cliche monster

I'd recommend being more specific to your WIP. What's the situation? Why choose Lord of Darkness? Is there a magic or sorcery that he controls with a proper name that might be more appropriate? Is there some sort of geography he's lord over. Race of people? Sort of political or religious movement?

The solution lies in digging yor hands into the roots and dirt of your WIP and understand why the cliché name applies now and what specific name would apply better later. His name might end up being "Shlomo," but if that's what makes sense for your WIP, then welcome Shlomo!

go to Babel Fish. Enter Lord of Darkness into the text box. Then see what you come up with in different languages. In Portuguese, for example, it translates to senhor da escuridão. Take that translation and warp it into a title. If it were me, again, just as an example, I'd take the word escuridao and twist it--Escuridaos or Escurido--depending on the linguistic base of most of your other names for people and places.

Anyway, that's what I do when I'm in a bind. Hope this helps.

Lord Shlomo- kind of has a nice ring to it-

sorry-no help at all

YOu could try generators. They won't give a great name, but they might give you an 'ooh that gives me an idea!' moment, get your juices flowing

try

here

here
Although if you go for the wrestling name, Angry Masher Fat Basher is mine kk?

and here

SupplyDragon said:

Help!!

I have a problem with the cliche monster and I really don't know how to kill it...

I have a Fantasy WIP where my "bad guy" is currently called "The Lord of Darkness"

While it fits quite nicely for what I want him to be, it is so cliche even I am tired of it. There is what, like 34,000 of them to date? Anybody have any other titles I could use that sounds evil and invokes a sense of power/intrigue?

Click to expand...

Well, first, answer me this: Just who is calling your bad guy "The Lord of Darkness"? Is it the bad guy himself? Does he strut around thinking to himself, "I'm the freakin' Lord of Darkness. That's so freakin' cool"? Is it the people he's got working for him that call him the "Lord of Darkness"? Or is it the general population that calls him the "Lord of Darkness"?

Let's assume it's the last choice. In that case, why do they call him the "Lord of Darkness"? I mean, the name had to come from somewhere. Did the bad guy announce it himself? (In which case, again: why did *he* do that?) Is there some sort of creation myth that includes your "Lord of Darkness"? What's his relation to the rest of the cosmology? What do the rest of the gods call him?

Point is, names don't just occur; they're applied by someone, at some time. Who labelled your bad guy "The Lord of Darkness"?

If you're worried about cliches, I'd experience with the words.

Dark Lord
God of Night
Night Father
Lord of Twilight
The Nighted One

See, this is what the thesaurus was meant for.

Just substitute a different title and something other than 'darkness'

The Grand Duke of the Netherworld.
The Arch-Deacon of Doom.
The Master of the Twelve Lands of Woe.
The Padishah of Pain

What sort of things does he do to people? Maybe that might inspire them to call him something;

The Head-Wrencher
The Orphan-maker
Stab-Master (I did not make up Stab Master! He's a Mayan Deity)
Soul-Loosener
The Corruptor
He-Who-Waits-in-the-Darkness-to-Dismember-You (thank you Calvin and Hobbes)
The Torture Master

Or maybe he has an excessively polite or harmless sounding pseudonym. For example, Satan was sometimes called 'Old Tom.' (Or was it 'Old Nick?')

Can I get a chapter and verse on that?

on what?

Give him a name as well as the honorary title. The Dark Lord, the Lord of Mordor, the Lord of the Rings is also plain old Sauron. His name could grow out of the language of the people he terrorizes, or it could be wildly different, clearly outside, depending on what you want to say about his origins.

As for the title, hmm. How about the Nightbringer or the Nightmaker, given his propensity for turning out the lights?

Lord FaQue.

I just went to thesaurus and got synonyms for the two words...how about:

"The Black Liege"?

Or go to thesaurus.com and find some words that work better.

I was going to suggest the "Liege of Shadows" but that sounds an awful lot like a group we all know and love from Batman. lol

I think Andrew Jameson has a very good point - why do they call him Lord of Darkness? If he's just a general bogeyman in most people's minds, what are the legends surrounding him? What is he supposed to have done to earn his title? Then find a way of expressing that.

"The Black Liege"?

Click to expand...

Liege on its own is ambiguous though. Could be a liege lord or a liege man. Just to say - be careful when using that thesaurus that you really get the word you want.

The Starless Knight.

It also depends if you want the title to actually mean something. Well, for instance, I've been to Poland recently and I've learnt that the great commander in chief of their armies used to be called (might still be called, I'm not sure) the Hetman. From the German Hauptman, I think, which means "leader" or something like that. Well, anyway, such a title has the advantage of sounding mysterious. At least a little. You could pick just about any word you like and make it a title (and you could even say that it means "Lord of Darkness" in some ancient, forgotten Demonic language). In the same line of thoughts, variations on various titles given to real emperors or kings (like the Tzar, the Kronprinz, the Augustus, the Sun-King, etc etc).

"Master of Shadows"?

Master of Baiting?

Nightdrinker, the Black Thirst, Soul Shredder :}

What is his actual name, just out of interest? Maybe we can play with that and give you something that sparks your imagination.

So Fisi-baby, Dark lord of the Privy wouldn't work?