Greyhawk : Ancient Suel, cultural model?

[Shin Okada]

Is there some cultural model for ancient Suel empire? I mean, ancient-Roman-like, Byzantine-Like, Francia-like, and such.

I am wondering which European language or culture should I reference when, say, name some Suel wizard nobles.

 

[Hriston]

When drawing parallels between Greyhawk and the real world, I would associate the Suloise Imperium with the Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean Empire which came to an end in the 6th century BC. Also, perhaps the Kingdom of Judah which was conquered later in the same century. Because the Suel came from outside the Flanaess, I think a non-European culture is appropriate, particularly that of ancient Sumer and its cultural inheritors. The language of Babylonia was Akkadian, with Sumerian retained for ritual purposes.

 

[David Howery]

the main thing I remember about the Suel in 1E GH was that they were xenophobic to the max, and had a really ingrained sense of superiority to all the other peoples. Not really sure just who that matches up with in our history...

 

[Shin Okada]

the main thing I remember about the Suel in 1E GH was that they were xenophobic to the max, and had a really ingrained sense of superiority to all the other peoples. Not really sure just who that matches up with in our history...

AFAIK Scarlet Brotherhood is a bunch of xenophobias which consider whiter-kind skins and blonde hair are the evidence of "pure" suel descendants. So some were calling them as Kung-fu Nazis. Maybe they are largely influenced by Hydra and Red Skull from Captain America indeed. That is why I thought the ancient suelise might be like some descendants of Aryans (by the definition of Nazis). But I may be wrong as Ancient Suel Empire was much older (some thousands ago?).

 

[Cleon]

Is there some cultural model for ancient Suel empire? I mean, ancient-Roman-like, Byzantine-Like, Francia-like, and such.

There's very little official material to go on.

We know what they looked like (tall, pale, blond) and that those that survived the Rain of Colorless Fire lived in migratory tribes.

As you've already mentioned, the Scarlet Brotherhood base their society on their idea of what ancient Suloise culture was like, but it's presumably grossly distorted by their racist extremism and the scant records from that era.

There's the Gods of the Suel articles from some early Dragon magazines but those didn't go in much for cultural info. I guess you can at least tell what the Suel considered to be important from what they had gods for. Most of them are fairly standard - Time, Strength, Magic & Death and so forth - but it's noticeable they had gods for Assassins, Treachery and Bigotry. One gets the impression some Suel weren't terribly nice people.

The only named ancient Suel I can remember off the top of my head is Izek the lich from a Dragon magazine side-quest.

Gary Gygax's wrote a novel Sea of Death in which Gord the Rogue novel entered a buried Suel city under the Ashen Desert, one that was inhabited by Derro (who are descended from Suel who got trapped underground according to Greyhawk lore). It's been a while since I read it, but I remember there was a big domed temple hall. The book cover shows it having Greco-Roman style pillars, although I don't recall if that was accurate to the text.

At least that tells us the ancient Suel had sophisticated stone architecture, so I guess their building technology would be roughly on par with ancient Rome.