posted
I need help with something for a story. Its one of my "Road" stories, where magic operates in large part via Roads of different colors. This story involves an area where the Green Road is "close to the surface." I'm looking for a good word for that circumstance. "Node" would be great but it rhymes with Road so...any suggestions are appreciated.
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posted
you need a word that means "close to the surface?" Why can't you just describe it?
Anyways, I like node. I don't think its a big deal if it rhymes, but then again I haven't seen the context. Node also carries connotations of a more scientific state of mind, as it deals with the shape of waves, which may be inappropriate for a wizard story...
how about:
the brink crossroads zenith apogee
"close to the surface" makes me think of a plant sprouting from the ground:
rising emerging reveal
You could also describe "close to the surface" via negation:
submerged concealed cached covered layered
Sorry I don't have better examples. Maybe you could give some context or the paragraph you are writing? That could help...
I can think of a few right off the bat that may help explain what you mean:
1. vein (like a vein of green marble in a layer of white marbel) 2. trace (a smaller more narrow road like the Natchez Trace) 3. seam 4. ridge (the edge of something larger)
posted
Part of the trouble is words like confluence, nexus etc all involve multiple things coming together. This is a concentration of a single thing. At least it probably is.
Thanks everybody for suggestions so far. Every little bit helps.
posted
I'm starting to think about maybe "Well." A well can be a concentration of something. In particular theres this definition. A place where a liquid such as water surfaces naturally, a spring
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When my wife and I traveled the Lewis & Clark trail from St. Louis to Astoria, Oregon some years ago we came upon the source of the Missouri River. A trickling spring high up on Lemhi Pass, and it was a wonder that we could straddle that river at its source (literally each foot on opposite banks of that great river) when it is more than a mile wide at its confluence with the Mississippi.
I know you call them Roads, but from what I've read of yours they always seemed to behave more like rivers than roads. So you might have the word you're looking for in spring.
posted
I guess you're getting misses because 'node' is an intersection, among other things. 'Wellspring,' might be a more colorful than 'well'. Fount and font come to mind, too.
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posted
Ah ha! Font! I think thats exactly the word I need, or as close as I'm going to get anyway, thanks.
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posted
Superficial would be the perfect world, except that it has all those negative connotations. It literally means near the surface.
Possibly a loam road? or loam-deep?
Font is a fountain, so that may be what you want if you're focusing on an emergence point, but if you're trying to describe a road that rides beneath the earth's skin like a vein, you may want a different image. (a surface root? like Root 66 ;-); I do like the suggestion of these roads "veining" the ground (i.e. I like the previous poster's "vein" suggestion, though it has some connotation problems too)
posted
How about saying it is a breath-point? Like a whale surfacing for a breath--gives it an organic feel.
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posted
I appreciate everyones suggestions. I'm using "Font" right now, while still considering other options. I may wind up making something up. Edward is right that my Roads are very river-like as well (those two are similar things anyway, I feel) so Font/Well works all right. Its causing me to think various important things about the Roads and the world though, so thats good.
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posted
From the surface it might be called a 'shallow' - a "road shallow"? or summit? or zenith?
What would the people living around it most remember it by? Does it have a physical oddity other than being closer to surface? (Bivouac (Bivy, Bivi): A high camp, not always a planned overnight stop.) (
Any lesser or greater magic? (Maybe it's a 'sink' or a 'source')
Any mythology or history associated with the road summit? (like people cal So-n-So's Node/Summit/Shallow/Clearing?)
posted
I finally decided to just work around any rhyme related awkwardness and go with Node. Its what my mind keeps telling me to call it.
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