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I would say that, much as many of the same themes as Game of Thrones may be present, Brevoy is culturally unmistakeably based on medieval Russia (and its immediate western neighbors). The names of the various noble houses are Russian or clearly Russian-inspired. Heck, one of them is named Medvyed, very nearly the Russian word for bear, and sure enough they have a tie-in with bears. I would go so far as to say the northern Issiens are like the ancient Rus, river raiders descended from vikings, and the southern Rostlanders with their incredibly lush and fertile lands are similar to Kiev, Ukraine, etc. Then Choral the Conqueror (aka Ivan the Terrible) comes in and unites them by the sword.
I would say that, much as many of the same themes as Game of Thrones may be present, Brevoy is culturally unmistakeably based on medieval Russia (and its immediate western neighbors). The names of the various noble houses are Russian or clearly Russian-inspired. Heck, one of them is named Medvyed, very nearly the Russian word for bear, and sure enough they have a tie-in with bears. I would go so far as to say the northern Issiens are like the ancient Rus, river raiders descended from vikings, and the southern Rostlanders with their incredibly lush and fertile lands are similar to Kiev, Ukraine, etc. Then Choral the Conqueror (aka Ivan the Terrible) comes in and unites them by the sword.
Basically my idea. Russia is the definite tie-in for it. The north is more Principality of Muscovy, the south more Kievan Rus. The Choral (Ivan) unites them into one (weak but somewhat stable) state.
I can't wait for my games (playing and running) of Kingmaker to 'end', I so want to get the new countries to get tangled up in the politics of their 'mother country' and the civil war that seems to be about to occur.
Razmiran: Anti-pope magic-land. No equivalent state comes to mind. Maybe Waco?
Fake cult religion started by a conman...
Has Steps...
Forces one to cut themselves off from those who don't follow them...
The reason why I mention Waco is similar analogues. David Koresh had traveled to Jerusalem where he says he received a vision that he he would father the "Chosen One," or he would be the "Chosen One." Can't quite remember... Point being, this is how he slowly convinced a group of people he was to lead them and he, from what I understand, created a hierarchy within his cult where those closest to him had more power. He also heavily abused his station as their leader.
Razmir claims to have gone to Absalom and bested the Starstone Test, travelling north to conquer a nation where in he creates a hierarchy based on the premise that he is a deity. Also implied in numerous sources that he abuses his station heavily.
No clear cut distinction, and I highly doubt that the fine folks at Paizo intended it that way. Just my take on it.
Absalom isn't New York, or Jerusalem, or Byzantium - it's Hong Kong! From the government structures, to the ties to an old fractured empire and current multinational ties, to the governor and ruling councils, even the orientation of the harbor ( pretty close to mirror inverse of Hong Kong aerial photos). About the only thing missing is a flotsam perimeter defense on the harbor :) and just like Absalom, everyone wants a piece of Hong Kong..
Nothing would be a perfect match of course, but there's a lot to recommend more than just a passing influence on the City at the Center of the World.
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Absalom isn't New York, or Jerusalem, or Byzantium - it's Hong Kong! From the government structures, to the ties to an old fractured empire and current multinational ties, to the governor and ruling councils, even the orientation of the harbor ( pretty close to mirror inverse of Hong Kong aerial photos). About the only thing missing is a flotsam perimeter defense on the harbor :) and just like Absalom, everyone wants a piece of Hong Kong..
Nothing would be a perfect match of course, but there's a lot to recommend more than just a passing influence on the City at the Center of the World.
Nah, Goka (the largest trading city in Tian Xia, and rivaling Absalom for largest in the world) is clearly Hong Kong.
Absalom - Island version of Switzerland
Andoran - Post Revolutionary War America with a bit of post Civil War America thrown in.
Belkzen - Mongolia back when Genghis Khan ruled.
Brevoy - Netherlands/Dutch
Cheliax - Imperial Germany or a blend of all of the Imperialist European world. (Or America if ran by Republicans.)
Darklands - No technical equivalent
Druma - Saudi Arabia
5 Kings Mountains -No technical equivalent
Galt - Revolutionary France
Geb - Egypt /w undead focus
Irrisen - Siberia (Or Silent Hill on Ice)
Isger - Serbia
Jalmeray - West India
Katapesh - Turkey/Ottoman Empire
Kyonin - No technical equivalent
Lastwall - South Korea in the since of always being alert to threats from a neighbor...culture is closer to Crusades era Holy Roman Empire
Lands of the Linnorm Kings - Scandinavian countries
Mammoth Lords - No technical equivalent
Mana Wastes - No technical equivalent, closest to Fallout 3's Capital Wasteland
Mediogalti Island - Italy (at least according to Assassin's Creed)
Mendev - Jerusalem in the Crusade Era when held by Europe
Molthune - Soviet Russia
Mwangi Expanse - Central Africa
Nex - Israel
Nidal - No technical equivalent (the European witch hunts are close as 90% of the torture devices came out then, but it's really Hellraiser nation)
Nirmathis - Poland
Numeria - No technical equivalent
Osirion - Pharaoh era Egypt
Qadira - Qatar
Rahadoum - no technical equivalent (anti-religious stance similar to red China)
Razmiran - no technical equivalent
River Kingdoms - City State era Italy
Sargava - Ivory Coast
The Shackles - The Caribbean
Steaming Sea - No technical equivalent
Taldor - Imperial Spain/Britain hybrid
Thuvia - Jordan
Ustalav - Romania
Varisia - Eastern Europe like Latvia, Lithuania, etc. The Shoanti are oddly Scottish parallels/transplants.
Tian Xia - China
Minkai - Japan
Nagajar - East India
Irrisen is not (just) Russia. It's a porte-moneau of themes from several Slavic and Eastern European cultures.
Lumping Poles (or, matter of fact, anybody in the area apart from Serbs and Bulgarians) with Russians is a terribad idea, and a surefire way to start a pub brawl.
Of course, in the case of Poles, all you have to do to start an argument is get two of them talking to each other.
@KingmanHighborn: I'm very interested in how you came to some of your ideas on why those nations correlate.
What about the similarities between Golarion and Greyhawk?
Check out this old thread on enworld.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?291982-Golarion-Greyhawk
@KingmanHighborn: I'm very interested in how you came to some of your ideas on why those nations correlate.
Any specifics?
@KingmanHighborn: I'm very interested in how you came to some of your ideas on why those nations correlate.Any specifics?
A lot of those associations are much more specific and detailed than I would expect of a game designer from Seattle, Washington. Perhaps I'm not giving America enough credit, but the idea that a random nonspecialist could find Serbia on a map, let alone distinguish it from any other generic Balkan state, is implausible. Why Serbia and not Macedonia?
Add to that the fact that these similarities are thematic, not geographic and/or historic. What makes Galt into France are the guillotines, not the location, and I suspect that Ustalav is more akin to Transylvania -- not the Romanian province, but the one that gave us Baron Frankenstein and Count Dracula.
I'm aware, in fact, that Vlad Dracul Tepes was Wallachian and not Transylvanian, that he was a duke and not a count, and that Victor Frankenstein was supposed to be from Geneva -- in fact the von Frankenstein was added later, in Hollywood. That's my point; myths and legends exist in a different geography than the one we inhabit, one where Victor von Frankenstein lives in Transylvania.
My take is that most of these countries are not "based on" any real world country; they're instead supposed to provide a generic feeling and "theme" to support certain types of stories. Qadira is not any specific country (and almost certainly not Qatar, which is far too small), but instead anywhere along the Silk Road where Sinbad the Sailor might be expected to put into port.
Interesting reading here, I do know the designers based Varisia on Oregon's geography/weather, which would make the Shoanti most likely inspired by American Indians.
Well Quest my big long post got ate T_T
So yeah, long story short, give us Americans more credit, I grew up when Serbia and Kosovo were THE hot button in foreign affairs. And Serbia's struggles with war and pressure internally AND externally, and having a generation of people with no parents, or siblings because of genocide parallels Isger better then anything else.
And while I can't speak for Paizo, it seems to me Golarion was designed to have these parallels to make it easier for people to relate to the characters and the homelands their characters come from.
Also though I WISH I was a game designer (And certainly tried via Superstar) I'm on the entirely wrong coast to work for Paizo. T_T
But Qatar and Qadira are similar.
And it's more then just Translyvania that links Romania to Ustalav. (Though Kazavon's cruelty and methods for stopping the Orcs, and person enemies is closer to Vlad's actions towards Muslim invasion and his personal enemies. )
Alright, I'll ask on my top 5
1: For Brevoy, you list Netherland/Dutch. How do you come up with that comparison?
2: Druma is akin to Saudi Arabia? I mean, both may be fueled by economy (round-aboutly for SA thanks to oil, directly for Druma because they get their hands on everything...), but other than that I fail to see similarities.
3: On Taldor I get the British concept, but Spain? How so?
4: Cheliax is Germany?
5: Nex is Israel?
I'm not disputing that these are how you see them, I just don't see much parallel between the concepts is all.
To jump on what appears to be the most disputed country. I would say that Taldor is Britain. I get the Byzantine idea especially with the phalanx plus horse military but in light of Andoran (obviously U.S.) breaking away from Taldor, I think Taldor is the old decrepit British empire not the old decrepit French or Byzantine or Spanish or Portuguese Empire.
Not to mention that Andoran's break to independence was with Cheliax, not Taldor.
To jump on what appears to be the most disputed country. I would say that Taldor is Britain. I get the Byzantine idea especially with the phalanx plus horse military but in light of Andoran (obviously U.S.) breaking away from Taldor, I think Taldor is the old decrepit British empire not the old decrepit French or Byzantine or Spanish or Portuguese Empire.
What LazarX said. The similarity you're seeing is thematic, not historical or geographic. The point of Galt is not to recreate the history of France, but to give people a cool area for Scarlet Pimpernel/Tale of Two Cities/Scaramouche style stories. There's no reason to believe that the next world-conquering emperor will emerge from Galt, despite the historical parallel with Napoleon.
If, instead, you want to play a Sinbad the Sailor themed game with lots of Harryhausen stop-motion creatures, you may want to put it in Katapesh, Qadira, or something like that.
I think Taldor is at least partially based of of Spain because there is a fighting style called Rondelero, which sounds very Spanish AND, with the faith of Saranrae spreading throughout Taldor and jeopardizing the faith of Aroden, one of the Stavians implemented the Great Purge, killing or ousting all worshipers of Sarenrae, which sounds a lot like the Spanish Inquisition. Also the iconic weapon of Taldor is a falcata , which were used on the ancient Iberian Peninsula.
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Istanbul, not Constantinople.
" Its nobody's business but the Turks......" They Might Be Giants.
I disagree with it being Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul
It's Venetian/Athenian to me.
I see it more as a fantasy New York.
The way I see it, you can't fully connect most of the countries in Golarion with just 1 country on Earth. They are (almost) all remixes, with some original stuff thrown in (most prominently the glacial rate of social and technological evolution on Golarion compared to Earth).
Magic stunts technology.... Like slavery stunted Greek & Roman technological growth.
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Are there any regions that would represent Ireland?
Sarkoris USED to...but it's the Worldwound now.
On that note, Mendev is very much like Arthurian Britain, at least from my perspective: a new wave of Christi...I mean IOMEDEAN knightly colonizers from Rom...I mean TALDOR, integrating with but not always getting along with the pagan locals, barely defending themselves from the encroaching Saxo...I mean DEMONS!
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Cheliax - Imperial Germany or a blend of all of the Imperialist European world. (Or America if ran by Republicans.)
Of course, and Galt must be the cherished liberal utopia.