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<blockquote data-quote="Misanthrope Prime" data-source="post: 9741129" data-attributes="member: 6776166">I had a conversation with Steven E. Schend on Ed Greenwood's personal discord, where I asked the question &quot;I often hear Calimshan described as 'Fantasy Ottomans', but what is specifically Ottoman about them?&quot;Schend responded with a fascinating reply; it's not that Calimshan is specifically Ottoman, it's that after the publication of Al-Qadim and its firmly Arabic inspired Zakhara setting, TSR then tasked Schend with flavoring Calimshan as &quot;generically middle eastern but NOT specifically Arabian&quot; in character, so that Zakhara seemed more distinct. So the notion that Calimshan is just kind of &quot;undefined orientalist fantasy&quot; is the point, and I can kind of agree with that, because there is also a corresponding notion of &quot;generic medieval european fantasy&quot; and &quot;generic Chinese fantasy&quot; (in the form of Wuxia), though it would be better if &quot;orientalist fantasy&quot; actually originated in those cultures.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Misanthrope Prime, post: 9741129, member: 6776166"] I had a conversation with Steven E. Schend on Ed Greenwood's personal discord, where I asked the question "I often hear Calimshan described as 'Fantasy Ottomans', but what is specifically Ottoman about them?" Schend responded with a fascinating reply; it's not that Calimshan is specifically Ottoman, it's that after the publication of Al-Qadim and its firmly [I]Arabic[/I] inspired Zakhara setting, TSR then tasked Schend with flavoring Calimshan as "generically middle eastern but NOT specifically Arabian" in character, so that Zakhara seemed more distinct. So the notion that Calimshan is just kind of "undefined orientalist fantasy" is [B]the point[/B], and I can kind of agree with that, because there is also a corresponding notion of "generic medieval european fantasy" and "generic Chinese fantasy" (in the form of Wuxia), though it would be better if "orientalist fantasy" actually originated in those cultures. [/QUOTE]

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