Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 4935680" data-attributes="member: 4937">Leaving aside that true 'Vikings' had disappeared by the 11th century and that ninja's wouldn't exist until the 14th, the majority of the members of your panalopy are all European and thus its hardly suprising to find them near each other.In addition to arriving 300 years too early, I can think of absolutely no reason to find Japanese mercenaries - much less shinobi - as far afield as Byzantium or even in contact with Europeans at all prior to the 17th century.&nbsp; Nor do I find it believable that any Shaolin monks are wandering around Byzantium.The 'ninja' is itself a pastiche of a pastiche, the real shinobi being very likely nothing like the actual 'ninja' of history.&nbsp; The 'druid' is likewise now an imitation of an imitation of an imitation, being at least three fantasies removed from the real druids of history.&nbsp; (What we think we know about the druids was invented pretty much whole cloth by 15th century fraternal orders, which in turn became the basis of equally feverish and wild 19th century imaginings, which in turn inspired the D&amp;D druid which in turn has come to mean 'druid' in most young gamers minds.)But all of that misses the more important part of the complaint, which is that if it is not to be a fantasy Earth, while there is every reason to believe that the cultures found there would be as varied as Earth, there is no reason to believe any of them would be directly congruent with any real Earth culture and every reason to believe that they wouldn't be.&nbsp; There is certainly no reason to believe that the dominate culture types would be those that loom largest in the mythology of the dominate cultures of the present day.&nbsp; Why in the world would you want to introduce such derivitive crap?&nbsp; I mean, I can easily excuse it in your average organicly created homebrew, because who has the time to invent a whole world from fresh (or at least relatively fresh) cloth and who is so learned that at 14 the can escape the simple tropes?&nbsp; It's when the professionals come up with that sort of trite silliness that it bothers me.&nbsp; I simply can't fathom someone going, &quot;What this really needs is some ninjas!&quot; except to be humorous.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 4935680, member: 4937"] Leaving aside that true 'Vikings' had disappeared by the 11th century and that ninja's wouldn't exist until the 14th, the majority of the members of your panalopy are all European and thus its hardly suprising to find them near each other. In addition to arriving 300 years too early, I can think of absolutely no reason to find Japanese mercenaries - much less shinobi - as far afield as Byzantium or even in contact with Europeans at all prior to the 17th century. Nor do I find it believable that any Shaolin monks are wandering around Byzantium. The 'ninja' is itself a pastiche of a pastiche, the real shinobi being very likely nothing like the actual 'ninja' of history. The 'druid' is likewise now an imitation of an imitation of an imitation, being at least three fantasies removed from the real druids of history. (What we think we know about the druids was invented pretty much whole cloth by 15th century fraternal orders, which in turn became the basis of equally feverish and wild 19th century imaginings, which in turn inspired the D&D druid which in turn has come to mean 'druid' in most young gamers minds.) But all of that misses the more important part of the complaint, which is that if it is not to be a fantasy Earth, while there is every reason to believe that the cultures found there would be as varied as Earth, there is no reason to believe any of them would be directly congruent with any real Earth culture and every reason to believe that they wouldn't be. There is certainly no reason to believe that the dominate culture types would be those that loom largest in the mythology of the dominate cultures of the present day. Why in the world would you want to introduce such derivitive crap? I mean, I can easily excuse it in your average organicly created homebrew, because who has the time to invent a whole world from fresh (or at least relatively fresh) cloth and who is so learned that at 14 the can escape the simple tropes? It's when the professionals come up with that sort of trite silliness that it bothers me. I simply can't fathom someone going, "What this really needs is some ninjas!" except to be humorous. [/QUOTE]

Verification