Pellatarrum is a world of consensus: the four elder races of Elf, Dwarf, Orc and Dragon each tried to push their own version of paradise when re-creating the Material Plane, and the end result was a compromise that everyone hated equally. It looks, to quote my friend Trollsmyth,
"Very much like public housing: designed by committee to a set of standards that overlap maybe only 75% with the actual needs of the folks who are living there, who then trashed the place in their frustration."So it should really come as no surprise that the name for the place is a portmanteau word. Its full and proper name is correctly rendered as:
Pellardinae (Elvish, "This beautiful thing")
Tarrummaachen (Dwarven, "Crafted with toil")
Ch't!ath!auth Sth'meke!z (Draconic, "Home to all")
Shakrakugh ( Orcish, "Orcs.")
So yeah, that last part didn't really sit well with the other three races once they found out what it meant, and Draconic's use of dental, lateral, alveolar and palatal clicks (which could only be properly expressed with a cleft tongue anyway) made its contribution nearly unpronounceable by all but the Elves.
It didn't take long for the last half of the name to be dropped, and from then it was a simple matter of linguistic drift for "Pellardinae Tarrummaachen" to become "Pellatarrum", which roughly translates as "This thing we made," "We did it" or, with the right inflection, "It's our fault." This last translation is immensely popular among the Dwarves.
(Bonus points to anyone who can guess the real-world origin and meaning of the name. And I know who I told, so no cheating! :P)
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