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With Carrion Crown there is a use of German flavored names for people and towns.
In the past it seems the writers at Paizo shied away from using Earth language and cultures in their work.
Will this trend continue? Will the French rear their heads(tets) somewhere?
I think Ustalav generally tries to channel an Eastern/Northern European vibe, in the same way that Galt channels France from a certain time.
The latest part of CC is obviously deeply indebted to a novel which, although written by an English-woman, is set in Germany.
I think Ustalav generally tries to channel an Eastern/Northern European vibe, in the same way that Galt channels France from a certain time.
The latest part of CC is obviously deeply indebted to a novel which, although written by an English-woman, is set in Germany.
And written along the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland! How traveled!
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In the past it seems the writers at Paizo shied away from using Earth language and cultures in their work.
By "in the past", you mean "back in the days when Dungeon and Dragon were still being published"? Because for as long as there's been a Golarion, there've been blatant parallels to Earth language and cultures everywhere in Paizo's work.
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By "in the past", you mean "back in the days when Dungeon and Dragon were still being published"? Because for as long as there's been a Golarion, there've been blatant parallels to Earth language and cultures everywhere in Paizo's work.
In the past it seems the writers at Paizo shied away from using Earth language and cultures in their work.
Heck, take a look at the Inner Sea map - there's Europe (Avistan), Africa (Garund) and the Mediterrean Sea.
Carrion Crown marks absolutely no change in our philosophies about naming conventions or setting design. In fact, most of the communities in Ustalav have been on the map of Golarion since the setting's earliest days.
We have a tradition of drawing upon real world touchstones as shorthand to convey ideas in our campaign setting. You can see this across Golarion. In Council of Thieves and Westcrown, for example, many of the names of people and places have an Italian vibe to convey the idea of political intrigue in a Venetian metropolis. We use pyramids, sphinxes, titles like "pharaoh," and names with or reminiscent of "Ra" and "Hotep" to drive home the Egyptian vibes we want for Osirion. Across the Mwangi Expanse names and titles have what might be considdered an African sensibility. Locations in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings include "heims" and "gards" in their naming conventions to suggest themselves as settings for viking adventure (to say nothing of our use of the word "viking" itself). You can see more of the same in Jalmeray and Vudra with inspirations from India; Middle Eastern themes in the naming conventions and titles of Qadira, Thuvia, Rahadoum, and Katapesh; Asian influences across Tian-Xia; shades of Jerusalem in Absalom, and, yeah, even shades of France in both Galt (inspired mightily by the French Revolution) and Taldor (with its shades of the Hundred Years' War). (And don't even get me started on folkloric creatures we draw from these real world cultures whole cloth.) This list could go on and on and on, and that's just hitting on the places marked distinctly by real world cultures, others owe strong relation to the works of specific authors, fantasy traditions, or literary genres.
In the case of Ustalav, I'd actually say the country borrows more from the latter than being inspired by any single country. As a melding of several brands of horror, there are names and places meant to invoke those you might see in stories like Dracula, the Dunwich Horror, Phantom of the Opera, or folktales of strega and geists. With that in mind, there is of course some overlap between Germanic sounding names and those of counties strongly influenced by gothic horror, especially considering the settings of stories like Le Fanu's "Carmilla," Parson's The Castle of Wolfenbach, or Shelley's Frankenstein (where the titular character notably attends university in Ingolstadt). The influences of other stories and traditions, and the cultures they are most commonly related to, are thus seen across Ustalav in the counties that most closely identify with them. Canterwall, for example, takes its inspiration in part from tales of misty moors, ghost hounds, and mysterious superstitions and so much of the country is meant to evoke a sense of the English countryside. Lozeri draws strongly upon reports of the Beast of Gévaudan and other werewolf stories, and so is meant to feel like the forests and hinterlands of France. Sinaria melds the dilapidated plantations of old Louisiana with the artistry of Paris, ala fiction like the Phantom of the Opera, Black Cannan, and Suspiria. Versex is the region's Lovecraft country, and so the names are meant to evoke the conventions of New England (in a weird coincidence, closer than I would have liked with the town of Hyannis, but cest la vie). Again, I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.
At the end of the day, this sort of obvious inspiration creates a shorthand that we as authors and designers can share with players and readers. We don't have to spend time deciphering our own B.S. for the audience by calling a desert king a "saldaminin" or some other made up word. Rather, he's a "sultan" and we can all move on to the fun parts of the story knowing what's being talked about. To a similar extent, the same can be said in countries across Golarion, where names, titles, and trappings we already associate with specific cultures and types of stories appear and evoke all the baggage we as readers relate to such elements. This has helped readers instantly identify their favorite themes in our campaign setting and where they might want to explore other types of stories, and we'll definitely be continuing this as we explore even more of our world.
So, in reference to the original post: true; false; yes; and from historical themes to monsters from folklore, from homages to classic French literature to naming conventions, French inspirations can be found across Golarion.