Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
[Radiant Citadel] A chart of parallel Earth cultures and motifs across the D&D Multiverse
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Dungeonosophy" data-source="post: 8721526" data-attributes="member: 6688049"><p>Ah, he might have known of it, but for the reasons stated, it doesn't pass my muster for the purposes of this chart. Also, I don't know if Chakji and Guryik were created by Eric Mona for the LGG (riffing off of the Tiger Nomads), or if he got that from Gygaxian writings. But either way, /ket/ doesn't pass the muster, for my purposes.</p><p></p><p>Ah thanks, I was actually looking for ~Slavic references for Stonefist, because I was just going off of memory. I'd thought I'd read some DRAGON mag article in the 90s about using Slavic flavor for Stonefist Barbarians, but I wasn't sure if I was remembering right. I'll aim to include these in the Hold of Stonefist entry.</p><p></p><p></p><p>I've done cultural analyses of other worlds too (such as Tolkien's Middle-earth and Star Wars), and it's really both an art and a science. To see where the real-world cultural framework holds, and where it dissolves into free creation. Often there are various frameworks that simultaneously overlap with each other.</p><p></p><p>For example, basically, the term "Baklunish" served as the stand-in for "Arabs." As a graspable term for the "Arab" nations of Oerth. And this framework holds pretty well at the level of the "present-day" of Oerth.</p><p></p><p>But then Gygax (and/or other GH designers) also says that the Tiger Nomads and Wolf Nomads are Baklunish. The real-world Turkic peoples aren't Arab. Yet those Nomads are said to be mixed with indigenous Flan. I think that equation just provides a vague justification for why the Tiger and Wolf Nomads are culturally and physiognomically distinct from the "Arabs". And their Baklunish connection keeps a sort of "Islamic" vibe for them, since the RW Uyghurs and (and many of the) Kipchaks were Muslims. I don't think much more can be read into it.</p><p></p><p>Same for the example you gave. Of Flan + Suloise = ~Slavic</p><p></p><p>Now if someone were to try to design the languages and proto-languages of Oerth based on those canonical statements, yeah, it'd require a lot of artistry, but it could be done. It wouldn't turn out to be just hamhandedly like "Classical Arabic magically turns into Uyghur Turkic!" Rather, the aesthetic flavor of those two real-world languages applies at various nodes in the framework, so that by the time of the WOG Gazetteer, those flavors are there. But their historical lineages are welded together through fantastic creation.</p><p></p><p>Though my chart seems rather "formed", I try very hard to honor the subtleties and imaginal/fantastic blendings which are evident in the published sources.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Well, those are not bad ideas, but then you're shifting into design work. For the purposes of this chart, I mostly stick very closely to the published sources. The furthest I go out on a limb, and start to shift toward more tenuous creative suggestions, are the subethnicities of the Traladarans in Mystara, just because I have a special interest there.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dungeonosophy, post: 8721526, member: 6688049"] Ah, he might have known of it, but for the reasons stated, it doesn't pass my muster for the purposes of this chart. Also, I don't know if Chakji and Guryik were created by Eric Mona for the LGG (riffing off of the Tiger Nomads), or if he got that from Gygaxian writings. But either way, /ket/ doesn't pass the muster, for my purposes. Ah thanks, I was actually looking for ~Slavic references for Stonefist, because I was just going off of memory. I'd thought I'd read some DRAGON mag article in the 90s about using Slavic flavor for Stonefist Barbarians, but I wasn't sure if I was remembering right. I'll aim to include these in the Hold of Stonefist entry. I've done cultural analyses of other worlds too (such as Tolkien's Middle-earth and Star Wars), and it's really both an art and a science. To see where the real-world cultural framework holds, and where it dissolves into free creation. Often there are various frameworks that simultaneously overlap with each other. For example, basically, the term "Baklunish" served as the stand-in for "Arabs." As a graspable term for the "Arab" nations of Oerth. And this framework holds pretty well at the level of the "present-day" of Oerth. But then Gygax (and/or other GH designers) also says that the Tiger Nomads and Wolf Nomads are Baklunish. The real-world Turkic peoples aren't Arab. Yet those Nomads are said to be mixed with indigenous Flan. I think that equation just provides a vague justification for why the Tiger and Wolf Nomads are culturally and physiognomically distinct from the "Arabs". And their Baklunish connection keeps a sort of "Islamic" vibe for them, since the RW Uyghurs and (and many of the) Kipchaks were Muslims. I don't think much more can be read into it. Same for the example you gave. Of Flan + Suloise = ~Slavic Now if someone were to try to design the languages and proto-languages of Oerth based on those canonical statements, yeah, it'd require a lot of artistry, but it could be done. It wouldn't turn out to be just hamhandedly like "Classical Arabic magically turns into Uyghur Turkic!" Rather, the aesthetic flavor of those two real-world languages applies at various nodes in the framework, so that by the time of the WOG Gazetteer, those flavors are there. But their historical lineages are welded together through fantastic creation. Though my chart seems rather "formed", I try very hard to honor the subtleties and imaginal/fantastic blendings which are evident in the published sources. Well, those are not bad ideas, but then you're shifting into design work. For the purposes of this chart, I mostly stick very closely to the published sources. The furthest I go out on a limb, and start to shift toward more tenuous creative suggestions, are the subethnicities of the Traladarans in Mystara, just because I have a special interest there. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
[Radiant Citadel] A chart of parallel Earth cultures and motifs across the D&D Multiverse
Top