Level Up (A5E) Culture names without Heritage references

[Twiggly the Gnome]

For various reasons I want to remove the direct reference to heritages in some of the culture names, so far this is what I have:

Deep Dwarf Duergar
Deep Gnome Svirfneblin
Forest Gnome Knook
High Elf
Hill Dwarf
Kithbáin Halfling
Mountain Dwarf
Mustbairn Halfling
Shadow Elf Drow
Stoic Orc
Stout Halfling
Tinker Gnome
Tunnel Halfling
Wood Elf Grugach

Any ideas for the ones marked? Public domain or SRD preferred, otherwise yeah, Stout Halfling would absolutely be Hobbit.

 

[Heraldofi]

High Elf - Eldest, Elder or Firstborn perhaps.
Hill Dwarf - I'm struggling with this one. It's really about frontier traders and not particularly tied to any dwarven archetype. Maybe just Hill Trader, or Hill Dweller or would be fine.
Stout Halfling - Shirefolk
Tunnel Halfling - The description is all about rebels hiding underground, so maybe Tunnel Rebel or Tunnel Outlaw

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Tunnel Halfling - The description is all about rebels hiding underground, so maybe Tunnel Rebel or Tunnel Outlaw

TUNNEL SNAKES RULE

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Stout Halfling - Shirefolk

Good call!

 

[lycanthropejeff]

Tomte is a historical term for Forest Gnome

 

[Morrus]

For various reasons I want to remove the direct reference to heritages in some of the culture names, so far this is what I have:

Deep Dwarf Duergar
Deep Gnome Svirfneblin
Forest Gnome Knook
High Elf
Hill Dwarf
Kithbáin Halfling
Mountain Dwarf
Mustbairn Halfling
Shadow Elf Drow
Stoic Orc
Stout Halfling
Tinker Gnome
Tunnel Halfling
Wood Elf Grugach

Any ideas for the ones marked? Public domain or SRD preferred, otherwise yeah, Stout Halfling would absolutely be Hobbit.

Duergar, Svirfneblin, and Drow are still heritage names. We just use more generic heritage names that those WotC-specific ones.

 

[SirKerry]

For various reasons I want to remove the direct reference to heritages in some of the culture names, so far this is what I have:

Deep Dwarf Duergar
Deep Gnome Svirfneblin
Forest Gnome Knook
High Elf
Hill Dwarf
Kithbáin Halfling
Mountain Dwarf
Mustbairn Halfling
Shadow Elf Drow
Stoic Orc
Stout Halfling
Tinker Gnome
Tunnel Halfling
Wood Elf Grugach

Any ideas for the ones marked? Public domain or SRD preferred, otherwise yeah, Stout Halfling would absolutely be Hobbit.

Hill Dwarf - Hillfolk
Mountain Dwarf - Mountaineer
Tunnel Halfling - Tunnelfolk

 

[Steampunkette]

Tunnel Halfling: Groundling

Hill Dwarf: Highlander

Mountain Dwarf: Veryhighlander

That said... uh... forget all these names.

Give your -nations- these cultures. High Elf Culture could be the Telvadan culture of the central Audalian plains where the spires of the great kingdom are visible above the golden grassland in all directions.

The Mountain Dwarf Culture belongs to the isolationist Ord Grutal, who rarely leave their high mountain strongholds unless they're on a pilgrimage or are an escaped teen trying to see the world.

Don't worry about their names in the Adventurer's Guide: Make them into a part of your -world-.

 

[Pedantic]

Give your -nations- these cultures. High Elf Culture could be the Telvadan culture of the central Audalian plains where the spires of the great kingdom are visible above the golden grassland in all directions.

The Mountain Dwarf Culture belongs to the isolationist Ord Grutal, who rarely leave their high mountain strongholds unless they're on a pilgrimage or are an escaped teen trying to see the world.

Don't worry about their names in the Adventurer's Guide: Make them into a part of your -world-.

I actually think this approach can be ultimately a little more limiting. Tunnel Halfling, for example, does pretty well for anyone inside an urban partisan resistance movement, and it's a little weird to have nationalities standing alongside "Collegiate" and "Circusfolk" which presumably could grow up in those same nations.

It's easier to reskin Forest Gnome to represent say, being raised by a tree spirit, than than it is to reskin the Singlennti people to that same end.

 

[Steampunkette]

I actually think this approach can be ultimately a little more limiting. Tunnel Halfling, for example, does pretty well for anyone inside an urban partisan resistance movement, and it's a little weird to have nationalities standing alongside "Collegiate" and "Circusfolk" which presumably could grow up in those same nations.

It's easier to reskin Forest Gnome to represent say, being raised by a tree spirit, than than it is to reskin the Singlennti people to that same end.

Sure. You can do that, too. But that's still anchoring them into the world in a specific setting, rather than having them be "This is what a specific kind of halfling is like".

Where you anchor them isn't the point of the post. I just picked High Elf and Mountain Dwarf 'cause they both speak to hegemonic cultural identities tied up to a specific type of living. For the Dwarves it's high mountains and being prepared to fight, for the Elves it's less about the region (No high altitude acclimatization or forest-dwelling bonuses) and all about education and -fancy- weapons training with magic tied into it.

Could throw those Telvadan Elves into a swamp where they have their fancy city, or a coastline, or a forest 'cause there's nothing regionally-specific to it.

But an urban partisan resistance movement would be specific to a given city/state/kingdom/whatever, rather than something that exists in all cities and villages across the world, right?

Though if you're worried about them being weird next to "Collegiate" then turn the nation into an adjective. "Telvadan Noble" or "Ord Grutal Defender" or whatever.