distant/forgotten civilizations

[francisca]

OK, so let's say you have a gameworld, and in the past, several distinct civilizations used to trade with and war against each other on a regular basis. Let's say that these groups were separated by great distance (like China and France) or by geographic features (oceans, deserts, mountain ranges), whatever. At any rate, trade/war between these cultures is possible, but involves spending a lot of time travelling. We're talking late classical/early dark ages technology here.

Now say something comes along and makes the travel impossible, or at least nearly so. Natural disasters, gods erect a barrier, dragons occupy the trade routes, doesn't matter for my purposes. My questions for you ancient culture mongers: How long, in your estimation, would it take for the distant cultures to fade into legend and/or be completely forgotten? Let's assume there are no printing presses, but there are scribes, libraries, and bards to maintain oral traditions. Are we talking centuries or what?

 

[diaglo]

OK, so let's say you have a gameworld, and in the past, several distinct civilizations used to trade with and war against each other on a regular basis. Let's say that these groups were separated by great distance (like China and France) or by geographic features (oceans, deserts, mountain ranges), whatever. At any rate, trade/war between these cultures is possible, but involves spending a lot of time travelling. We're talking late classical/early dark ages technology here.

Now say something comes along and makes the travel impossible, or at least nearly so. Natural disasters, gods erect a barrier, dragons occupy the trade routes, doesn't matter for my purposes. My questions for you ancient culture mongers: How long, in your estimation, would it take for the distant cultures to fade into legend and/or be completely forgotten? Let's assume there are no printing presses, but there are scribes, libraries, and bards to maintain oral traditions. Are we talking centuries or what?

tell me what you know of the Prussians?

 

[Wombat]

tell me what you know of the Prussians?

Ancient or modern?

 

[pensiv]

I know that Stalin exiled them and they have since been found mostly in Germany, but are in danger of complete assimilation.

 

[francisca]

I know that Stalin exiled them and they have since been found mostly in Germany, but are in danger of complete assimilation.

Dead on. Assimilation is one force that causes cultures to "disappear".

However, that's not what I'm looking for here.

 

[derelictjay]

I know they renamed themselves Germans around the turn of the century [20th] and lived in northern Germany.

Anyway, to forget something into legend and myth, I'd say 3 to 4 generations about 80 to 100 years. Unless the event was so catastrophic that it becomes permanently etched into the collective minds of the people, well then it would take someone purposefully killing and destroying all record of it. But by 80 to 100 years most verbal traditions become so warped by those telling it that they become mythic in telling.

 

[Henry]

Okay, there's Generation 0 - they remember, then assume roughly 20 years between generations 0, 1... by 2 they are stories grandfather told... by 3 they are stories great grandpa told, and almost forgotten... say 100 years for them to become legendary, and about 300 years for the legend to become inflated?

 

[AIM-54]

Clausewitz, Bismarck, Borussia Dortmund FC...who could forget the Prussians?

 

[Dogbrain]

Actually, everybody has been wrong about the Prussians, so far. The Prussians were a Baltic nation, related to the Latvians. They were conquered and assimilated by the Teutonic Knights in the Middle Ages. Even their language disappeared. The descendents of the Teutonic Knights (the Junkers) later took the name "Prussian" from the region, but the Prussians were long gone by then.

 

[AIM-54]

Actually, everybody has been wrong about the Prussians, so far. The Prussians were a Baltic nation, related to the Latvians. They were conquered and assimilated by the Teutonic Knights in the Middle Ages. Even their language disappeared. The descendents of the Teutonic Knights (the Junkers) later took the name "Prussian" from the region, but the Prussians were long gone by then.

In that case, perhaps Wombat's distinction of "ancient" and "modern" Prussians is appropriate. That particular region was referred to as "Prussia" and its inhabitants as "Prussians". While not the original ethnic Prussians perhaps, they were, nevertheless Prussians for all intents and purposes until Bismarck invented Germany in 1871.