historical references for "points of light"?

[Scribble]

Not really a historical example, but ever watch the show Jericho?

Take out the post apocalyptic part of it, and it's a pretty good example of a "points of light" style world... Granted if the world has always been that way, then the people will be slightly more equipped to deal with it (They'll be a little more hardy, towns will have defenses, they'll know when to stock up food, what weather patterns are indicating etc...) but the idea is the same.

No source of news from anywhere outside of the town. What they do get is disjointed, outdated, and a lot of times just wrong. And a lot of times if it's important it's really too late to be useful anyway...

They have no real idea how far away the next inhabited town or city is only vague notions, outdated maps, word of mouth from travelers (who might be wrong, lying, misremembering, or stuff has just changed since they saw it last.)

People are generally safe inside the town, but if they venture too far, they usually get attacked by bandits... Which means they either have to be able to fend for themselves, hire people to go with them, or get one of the "guards" to escort them...

All of the above also seems to make everyone in the town way suspicious of outsiders, and other people's motives in general.

 

[SSquirrel]

The modern Australian Outback? Vast tracts of nothing, interspersed w/villages. Few people, fewer stable laws. Oh yeah, and big redneck guys w/big knives and a taste for blood. At least if you watch Wolf Creek

 

[TwinBahamut]

Japan during the Ashikaga shogunate. Kyoto was the only real city, Kamakura was withering away, villages were farmhouses spread over estates rather than a cluster of buildings, and the only real authorities were the ones who held the most spears and naginatas. Sure, the estates were ostensibly managed in the name of some noble in Kyoto, but that was frequently disregarded, and after a series of failed harvests in the late 14th century, a strong belief that the world was coming to an end and belief in the supernatural was very high.

Isn't the Sengoku era which follows/overlaps with that Shogunate the better example? Japan was split up into many hundreds of different autonomous domains, each ruled by their own lord. War and banditry was incredibly common. If anime is any indication, getting snacked on by a demon was pretty common in that era.

 

[Hussar]

Actually, you could make a pretty decent argument for any pre-Edo era Japan, IMO.

But, yeah, PoL abounds within the real world. That's been the problem with most published settings before - they're modeled on Renaissance or later Europe politically - large, mostly stable nation states. You didn't see that until the 15th or 16th centuries really.

Think before the Renaissance, where, as was mentioned, a kingdom was pretty much any stretch of land you could ride a horse across in a day. Beyond that kingdom, there wasn't too much until you hit the next kingdom. The Greyhawk/Forgotten Realms systems of highly centralized governments with well defined borders is really very anachronistic.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

One thing that has not been noted in this thread is that in most of the PoL eras suggested population was prettly widely dispersed. That is except in the Old West or places where surface water is scarce there would be a srpinkling of villages in most regions. They would well fortified in the remoter regions.

The kind of endless open terrain described by Tolkien where you could march for a month and see no evidence of existing settlement was pretty rare and usually occured on an actively contested frontier. The border between the Ottoman Empire and Christian lands was like this except for major fortress of either side. I suspect the land between the Huns and their neighbours was the same in Atila's day.

 

[loseth]

The kind of endless open terrain described by Tolkien where you could march for a month and see no evidence of existing settlement was pretty rare and usually occured on an actively contested frontier.

That really depends where you're talking about. England? Not much open terrain after the early Iron Age. Russia? Lots of wild right through the medieval period. Even next-door neighbours could differ widely. Medieval Poland had only a moderate amount of untamed terrain, but its sister-kingdom, Lithuania, was full of it. Just steer away from densely populated regions like England, France, Italy, Germany, etc. and you should be able to find a fair few regions with lots of wild land.

(Though admittedly, marching for a month gets you a long way...)

PS My favourite for historical PoL? The High-to-Late Medieval Baltic. Vast tracts of untamed forest. Constant raiding, banditry & petty warfare. Relatively large kingdoms, but each with only a small percentage of their land under effective control. Very high militarisation. The only thing missing is dragons!

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Everyone else has pretty much said what I would have said first...

But you've got to admit, it sounds like a great place to set an adventure!

 

[UngainlyTitan]

That really depends where you're talking about. England? Not much open terrain after the early Iron Age. Russia? Lots of wild right through the medieval period. Even next-door neighbours could differ widely. Medieval Poland had only a moderate amount of untamed terrain, but its sister-kingdom, Lithuania, was full of it. Just steer away from densely populated regions like England, France, Italy, Germany, etc. and you should be able to find a fair few regions with lots of wild land.

I completely agree with about Russia and the Eastern European steppe lands, Russia still has vast areas of trackless wilderness.

 

[Bagpuss]

Here are some bullet points for my concept:

- Small towns
- People must band together and rely on each other for protection and survival
- People are very superstitious and untrusting
- Very little contact with outside world
- Little to no knowledge of what lies beyond the "wooded hills"
- Rely on gypsies/merchants for news from other towns
- Harsh and vast wilderness, filled with hostiles

What I'm wondering is whether there are any historical examples of this type of "society".

You don't need historical, have you been to North Wales recently?

 

[Mighty Halfling]

This is a weird one from the world of movies, but take a look at the first few scenes of American Werewolf in London. In the movie, lonely travelers enter a small town filled with suspicious and sullen locals. The travelers try to intermingle but are met with hostility. Sensing they're not wanted, the travelers set back out on the road -- covering a vast, creepy, fog-filled swamp area -- only to encounter a horrific beast.