As I wrote in an earlier post, I like using some invented words, and I prefer using either homophonous spellings or words describing the item. Here are the reasons behind some of the more exotic invented words.

Arachne

• Damensea: From Mist Isle, arachne are magical spiders the size of cats with furry brown and black bodies who live up to one hundred years. They weave the arachne silk Hawke imports into Ormas during The Enchanted Bird.
• Real World Inspiration: “Arachne” is Greek for spider, and in Greek myth, Arachne is a weaver who was transformed into a spider after she hanged herself.
  

Blood-Kith

• Damensea: Blood-Kith are friends bound by a blood ceremony. Rhiannon descendants, the most powerful witches, are progeny of early witches that performed a blood-kith ceremony with Rhiannon the founder of human magic.
• Real World Inspiration: “Kith” is an old-fashioned word meaning familiar friends or neighbors.
  

Kuchla

• Damensea: Kuchla trees are found in tropical regions of the Tsarkan Empire to the south of Calatini. Ground seeds are a popular poison in the Tsarkan Empire, but Calatini traders import kuchla seeds as pest control.
• Real World Inspiration: “Kuchla” is another name for the Strychnos nux-vomica tree, whose seeds are the natural source of strychnine. (So this one isn’t an invented word at all; the plant’s origin is just changed.)
  

Melissae (singular: melissa)

• Damensea: Melissae are huge, magical bees who produce ambrosia as their honey. Esme the Great’s melissae hive lives at the heart of the royal forest, so multiple characters have encountered them during my novels.
• Real World Inspiration: “Melissa” is Greek for bee (derived from the Greek word for honey), and in Greek myth, Melissa is a nymph who taught the use of honey.
  

More next time…