Names Matter: Titles, Call Signs, and What People Refuse to Say (Aether Skies D&D campaign Setting)

Names Matter: Titles, Call Signs, and What People Refuse to Say (Aether Skies D&D campaign Setting)

February 13, 2026

Adventure Hooks/ Aether Skies/ At The Gaming Table/ Dungeons & Dragons

How identity becomes leverage in Aether Skies

In most fantasy RPGs, a name is just a label.
In Aether Skies, a name is a position.

What someone calls you—and just as importantly, what they refuse to call you—reveals power, debt, fear, and survival strategy. Names shift depending on who’s speaking, who’s listening, and what’s at stake. True names are guarded like weapons, titles are worn like armor, and call signs exist to keep people alive when the sky starts watching.

This isn’t just flavor. It’s a tool for worldbuilding, roleplay, and tension at the table.

The Unspoken Rule of the Skies

In Aether Skies, there’s an old saying:

“If someone knows your real name, they can follow you.”

That belief isn’t superstition—it’s experience.

Between espionage networks, dream-contaminated magic, aether-powered surveillance, and things that listen from the Curtain, names carry weight. They anchor identity. They give predators something to grab onto.

As a result, most people don’t go by just one name.

The Three Names Everyone Has

Almost everyone in the sky cities carries some version of these three identities:

1. The Given Name

Your birth name, legal name, or original identity.

Used by family
Recorded in city archives
Dangerous to share casually
Often abandoned after a major life event

In many cities, especially Haven, speaking a true name aloud is believed to invite attention—mundane or otherwise.

2. The Public Name

Titles, ranks, professions, or reputational names.

Examples:

Captain Rell
Warden of the Ninth Span
Dockmaster
Speaker-of-Favors

Public names establish authority without intimacy. They are safe, transactional, and deliberately vague.

In Orashul, public names are polished and hierarchical.
In Granglehold, they’re functional and blunt.
In Kerfluffle, they’re often jokes—until they aren’t.

3. The Working Name

Call signs, aliases, and nicknames used in dangerous spaces.

Skyship crews
Smuggling routes
Aethernati operations
Underground markets
Aetherball teams

Working names protect you. They also distance you from consequences.

No one betrays their real self.
They betray a role.

Why True Names Are Rarely Spoken in Haven

Haven changed everything.

When the city reappeared from the Curtain, it brought back more than architecture—it brought back proof that memory, identity, and dreams can be manipulated, stolen, or echoed.

In Haven:

Names spoken in dreams sometimes respond
Old identities surface without warning
People wake knowing names they’ve never heard

As a result, Havenites are careful. Some refuse to speak their given name at all. Others change names seasonally, or after traumatic events, believing the old name no longer fits the person who survived.

Among spies, this behavior spread quickly.

Names as Power and Debt

In Aether Skies, how someone addresses you often signals who owes whom.

Calling someone by their given name can mean:

intimacy
trust
ownership
or threat

Using a title instead of a name can be:

respectful
dismissive
or deliberately distancing

Refusing to say someone’s name at all?
That’s a warning.

Example:

A captain who always calls you “friend” instead of your name isn’t being warm—they’re reminding you that your identity is flexible, and so is your loyalty.

Call Signs: Identity Under Pressure

Call signs are common among:

skyship crews
scouts
smugglers
aether runners
resistance cells

They’re often earned, not chosen.

Some are jokes.
Some are insults.
Some are memorials.

The longer a crew survives together, the more likely their call signs replace their real names entirely. Losing a call sign—having it revoked or changed—is often worse than losing rank.

It means you’re no longer trusted to be yourself.

Using Names as a GM Tool

For Game Masters, names are an invisible lever you can pull at any time.

Techniques:

Have NPCs switch how they address PCs based on mood or leverage
Reveal a villain’s true name only after significant cost
Let an enemy use a PC’s real name when they shouldn’t know it
Introduce factions that refuse to speak certain names aloud

Names are especially effective when paired with:

debts
favors
secrets
or dream influence

Player Advice: Choosing the Right Name

Encourage players to think beyond character creation:

What name does your character use in public?
Who still knows their real name?
What name do they fear hearing spoken aloud?
What would it mean to reclaim—or abandon—that name?

Changing names mid-campaign is powerful.
So is refusing to.

Adventure Hooks Built on Names

The Name in the Ledger: A true name appears in a document that shouldn’t exist.
Call Sign Burned: A crew’s shared call sign is publicly used against them.
The Name That Wakes Things: Speaking a lost name triggers a response from the Curtain.
Identity Theft: Someone is committing crimes under a PC’s old name.
The Forgotten Self: A character’s given name is erased from all records—but something still remembers it.