Good Names for a Foreboding Castle

[(Un)Inspired]

The title says its all. I need some help naming a castle.

There are no bad ideas in brainstorming... right?

The castle in question is inhabited by a rowdy vampire cleric of torture and music. He was granted the castle by Dracula.

Names in English would be top notch with Spanish names a close second. If you guys and gals have any ideas for names in other languages that would sound ominous to a group of English speakers I love to hear them as well.

[A Tad Insane]

Slaughter song castle
Death knell keep
Swan song hold

[Grim Portent]

Don'tgonearthe castle. :smallbiggrin:

Now that that's out of the way, castles are normally named for their owner or location.

Castle [Vampire's last name] would work fine, as would Castle [Local town/forest/region/etc].

Or try German, that normally sounds ominous to English speakers, thing likes Blutfeuer Keep, Castle Schattenlicht and so on are okay if you don't mind cliches.

[Hunter Noventa]

Call it Skullcrusher Mountain (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O-ra3RZeHk). Anyone who points out that it's a castle, and not a mountain, has their skull crushed.

[(Un)Inspired]

Slaughter song castle
Death knell keep
Swan song hold


Don'tgonearthe castle. :smallbiggrin:

Now that that's out of the way, castles are normally named for their owner or location.

Castle [Vampire's last name] would work fine, as would Castle [Local town/forest/region/etc].

Or try German, that normally sounds ominous to English speakers, thing likes Blutfeuer Keep, Castle Schattenlicht and so on are okay if you don't mind cliches.


Call it Skullcrusher Mountain (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O-ra3RZeHk). Anyone who points out that it's a castle, and not a mountain, has their skull crushed.

Thanks for the rapid replies!

I think I'm looking for a name that's more ominous and foreboding rather than out and out brutal.

The castle and surrounding lands were extant before they were granted to the current vampire lord so I don't just want them named after him.

[Erasmas]

Dreadmire Manor
Duskshire Castle
Keep on the Moor
Castle Blackmoon
Overwatch Keep

[TheThan]

The Foreboding Castle.

[Flickerdart]

Baskerville Manor. :smallbiggrin:

[Tiktik Ironclaw]

It's Just a Model Castle
Chateau d'Blood
The Castle of Horrors
TPK Keep
Castle Crystal Lake
The Keep of Caerbannog
The Castle Aaaargh
Castle Stalingrad
I hope these are at least amusing.

[noob]

Keep of plague?
The gates to the farworld?

[MrZJunior]

Festung Totenkopf

(The Fortress of Skull and Crossbones)

[Red Fel]

Festung Totenkopf

(The Fortress of Skull and Crossbones)

Gonna second using German. It's a surprisingly scary-sounding language, and is often associated with creepy mountain castles. It's also a surprisingly straightforward language to use, as you can basically mash together a bunch of nouns and adjectives to make a name that says exactly what you want it to.

I don't speak the language, but you could easily come up with a name like "Shadow Mountain Keep" or something like that, and I guarantee you it would be scary. (A quick trip to Google Translate gave me Schattenbergschloss, which sounds legit.)

Also, consider taking a look at the I Don't Like the Sound of That Place (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace) trope. (TV Tropes warning: May be addictive.)

[Flickerdart]

If you use a foreign language, your players will forget the actual name and refer to it as some approximation of Castle Poopenbutt.

[ShaneMRoth]

Torture and Music?

Opera.


Base the Castle name on an opera.

Castle Reingold.

Castle Mikado.


Wagner operas may be particularly appropriate:

Gotterdammerung Castle

Valkyrie Castle

Castle Tannhauser

Castle Wagner or Wagner's Keep might work also. (Provided you pronounce it VAHG-ner)

[TeChameleon]

A simple, but surprisingly overlooked, option for that sort of thing is just to give the castle a normal(ish) name, but have the locals call it something horrible- e.g. "This is Castle Northwatch, known to those unfortunate souls condemned to live in its shadow as 'the Melody of Screams'."

[Mastikator]

Is Bran Castle too on the nose?

[(Un)Inspired]

Gonna second using German. It's a surprisingly scary-sounding language, and is often associated with creepy mountain castles. It's also a surprisingly straightforward language to use, as you can basically mash together a bunch of nouns and adjectives to make a name that says exactly what you want it to.

I don't speak the language, but you could easily come up with a name like "Shadow Mountain Keep" or something like that, and I guarantee you it would be scary. (A quick trip to Google Translate gave me Schattenbergschloss, which sounds legit.)


I don't know if I'd call German surprisingly scary. More like unsurprisingly scary. Excellent advice though.


If you use a foreign language, your players will forget the actual name and refer to it as some approximation of Castle Poopenbutt.

I'm pretty lucky in that I run for a table of three and they all latch Hardcore onto the people and place names I use.


Torture and Music?

Opera.


Base the Castle name on an opera.

Castle Reingold.

Castle Mikado.


Wagner operas may be particularly appropriate:

Gotterdammerung Castle

Valkyrie Castle

Castle Tannhauser

Castle Wagner or Wagner's Keep might work also. (Provided you pronounce it VAHG-ner)

Operas are a pretty good call. Do you think it would be tacky to name a vampire's castle: Castle Die Fledermaus


Is Bran Castle too on the nose?

Bran? Like the stuff people eat to make sure they poop regularly?

[Maglubiyet]

Bran?

Bran is the name of Dracula's actual castle. Pretty awe-inspiring, huh?

[Keltest]

Caer Blasen. Bonus points if anyone understands what the name (taken from two languages) means.

[Segev]

This thread's title always makes me think of something along the following lines:

"I am Duke De'Ville; welcome to my humble forbode."


More seriously, though, if you like the German-sounds-ominous approach, how about Schwartzkaiserholt? "Hold of the Black King."

Or, if you just want to go a bit meta, have it keep a conspiracy of ravens in its upper reaches, and call it "Raven's Loft."

[DigoDragon]

No one suggested The Castle of Aaaarrrggh yet? :smallbiggrin:


I'm not sure how your players operate, but my old group hated going to castles with oddly mundane names when they know something unhinged lives there. Names like Castle Grey or Silent Keep just seems off in of itself.

[Mr. Mask]

Perhaps The Tower of Joy? Points to whoever gets the reference (not Ice and Fire).

You could go the opposite direction and make the keep sound so righteous that it gives the players a bad feeling about the place. The Traveller's End, as if to imply its an inn welcoming to travellers, and that they never get to leave. Keep Hope, or Hope Keep.

Depending, something simply memorable without too much implication of itself may work, if other elements keep pointing to the castle so it's rooted in the players' brains. Thundercrash Fortress.

[Maglubiyet]

No one suggested The Castle of Aaaarrrggh yet?

I think it was mentioned, but Castle Anthrax is conspicuously absent.

[Keltest]

I think it was mentioned, but Castle Anthrax is conspicuously absent.

Im not sure many groups could handle Castle Anthrax

[A Tad Insane]

Wait, I got it!
Innsmouth.

Or Dunwich, if you're feeling 'merciful'

[goto124]

The castle in question is inhabited by a rowdy vampire cleric of torture and music.

Is he the kind of person to give a weird and menat-to-be-but-not-really-foreboding name to his castle?

[Mr. Mask]

You could call it Castle Irony. Your players will probably ask why it's called that, and argue about why it's called that for the rest of the session.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Instead of trying too choose a cool name, I'd think of the surround terrain first. No one wants "The Whispering Spire" to be a Starfort in the middle of a flat field, or "Brinewatch Hold" to be on a fresh water lake or 'Schloss Blutstein' to be built on yellow standstone.


Bran is the name of Dracula's actual castle. Pretty awe-inspiring, huh?

Bran Castle is a Transylvanian tourist trap with no link to either the fictional Dracula or the historical dynasty he's named after apart from the fact that Vlad the Impaler probably walker past it a few times.

Dracula's castle is named... Castle Dracula, oddly enough.

The historical Vlad the Impaler's castle was Târgoviște Fortress in the city of the same name. It means 'market town' in old Bulgarian. It was also called Curtea Domnească which just means "the Ruler's Court" in Romanian.

[Flickerdart]

You could call it Castle Irony. Your players will probably ask why it's called that, and argue about why it's called that for the rest of the session.
Obviously it's because when the castle was built, the gates were reinforced with metal instead of just wood (as was normal back then). In other words, they were iron-y.

[Mr. Mask]

:smallbiggrin: I was hoping someone would comment to that nature!

[Segev]

Wait! Wait! I missed the part about the lord being a cleric of torture and music!

Witos Neki Castle!

[Maglubiyet]

Bran Castle is a Transylvanian tourist trap with no link to either the fictional Dracula or the historical dynasty he's named after apart from the fact that Vlad the Impaler probably walker past it a few times.


I'm getting a refund for this tourist map!

[(Un)Inspired]

Is he the kind of person to give a weird and menat-to-be-but-not-really-foreboding name to his castle?

Maybe eventually but he was literally JUST granted the castle by Dracula and he's still all jittery over his promotion.

He's been busy creating undead, poisoning water tables and extorting villages under his new domain for treasure to actually rename the place.

[Grim Portent]

Maybe eventually but he was literally JUST granted the castle by Dracula and he's still all jittery over his promotion.

He's been busy creating undead, poisoning water tables and extorting villages under his new domain for treasure to actually rename the place.

In that case the local villagers probably call it 'That ****ing castle' when no one official is around. :smalltongue:

[JAL_1138]

Acererak's Keep

Castle Gygax

Castle Blackmoor

****

Fort Boatmurdered

Fort Gemclod

Fort Syrupleaf

...really anything Dwarf Fortress-related should be ominous and foreboding if your players know anything about DF

[mig el pig]

Operas are a pretty good call. Do you think it would be tacky to name a vampire's castle: Castle Die Fledermaus


I would go for Festung Fledermaus then. (but i'm the guy who likes alliterations)

- Gravensteen (its dutch for castle of the duke but in english it looks more like a modified version of Grave Stone)

[Mastikator]

Bran? Like the stuff people eat to make sure they poop regularly?

Bran Stoker Dracula's Castle.
From the movie, in scary Transylvania.

[Talyn]

*cough* Bram Stoker, short for "Abraham."

Anything related to carrion birds has a nice ominous ring to it.

Ravenwing Manor
Fort Ravensmoot
Ravenhill Estate
Ravenholme Castle
Fortress Crowespeak
Crowespoint Redoubt
Corbin's Bluff
Corbinsrest Hall

[JAL_1138]

*cough* Bram Stoker, short for "Abraham."

Anything related to carrion birds has a nice ominous ring to it.

Ravenwing Manor
Fort Ravensmoot
Ravenhill Estate
Ravenholme Castle
Fortress Crowespeak
Crowespoint Redoubt
Corbin's Bluff
Corbinsrest Hall


Ravenholm has the benefit of inducing horrible flashbacks in Half-Life 2 players. On the downside, everyone's going to expect zombies.

[goto124]

In that case the local villagers probably call it 'That ****ing castle' when no one official is around. :smalltongue:

Or a 'nickname' of the official name of the castle, to show their distaste of the lord.

Bonus points if the PCs eventually use it themselves, even in front of the castle owner.

'That's not it's real name!'
'WHO CARES!'

[Silus]

Ravenholm has the benefit of inducing horrible flashbacks in Half-Life 2 players. On the downside, everyone's going to expect zombies.

That's why you infest it with Shadows.

Or, if you're super sadistic, apply the undead Shadow template to vermin swarms.

[Flickerdart]

That's why you infest it with Shadows.

Or, if you're super sadistic, apply the undead Shadow template to vermin swarms.
Nah - keep your shambling corpses, but instead of zombies they turn out to be hellwasp swarms.

[TeChameleon]

... I'm not sure I'd include 'Fledermaus' in the castle name if any of your players are Tick fans. It would veer from 'scary' to 'silly' so fast...

[Keltest]

Nah - keep your shambling corpses, but instead of zombies they turn out to be hellwasp swarms.

One of my first edition monster manuals has an entry for what are basically fake zombies. Theyre regular creatures that happen to look and act exactly like zombies, down to being diseased freaks with flesh falling off, but theyre still alive, somehow.

[(Un)Inspired]

...and now I've got some awesome ideas on what sorts of undead to include in the castle.

[Deaxsa]

Ravenholm has the benefit of inducing horrible flashbacks in Half-Life 2 players. On the downside, everyone's going to expect zombies.

Lol, this was my favorite part of the game, nothing to do but use the gravgun and be as trigger-happy as you like.

On topic, I'd just give the castle a name that corresponds to the surrounding area or however you feel like giving it a normal name (it doesn't even matter if it's called "the eighth citadel" or "cliff-wind castle" or something) and then make it very clear through description and gameplay that the place is foreboding. Think of dark souls(2). The places poeple hate don't all have (particarly (more)) foreboding names. In particular, I hate the shrine of amana with epic rage. But shrine of amana does not sound terrible or foreboding. Huntsmans copse, same thing. They are just names for places.

[JAL_1138]

There's always these (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_long_place_names).

[nedz]

Torture and music — that's easy — Castle Country and Western.

Or you could go for something metal inspired, the trouble here is that most of the best ones have been used.

To twist this concept:

Castle of the Grateful Rack-Harps.

Keep of the Iron Maidens with Harmonicas.

Molten Led Hold.

[BioCharge]

Not very good, but perhaps "The Bastion of Dreadful Harmony." The two descriptive words are rather counter intuitive in meaning, but that may add to the wrongness of the place. Plus, I just like the word "bastion."

[(Un)Inspired]

Not very good, but perhaps "The Bastion of Dreadful Harmony." The two descriptive words are rather counter intuitive in meaning, but that may add to the wrongness of the place. Plus, I just like the word "bastion."

Dreadful Harmony sounds like it could be the name if a castlevannia game. I kinda like it.

[Bard1cKnowledge]

Dang it, all the good jokes have been taken (a pox upon your clans)

How about "Castle I'm still working on the name come back in a week maybe I can think of one"

If opera names, Castle Figaros Honeymoon