Some thoughts on imagi-nations

So, what makes for a successful imagi-nation? I've been contemplating this recently, and I've come up with the following thoughts.

First and foremost, the imagi-nation must be believable within the historical context it is supposed to exist in. This is probably why the imagi-nations set in eighteenth century (and to a lesser extent, early nineteenth century) Germany seem to be so popular. The numerous duchies, principalities, and kingdoms that existed within the borders of Germany are ideal examples that the creator of an imagi-nation can use as starting points. To a lesser extent, the same can be said of the Balkans, but what is surprising is that pre-unification Italy – which was referred to as being a 'geographical expression' by one eminent international politician – has not proved as popular as pre-1870 Germany.

An imagi-nation must have some form of governance that works. An imagi-nation may well have an autocratic ruler who is supported by a small (and possibly rival) number of noble families ... or it could have a democratic monarch, a dictator, or an elected president. As long as the choice makes sense, the creator of the imagi-nation can choose what best suits their particular biases.

The imagi-nation's geography and economy also need to make sense. There's no point in creating a mountainous imagi-nation that is expected to support a cavalry-heavy army; likewise, it's unlikely that an imagi-nation that has a large, flat alluvial plain that produces abundant quantities of food will have several units of mountain troops or produce large quantities of iron ore or gold.

Naming your imagi-nation – and the places within it – can be problematic if some basic rules are not observed. For example, I came across one Germanic imagi-nation where every city or town was called 'something'-berg. Of course, in German 'berg' refers to mountains ... but none of the places was anywhere near anything much larger than a small hill. The creator should have used 'burg' (which refers to a town or large settlement) and not 'berg'.

Some creators choose humour as the basis of their naming system. (This tends to be my preferred option.) I've seen a French-like imagi-nation where everywhere seemed to be named after a French foodstuff or wine. For example, the town of Camembert gave its name to a geographic area in the imagi-nation, and was surrounded by the smaller towns and villages of Brie, Calvados, Boursin, Livarot, and Neufchâtel.

When naming people and places in my imaginations, I tend to go for excruciating puns, which when read aloud make some sort of sense to me, if not to anyone else! (I lay the 'blame' for this at the door of the late Eric Knowles, whose Madasahatta was redolent with them!) For example, a muddy brown river in an imaginary African colony was called the Tifooti River, and the British Colony of Dammallia was so named because the original European explorer of the area said to his assistant that there was 'd*mn all here!'.

When I set up two Balkan/Adriatic imagi-nations, I 'stole' Laurania from no lesser person the Winston Churchill(!) and 'created' Maldacia by rearranging most of the letters of the name of the coastal area of the northern Adriatic – Dalmatia – so that it sounded a little bit evil. (i.e. 'Mal' as in malevolent.). I even created similar basic Latinate languages for the two imagi-nations so that there was a consistency to the place names I used. This took me a lot of time ... but it was ultimately great fun and very rewarding.

A map of Laurania.
Click on the map to enlarge it.