About battle names
Engagement labels follow a fixed mold, pairing a clash type with either a coined place-word, as in "War of gnord", or an abstraction like "Siege of Bent Truths" and "Battle of Betrayal". String several together to date the eras of a setting, caption crossed-swords markers on a map, or stock the history a bard recites between tavern songs. Abstract results imply the loser's version of events.
How battle names are built
An engagement label follows a fixed mold: a clash type plus "of" plus a target. The clash type comes from a tiny 8-entry bank (Battle, War, Siege, and the like). The target is built one of two ways: either a finished evocative phrase from a 201-entry bank, as in "Battle of Betrayal" and "Siege of Bent Truths", or a coined place-word fused from consonant and vowel fragments in a three-slot or longer five-slot run, producing "War of grur" or "War of bulan".
Battle of Betrayal
clash type "Battle", connector "of", finished target phrase "Betrayal"
War of grur
clash type "War", connector "of", coined place-word from the fragments "gr" + "u" + "r"
War of bulan
clash type "War", connector "of", five-slot coined word from the fragments "b" + "u" + "l" + "a" + "n"
Naming notes
String several together to lay out the eras of a setting, caption crossed-swords markers on a campaign map, or fill a chronicle's index. The coined-word branch invents an unfamiliar place name on the spot, which suits skirmishes at locations the reader has never heard of; the phrase branch ("of Bent Truths", "of Betrayal") leans abstract and is better for legendary or thematic battles. Only the clash type carries real semantic weight: everything after "of" is either a stock phrase or a synthetic toponym.
Questions about battle names
- What stays the same in every battle name?
- The shape: a clash word, then "of", then a target. The clash word comes from a small 8-entry bank (Battle, War, Siege and a few others), so that slot does the categorising while the part after "of" supplies the flavour.
- Why are some targets real phrases and others gibberish places?
- Two molds feed the target. One pulls a finished phrase from a 201-entry bank like "Betrayal" or "Bent Truths"; the other fuses consonant and vowel slots into a coined toponym such as "grur" or "bulan", which is meant to read as an unfamiliar location.
- How should I use the abstract versus the coined results?
- Use phrase results ("of Betrayal", "of Bent Truths") for thematic or legendary clashes, and coined-place results ("of grur") for minor engagements at invented spots. Listing several in date order quickly sketches a war's timeline.