: Re: Using real words from a foreign culture feels like 'Calling a rabbit a "smeerp"' I'm working on a novel, that's set in pre-Islamic Persia, in the same general way that The Lord of the Rings

Here's my unprofessional opinion, based on what I would like to read.

Short answer: Use the specific word when the specific matter. Use the common (English) word then the specific doesn't matter.

Long answer:
Refer to the king as "the king", but if anyone calls him by name then use the proper title. Example:

The king rose from his throne and glared on his subject imposingly.
"You may now address the king", declared one of his guards.
"Shah Alborz, it is an honour to have You receive me on this day", begged the merchant on his knees.

The title may as well be part of the name. It doesn't matter to the reader. If you have many people with the same titles it will be quite clear what are titles and what are names.

The same would go for any object. You don't have asvarans drawing their shamshirs. You have knights drawing their swords. But if at some point you describe the sword in more detail you would provide the name of the sword as part of the description. Example:

Asvaran Ardashir drew his weapon and stood in unison with the other knights. His sword, a shamshir with a narrow and radically curved blade, glimmered in the bright sunlight.

Again, I'm not a writer. My answer is based on my personal and unprofessional opinion.

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: Re: Using real words from a foreign culture feels like 'Calling a rabbit a "smeerp"' I'm working on a novel, that's set in pre-Islamic Persia, in the same general way that The Lord of the Rings

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: Why do expert fiction writers often give conflicting and contradictory advice to novice writers? Lots of writers give writing advice -- but why do they so often contradict each other? For example,

: How to avoid basing an autistic character too much upon myself? One of the characters in my current piece is autistic. I'm on the spectrum myself, so I have some idea of what this is like,

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