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Naming Conventions
How to name places, key locations, characters, creatures, objects, and artifacts in a way that feels native to Threadbare. If you're adding new lore, use these as a starting point, and don't be afraid to bend them where a better name emerges.
Threadbare names lean on the vocabulary of fabric, thread, and craft, layered over the vocabulary of story and memory. A good name usually does one of these two things, and a great one does both at once: it sounds like it belongs to the world of yarn, weaving, and mending, and it hints at the thing's role in the world of Memory, Imagination, or Spirit.
KnitWitches follow the tightest convention, established across the ClothBorn Coven:
- First names: two syllables at most, quirky, cozy, and slightly antiquated (Maud, Noria, Elda, Bram, Wick, Rosa, Marl).
- Surnames: two joined, capitalized words drawn from haberdashery and fabric (NeedleNest, MendWell, Everpurl, Backstitch, Woolgather, RememberRight, Mendmarrow), ideally alliterative or assonant with the first name.
Other Threadlings follow a looser version of the same pattern - a plain, ordinary first name paired with a two-word compound surname that hints at the character's trade, temperament, or role (Bobbin Blench, Bree ButtonBoon, Alfeus AllPatch, Pippa PatchWork, Perrin PageSpun, Moss Mothball). Journalists and record-keepers lean toward ink and paper (Etta InkleWell, Cyrus RagRibbon, Tibby TattleTwill); scholars and cartographers lean toward measuring and observing (Willomena WanderWeave).
Dark or fallen figures break the pattern deliberately. Null takes a single, stark, uncapitalized-feeling word rather than a compound surname - the absence of a "proper" Threadbare name is itself the point.
Region and location names typically pair a sensory or emotional adjective with a fabric, geographic, or story-word noun: The Fraying, The Lucent Lakes, The SunSpun Sands, The WeaveWatch Wale, The Mythical Meadows, The Allegory Abyss, The Memoir Mines, The Ink Well. Settlements favor a single compound word ending in a place-suffix: Frays End, LoomLit, LinenVille. When in doubt, ask whether the name could describe both a physical landscape and a state of Memory, Imagination, or Spirit, the best Threadbare place names do both.
Faction names are usually a single evocative compound or epithet that states the group's belief or function plainly: the Observists observe, the Obscurists obscure, the WeftBorn are born to the weft, the ClothBorn Coven is born of cloth. Orders and disciplines favor a "The Order/Discipline of the ___" structure built on a sound or texture: The Order of the Humming Hem, Mend Magic, Purl Power, WeftWards, Seam Sight.
Creature names combine a craft or story word with a familiar creature root, usually as a single compound: Threadlings, KnitWitches, Wish Wisps, Hushrooms, InkDrinkers, Storyvores, Memory Moths, Inkling. The compound should make the creature's relationship to the Core Threads legible at a glance - a Memory Moth carries memory, an InkDrinker drains ink (Spirit).
Artifacts and key objects tend toward reverent, capitalized epithets rather than compounds: The Eternal Loom, The Great Weave, The Everlasting Library, The Living Library. These names should sound like they belong in scripture - grand, simple, and built to be spoken aloud.