Yora
2016-01-08, 07:13 PM
Yesterday I was looking up one of our local figures of medieval legend and while trying to find out the circumstances of the capture and execution of the pirate Klaus Störtebecker I discovered that it really was only the epilogue of half a century of amazing history in Northern Europe. You have Warrior Monks invading the island base of pirates in plate armor. You have a 27 year old widow collecting three crowns for herself. Merchant Lords declaring war against kingdoms. A minor Ice Age. A devastating plague. Countries falling into total anarchy and taken over by warlords who make deals with pirates. Huge treasures lost at sea. Sea battles. Sieges. Blockade Runners. Kidnappings. Assassinations! Two sisters fighting over control over all of Scandinavia!
The second half of the 14th century was certainly an interesting place in Northern Europe. And I always wanted to write some fantasy inspired by my mostly ignored (because usually mostly boring) homeland. You get lots of Vikings raiding England, but that doesn't count.
What is the Baltic Sea in the 14th century like and what does it have to offer for fantasy? One other example I can think of that is inspired by roughly the same period and region is the Witcher. The visual style of the videogames draws mostly on the fashion, architecture, and warfare of this background and appears to follow it pretty close. Same goes for the climate. (Though not the landscape, which towards the coast is just flat throughout the entire region.)
While being "loosely inspired by historic events and people", I want to do something that is full out high fantasy. Obviously you need lands inhabited by Germanic peoples in the West and lands inhabited by Slavic peoples in the East, and a big (but not too big) sea between the two. In the western lands there need to be three kingdoms (representing Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), a powerful independent city state (representing Lübeck), and some minor independent duchies (standing for Holstein, Schleswig, and Mecklenburg). In the eastern lands there needs to be a big trade city (for Novgorod), a cluster of smaller trade ports (for the Hansa merchants), and a heavily fortified colony (for the Teutonic Knights). And a good number of various local tribes who trade with the city and the merchant posts and fight against the knights. And a big island smack in the middle of the sea which everyone wants to control and regularly changes hands (standing for Gotland). Beyond that needs to be an only vaguely hinted "South", since the goods that the merchants get from the east have to be shipped somewhere and be sold for profit. (Since Poland and Finland don't play any important part in this particular conflict they don't need any analogue in the setting.)
That already is a pretty well rounded setting I think.
Regarding the fantasy elements, I don't feel like bringing monotheism into all of this, but powerful bishops acting pretty autonomously from the pope a thousand miles away where very important people of the period. And the churches of the big cities where by far the most magnificient buildings anyone in the region would have ever seen in their entire life, even putting castles to shame. Religion is too much part of the culture to not have it play a major role, so I am thinking of having the Germanic peoples in the western lands following various more abstract philosophical gods while the Slavic peoples in the eastern lands follow ancient nature gods. The eastern Baltic coast was the last region of Europe to be christianized though the process had pretty much been completed by the time of the events that serve as inspiration here. But since that was not really an issue in the events, there's nothing that would stop them from being mostly "pagan" in this adaptation and the colony of the knights being the first attempt to bring the western faiths to the eastern lands.
I am always a huge fan of monsters, but even getting together with some friends from Finland, we couldn't really think of a lot of mythical creatures specific to our region. One type you really find everywhere are the water people. Human like spirits who live in small lakes and rivers, particularly in the swampy wetlands that cover almost all of the coastal regions. It's a bit like Louisiana, but colder and with overcast skies. Or think Washington State/British Columbia but totally flat with nothing but sand and swamps. Cheerful. :smallamused:
I also like norwegian mountain trolls, I'll take some of those as well, please. And since it's fantasy at sea, there needs to be sea monsters. Kraken are actually North Sea, but they will have to do here. I am also very much considering to have some vaguely elf-like forest people living in the northern parts of the western lands.
I really like how I got a pretty well outlined fantasy world in just a single day. Making a fictional fantasy version of a real region and period is so much faster than creating something completely new from a blank page. I very much recommend trying it to anyone planning to create a fantasy world.
From this description, do you have any immediate ideas what kinds of places, people, creatures, or magic things would fit wonderfully into this world? I am still at a very early stage and would love any suggestion where I might develop it further.
The second half of the 14th century was certainly an interesting place in Northern Europe. And I always wanted to write some fantasy inspired by my mostly ignored (because usually mostly boring) homeland. You get lots of Vikings raiding England, but that doesn't count.
What is the Baltic Sea in the 14th century like and what does it have to offer for fantasy? One other example I can think of that is inspired by roughly the same period and region is the Witcher. The visual style of the videogames draws mostly on the fashion, architecture, and warfare of this background and appears to follow it pretty close. Same goes for the climate. (Though not the landscape, which towards the coast is just flat throughout the entire region.)
While being "loosely inspired by historic events and people", I want to do something that is full out high fantasy. Obviously you need lands inhabited by Germanic peoples in the West and lands inhabited by Slavic peoples in the East, and a big (but not too big) sea between the two. In the western lands there need to be three kingdoms (representing Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), a powerful independent city state (representing Lübeck), and some minor independent duchies (standing for Holstein, Schleswig, and Mecklenburg). In the eastern lands there needs to be a big trade city (for Novgorod), a cluster of smaller trade ports (for the Hansa merchants), and a heavily fortified colony (for the Teutonic Knights). And a good number of various local tribes who trade with the city and the merchant posts and fight against the knights. And a big island smack in the middle of the sea which everyone wants to control and regularly changes hands (standing for Gotland). Beyond that needs to be an only vaguely hinted "South", since the goods that the merchants get from the east have to be shipped somewhere and be sold for profit. (Since Poland and Finland don't play any important part in this particular conflict they don't need any analogue in the setting.)
That already is a pretty well rounded setting I think.
Regarding the fantasy elements, I don't feel like bringing monotheism into all of this, but powerful bishops acting pretty autonomously from the pope a thousand miles away where very important people of the period. And the churches of the big cities where by far the most magnificient buildings anyone in the region would have ever seen in their entire life, even putting castles to shame. Religion is too much part of the culture to not have it play a major role, so I am thinking of having the Germanic peoples in the western lands following various more abstract philosophical gods while the Slavic peoples in the eastern lands follow ancient nature gods. The eastern Baltic coast was the last region of Europe to be christianized though the process had pretty much been completed by the time of the events that serve as inspiration here. But since that was not really an issue in the events, there's nothing that would stop them from being mostly "pagan" in this adaptation and the colony of the knights being the first attempt to bring the western faiths to the eastern lands.
I am always a huge fan of monsters, but even getting together with some friends from Finland, we couldn't really think of a lot of mythical creatures specific to our region. One type you really find everywhere are the water people. Human like spirits who live in small lakes and rivers, particularly in the swampy wetlands that cover almost all of the coastal regions. It's a bit like Louisiana, but colder and with overcast skies. Or think Washington State/British Columbia but totally flat with nothing but sand and swamps. Cheerful. :smallamused:
I also like norwegian mountain trolls, I'll take some of those as well, please. And since it's fantasy at sea, there needs to be sea monsters. Kraken are actually North Sea, but they will have to do here. I am also very much considering to have some vaguely elf-like forest people living in the northern parts of the western lands.
I really like how I got a pretty well outlined fantasy world in just a single day. Making a fictional fantasy version of a real region and period is so much faster than creating something completely new from a blank page. I very much recommend trying it to anyone planning to create a fantasy world.
From this description, do you have any immediate ideas what kinds of places, people, creatures, or magic things would fit wonderfully into this world? I am still at a very early stage and would love any suggestion where I might develop it further.