D&D 5E What should an official Indian subcontinent inspired setting have?

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Hence the name "Hindu-Arabic Numerals."

Never heard that phrase before either, not even in math classes.

 

[Mordhau]

Deleted Nevermind. I try to read charitably when posters ask questions but it becomes increasingly hard. I'm starting to think dishonesty should just be assumed.

 

[LongTimeLurker]

And really I've always found real world gods more interesting than made up ones.

Oh, there are "real world gods" that aren't made up? Do tell!

 

[Mordhau]

Waste of time

 

[billd91]

Never heard that phrase before either, not even in math classes.

Current state of the scholarship. The characters for the digits are Arabic, but the whole shebang of the numeral system, including positional notation, comes by way of India through the Middle East, to the Mediterranean basin. Hence, Hindu-Arabic. Credit where credit is due.

 

[The Glen]

Comanche and Navajo. Without explanation. Just to confuse people

 

[Ixal]

I have to agree with the suggestion on the first site to "not make a India setting". When you set up with that goal you will end up with something like "entertainment Rome", a snapshop in time (or multiple snapshots muddled together) and a collection of tropes Americans (or wherever you live) think off as India.
And when you do it FR style merging together different cultures and times from India into a single setting and stir you will likely be accused of not being respectful enough.

So instead, of making an India setting, make a Mughal setting (Or Gupta setting, or whatever point in time you chose) and use only what existed at that point in time instead of what people associate when they hear "India".

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I mean, that'd be a big screw-up, actually.

The OP said Indian subcontinent.

That's seven nations and countless religions. And a lot of people who do not think of themselves as Indian. You have India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives. If you only have Indian people working on it, that's actually a massive political statement. Especially if they're also all Hindu. You'd want Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, and other people working on it too.

I know that on ENworld we should limit our discussion of politics and religion, but I think this is extremely relevant and would factor into any official Indian subcontinent setting - India right now, and for some time, has had a "Hindu Nationalist" government, which has taken fairly extreme actions against non-Hindus. India has a very long history of being a lot more than just Hinduism. As this is ENworld I don't think getting into the details (which are so important we were taught them at school, note, here in the UK - at least at my school) is helpful, but the Indian subcontinent has had and still does have many religions and mythologies, which interweave and interact.

If you produce a book that deletes all experiences and mythologies except Hindu ones, well, you are making a big statement. And if you produce a more diverse book, that's also making a statement, and a statement that might not be popular with the Indian government (if they even heard about it, which I admit they might not).

It's kind of incredible that Islam, for example, despite being a huge part of the history of that subcontinent, hasn't been mentioned, by any posters so far except very obliquely.

Yes, definitely. This would be a much stronger approach I'd suggest. And hopefully it would be a relatively diverse or complex region/period.

RuinExplorer, are you saying Tamils, Punjabis, Malayalis, Bengalis, Kashmiris etc aren't all interchangeable?

100% on the religious aspect as well. No mention of Islam is part of D&D ongoing "we can't represent monotheism in our fantasy despite it being the prevailing religious form in the real world basis for our fantasy depictions". Instead, they'll blunder into a 100% BJP Hindvuta approved "India is Hindu" depiction.

In my south-Asian inspired region in my homebrew I have a religious tradition that only has a faint resemblance to Hinduism, but I also have a few other religions there as well (incl an Islam-analogue).

 

[Alzrius]

I'm starting to think dishonesty should just be assumed.

I don't think you really mean that.

 

[David Howery]

4. Clearly, Rakshasa are a D&D mainstay and should certainly fit into the setting somewhere...perhaps their own nation/region under their control. But in INdian myth, it is my understanding, the rakshasa are more "demons," a type of extradimensional entity. So, maybe, they need a special version for this hypothetical setting...as extraplanar uber-magic baddies, even worse than we already know them to be.

there was a Dragon article long ago that had a good description of the rakshasa, statting out different types of them and including their leader (whose name I forget) who seemed to be up there with demon princes in terms of power. Rakshasas seem like they should be the big bads of this setting, behind a lot of misery in the land....