interesting topic

Hum. If the locals could confuse Ra gada for Redguard, then they probably confused volenfell for Hammerfell. Albeit with some translation.



This was the Atmora/Skyrim story too, right? Then the aldmer whipped the current chieftan and his sons back to Atmora. Then the nords came back looking for war, not home.

Alright, I'll look it up.

"Hammerfell only acquired its name with the coming of the Redguards." then into "By the time of the Ra Gada, over a hundred years had passed since any civilization had touched southern Volenfel." because "The elves and later the Bretons did set up outposts in what are now Sentinel and Lainlyn in order to protect their fisherfolk and seafaring merchants from the Orcs who had taken over the interior of the land"

Elves and Bretons in the North, Orcs everywhere else. Then the empire recorded that "The disorganized Orcs fell to them quickly, as did all the infestations of monster and beast further inland. The Redguards, as the Ra Gada came to be called, made no concession to the Breton settlements along the coasts, slashing through the southern Iliac Bay, winning the entire area that is now the Province of Hammerfell in only a few major battles. The Na-Totambu, the government of Yokuda, was transplanted whole, together with their traditional system of agriculture and religion which was well suited to the unforgiving climate of the Redguards' new home."

So it isn't I'd say so much the Reds fooling us, it's the empire. Whereas what we should say really happened is that they came up with the name for Arena, and fiddled around later to explain why that's the name. I wouldn't give the Reds the highest marks on just using the foreign names for everything when you've just transplanted your culture, but Hammerfell does sound a lot cooler than New Yokuda.

People will hate me for the anology, but I think of it as being like the Greenland Norse's settlement of Vinland. Only when Saarthal was razed and our Nords were pushed back, they didn't stay back.

Ah, i should probably read up on that. History was never a strong point.


On another note, Dwemer names!
Never knew if I was reading them properly, but some words stood out.

Nchunak's Fire and Faith -- knickknacks and trinkets and mechanical gizmos!

Alright, it's the only one that comes to mind. Can't remember any particular dungeons for the life of me

As I recall there was a bit where Cyrus speaks Dwemer in Redguard, though I can't find it at the moment. That ought to clarify pronunciation some.

Imma try my hand at concocting some etymologies for OB's cities.

Anvil

Named for Anvil Bay, which is in turn named for the particularly violent weather that it experiences.

Bravil

Named for Alessian Centurion Teo Bravillius Tasus, who conquered the former Ayleid city located on the same site.

Bruma

From Old Nibenese Bruma Burgus "Winter-Fortress".

Cheydinhal

Named for the extinct Cheidinhii Battlemage-dynasty that ruled a decent swath of Eastern Nibenay between the first and second Empires. The city itself grew out of the servant's complex attached to their ancestral castle, which today serves as the County Hall.

Chorrol

From Ald Colovian elements Khorr "Great" and Olo "Oak", supporting the traditional account of the cities' founding which maintains that Chorrol was originally settled by fugitive Nedic slaves who found refuge from a terrible storm under the Great Oak's impressive foliage.

Kvatch

From Ald Colovian Kvatchas "[High] Keep".

Leyawiin

Early Modern Cyrodiilic corruption of the original Khajiiti name Lagra wh'een, itself an abbreviation of the popular Middle Ta'agra aphorism Luush wa'hood qir'ah muhtr Khajeetya Lagra wh'een "To succeed, the Desert-Walker [Khajiit] must sometimes risk getting wet" as per the Khajiit's apparent fondness for naming things after common phrases and proverbs (c.f. the naming of Elsweyr).

Skingrad

From Ald Colovian Skene Gradu "Fertile Yard".

I always saw Anvil in context with its neighbor "Hammerfell". Thus, it was the Anvil to the Hammer, or Volendrung.

Revised List, now with 200% more conjecture!

SKYRIM

From elements 'sky' and 'rim', indicating mountainous country that "rims the sky".

HIGH ROCK

Bretonic calque of Altmeri Balalt, reportedly taken up after a failed negotiation between Aiden Direnni and an Alessian envoy. Direnni is supposed to have utterly the immortal line: "my realm will be A High Rock, clean and untouched by this Mannish lunacy". More likely is that it references the land's infamously rocky terrain.

HAMMERFELL

Redguard Barbarism of Dwemeri Volenfell "City of the Hammer [Volendrung]" from the exodus of the self-exiled Rourken Clan, who were guided to the land by the jettisoned hammer of their chief.

SUMMURSET ISLES

Etymological origin shielded by embedded Altmeri delirizing anti-étumonic numerociphers, apparently to prevent the lesser races from besmirching the high-folk's venerable intellectual heritage with their grubby little hermeneutical apparatuses. Great care should be taken when investigating the word-origins of the High Elven language, as many seasoned Imperial verbimages have already been irrevocably warped into howling, incontinent lunatics by their attempts.

VALENWOOD

From the ancient pre-Camoran Imgali name G'Waah Waah N'Wooh, meaning unknown, though a folk etymology popular among well-to-do Nibenese hold that it is the result of Imga flaneurs attempting to reproduce the high greeting of the Alinorean court.

ELSWEYR

From a Khajiiti proverb "The perfect society is found elsewhere", optimistically applied at the mutual absorption of Pellintine and Anequina.

BLACK MARSH/ARGONIA

The older name is a ancient, yet derogatory exonym applied by Merethic-period explorers. The newer "official" name, which has little common currency outside of government functions and the mewings of multiculturalists, is in honor of Gideon Argonus, the Battlemage-diplomat who negotiated the annexation of that land to the Third Empire.

MORROWIND

Cyrodiification of Dunmeri Mora Vvynstha literally "Pure-As-Lotus Forest", metaphorically "The Promised Land", replaced the older Dwemeri Resdayn following the ascension of the Tribunal to mark the the occasion.

CYRODIIL

Diminutive of Old Nibenese Cyrod, which originally referred only to the Imperial City and heartlands. Cyrod was itself a solecism of Ayleidoon Sir? Hóda "River Harbor", a common colloquialism for Lake Rumare that restless Nedic slaves later synecdochized into a catalyzing symbol of the decadence and depravity of the White-Gold polis.

If the 'fell' in 'Vvardenfell' means 'fell', I suppose 'vvarden' ought to be 'heart'.