Hi there! I’m playing a solo game of Scarlet Heroes, using the Red Tide setting as well, with B2 - Keep on the Borderlands. I’m having a lot of fun but am finding myself constantly stumbling when I have to make names for characters and the main Keep cast.
So I’m asking if y’all could help me?
Currently I have most of the main characters named (and motivated) from the description of the keep, the Corporal of the Watch (3), Bailiff (6), down to the Jewel Merchants (7a) “Jovial Priest” (7b) and also the Innkeepers (14) and Barkeep (15). Using the straight generators from the LL Red Tide Sourcebook NPC Generator and the Solo tools from the Scarlet Heroes Rulebook.
So the Castellan, Curate, his Acolytes, Captain of the Watch and the rest are all up for grabs.
Some Setting Notes:
Halflings are more like Monkey-People, and take the names of the places they originate from.
Shou-Blooded individuals are considered extremely suspicious, and heal very fast.
Short Answer: Asian-inspired Western Fantasy. Chinese predominantly with smatterings of Japanese, German, Scandinavian, Gaelic, and tiny pockets of other cultures.
Long Answer: So, as I understand it it’s basically a post-apocalyptic Asian culture inspired western-type fantasy. There was a “red tide” that swept over the world and forced all civilizations to a set of harsh island chains. These cultures which then developed were predominantly from the “Nine-Fold Celestial Empire” which was based on Ming China. Some other cultural groups also managed to escape the apocalypse, namely the Kueh (Japanese), Skandr (Scandinavian), Eirengarder (?German/Prussian), Gadaal (Scots Gaelic), Eshkanti (Arabic). But the “non-Empire” cultures are heavily influenced by the force of the dominant remnant of the Empire. The Demihumans are culturally distinct, but the names are taken from real-world cultures. The Dwarves take Russian names, the Elves a weird mix of LotR surnames and Biblical Hebrew first names, my Halflings take the names from whichever regions predominant culture they’re from, and the Shou (Orcs sorta) take Assyrian names.
Super mishmash, so just go wild but focus in the East - yeah maybe this dude comes from a surviving remnant of a Mughal Empire type group.
IMO the way out for any solo thing is just finding an online generator that looks vaguely ok and using it. I usually use these. Just pick one generator per broad culture group and run with it, afterwards you won’t even think about it.