Greetings folks,
I'm kinda new to GH, I know very little about the actual setting beside what was written in the 3E core books. I'm currently running TAGDQ for a group of players and would like to know a bit more about Oerth.
My first question is the one in the title: are there "rough equivalents" to GH's cultures and languages in our world? _________________ <p><em>"I am become Death, destroyer of worlds!"</em></p>
<p>—Xzar</p>
This is somewhat subjective, but there are hints based on the titles used in the various countries.
Almor: This nation is ruled by a prelate, and most historical territorial prelatures are in Italy.
Bissel: Margrave was a title in the Holy Roman Empire, and Bissel corresponds to the eastern border provinces in the Carolingian Empire; I'm not sure if it corresponds to anything specific, but this region of the Flanaess is close to the border with the Baklunish (which are sort of Muslim) lands, so something like the Spanish March might apply.
Blackmoor: [Arch]Baron is a French/English title, but some sources give Oerth's Blackmoor Finnish inspiration.
Bone March: The word marquis originally applied to the marcher lords of France.
Celene: Queen is an English title; "Rhalta" is a made-up fantasy title, I think. This is an Elven land.
Dyvers: Magister is Latin; here it just represents an archaic Old Oeridian title, I think.
Ekbir: Caliph is an Arabic title meaning the successors of Muhammad; here it's given to successors of the ancient priest Al-Akbar.
Frost Barbarians: The Thillonrian Peninsula is based on Scandinavia. The Frost Barbarians are probably most like Denmark.
Furyondy: I always thought the Kingdom of Furyondy was probably named after the French region of Burgundy.
Geoff: Its ruler, Owen, has a Welsh name and there's a broad concensus that Geoff is something like a landlocked version of Wales.
Gran March: The "military-religions order of knights" that established the Gran March is probably based on the real-world Teutonic Order, and the Gran March parallels the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia.
Great Kingdom: This is something like a decadent Holy Roman or Eastern Roman Empire.
Greyhawk: Chicago, to some degree. The Free Imperial City of Augsburg might be a good parallel.
Highfolk: This is mostly elves and so forth.
Horned Society: I'd compare them to Tolkien's Easterlings.
Ice Barbarians: Norway.
Idee: I don't know, Sicily maybe.
Iuz: Tolkien's Mordor.
Keoland: Tolkien's Gondor.
Ket: Turkiye. "Beygraf" is a combination of the Turkic "Bey" and the German "Graf".
Lordship of the Isles: Pirate states in the Caribbean, I think.
Medegia: The See of Medegia is inspired somewhat by the Holy See of the Vatican, but Stuff Happened and evil took over.
North Province: Herzog is a German title.
Nyrond: I would compare it to the region of Alsase separating from the Holy Roman Empire.
Onnwal: Based solely on the name, I compare it to Cornwall, and also Kirkwall from Dragon Age II.
Pale: The English Pale was part of Ireland, but that's not really a very good comparison to the strict theocracy of Oerth's Pale. Something like the state of Deseret in what is now Utah might be closer; I don't know if there's a good European analogy.
Perrenland: Switzerland.
Plains of the Paynims: "Paynims" is a medieval slur for Muslims. Think Arabs/Berbers.
Pomarj: Orcs and such.
Ratik: Probably Saxony.
Rovers of the Barrens: "Ataman" is a Cossack title, but more recent sources base them on Plains tribes like the Arapaho.
Scarlet Brotherhood: There may be some pulp fiction inspiration for a secret Nazi empire in the southern jungles, but I tend to compare them to Spain's colonial empire.
Sea Barons: I don't know; maybe the Falklands.
Sea Princes: I think more like the Bahamas.
Snow Barbarians: Sweden
Tenh: "Ehyeh" is a Hebrew word, but I think this land is meant to have more of a, like, Ethiopian vibe inspired by Haile Selassie.
Tiger Nomads: Ruled by an Ilkhan. Mongols.
Tusmit: Pasha is a title from the Ottoman Empire and North Africa. We're talking Muslim Egypt here.
County of Ulek: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_Palatinate. More recent sources have it ruled by druids.
Ull: Another khanate. Mongols.
Zeif: I think this is more the Ottoman Empire.
I tried to use the search function, but it kept giving me some server error. Thanks for the reply! _________________ <p><em>"I am become Death, destroyer of worlds!"</em></p>
<p>—Xzar</p>
This is a very good list, but is there also something about how the different human cultures could be compared to ones from our world and how the various languages sounds? _________________ <p><em>"I am become Death, destroyer of worlds!"</em></p>
<p>—Xzar</p>
The following is just a short list of what I have done with some of the cultures of the northern Flanaess. I have tried to stay as true to canon as possible.
Perrenland: Swiss culture with very dark-skinned Flan peoples with Germanic names.
Tiger Nomads (Chakyik): Chinese horse culture with Arabic-sounding names.
Wolf Nomads (Wegwuir): Mongol horse culture with Old English names;
Rovers of the Barrens: Amerind (American Indian) plains/horse culture with Irish names.
Iuz: Russian culture with French names.
Vesve Forest north of the Deepstil River: Mostly Russian culture with influences from all of these nearby cultures and names.
Wood Elven realm, northern Vesve Forest south of the Deepstil River: Elven culture, but they speak Common with a French accent.
High Elven realm in the southern Vesve Forest: Elven culture, but they speak Common with a snobby English accent.
I attempt to make sure that my players can identify with certain cultural behaviors of each geographical area, but can't quite pin any Flanaess culture down to an identical real world culture. Thus, even within each general culture, there will be small traditions I have adapted from a very different culture.
For example, the dark-skinned peoples of Perrenland raise goats, make cheese, and frequently make a living as pike-wielding mercenaries. However, their version of the Common Tongue sounds like Old English. They live in the plains and the hills, not the mountainous regions surrounding their land. Legends tell of great cliff cities built in the mountains by their ancestors, but that they were drive out of those mountains by humanoids, only able to gather the force to defend themselves once they had reached the southern shore of Lake Quag. There, some great magic saved them, though what, or who, it was has been lost to myth.
I commented in another thread about the different breeds of dogs each of those nations is known for.
Verbobonc: "Viscount" is the English version of a French title from Latin. It was a late introduction to English peerage.
Stonefist/Stonehold: Also uses rhelt, as does one of the Bandit Kingdoms
Pale: There was also a Pale in Russia. It was the territory Jews were restricted to.
Onnwal: Szek is a Hungarian word.
Ket: Zoltan, the beygraf in the Folio and Boxed Set, is a Hungarian name.
Paynims: One branch of the Paynims use the titles of shah and padishah. Those are Persian.
Regarding other titles, they fall into the following language categories:
Non-Baklunish
Latin or derivative, rolling Greek into it
Germanic or derivative, primarily English but some German and Dutch plus the Cossack derivations
Baklunish
Arabic
Mongolian/Turkic
Persian
Hungarian (sort of)
Unique
Rhelt/Rhalta, Fasstal, Plar
The Latin/Greek and English/German/Dutch titles are used with no definable pattern. They are mixed hodgepodge throughout the Flanaess, beyond any semblance of direct association with Oeridian or Suel.
The unique titles show up for elves and for ostensibly Flan.
Several titles or statuses are used in profoundly anachronistic or confusing ways.
A "free city" as presented is closer to the free cities of the 19th and 20th centuries rather than the free cities of medieval and renaissance periods.
A "palatinate" is not an independent country. It is one that is explicitly connected to a royal or imperial ruler. The greater status is generally there. The theoretically independent status is closest to the Palatinate of the Rhine, whose ruler was also an elector of the Holy Roman Empire, so still connected to an empire despite is near independence.
The knightly ranks have multiple redundancies, most of which involve the same effective rank in medieval terms contrasted to modern terms.
I have an article reviewing all of this. I have to add it to an issue of the Greyhawk Journal some time.
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