There are not many names on this map (compare it to The Mirage Makers). Some sources for The Quatern names come from Australian historical mining terms, and minerals and gemstones. I always like to include a few jokes and hidden meanings (Arthropleurida is an extinct order of giant millipede-like arthropods that flourished during the Carboniferous).

I actually love the way some sff readers are so picky – keeps me on my toes.

I must admit that the use of a foreign tongue can be immensely annoying. The book that I have read lately that did this with superb results was the historical novel "Sea of Poppies" by A.Ghosh. He used a smattering of different Asian dialects and European dialects that should have been incomprehensible. And yet – you could get the sense from the other clues. It was brilliant. Even more brilliant when you realise that if you understand French, or Malay as I do, or Urdu or whatever Indian dialect(as my Indian friends told me), you actually got more still out of it.

Wonderful book.

Satima – I guess the problem really comes from trying to say something without the reader having a background to interpret it. So the writer has to hint, using this world to say something about a world that doesn't really exist.

Put it this way. If a writer is penning an historical novel set in the Batavia of 1800, the writer can have characters named Hussein, M'bale, Gunter, Ludwig, Jean-Paul, Dimitri, Hans, Soemoto and Jonathan without raising an eyebrow. Every would just assume, rightly, that at that time in history some people were very mobile and that Batavia was the centre of South-east Asian commerce and trade where sailors and entrepreneurs would come from all over the world.

If I want to convey the same feeling of cosmopolitan commerce in a fantasy world that is patently not Earth, can I use the same names without arousing the ire of readers? Probably not, unless I also mention Slavic, African, Arabic-type etc etc cultures as existing – a waste of words if they don't in anyway impinge on the story. If my land is X and I make up different sounding names to those of X inhabitants, then the impact might be lost because of the unfamiliarity of the made-up names, especially if there are many different cultures arriving in X, each with their different language.

In The Last Stormlord, I try to be subtle about what I am trying to convey, (which is not a bustling cosmopolitan hub, btw!) without upsetting readers by in-your-face anomolies. As I said, many readers won't care and won't notice, which is fine, but for those who want to know a little more, the clues are there.

You'll have to tell me if I succeed.

The Dutch province of Zeeland has an alternative spelling of Zealand – both appear to be commonly used within the Netherlands. It probably depends on what part of the Netherlands you are from. It appears therefore that, when it became anglicised from the Dutch it was the alternate spelling that was used.

Ross

She gave some of these additional places names to make the map look more authentic. Of course I vetted them! I don't think I vetoed any, actually. They were good.