Vector Shift — Naming Principles Addendum: Mixing Sources#
Approved by Briana • 18 September 2026
This refines Principle 1 of the naming principles ("names echo; they do not dictate design").
The rule#
Borrow visual motifs freely from any source, but never let a name and its design come from the same source.
Where this came from#
Briana observed: "now we could totally use Egyptian motifs with our norse/greek names, and it wont be over-powering to the setting, but once you switch to the Egyptian names as well, it all goes tits up Egyptian enforced." Claude proposed recording this as a refinement, and Briana approved: "Yes please."
Why it works#
- A name sets the frame. It tells the reader which culture they are looking at, and every visual is read through that frame. If a red star is called Sekhmet, a lion-headed statue reads as "Egyptian". If it is called Hyperion or Surtr, the same statue reads as this world's art, drawing on something old.
- Motifs without a matching name read as influence, not identity. Taking names from one source and designs from another means no single Earth culture owns the setting. The result reads as a distinct culture.
- It fits the setting's history. The people of Kethra know Earth only as Earth-of-the-songs, so their culture carries fragments of many remembered Earth traditions, mixed and half-remembered. (Proposal: treat this as the in-world explanation for blended styles.)
- Historical precedent. In Ptolemaic Egypt, Greek-named kings were depicted as pharaohs, and a blended god, Serapis, was created from Greek and Egyptian elements. Contemporaries experienced this as a living culture, not as costume.
In practice#
- The capital's Greek names and the frontier's Norse names can sit alongside motifs from Egyptian or any other source.
- Before approving a design element, check whether its source is the same as the source of the name attached to it. If it is, change one or the other.
- Any single strong source should appear in fragments, not as a complete set.
Prepared by Claude.