On Language and Names

Most people in Everway speak the same language, even if they belong to different cultures and live in different realms or spheres. This is good since it means that most people will be able to converse with and understand each other. The common language is called "The Tongue". The Tongue has many different written forms, but the point is that as a spoken language, it is transcultural. Transcendent even. It must be anchored in place by the same cosmic forces that are reflected in the cards of the Fortune Deck. At least, that's my guess. There are some people who speak different languages from the Tongue. Generally, they have been cursed by the gods and this is part of their punishment.

Names tend to be based common words like Fortune, or combinations of common words like Gladday. This is also true of the names given to realms and spheres. 

Very few people in the multiverse have "nonsense" names like Agronox or Vortiss, although that happens from time to time. Some may have the name of a god, goddess, or hero from mythology.

Everwayan family names are listed a ways down on this page. Everwayans will generally have a given name and a family surname (which comes after the given name, except in the Mother family, where the surname comes first). As a result, Everwayans have names like Shiverbleed Snakering, Mother Love, Sugar Host, and Slake Crow.

People from other realms on Everway's sphere of Fourcorner, and those from other spheres entirely, will have additional surnames - either Stranger or Outsider, respectively. So an Outsider known in their home realm as Red Pylon would be known as Red Pylon Outsider in Everway.

Some Strangers and Outsiders may also use the name of their realm or sphere in their name. Thus one might have a name like Bromeliad of Emerald Savannah. 

Some examples of character names from Everway games that I have played in or GMed over the years include: 

• Bromeliad, a member of the royal family from the realm of Emerald Savannah. Bromeliad is transgender and lives as a woman.
• Silver Grove, a satyr-spherewalker who tends the gardens near the Library of All Worlds
• Pepper, a Priest of the Pyramid Cult (originally from the realm of The Market)
• Immanuel, a scholar from Bensalem, a realm that imploded after a religious revolution
• Pandora Outsider, a Charioteer, mystic, and soothsayer with a strange ring-shaped artifact called a Jumpgate; she showed up one day in Strangerside after a long journey from a realm called Fading Suns
• Broken Wing, a beautiful golden-skinned scholar-warrior from a distant sphere, known for playing a strange competitive-collaborative-contemplative simulation game with jeweled polyhedral dice (if you have read Catherine Asaro's novels, you may know who this is)