The Known World of Mystara is a Hyborian Age-esque fantasyland of often thinly disguised real world cultures from a variety of historical eras, but the general vibe seems Medieval to early modern. I think it would be interesting reimagine Mystara as a more ancient world inspired, Sword & Sorcery setting, though will not greater adherence to a single era. Here's how it could breakdown:
Emirate of Ylaruam: This desert region has always been oddly placed, but depending on what latitude you think it's at, it might be weird for it to be a hot desert. Maybe it's a cold desert like the Tarim Basin or the Taklamakan. You could ditch the faux Arab culture for something more Central Asian, and give it's central religion a more Eastern flavor.
Empire of Thyatis: Less Byzantium and more Rome, though I would probably move it more in a Hellenistic direction. What the Empire of Alexander might have been like if it had been able to hang together better after his death.
Grand Duchy of Karameikos: This would stll be a breakaway, former province (though not a "Grand Duchy"). There wouldn't be true, Medieval feudalism here, but something more like the Roman latifundia.
Kingdom of Ierendi: This kingdom ruled by adventurers is kind of a pure fantasy trope, but I would give its material culture a Minoan spin.
Minrothad Guilds: A plutocratic thalassocracy more like Phoenicia or Carthage. The Guilds would be collegia.
Principality of Glantri: Well, still a magocracy, but maybe more like the Estruscans?
Republic of Darokin: Keep the plutocratic republic, but cast it less as Venice and more as Republican Rome with a of the "center of caravan routes" feel like Samarkand or Palmyra. A bit of Persian influence wouldn't be misplaced as Darokin does border Sind, which is sort of Mystara's India.
The Northern Reaches would probably still just be sort of Vikings, I guess, maybe more proto-Vikings like the horned helmet wearing raiders of the Nordic Bronze Age. Ethengar might be more Scythians than Mongols. Haven't given much thought to the demihuman lands or Atraughin.
9 comments:
"Haven't given much thought to the demihuman lands..."
Entire nations of sapient non-humans don't fit well in swords & sandals to me, or even in swords & sorcery in general. Whatever such entities exist are usually either rare enough to be semi-mythical, or the fading remnants of pre-human civilizations, not something that human cultures interact with much. Certainly not via trade and diplomacy the way they do in D&D. Kull and Conan encountered a few of them over their adventures, but they were never the "kingdom next door" - Stygia being as close as it came, and they're still believed (probably correctly) to be human with a few snakes in the family trees of some lineages.
That's a good point. I'm not 100% certain you could do Sword & Sandals (or Sword & Sorcery) with nonhumans/demihumans, but it is true there are readily available models.
I really like this idea and your thoughts on it. And I agree with Dick about the non-humans as well. If they exist they are part of lost, declining and hidden civilizations. Leaning heavily towards snake and lizard people.
Morlocks in place of dwarves- again not as fuzzy humans in suits. But some kind of degenerate warning of civilisations cloistered away, degrading for eons into...
The snake men I like- hidden in an innsmouth look kind of way unti, you begin delving deeper...
Instead of elves you'd probably place Atlanteans, long removed from the realms of men. Maybe hinted at by a few scattered devices, rumours, evidence of vast destruction. Perhaps a few return searching for...
Here's my take:
Thyatis consists of Greek city states (cf. Milenian Empire from the Hollow World).
Karameikos is a Celtic wilderness.
Nithia (instead of Ylaruam) is a cursed land, formerly a colony of Thothia far to the east. Filled with ruined cities and pyramids and savage nomads.
Glantri is Magical Etruscia, with exiled wizards and their followers from elsewhere.
Ierendi is a series of colonies fought over by Thyatians, Darokinians, and Minrothians.
Alfheim is a Celtic fairyland, with more Celtic tribes on the borders and in the Dwarfgate Mountains.
Rockhome is a lost land of pleistocene animals and cavemen, the cities are ancient pre-human ruins with monsters and treasures.
The Northern Reaches are more primitive Norse (Ostland) and pre-migration Germans (mainland).
The Five Shires are the most fairy-like of the Celtic Lands south of the mountains.
The Minrothad Guilds are Phoenicians, descended from colonists from the Isle of Dawn.
The Broken Lands are a monster haunted wilderness, complete with monster haunted caverns ruled by Dero or maybe Serpent Men. Very Clark Ashton Smith, maybe more Lovecraftian.
Darokin is a mix, Celtica in the east, Italia in the west. The Daro are the early Romans, barely into the Republic era, already competing with the Thyatians and Minrothians in the Ierendi Isles.
Ethengar is Scythia, with pleistocene animals. The valleys are jungle filled havens for dinosaurs and pre-human ruins.
The Atruaghin are Cimmerians, the plateau is instead a mountain range.
The Adri Varma is Hyrkania, Sindh is Iranistan, and Hule is Vendhya.
Use the pantheons from Deities & Demigods per cultures, add in Mitra and the Gods of Law and Set and the Gods of Chaos from from Melnibone.
Full on Howardian Mystara.
I like it!
Quick thought to make it have a bit more geographical sense, put Nithia where Atruaghin is, and the Cimmerians where Ylaruam now stands.
Tightens up the geography a bit, puts the Cimmerians in direct contact with the Germanics, Greeks, and Cavemen, and moves the wastelands to the map border where they can be expanded.
I really like it, too!
I was actually working on a setting somewhat similar to this. In mine, elves were roughly equivalent to pre-Roman celts, and dwarves were intermontane people from a faux-Alps. Halflings were pastoral people from a pseudo-Dacia
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