A Sandbox Built on Ruins
Forbidden Lands, published by Free League, drops its premise fast: a supernatural Blood Mist sealed off an entire region called Ravenland for a generation, and when it finally lifted, the survivors inherited a land full of broken strongholds, forgotten graves, and hostile neighbors. There is no fixed campaign to follow — the game hands you a hex map and tells you to survive on it. That sandbox structure changes what naming needs to do. Instead of a handful of pre-written NPCs, a table generates names constantly: for hirelings, rival warbands, ruined keeps stumbled into on a hex crawl, and the player-built stronghold that becomes home base.
That's also why clan and stronghold names carry as much weight as character names here. A name for the keep your party claims and rebuilds needs to sound like it belongs to the land, not like a person's surname slapped onto a building.
Kin Decides the Sound, Not the Setting
Forbidden Lands resists the instinct to make every kin's name sound like a reskinned human name. An Elf and an Orc exist in the same hex map, but they should never sound like they come from the same naming tradition. Elves are ancient and untouched by time, so their names flow without the harsh, functional edges a human or dwarf name needs. Orcs and Goblins, by contrast, need names built for shouting across a battlefield or a scrap over food — short, hard, no wasted syllables.
Old Norse-rooted, short, with a byname earned through deed or trade — the backbone naming style of the setting.
- Björn Axe-Hand
- Ragnhild Stormcaller
- Toke of the Ash Marches
Flowing, archaic, byname-free — centuries of life mean no need to earn a nickname through a single deed.
- Ederinne
- Sylvael
- Thaeryn
Short and guttural, built to be shouted — surnames are rare, but a battle-earned title sometimes replaces one.
- Grum
- Uzgash the Skullsplitter
- Nagra
Wolfkin and Goblins Aren't Reskins
Two of the setting's kins are easy to get wrong if you approach them as generic fantasy furries or disposable monster stock. Wolfkin carry a curse from a wolf god's bloodline — their names should feel primal and pack-oriented, never like a human name with "wolf" bolted on. Goblins are a full playable kin with a scrappy survivalist culture of their own, distinct from Orcs; their names read as quick and clipped rather than harsh, closer to a nickname shouted in a scavenger camp than a battle cry.
Naming the Clan, Not the Founder
Player-built strongholds are one of Forbidden Lands' signature mechanics — a party claims a ruin, rebuilds it, and defends it. That stronghold and the clan living in it need a name that sounds like it belongs to the land itself, not to whichever player character happened to found it. The strongest clan names reference a landscape feature, a shared deed, or a piece of the setting's history — never a single founder's surname.
- Land-rooted: "Ravenmoor Keep" ties the name to the terrain, not a person.
- Deed-rooted: "The Bloodmist Wardens" implies a shared history the whole clan claims.
- Compact and sayable: A stronghold name gets said constantly at the table — keep it to two or three words.
- Grim but plain: "Ashfall" over "The Everlasting Shadow of Doom" — understatement fits the tone better than grandeur.
- Founder's surname alone: "Björn's Clan" reads as a person's property, not a place with its own identity.
- Generic fantasy nouns: "Shadowkeep," "Dragonhold" — nothing here is specific to the Forbidden Lands setting.
- Overwrought titles: Long, adjective-stacked names undercut the bleak, functional tone.
- Modern phrasing: Anything that sounds like a guild name from a different game entirely.
Common Questions
Do all Forbidden Lands characters need a byname or nickname?
No — bynames are common among humans, dwarves, and orcs who've earned one through a deed or trade, but they're not mandatory. Elves specifically almost never carry one, since their names alone already signal centuries of history. A good rule of thumb: give a byname to a character with a specific claim to fame, and leave newer or lower-profile characters with just a first name.
How is a Forbidden Lands clan name different from a generic fantasy guild name?
A Forbidden Lands clan name should sound like it grew out of the land and the Blood Mist's aftermath, not like a marketing name for an adventuring party. Reference a terrain feature, a shared deed, or a piece of the setting's grim history rather than a generic fantasy noun like "shadow" or "dragon." The tone should stay understated and functional — the setting doesn't reward grandeur.
What makes a Wolfkin name different from just adding "wolf" to a human name?
Wolfkin carry an actual in-setting curse from a wolf god's bloodline, so their names should feel primal and pack-oriented at the phonetic level — not a human name with a wolf-themed word tacked on. Think howling, pack, or night-based imagery worked into the byname itself, paired with a harder, more feral-sounding first name than a typical human character would carry.
