Cool mysterious names of places (desert)

[Mystery Man]

Is there a website or namegen for cool site names, you know like the Temple of the Gleaming Sands (not that that's the coolest one ever) or The Obelisk of Dessication for example. So if anyone has linkage to something or can think of a cool name post it here!

Spanks!

I feel I should specify that we stick to a fantasy/desert theme and try (though I know it will be hard) to avoid things like Tower of Power or other silliness. Or if you must try to include at least one good serious one.

 

[SidusLupus]

I'm lame and usually look up real maps from the middle east and cannibalize names for places from there. That may or may not be the type of names you're looking for.

I'm curious what other people use to come up with names though.

 

[Warrior Poet]

There are some cool desert names right here on our own Planet Earth that could be effective:

Monument Valley
Tablelands
The Arches
Slaughter Canyon (named for John Slaughter, not some sort of catastrophe, but no reason it couldn't work the other way in-game )
Death Valley (c'mon, that one's just, uh, dying, to be used. I pun in peace)
Redrocks
White Sands (a massive expanse of gypsum dunes in southern New Mexico)
The Salt Flats
The Badlands

There's an alpine desert mountain range in northern New Mexico called the Sangre de Cristo mountains, which translates from the Spanish as "Blood of Christ" mountains (not trying to get into a religious discussion). The name comes from the color of the rock when the setting sun strikes it, so that the mountains seem bright red (it was named by the Spaniards when they had control of the territory in the 16th and 17th centuries). So you could always do something with a feature like that, e.g.:

The Blood Tower (named for the sandstone used to build it, and how it looks when the setting sun strikes it . . . and maybe also for what happens inside, etc.)

Also, you could think about certain desert features in other ways: canyons are just old riverbeds that may or may not have water in them, so one canyon, or wash, or gulch, or arroyo, or wadi, or similar feature might be known as The Dead River (since it's no longer there, so to speak).

There are plenty of great cactus varieties, like Spanish Daggers, and Tumbleweeds, which have good, evocative names.

Certain phenomena could also lend there names: The Simoon Flats, for example. Another one: in the Chihuahua and Sonora desert regions of the southwestern U.S., rain is (obviously) very infrequent. In the Chihuahua desert, there's a large amount of caliche underneath the initial sand/soil layers (caliche is a flat bedrock that is fairly non-porous, for natural stone, and it's a real pain-in-the-patuckus to dig through, usually requiring heavy machinery). Caliche is one reason why it's hard to grow much in the desert areas, unless it's really close to water, 'cause once you dig down a certain distance, you hit impassable stone. Anyway, when it rains, once the sand/soil gets saturated, the water builds up against the caliche and it doesn't have anywhere to seep, so it supersaturates and becomes standing water or a flash flood. Another interesting side effect is, the water fills up burrow holes very quickly, soaking the tarantulas that live underground and forcing them to the surface, where they wander to nearby stones or pavement to sun themselves and dry out. It can be cool to drive along in the wake of a thunderstorm and see the highway lined with tarantulas.

Now imagine the same event with Monstrous Spiders

And there's even another name: The Spider Flats

If I think of more, I'll come back later.

Warrior Poet

 

[Mystery Man]

There are some cool desert names right here on our own Planet Earth that could be effective:

Monument Valley
Tablelands
The Arches
Slaughter Canyon (named for John Slaughter, not some sort of catastrophe, but no reason it couldn't work the other way in-game )
Death Valley (c'mon, that one's just, uh, dying, to be used. I pun in peace)
Redrocks
White Sands (a massive expanse of gypsum dunes in southern New Mexico)
The Salt Flats
The Badlands

There's an alpine desert mountain range in northern New Mexico called the Sangre de Cristo mountains, which translates from the Spanish as "Blood of Christ" mountains (not trying to get into a religious discussion). The name comes from the color of the rock when the setting sun strikes it, so that the mountains seem bright red (it was named by the Spaniards when they had control of the territory in the 16th and 17th centuries). So you could always do something with a feature like that, e.g.:

The Blood Tower (named for the sandstone used to build it, and how it looks when the setting sun strikes it . . . and maybe also for what happens inside, etc.)

Also, you could think about certain desert features in other ways: canyons are just old riverbeds that may or may not have water in them, so one canyon, or wash, or gulch, or arroyo, or wadi, or similar feature might be known as The Dead River (since it's no longer there, so to speak).

There are plenty of great cactus varieties, like Spanish Daggers, and Tumbleweeds, which have good, evocative names.

Certain phenomena could also lend there names: The Simoon Flats, for example. Another one: in the Chihuahua and Sonora desert regions of the southwestern U.S., rain is (obviously) very infrequent. In the Chihuahua desert, there's a large amount of caliche underneath the initial sand/soil layers (caliche is a flat bedrock that is fairly non-porous, for natural stone, and it's a real pain-in-the-patuckus to dig through, usually requiring heavy machinery). Caliche is one reason why it's hard to grow much in the desert areas, unless it's really close to water, 'cause once you dig down a certain distance, you hit impassable stone. Anyway, when it rains, once the sand/soil gets saturated, the water builds up against the caliche and it doesn't have anywhere to seep, so it supersaturates and becomes standing water or a flash flood.

Good stuff.

Another interesting side effect is, the water fills up burrow holes very quickly, soaking the tarantulas that live underground and forcing them to the surface, where they wander to nearby stones or pavement to sun themselves and dry out. It can be cool to drive along in the wake of a thunderstorm and see the highway lined with tarantulas.

Now imagine the same event with Monstrous Spiders

OH mamma!

And there's even another name: The Spider Flats

If I think of more, I'll come back later.

Warrior Poet

You better!

 

[Warrior Poet]

O.K., thought of some other phenomenon-related ones:

There's actually a fair amount of cotton grown along the Rio Grande river valley throughout Texas and southern New Mexico. My understanding is that some varieties of cotton only bloom at certain temperatures, and some years, it gets so hot along the river valley (I can remember summers at my grandparents' place where it would hit 114 F) that the cotton doesn't bloom until nighttime, when it cools down a little bit.

So, how 'bout the Valley of Night Blossoms, or similar, where it's hot enough to warrant a Fort save during the daytime during sternuous activity of any kind?

Another: The Rockslide. In the Santa Elena canyon, in Big Bend National Park, there's a portion of the canyon wall on the Mexico side that fell into the Rio Grande a few years back (probably tens of thousands, if not more; for some good photos, check out: http://www.rivergeek.com/se_pic1.html ), resulting in some very bad rapids at the point where the boulders (some of which are larger than yer average 2 story house) met the waterway. The Rockslide could work, but so could other names like the Earthslide, The Fallen Earth, The Fallen Lands, The Cairn of the Colossus, etc. An explorer in 1901 dubbed the camp he made on the other side of the Rockslide after portage, Camp Misery (he considered the rapids unnavigable; it's another good name).

It could also be called the Drowning Place, The Drowning Channel, or similar. My father and I almost drowned there, many years ago, during a canoe trip. Our group was going to portage over the rockslide (which takes about 2-3 hours itself), but due to a series of mishaps up to that point, the canoe my father and I had ended up having to carry a third person, resulting in a freeboard of about 2 inches. We got swamped, and for a few moments there, I thought it was the end (even with our life vests). On Mom's birthday, no less. Thankfully, we all survived, though there have been drowning deaths in that canyon.

North of Santa Fe, New Mexico is a rock formation weathered from thousands of years of exposure, shaped like a camel. It's called . . . (wait for it) . . . Camel Rock. Ta da! See http://www.goldenhourphotography.com/Gallery/camel-rock-1003/camel-rock-1003.html

Warrior Poet

 

[Warrior Poet]

More phenomenological inspiration:

Lightning strikes out in desert regions (happens on the beach, too, I guess) sometimes hit the sand floor and superheat the immediate strike zone, resulting in very raw/unrefined silicate mineral called fulgurite, sometimes thought of as "glass." It's not really glass like you think about windows, or champagne flutes, or stuff like that; it's frequently mulit-colored, tube-like, with branches off of it. I don't know if it would translate into good glass-making material, but for fantasy purposes, why not? Someone like Alsih20 probably knows a lot more about this phenomenon than I do.

Anyway, The Glass Reach, The Glass Dunes, The Crystalline Paths, the Frozen Tears of the Desert Goddess, The Sand Mirror, etc.

Warrior Poet

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

I'm lame and usually look up real maps from the middle east and cannibalize names for places from there. That may or may not be the type of names you're looking for.

I'm curious what other people use to come up with names though.

Often, I just use names of places I know. Growing up in rural Arkansas, within 45 minutes driving I could be in Ash Flat, Evening Shade, Cave City, Bald Knob (go on and snicker), Velvet Ridge (keep snickering), Cave Creek, or Oil Trough.

Just grab a map and go nuts!

 

[MaxKaladin]

North of Santa Fe, New Mexico is a rock formation weathered from thousands of years of exposure, shaped like a camel. It's called . . . (wait for it) . . . Camel Rock. Ta da! See http://www.goldenhourphotography.com/Gallery/camel-rock-1003/camel-rock-1003.html

Near Farmington, New Mexico there is another rock formation that looks like a ship sailing on the desert from a distance. It's called shiprock.
http://www.lapahie.com/Shiprock_Peak.cfm

 

[Warrior Poet]

Just grab a map and go nuts!

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!

Wagon Wheel
Silver City
Hot Springs
Elephant Butte
Crazy Cat Mountain
Salt Lake
Phoenix
The Pass of the North
The Silk Road
Crater Lake

Warrior Poet

 

[Warrior Poet]

Near Farmington, New Mexico there is another rock formation that looks like a ship sailing on the desert from a distance. It's called shiprock.
http://www.lapahie.com/Shiprock_Peak.cfm

How could I forget! Good call!

Warrior Poet