Rough Earth Equivilents to Golarion Places / Cultures

[Cotterpin]

This may seem a strange question, but I was wondering if anyone knows or has bothered to correlate the various countries/cultures in Golarion with their Earth equivalencies.

Its obvious from some of the names and cultures what they are based on in our world but a few I don't quite get.

Specifically, I am about to run Kingmaker and I am wondering what the River Kingdoms and environs would be equated to in Earth culture. Any help or suggestions welcome!

[Cotterpin]

Cotterpin wrote:

This may seem a strange question, but I was wondering if anyone knows or has bothered to correlate the various countries/cultures in Golarion with their Earth equivalencies.

Its obvious from some of the names and cultures what they are based on in our world but a few I don't quite get.

Specifically, I am about to run Kingmaker and I am wondering what the River Kingdoms and environs would be equated to in Earth culture. Any help or suggestions welcome!

I's been a couple of days since I posted this, anyone want to take a stab at helping me? I'd be eternally grateful!

[Helaman]

Galt = Revolutionary France
Taldor = UK but someone made a convincing case for Byzantium and the Eastern Roman Empire
Qadaria - Generic Arab but with heavy emphasis on trade. Note they do have a pretty amazing standing army so Uyrammid Arabs may be closer to the mark.
Ustalav - Translyvania/Romania
Andorian - America(ish). This time they are trying to free the slaves.
Osirion - Ancient Eygpt, heavy on the tombs and Mummys

[Cotterpin]

Helaman wrote:

Galt = Revolutionary France

Taldor = UK but someone made a convincing case for Byzantium and the Eastern Roman Empire
Qadaria - Generic Arab but with heavy emphasis on trade. Note they do have a pretty amazing standing army so Uyrammid Arabs may be closer to the mark.
Ustalav - Translyvania/Romania
Andorian - America(ish). This time they are trying to free the slaves.
Osirion - Ancient Eygpt, heavy on the tombs and Mummys

Ah! Thank you for the helpful reply! That's pretty much what i was looking for.

[The NPC]

Helaman wrote:

Galt = Revolutionary France

Taldor = UK but someone made a convincing case for Byzantium and the Eastern Roman Empire
Qadaria - Generic Arab but with heavy emphasis on trade. Note they do have a pretty amazing standing army so Uyrammid Arabs may be closer to the mark.
Ustalav - Translyvania/Romania
Andorian - America(ish). This time they are trying to free the slaves.
Osirion - Ancient Eygpt, heavy on the tombs and Mummys

Osirion is more akin to 1900s Egypt. Much like "The Mummy" with Brenden Fraser. If it was like Ancient Egypt it wouldn't be on my list.

Brevoy has been compared to Russia but not folklore Russia (Which is Irrisen).

[SwnyNerdgasm]

Here's the way I see it

Cheliax - Renaissance Italy
Qadira - Middle Eastern
Mwangi Expanse - "Pulp era" Tribesmen of Deepest Africa
Taldor - The Eastern Roman Empire
Tian - Chinese/Japanese/Korean
Land of The Linnorm Kings - Vikings
Varisia - Roma people
Ustalav - Ravenloft
Vudra - India
Shoanti - American Indians
Azlant - Atlantis/Thule/Lemuria analog
Orsirian - Egypt, when the whole "Lets raid tombs of dead kings" craze started
Galt - France
Andora - Early America

[Numerian]

I also run Kingmaker and the River Kingdoms didn't seem particularly like any culture on Earth. Eventually I changed and re-arranged the neighboring countries a bit.

Brevoy - medieval Polish-Lithuanian union
Ustalav - Wallachia and Transylvania
Razmiran - medieval Bogomil heresy inspired
Taldor - Byzantium
Kyonin - I changed elves to slavic vilas
Galt - didn't know what to do with it, moved west (alternatively thought about alternative history Napoleon's Illyrian Provinces in rebellion)

Numeria - nothing historical, geographically like Ukraine, I picture the Starmount a bit like the movie Stalker by Tarkovsky and Chernobyl
Mendev - Moscow, alternative history, what if a Crusade was declared against Mongols

So based on all that I decided for the River Kingdoms inspired by the Balkans (includes the western Pannonian basin), a bunch of ethnically different small realms always at conflict. Piracy inspired by the Liburninans, Narentines and Uskoks.

some other distant countries

Absalom - sort of Jerusalem and Cyprus (Phoenician) mixed
Cheliax - alternative history, what if Etruscans continued after the Roman Empire (Taldor), mixed with the Papal States

[Lastoth]

Numerian wrote:

I also run Kingmaker and the River Kingdoms didn't seem particularly like any culture on Earth. Eventually I changed and re-arranged the neighboring countries a bit.

Brevoy - medieval Polish-Lithuanian union
Ustalav - Wallachia and Transylvania
Razmiran - medieval Bogomil heresy inspired
Taldor - Byzantium
Kyonin - I changed elves to slavic vilas
Galt - didn't know what to do with it, moved west (alternatively thought about alternative history Napoleon's Illyrian Provinces in rebellion)

Numeria - nothing historical, geographically like Ukraine, I picture the Starmount a bit like the movie Stalker by Tarkovsky and Chernobyl
Mendev - Moscow, alternative history, what if a Crusade was declared against Mongols

So based on all that I decided for the River Kingdoms inspired by the Balkans (includes the western Pannonian basin), a bunch of ethnically different small realms always at conflict. Piracy inspired by the Liburninans, Narentines and Uskoks.

some other distant countries

Absalom - sort of Jerusalem and Cyprus (Phoenician) mixed
Cheliax - alternative history, what if Etruscans continued after the Roman Empire (Taldor), mixed with the Papal States

Interesting, Cheliax gave me a distinct repressive authoritarian government feeling, ala England in V for Vendetta. Where can I get good info on Cheliax specifically?

[Numerian]

you can find it:

http://www.pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Cheliax

Inner Sea World Guide
Cheliax, Empire of Devils Companion
Council of Thieves Adventure Path (especially The Bastards of Erebus that describes Westcrown, and What Lies in Dust and The Infernal Syndrome for Hellknights)

[Klebert L. Hall]

The River Kingdoms are the Balkans, more-or-less.
-Kle.

[Evil Lincoln]

Sargava = South Africa

[Jeff de luna]

Evil Lincoln wrote:

Sargava = South Africa

The region of Bloodcove and the adventure River into Darkness are clearly based on Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now...

[Cotterpin]

Thanks for all the great replies and ideas. Some of the cultures can be hard to explain to my players without some kind of real-world reference to help them get their heads around it, as none of them have played much Pathfinder.

I am lucky enough to have a group that hasn't run out and bought all the books and read everything prior to me running the game for them. Which on the one hand makes the world of Golarion a new and wondrous place for them as players, but on the other can leave me stumped at times on how to explain a given culture without giving them a book and saying "Read this!".

Again, thanks everyone!

[Toadkiller Dog]

Klebert L. Hall wrote:

The River Kingdoms are the Balkans, more-or-less.

-Kle.

Really? Why? I'm from the Balkans and I didn't get that wibe.

[martinaj]

There are a couple of analogues that I see popping up a lot that seem a little iffy to me, chiefly, Andoran and Taldor, which are often stated to be based off of early America and the Byzantium empire or England, respectively. In fact, both of these nations seem to draw heavily on different eras of French history for inspiration.

To me, Andoran seems to be an amalgam of (very) early America, even pre-Declaration of Independance, and post-revolutionary France, when the country was all about freedom and idealism.

Taldor to me seems like medieval France, maybe around or shortly after the Hundred Years war. We often think of England as being the quintessential kingdom of medieval knights, but most of their dudes would have been running around in what we'd consider medium armor, armed with longbows. For a good while, France was close to the premier power of mainland Europe. Taldor seems to be based off of that France, but with naming conventions and certain cultural aspects inspired by Spain.

Also, Cheliax to me seems to echo the early Roman Empire, with a healthy amount of later Italy thrown in.

As far as the River Kingdoms go, they seem to be Northern European backwaters, an hodgepodge of various cultures that you might have found near uncontested borders of a kingdom where central authority was not a major concern.

[Klebert L. Hall]

Toadkiller Dog wrote:

Klebert L. Hall wrote:

The River Kingdoms are the Balkans, more-or-less.

-Kle.

Really? Why? I'm from the Balkans and I didn't get that wibe.

Because they are divided up into lots of small, relatively weak nations that have highly variable endurance. They are surrounded by more powerful nations that intermittently try to conquer them, but it never lasts. The local people are stubborn and independent.

That's not too dissimilar to the situation in the Balkans (and Bulgaria, Wallachia, Moldavia, etc.) in the Medieval and Renaissance periods.

The individual River Kingdoms bear little resemblance to the individual Balkan nations of the time, mostly, but as a whole they have similarities.
-Kle.

[Scarletrose]

Actually I always considered River Kingdoms as Medieval Italian communes.
A lot of political instability, rulers come and go... Extensive use of spies and assassins, mercenary leaders out to conquer their part of kingdom etc...