The Title is pretty self-explanatory... Though this is for both the Players and GMs.
My personal favorite are Roman, Gaelic, & Nordic Cultures. Mainly do to their Unique and Diverse Cultures.
What are yours? Why are they your favorite?
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Sumerian, Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese. I also use Centaurs as my world's version of the Mongol hordes.
Forgot part of my original Post... Oops...
I never thought of Centaurs... I tend to use Humans with either Mount/Animal Companion Classes with the mass Hordes being Warrior NPCs Mounted on Combat Trained Heavy Horses.
Qadirans as the always angry and violent horse raiders = the nomad Arabs. Desperate and eager to go north and cut everyone with scimitars. That gets a chuckle, so racist.
Centaurs are great fun, they fit with Mongols with some alignment change. I added zebrataurs for the dry plains which are heavily African influenced and not to be trifled with.
Lizardmen city-states as a mix of Greece with Renaissance thought was good fun to make.
Otyugh swamp democracy.
Probably the best call I made, was dumping a Transylvania type region, between a giant monster and fey filled ancient forest, and the Japanese-like island archipelago empires. What culture did this have? Well, basically Castlevania from the many Japanese games, dark Hungarian, a pale paranoid people, lot of monsters and vamps with it blurring into the Japanese monster/undead mythos as you head west.
Another one was somewhat Ottoman flavoured, but a series of duchies. So more Mameluke, but also one of the main sites of knights. So I guess more Persian sipahi run, with near worship of curved blades and a disdain of shields. On worship, er, death cults are heavily established, but the people of this land are not expansionistic towards their neighbours (death is not evil exactly) they have a lot of monsters and zebrataurs to deal with.
Lastly, rat men that have the culture and unity of a bee hive, but are also absolute geniuses when it comes to magic. They simply get it. They also are damn good at expanding through the underdark.
Feel free to use any of this, but let me know if it is going to be published as some sort of setting.
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I actually had both a Fighter Player and myself get called Weeaboos because I included a Chinese/Japanese Empire in my world.
Another of my favorites was the Tzarist Russia-esque Empire I built. Who needs Irrisen? I got something 10x more frightening.
I played a Brevoyan called Stavrogin as a Russian. A lot of bleakness, moodiness, heroism and tragedy.
As for weeaboo, it is a sad label. I've actually taken Asian studies in uni and am really interested in Japanese history. More gempei and the colonisation of Japan (the katana comes from the short machete of the indigenous people that were there first before the Korean and Chinese colonists).
Some people can't handle Asia being in game. Did you see some of the posts on jade regent and how people hate Asian settings for no good reason other than racism?
If people want to throw weeaboo round (and it sounds really stupid, like they are speaking gobbledygook and associating you to it) give them a quick and scathing retort. Not cool at all.
From what I remember the Katana drew on multiple weapons before it was standardized...
& I got a kick out of the Jade Regent & Tian-____ Hate Threads.
I really wanna play in an AP but can't find one. Heck, I apparently have the Perfect Ogre Hook Weapon Master Fighter for Rise of the Runelords...
Mmm ogre hook. Yes, lol on the hate threads.
I want to play jade regent, but, lol, the dm that could run it, hates jade regent and Ameiko (so do I on that last point, but I'm still game). This guy is actually Chinese Singaporean, I think he is tired of the copy paste of Asian culture, or the plot.
So it should be mixed up! I am tired of the singular copy paste. Give me something new.
Two cultures is a good mix, or one but add a lot of your own and take a fair bit away from the original cultural scaffolding.
One that interests me, is hobgobs or yak men as the most evil side of Asian despotism. Not original or from me, it has been done before, but evil samurai hobs gets my attention.
Ameiko is one of the few Golarion Characters I know...
I think my biggest problem is they take names and such but butcher them. Like the Tanuki or Adlet.
A bit of name butchering can be wonderful. I made the name "Ahem" fit for all manner of cultural backgrounds.
One of my biggest weea... okay no, was having monks control the most land in my setting. Well not control exactly. Okay, there is an endless prairie about twice the length of Russia. The bastions of civilisation upon it, are the monk monasteries. Hundreds of them, each about two days apart, each a copy and then variant of the shaolin temple. So many styles, so many forms, iron body, kickboxing, mantis, blossom, whatever. This is the ki region, and ki is strong here and in this world (more monks than wizards).
The monks while the representatives of this territory, are divided by masters and styles but not engaged in war--they can just compete and challenge instead. They are a network, buoys on a green sea between realms on each side. Other features of this region include the logging guilds of the forests which hire adventurers, the centaur tribes which arguably control the land with actual military force, and the rocs. The whole prairie is their dinner plate, so yes, stay with the monks or watch the skies!
By Lamashtu I love world design.
I have a similar region that was originally inspired by me replaying FFX...
It is referred to as the Mana Sea and has Wizard Towers/Academies instead of Monasteries. If you draw lines from Tower/Academy to the nearest ones they form this strange array.
One of the pcs is from the other end of the monastery chain. So by the time he arrived at the end, a year of walking, meditation and very little human contact had already happened to the character. He is ready for a challenge, but very Lawful good and a bit disconnected from the everyday and its selfishness.
Sweet. My Parties Wizards like to come from this region simply for the fact that this region is the only one where they can get any spell they wish.
Then there is the albino warrior tribes of the far north, that produces some of the toughest melee fighters you will find. They are guided by intelligent goat clerics.
Their offshoots are the Translyvanian people, racially mixed with stern knightly conquerors, but also the crab clans. The crabfolk are great fun, true barbarians in constant war with the giant crabs and other monsters of an tropical sea.
Racially I wanted to avoid the white = civilised and black = tribal thing, so the most barbarian are albinos, and the current largest human empire, in some decline is of dark-skinned humans with a lot of dwarf influence in their past. Short very dark Maoris that ended up going theocratic after stealing the Dwarven tech and its cities. a great betrayal (night of long knives) of the Dwarves that had attempted to civilise them.
The competitor to these humans (1/10th dwarf) for major lawful civilisation, are the lizardmen cities. Which are realy pursuing science and discovery (the rats are in the lead on magic discovery).
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In my homebrew campaign setting, dwarves come from a nation that is an analogue of historical Mexico. Easily my favorite. It all started with this from last year.
Mexican art is wonderful, and colourful. How fun to take them away from dour rock and colourlessness. It injects passion into the typical Dwarf.
Not gonna lie you kinda made me think of Nazi Germany...
& I agree that the colour would be awesome.
The albino barbarians don't have the appreciation for Italian fashion or organisational skill/obsession to be Nazis.
Just typical barbarians, fighting giant crabs or listening to goats.
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Ha ha, yep. Which has eternally marked them as a people. As in, they have a culture that is part papal states at war, theocracy, but also with a love of joyous times, drinking, games, competition and fine craftsmanship done right (still according to the old Dwarven standards). Marked in that they are known to turn on allies at the worst time if great advantage can be obtained. Duplicity and betrayal is down deep in their bones, but not an everyday event, but something they can mentally handle (not the type of people to suicide at all).
If this side comes out, they claim betrayal was for the greater good, that their leadership is best and most religious and thus they are a dangerous people. Big smiles, happy faces, shorter than average and love to hug and embrace, welcome converts but cannot ever be trusted if something important is on the line.
Very human in that respect.
I called them Catarinans (more formally Catar'ina) a country name off dark souls. For this setting (not in the Dark s game), the two main tribes were the Catar and the Ina. Both came from the plains and the hills, and both were under Dwarven influence. Now there is only Catarina. Although the Dwarven tombs and old castles remain in the tallest mountains far behind the Catarina border. The Catar'ina shy from such high places, rocs, ghosts, golems and other constructs guard them. The Catar'ina expunged the Dwarves from history, taking their accomplishments as their own, and only some of the very old factions remember them.
The Catarinans copied the fortification design of the Dwarves and transplanted them across their territories, aiding the sprea of their theocratic feudalism. Designs have not changed for millenia. :D
The longest opponent that this theocracy has faced? The Scythian-like faction to the south. Taller dark-skinned people that while wild and dangerous, never betrayed their masters and stuck to their own traditions. Masters of bow, steed and the parting shot, not stone, steel and religion like the Catar and Ina chose (and stole). They are the same race as the original two tribes, but the Catar and Ina blended with captured Dwarven slaves and a host of smaller tribes they absorbed.
A bit rape of Nanking and Japanese atrocities as well.
Glad I could share this with you.
I like it... Kinda giving me ideas for my current "Evil Faction" in my upcoming campaign.
I may be bad, but I feel good.
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I have a nation that the Divine have abandoned completely. Divine magic has all die rolls halved there. As such, Witches have become the prime source for healing, removing diseases, and so on. This gives them quite the edge to vie for their patrons (in my setting all Witches serve either a Demon Lord, Archdevil, or other such ruler of evil outsiders). Did I mention it's ruled by a Half-Fiend Black Dragon? Not exactly a place many faiths send missionaries to convert the populace. Also had a bit of an Aberration problem. Fun times.
I had a player play as a Paladin trained in secret to combat the corruption of the land, and going on an epic quest to reforge a sword that could slay any evil outsider with a single stroke, shattered in a huge war that is fairly pivotal to the setting. Too bad that campaign ended prematurely. I had lots of cool ideas for plot hooks based on that one sword.
Bard?
I always liked that Amn was a bit Spanish, mixed in with anti-elf and anti-spellcaster.
Amn?
Forgotten realms, far west.
Oh Sweet!