonrah machbuem. If you read much, you should be able to discern it. Now try to read this one. C'or ar'a no'al'men veri thon'rah mach'buem. Less fluently, right? Now just for fun, try to read this sentence all the way through, cleanly and without stopping. "How are you, Jane?" asked Pete qrnek'tregp'lay. You just can't do it. Foreign, unfamiliar words stop someone up like a literary stumbling block. Try to avoid this sort of naming within your map. 

Name style 

There it is again! Style. It applies to naming your map as well as drawing it. Here we will discuss the different parts of names, and how they affect your map. Here is a list of the most common styles: 

• Cliché - avoid names like "Skull Mountain" at all costs
• Gutteral - Dwarves, Orcs, Trolls, etc. all talk in a gutteral form of speech.
• Noble - Elven. What else can I say?
• Archaic - Good for medieval fantasy
• Original - The best type. Make up your own language and let the good times roll!
• Alien - Languages that are so far away from human sounding as to be unpronounceable. Avoid these if you want a map people will remember.
• Cultural - Jamaican sounding words go with the Jamaican culture. You will never hear a dragon say "Ya mon!" .

Cliché- Do you want your audience to take you seriously? If so, do not use names like "The Black Pit of Despair." They will get you some serious scorn. Any time a barbarian muscle-man with an anorexic half-elf mistress defeats the skull demon with the Sword of Death, I have to laugh out loud. This kind of writing is cheap and terrible, and in lieu of that, you should keep your names realistic, too. 

Gutteral- Gutteral names are that like "Orglub" or "Gloningor." They should be used sparingly, for they do get tedious. Cluster them in one or two places, if you want, to represent the location of a culture. Gutteral names use the uncommon letters b, g, d, z, and ng more commonly, to create a sound made deep in the throat. 

Noble - Noble names make use of soft, voiceless sounds to produce easily read, pronounceable words. Usually the names mean something fair in a given "noble" language: leaf-dew or grass-swan. Use th, ch, s, a n, l, and r as your main letters to create noble names. 

Archaic - Medieval names. Arthur and Vanion, Gawain and Pendragon are all well known examples of medieval names. Use sounds increasing or decreasing in tone to form original medieval sounding names. Ai, oi, (v)r and (v)l are good examples of rising and falling tones. 

Original- Make up your own language. There are many web pages out there on this subject. 

Alien- These languages are irrelevant to my fantasy maps, but I will discuss them a little. These languages, like Klingon, are hard to pronounce, due to the author's stereotypes of alien nature. But most likely aliens would have no oral similarity to us at all, and would therefore not speak to our understanding. You decide what you should do. 

Cultural- These names can "link" your fantasy world with Earth. Have you ever wondered why the fantasy movie heroines always have a British accent? Puzzle around with this one - it's a lot of fun.