Origin of Species/World Names within Riot

KHVathiel·Sep 13, 2019·4 votes·10,947 views

First post I think, here's hoping it's in the right board.

So! For a short while now I've been trying to figure out how it is that Riot has come up with the names of their factions/species/characters in Runeterra. While searching, I discovered a reddit post (from about five years ago as of writing this) from a user named RiotJeffJew that states that the word "Yordle" comes from a dream that a dev named Pabro had, in which he woke up yelling the word.

However, outside of this, I have not been able to find any other leads as to how the Dev teams came up with names such as Vastaya/Vastayashai’rei or what they looked at for inspiration. I myself would have guessed mythology or within history, such as how Pantheon is, in a sense, a Hoplite (A Greek light soldier which fought with spears and shields).

I'd love to know more about this as I enjoy coming up with species and world names, even if I sometimes struggle heavily with inspiration. Thanks!

14 Comments

RiotWAAARGHboboSep 22, 20199 votes

I can’t comment on the old stuff, other than it sometime infuriates me, but I can comment on how I do it since a bit before Rek’Sai.

We start with a short couple sentences defining the goal of the name. Things like. “Easy to say and comedic sounding.”

Then do a little bit of research — often names from 3 or more real world regions. Finding/looking for similarities and linguist conventions.

Then make a long list of names. Generally, a list of 100 names. Then do a google search and google image search for every single name. And cull names that are real world stuff. (Unless one of the goals is for the character to have a normal or real world name.)

Now that big list is probably only 12 to 20 names—because across a dozen or more languages -somebody has used that combo of letters before.

Now send that small list with the goals for the name to our localization team. Who can tell you if the name “sounds” like something it shouldn't. Now unless your unlucky you’ve got 6 or so names to show the team.

Then you and the team pick one. Then it goes to IP leads and sometimes legal.

I remember vastaya was meant to sound old, elven and lyrical. I believe i was looking at a lot of ancient eastern names, and was looking for things in those languages that could capture tolkien’s use of finnish for elven but make it older and less eurocentric.

KHVathielOct 7, 20191 votes

{quoted}

I can’t comment on the old stuff, other than it sometime infuriates me, but I can comment on how I do it since a bit before Rek’Sai.
(...) I remember vastaya was meant to sound old, elven and lyrical. I believe i was looking at a lot of ancient eastern names, and was looking for things in those languages that could capture tolkien’s use of finnish for elven but make it older and less eurocentric.

Awesome, thanks for the reply!

I knew that there was a process behind name listing but I didn't think y'all would go up to 100 names or so for the process. Definitely more involved than what I originally thought happened, which was sitting around for a few hours or days trying to come up with a name that sounds cool, which is a bit naive in hindsight. As for Legal, I assume it means making sure the name/word isn't one that's copyrighted to another franchise, like how a certain publisher copyrighted the word scrolls, huh?

I do wonder if the original/retired devs did something similar to what you guys do right now. And if maybe one day they'll share their stories about it, assuming they're not under an NDA since according to a friend of mine, a lot of devs are prohibited to talk about the process which sorta made sense but also felt far fetched. I am hopeful because for a lot of games, their development lore seems to just vanish and never be talked about outside of the people who made the games, which is a bit sad to me because I genuinely like to know how the games I love were built and put together. (Unless I am sorely mistaken and just don't know where to look, which I probably am tbh.)

Whyte LyonSep 13, 20193 votes

Most devs who were present during the ideation of the original place names and world building (like Noxus, Ionia, Shurima circa 2009) are unlikely to be around to answer that. I dont think any of the current writers and producers know how their predecessors came up with those things either.

But the producers who worked on more contemporary place names and the world-building thats been introduced over the last 3-5 years might have something to say. We'll see.

I will add. Even in-universe there's still no given reason why the biggest factions are called what they are, your just meant to accept it without question. But like in theory, it would be interesting to explore things like the symbology for title 'Demacia' and why an ensemble of refugees would call their new home as such.

mrmeddymanSep 13, 20192 votes

Well the region names were made before the team really cared for lore which is why a lot of them are actually kind of generic (not in terrible way, just kind of obvious)

Demacia - Democracy, which is a bit silly since Demacia has always been a monarchy afaik, but it more reflects their one-sided good nature

Noxus - Noxious, Noxians were super evil (except Katarina ) and they ate babies, if you look at the old now non-canon Noxus city art, it's actually hilarious how unironically evil the city looks.

Piltover - The -Over part is supposed to sound British I guess, bringing to mind a sort of Victorian Industrial Revolution to mind since that's what it's based on

Zaun -

Shurima - Sounds arab because of the I-consonat-a at the end. In the arabic language so many words follow that phonetically. Usually places, or pet names for friends

Mount Gargantuan - It's real big so I guess why not lol, not sure when it got renamed to Targon but either way the inspiration was Greek culture centered around Mount Olympus, where Greeks believed their gods lived on its' summit. Rakkor are Spartans, Solari are Athenians You can see how that's evolved to modern Targon and Aspects.

Freljord - Literally Frozen Ground in some Scandinavian language

Bilgewater - Its a port so Water obviously and the area on the outer surface of a ship's hull where the bottom curves to meet the vertical side is called a Bilge

Ionia - lot's of vowels, makes it sound mystical. Also phonetically sounds like "I Own..." references the peoples resistance against Noxus protecting their lands

EdgeLadySep 13, 20192 votes

{quoted}

Well the region names were made before the team really cared for lore which is why a lot of them are actually kind of generic (not in terrible way, just kind of obvious)

Demacia - Democracy, which is a bit silly since Demacia has always been a monarchy afaik, but it more reflects their one-sided good nature

Noxus - Noxious, Noxians were super evil (except ) and they ate babies, if you look at the old now non-canon Noxus city art, it's actually hilarious how unironically evil the city looks.

Piltover - The -Over part is supposed to sound British I guess, bringing to mind a sort of Victorian Industrial Revolution to mind since that's what it's based on

Zaun -

Shurima - Sounds arab because of the I-consonat-a at the end. In the arabic language so many words follow that phonetically. Usually places, or pet names for friends

Mount Gargantuan - It's real big so I guess why not lol, not sure when it got renamed to Targon but either way the inspiration was Greek culture centered around Mount Olympus, where Greeks believed their gods lived on its' summit. Rakkor are Spartans, Solari are Athenians You can see how that's evolved to modern Targon and Aspects.

Freljord - Literally Frozen Ground in some Scandinavian language

Bilgewater - Its a port so Water obviously and the area on the outer surface of a ship's hull where the bottom curves to meet the vertical side is called a Bilge

Ionia - lot's of vowels, makes it sound mystical. Also phonetically sounds like "I Own..." references the peoples resistance against Noxus protecting their lands

Actually, Ionia is the old name for a part of the western Turkish coast, and in the Classical period (particularly in the earlier days of Ancient Greece, before trade between other, farther-eastern places like India and China became more plausible), Turkey, then called Anatolia, was usually considered as Asia in general and it's the reason why it's still sometimes called "Asia Minor" today. Therefore, Ionia = Asia, even though the actual people of real-world Ionia would either be equated as Targonian or Shuriman, or maybe even as Noxian or Demacian in actual Runeterra.

Also, Noxus might have been named as such to refer to "Nox", the nominative for "night" in Latin, because night is dark and dark equates to the old, pure evil Noxus. But the noxious meaning makes more sense for people of Noxus being called "Noxians" instead of "Noxans".

KHVathielSep 14, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Actually, Ionia is the old name for a part of the western Turkish coast, and in the Classical period (particularly in the earlier days of Ancient Greece, before trade between other, farther-eastern places like India and China became more plausible), Turkey, then called Anatolia, was usually considered as Asia in general and it's the reason why it's still sometimes called "Asia Minor" today.

This is actually pretty interesting :o Thanks! I also had no idea that that's what Turkey used to be called. Probably would have if I payed attention in history class xP

KazekibaSep 30, 20192 votes

... Ionia is an actual island off the Greek peninsula, isn't it? I had a friend in HS named after it

EdgeLadySep 30, 20193 votes

{quoted}

... Ionia is an actual island off the Greek peninsula, isn't it? I had a friend in HS named after it

Ionia is an old name for one of the eastern Turkish peninsulas, though there are islands around it, and I think the Ionic form of ancient Greek might have been codified on those islands (I haven't taken enough of ancient Greek yet to know though). The Ionic column style also comes from there, in-between the plain Doric and elegant Corinthian styles, which is what a lot of people tend to know about real-world Ionia by default.

Velzard of KozSep 13, 20192 votes

I think Demacia is Damascus - they even have special rock that uses wood now like Damascus Steel.

ShahamutSep 22, 20192 votes

I always thought "Piltover" was simply "built-over" the city of Zuan, though not much of a lore freak here, just what I glimpsed and thought on first glance XD

mrmeddymanSep 22, 20191 votes

{quoted}

I always thought "Piltover" was simply "built-over" the city of Zuan, though not much of a lore freak here, just what I glimpsed and thought on first glance XD

That's actually probably it. Still don't know why Zaun is Zaun though.

ShahamutSep 22, 20191 votes

its the town "success" was buit "on"? A city long "gone"? I dunno.

Gave me a very FF7 feel where piltover was the upper plates and zaun was the slums below.

mrmeddymanSep 22, 20191 votes

{quoted}

its the town "success" was buit "on"? A city long "gone"? I dunno.

Gave me a very FF7 feel where piltover was the upper plates and zaun was the slums below.

The name Zaun means "fence" in Standard German, cognate with English town, down, and dune. Ultimately from Proto-Celtic *dunom "enclosure, fortress".

I checked the wiki...still confused

AbiwonKenabiOct 1, 20191 votes

The idea of Piltover being literally on top of Zaun didn't come until much later, long after their names had already been established. Before they were technological rivals across a bay from one another.