I am currently working on a sword and sorcery novel in which there are three dominate races. These races were each created by one of the three Daughters of Creation who are the leaders of this worlds pantheon. Each goddess represents an aspect of existence, Life, Death and the Passage of Time between these two.

The race created by the goddess of Life are hardy, strong, and extremely passionate.They have dark skin and light colored eyes and tusks. Essentially they are Orc's who live in the dessert, think of Native African tribes with small tusks.

The race created by the goddess of Death are cold, noble and predatory. Pale skinned and dark eyed with slightly pointed ears. They are essentially vampiric elves.

The goddess of Time created humans.

These races are not inherently good or evil and they don't all pay homage to their patron goddess either.

What I am having difficulty with is creating an original name for these races (not humans). I don't want to call them Orcs or Vampires because that's not what they are, just what they are bassed on.

Any ideas.

in my urban fantasy book the Fremont troll in seattle is actually a real live troll. but he is not the big nasty mean kind of troll that harasses goats on bridges, no he is a rather pleasant fellow who kinda likes to pretend to be nasty but is not very good at it.

i wanted to give him a name that would be utterly ridicules for a troll, like Fred or bob or ted or something like that. any suggestions.

I am currently writing an urban fantasy novel where magic users are broken up into five main groups that can manipulate the seven primal energies of existence.

types of energy
Life: the power of creation, flows strongly through anything that is effected by time.

Death: the power of destruction and change, everything must end at some point.

Water Earth Fire and Air: the building blocks of creation, everything is comprised of these to some degree

Time: the thread that binds all things together for better or worse.

the Four Types of magic users:

Wizards: have great power but need a focus in order to direct it. (staff, wand, book, cellphone what have you), can manipulate all seven energies equally.

Sorcerers: can call up their power by sheer force of will (they make the big booms) however their power is controlled by their emotions so most go under a great deal of training in order to learn control, that is if they don't explode at a young age. are strongest in the four elements

Witches/Warlocks: evil little bastards whose power comes from making a deal with a demon. they make the denarions look like girl scouts. they channel their masters evil will into our world so they can manipulate any of the energies without a use of a focus.

True Necromancers: the rarest of the magic users, most don't think they exist, their power is entirely centered on the passage of time from life to death and thus have strong influence in only those three powers in that regard. they are not evil

White Magus: the exact opposite of True Necromancers they can only use life energy. they are not always good guys.

basically i am asking if this works for you or if you have any suggestions on what i have so far.

in one of the books i am working on the main character is what i like to call a true born necromancer, meaning he is born with an innate understanding and power over death and those things that are attributed to it, but i am doing necromancy a little differently then how its usually portrayed.

in my world there are two types of necromancers and necromancy. the more common type is the one that every one hears about and use their power like you see in most games and other fantasy genre's. they raise the dead to be their unholy slaves, the mutilate and torture, call up dark forces for stuff, and are just plain nasty. more than likely falling into my worlds pure evil bastard grouping.

the other type are the true born, who behave differently. they are extremely rare, to the point where most never even heard of them and just assume that all necromancers are the fore mentioned type. they like all magic users manipulate primal energies, but they can only manipulate the energy of life and its progression to death. which means they can only destroy things not create them. this gives them great power but vastly limits them as well. they are capable of all the same things the stereotypical necromancers are but in general don't, because they rarely have the need, and there are severe consequences on the karmic level. so it's generally a last resort sort of thing. my original idea cam from when i looked up the meaning of necromancy and one of them was a form of deviation through spirit communication or corpse reading. so most of the powers i have thought up are based around that idea.

now what i need help with is that i am trying to find some ways for my character to use his powers over death to help people and not be to over powered. i have some ideas but i am always open for more.

there are some things to keep in mind

he can not commune with or touch another beings soul, everyone that has ever tried has died horribly, no exceptions.

there are no natural undead in my world, there are creatures that do not meet our sciences definition of life and are infused with the energy of death (vampires and other creatures that are considered undead), and while he can control and manipulate that energy and thus them he has to pit his will against theirs which is rarely a good idea.

he can manipulate dead tissue if there is enough of it, but this takes a lot of effort of will and you need dead flesh, which is hard to get.(this is where zombies and such come from)

anything that are strongly tied to death by belief, such as disease, fear, and decay as some examples, he can also manipulate.

if you have any questions or need some clarification just ask.

does Amelia sound like a good name for a vampire who is over a hundred years old but looks like she is still in her early teens, ie. between 13 and 16.