You know, in keeping with Mirrlees’s themes, you could switch that around and have the avatar become one of the dead, one of the people of faerie who’re crossing over to “our” world and going on a wholly different sort of quest.

ETA: and, if one is intent on causing trouble as such an avatar, perhaps becoming one of those pesky troublemaking creatures who’re attracting the adventurers intent on killing them, or something.

Also I am not sure whether Lud-in-the-Mist names would work because, um, I haven’t finished reading the book. I’d like a Dunsany feel to the beginning, I think.

My first thought is The Marches of /foo/, because marches are borders and in that sort of style. My next thought it you could do a lot worse than just look at lesser known Scottish placenames like Appledore, Kelsie, Morangie, Gairloch, Ullapool. But if you’re thinking non-European, you probably don’t want that sort of line at all.

anyway, what I just said to you right now, so you remember:
One of the cool things about Nethack is that the bone files are shared. If you maintain the world state, it ought to be shared between users, but it ought to also be possible for new users to begin at the beginning of the experience tree too, even with the Faerie world already having been altered. And the different players should be able to work against each other.

I think a good name is Jimmy.