Some of the human cultures/ethnicities in the Campaign Setting book are a bit easier to get a handle on than others. (This may also be true for some of the nations.) Can someone identify the real world inspirations for these human ethnicities?
Chelaxian - racial mix of Azlanti and Ulfen (q.v.)
Garundi - perhaps Ottoman Turks?
Keleshite - Middle Eastern (Arabic/Persian?)
Kellid - ?
Mwangi - sub-Saharan Africa
Taldan - ?; Taldor as a political entity gives an impression of imperial Britain in decline, but the Taldan ethnicity is less suggestive
Tian (the Far East in general; they all look alike to foreigners)
Tian-Min - Japanese
Tian-Shu - ?
Tian-Dan - ?
Tian-Sing - ?
Ulfen - Scandinavian; Norse
Varisian - either the Rom (gypsies) or an amalgam of gypsies and Jews
Vudrani - Indian subcontinent
Azlanti - n/a; natives of Atlantis
In my opinion, Taldor looks much more like the decaying days of the Austro Hungarian Empire. Once a colossus that dominated Europe (Holy Roman Empire), they suffered a series of setbacks, and are today a number of smaller countries. Could have gone differently, though.
If you watch Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti in The Illusionist, you'll see what I'm talking about. That's a bit later in the timeline, but you still have the sense of scheming and decay.
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I believe that Taldan is meant to be like a collapsing Byzantine Empire. Even their placement next to the "middle-eastern" analog cultures is suggestive of that. Its once grand empire has now spiraled down into decandence. If you want a good read on what the empire was like, check out the "Alexiad" by Anna Comnena.
Cheliax looks a lot like Imperial France to me, but the rise of the Infernal religions there seems to be a dark mirror on what happened to the late Roman Empire around the time of Constantine. It was as if the old gods had died and been replaced by a new one.
Andoran reminds me of a cross between medieval Italy and America... its kind of a strange hodge-podge democracy. Its placement reminds me a lot of Venice.
Qadira is generic Arabia, Osirion is Egypt, the lands of the Linnorm Kings are Scandinavia.
Varisia is kind of an odd-ball though. I can think of no place like Varisia in culture or spirit except possibly Medieval Romania... but I'm sure that's a stretch on my part to fit it into a real analog.
Was the design philosophy of Golarion to emulate certain historical cultures and ethnicities to provide a kind of reference point, or did they strive to avoid the notion of analogues?
I probably shouldn't have mentioned the nations in my original post, as it's mainly the eleven human ethnicities that concern me at the moment.
I had cited Imperial Britain in decline as a possible [political] reference for Taldor mainly to differentiate the nationality from the ethnicity, which I don't have a good handle on.
If the Holy Roman Empire is a closer geopolitical match, I'll keep that in mind for later, though.
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Taldan society and, to a lesser extent, pre-devil-worship Chelaxian society, strike me as very warring-city-states-period rennaissance Italy. Lots of people named Borgia intriguing and putting their family members in power and poisoning their rivals and stuff. The Italy of Boccaccio's Decameron, in all it's pleasurable decadance. Perhaps with a dash of Sun King-era France, or Tzarist Russia.
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Irrisen is quite clearly meant to represent pre-Tzarist Russia. Another hypothesis is that it's Siberia except even colder and harsher.
Ustalav is Transylvania as written by Bram Stoker.
Vudra is definitely the Indian subcontinent.
Azlant is Atlantis. (Well, duh.)
Arcadia is North America before its European settlement.
Sarusan is Australia, mate.
That's all I can think of at the moment.
Irrisen is quite clearly meant to represent pre-Tzarist Russia. Another hypothesis is that it's Siberia except even colder and harsher.
I was thinking more along the line of Molthune (its flag tends to reinforce the ole U.S.S.R. flag to me).
As for Irrisen, I think I read elsewhere that it's more like a mash between Baba Yaga and the White Queen of Narnia.
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Irrisen is quite clearly meant to represent pre-Tzarist Russia. Another hypothesis is that it's Siberia except even colder and harsher.I was thinking more along the line of Molthune (its flag tends to reinforce the ole U.S.S.R. flag to me).
As for Irrisen, I think I read elsewhere that it's more like a mash between Baba Yaga and the White Queen of Narnia.
Molthune may well be Soviet Russia, but as I said Irrisen may well be an analogue for pre-Tzarist Russia. There was stuff going on in Russia even before the Communists came to power. ;)
But yeah, the problem with my initial idea was that Russia as a geographical entity is really huge, so I think it's better to stick with Siberia where the creatures of Slavic myths are real and which is even colder than real-world Siberia. Plus of course the shout-out to the White Queen of Narnia. :)
Irrisen is quite clearly meant to represent pre-Tzarist Russia. Another hypothesis is that it's Siberia except even colder and harsher.I was thinking more along the line of Molthune (its flag tends to reinforce the ole U.S.S.R. flag to me).
As for Irrisen, I think I read elsewhere that it's more like a mash between Baba Yaga and the White Queen of Narnia.
Have to say that Molthune feels more like pre-Great War Prussia/Germany to me. But I'm almost always wrong about these things.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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Not enough to really go on in terms of finding real world analogues for the different groups in Tian. Tian-Sing may be Korean?Just from the nomenclature, I think Tian-Dan ~ Vietnam, Tian-La ~ Mongolia, Tian-Min ~ Japan, and Tian-Shu ~ China. Not sure about Tian-Sing, though.
Not sure about the nomenclature. Does it make sense in Japanese? Korean gives me no clues.
'Tian-La' "a semi-nomadic people" works as Mongolian.
I thought Korean for 'Tian-Sing' as they weren't represented by any of the others. Also, they are south of 'Tian-La' and some have red-tinted dark hair.
I'm hoping to see some Golarion nation that draws on Korea and am excited about Tian in general.
Kvantum wrote:
Tarren Dei wrote:
Not enough to really go on in terms of finding real world analogues for the different groups in Tian. Tian-Sing may be Korean?Just from the nomenclature, I think Tian-Dan ~ Vietnam, Tian-La ~ Mongolia, Tian-Min ~ Japan, and Tian-Shu ~ China. Not sure about Tian-Sing, though.
Not sure about the nomenclature. Does it make sense in Japanese? Korean gives me no clues.
'Tian-La' "a semi-nomadic people" works as Mongolian.
I thought Korean for 'Tian-Sing' as they weren't represented by any of the others. Also, they are south of 'Tian-La' and some have red-tinted dark hair.
I'm hoping to see some Golarion nation that draws on Korea and am excited about Tian in general.
In Japanese, I can't understand these meaning.
In Chinese (though I have little knowledge...), Tian means Heaven.Chinese Dictionary.
Mainland Tian Xia provides home to dozens of nations of
varying size and governmental unity, from the vast khan-
rule lands of the seminomadic Tian-La peoples beyond
the imposing Qiang Tian (“Wall of Heaven”) mountains in
the north and west to the bureaucratic successor states of
Imperial Lung Wa that vie constantly with one another and
with neighboring Dtang Ma and Xa Hoi.
Some of the human cultures/ethnicities in the Campaign Setting book are a bit easier to get a handle on than others. (This may also be true for some of the nations.) Can someone identify the real world inspirations for these human ethnicities?
Chelaxian - racial mix of Azlanti and Ulfen (q.v.)
Garundi - perhaps Ottoman Turks?
Keleshite - Middle Eastern (Arabic/Persian?)
Kellid - ?
Mwangi - sub-Saharan Africa
Taldan - ?; Taldor as a political entity gives an impression of imperial Britain in decline, but the Taldan ethnicity is less suggestive
Tian (the Far East in general; they all look alike to foreigners)
Tian-Min - Japanese
Tian-Shu - ?
Tian-Dan - ?
Tian-Sing - ?Ulfen - Scandinavian; Norse
Varisian - either the Rom (gypsies) or an amalgam of gypsies and Jews
Vudrani - Indian subcontinent
Azlanti - n/a; natives of Atlantis
Kellid make me think of Picts, barbarian tribes with a celtic origin in the equivalent of Scotland, but their true inspiration is Conan novels.
Tian-Shu : Chinese
Tian-Dan : Vietnamese
Tian-Sing : maybe Thaï
Kellid make me think of Picts, barbarian tribes with a celtic origin in the equivalent of Scotland, but their true inspiration is Conan novels.
Land of the Mammoth Lords is..well it's obviously Cimmeria with Gorum=Crom..oh and added Mammoth.
So proto-celtic probably..cattle raids..bride stealing...fights at fords ala Cuchulin..but with added Mammoth
I picture Kellids more akin to "Turok Son of Stone." Even in Conan, IMO, the Hyborian tribes are far less primitive than the Kellids of the Mammoth Lords setting.
Which Conan is, in my opinion, more primitive than Celts in the 'classical' sense. Classical era Celts had intricate art, used farming techniques still used in farming today. They used iron long swords (hundreds of years before they became the standard). They drove chariots; they even had fancy helmets and shields.
Celts also reveled in magic. It dominated their daily life. Druids held some of the highest offices personal advisors to kings lords etc. A wizard would be like Merlin (who is based off of classical druids) not stoned to death the first time he cast a spell, until Christianity anyway.