Adding an Eastern Europe feel to a fantasy campaign

[Yora]

Not really making a fantasy setting based on Eastern Europe, but rather digging for gems in this seemingly usually unused pool of mythological and cultural material. With Eastern Europe, I am not just referring to the Slavs, but also Balts, Byzantines, Mongols, and the Teutonic Knights, who were all big players in the region during the middle ages.

Perhaps the most obvious thing would be vampires. These are actually really versatile beyond the Dracula archetype, being able to also cover the roles of lichs, wights, and succubuses, werewolves, or even just evil sorcerers.
Making ghouls a prominent creature with a broad role also somehow seems right, though I am not really sure why.

Don't know what they are called, but these wooden poles with faces of gods carved into them seem to be a common feature in the pagan religions of the region.

Horses. The southern part of Eastern Europe might actually be the home of the domesticated horse and it's always had a big role, not just when the Mongols showed up. I'd put all adventuring parties, patrols, and bandits on horses.

[awa]

if you haven't already you might want to take a look at the witcher. Even just looking at its wiki could give good ideas.

Also baba yaga and other powerful Hags, particularly if they are the type the party might need to appease rather than just kill in a head to head fight.

[Samzat]

Yeah there should be just extraordinarily powerful forces of nature if you want dark slavic fantasy. The Teutonic and Byzantine cultures provide 2 excellent paladin archetypes, and the Byzantine influence means lots of greek stuff, with a heavy dose of mosaic and sculpture artistically (plus you can design some fun fantasy stuff with shifting mosaics and golem statues). pastoral cultural elements are a must, as would river travel (and all the perils you can think of for that) For the baltics, they are from my understanding a mix of scandinavian and slavic cultures. If you want some absurd Finnish myth in there, then go ahead because Finland is eastern european and from what ive heard they have some really fun mythology to play with.

In summary: Eastern Europe gives you the tools to experiment with Balkan, Greek, Scandinavian, Slavic, Germanic, and Turkic cultures, some of which lend very well to divine magic classes like cleric and paladin (and I have yet to see a Byzantine-inspired Cleric but that sounds really cool), others to the darker forms of Arcane and Druidic magic. Horses and barges as main transport as well.

[Pelle]

My current campaign, running for over a year, is heavily inspired by the Baltic. I have a human monotheistic sun templar order (Teutonic) as the bad guys, while the PCs belong to groups of free polytheistic peoples; orcs, goblins, hob-goblins, humans, not-dwarves (pagan). In addition evil bloodmagic not-elves reside in not-Finland, and trolls (proper ones, not the stupid D&D-kind) infest the mountains of not-Scandinavia.

The big river not-Dnieper is going to the South, carrying a lot of trade. In one of the human cultures, most male names end with -as (as in Lithuania). As does the name of the BBEG, a clue that the players haven't picked up on yet. He is inspired by Koschei the Deathless btw, and I will also introduce the npc not-Baba Yaga soon.

As for monsters, just read up on baltic and slavic mythological creatures. I had a fun encounter recently, a baubas (Lithuanian boogieman, used modified bodak stats) was trying to kidnap a PC goblin, who was sitting watch during the night...

[Berenger]

For everything except supernatural stuff I can recommend the Codex Guide to the Medieval Baltic (first hit on Google).

[Yora]

It's barely still medieval with the reference period they are going with, but I guess for most elements that doesn't really make much of a difference.

[VoxRationis]

Make the peasants even more depressed.

[Pelle]

Eastern Europe can be different things. To me, the Balkan and the Baltic have completely different esthetics.

[Yora]

Why, and compared to what?

I decided to get the Codex Guid, but it turned out that I already bought it two years ago. :smallbiggrin:

[Pelle]

Compared to each other, based on impressions and stereotypes... I guess it depends on scale, whether to focus on one or the other, with a single flavour encompassing everything, or include more flavours. Sounds like you want the latter with a mash up of Byzants, Mongols, vampires and Teutons. Quite different flavours IMO, but sounds cool together in a bigger fantasy setting.

[Max_Killjoy]

Eastern Europe can be different things. To me, the Balkan and the Baltic have completely different esthetics.


For certain.

[Yora]

Oh sure, certainly. I meant the depressed peasants.

[PopeLinus1]

Not really making a fantasy setting based on Eastern Europe, but rather digging for gems in this seemingly usually unused pool of mythological and cultural material. With Eastern Europe, I am not just referring to the Slavs, but also Balts, Byzantines, Mongols, and the Teutonic Knights, who were all big players in the region during the middle ages.

Perhaps the most obvious thing would be vampires. These are actually really versatile beyond the Dracula archetype, being able to also cover the roles of lichs, wights, and succubuses, werewolves, or even just evil sorcerers.
Making ghouls a prominent creature with a broad role also somehow seems right, though I am not really sure why.

Don't know what they are called, but these wooden poles with faces of gods carved into them seem to be a common feature in the pagan religions of the region.

Horses. The southern part of Eastern Europe might actually be the home of the domesticated horse and it's always had a big role, not just when the Mongols showed up. I'd put all adventuring parties, patrols, and bandits on horses.
Are you Referring to Totems in the third paragraph?

[Yora]

Maybe....? They look like totems, but visual similarities can be very deceiving. Especially when it's about religious symbolism. I don't know what meaning and function they held for pagan Slavs.

Another great magical creature from the region are neks. They seem to be prominent in the folklore of every culture on the Baltic Sea. They are the beautiful women bathing in rivers and lakes who have a tendency to accidentally or deliberately drown foolish people who try to approach them.

[Martin Greywolf]

Okay, first rule of researching Eastern Europe: Trust noone. Seriously.

The usual problem is that lot of things you find in English are poorly informed at worst and outdated at best, and what is available are usually translations of original works - and those are steeped in both pro-Soviet propaganda or nationalism. There have been some decent works issued in last two decades at best, but the problem is that a lot of them use some of the older, hella suspect sources.

On to point two, we know very little about pre-christian cultures here, since they had no writing. Especially since what is written is usually by monks, who liked to spice things up with what experts refer to as bull****.

As for drawing inspiration, well, to a westerner it doesn't matter, no one will notice that you took your water person from two different cultures a thousand kilometres apart, but rest assured it will sound very silly to those who happen to know at least one of them.

There's also a lot of variety in time and space, Hungary of 800 sees Slavs and Magyars jointly raiding Italy, Hungary of 950 is an almost christianized country.

The high level picture is that the region is, at the outset, much more tolerant to different religions - there was a pagan king in Hungary shortly before 1300 - but by the time of religious extremism of reformation, this causes a lot more conflicts and religious extremism and splintering of communities. Orthodox christians are also much more numerous, but whether you want to include that particular can of worms is up to you.

As for pagan religions, they partially survived to, oh, about 18th century - there are excavations that are pretty clear cut sacrifices of animals and on occasion, humans. That is mostly caused by Ottoman frontier being nearby, and areas around it got hit with a worse version of what is happening in middle east now.

As for the religions in general, we know bugger all. The sum of it is that there were some gods written about in christian texts, you can find those, and that sacred animals and places and sacrifices played a big part. We don't know what the hell the usual method was, but there is a hill (Sitno, Slovakia) with walls surrounding it (as if it was a fortified town, but with no detritus from habitation) that had a lot of pits for drowning people in on top of it. Makes the legend of warriors under it ready to march to war when the country is in peril (created at the height of magyarization in 17-19th centuries) a lot darker in hindsight.

One of the chief problems is that Slavs really, really liked to make things out of wood. You mentioned those poles, but I have yet to see conclusively proven they are in the likeness of gods - they could be shrines to honored dead for all we know.

Oh, and one thing you universally need to give your gave eastern feel is to have your yearly nomadic plundering raid - sometimes easily repelled, at other times not so much, especially if they happen to bring rocket launchers.

[Yora]

There is plenty of non-contemporary art and the amount of wood construction is quite striking. Not only is everyone living in log houses, they even have log castles. Though I think that to some degree 19th century Russian artist just really liked the nostalgic aesthetic.

But then again, with cultural references in fantasy, that iconic nostalgic aesthetic is exactly what you want.

Regarding the Codex Guide to the Medieval Baltic, I've been reading a good deal through it and it's very much a guide to Danzig and the Teutonic Order in the mid 15th century. Scandinavia and Russia are almost entirely ommited and Poland and Lithuania only touched upon. And I think the 13th century is actually the really cool one.
I wouldn't quote it in an academic paper, but to somene who knows absolutely nothing about that part of the world it's an absolutely amazing introduction with incredible amounts of information on it's core subject. For gaming purposes this goes into way more detail about life in late medieval cities than you could ever reasonably expect of a sourcebook. I do very much recommend it, even though it isn't what I would have wanted out of a book with that title.

I also got Mythic Russia recently, but I have not read very much of it yet. Also looks very decent for game and fantasy purposes.

[Vinyadan]

Slav squats! Only for South and East Slavs, though.

[Martin Greywolf]

There is plenty of non-contemporary art and the amount of wood construction is quite striking. Not only is everyone living in log houses, they even have log castles. Though I think that to some degree 19th century Russian artist just really liked the nostalgic aesthetic.


Keep in mind most of these aren't 13th century defensive buildings, they were built a lot later in gunpowder era, when castles did bugger all for you because even nomad raids had some firearms.

Defensive 13th century fortifications are made of wood for small fortification only, larger castles and walls are built of stone if you can afford it, or of brick if you can't. Brick castles were rather popular, even the seat of Teutonic knights, Malbork/Marienburg is a brick castle built on a river island.

Those nice wooden buildings would be inner city houses and village buildings, and especially wooden churches could get both big and really nice. You can find a list of the ones in Slovakia here (http://slovakia.travel/en/things-to-see-and-do/culture-and-sights/wooden-churches), the very oldest one still standing in Hervantov was built around 1500.

[Concrete]

From what I've heard, many Eastern European stories about magic is about a smart lower class person making a deal with the devil and then figuring out a clever way to get out of that deal.

[Braininthejar2]

From what I've heard, many Eastern European stories about magic is about a smart lower class person making a deal with the devil and then figuring out a clever way to get out of that deal.

or thinking he did, only to do something stupid at the last moment.

One local myth is a fern flower.

Everyone knows fern doesn't have flowers. But according to legends, one would bloom deep in the forest on the shortest night of the year, and young people would go looking for it.

It's magical powers aren't clearly defined, and range from "general health and prosperity" to "see buried treasures through the ground."

Mostly though, looking for it is a good excuse to spend the first night of the summer in the bushes with your significant other. :smallcool:

[Braininthejar2]

And on the subject of devils - they are evil, of course, but they aren't always harmful.

A devil will often appear in human guise, usually as a noble, though the transformation is usually off, and a perceptive person might notice that he never takes a hat off (still has horns) or spot the tip of the tail under the coat.

He's not always on the job. If he can win someone's soul in a bet, or make a bargain, he will, but if no opportunity shows up, he might just amuse himself by abusing his poison immunity in a drinking contest.

He will harass good clerics on principle, but will not randomly hurt good people - what's the point of making a good man a martyr? Sometimes he will even punish evil people, if he knows he can do it without them repenting - such as paying a greedy bartender with devil's coins, which turn red hot when stashed away and burn the inn down.

The possible "typical plots"
* Meeting a man in a pub, and getting him to sign a pact while drunk.
* Meeting a man in a pub, getting him drunk, and winning his jacket at cards (the jacket has a love letter, in which the man promised "his heart and soul" to his girlfriend, in the pocket)
* Using magic to win a bet, (which might be over a soul, or not - after all, asking about a soul rises a lot of red flags with people)
* Visiting a local aristocrat, asking to tour his lands with him, promising he won't take anything, unless it is honestly offered to him - refusing various things people curse to the devil, because they're not being honest enough - only to finally take the aristocrat himself, when the abused serfs start cursing him.

And the last thing. If a devil is dressed like a local, it might be good or bad that he showed up. But if he's dressed like a western noble, with a goatee and lots of frills, definitely bad news.

[Martin Greywolf]

Again, we don't know what the situation was before about 1700 AD. We do know that the common folk were less adherent to church doctrines than was usual from the contemporary accounts, many of them being outright pagans, but no one bothered to record what the superstitions and rituals actually were for a long time. There is some physical evidence - see we found human sacrifice site from 17th century - but it's scarce.

The flower myths are probably pretty legit for 13th century - we know for a fact that herbs were a domain of women, and that these women acted as sort of a village doctor, before your illness got serious enough to call in the priest. The best account, and the most available to english speaking public, comes from Elizabeth Bathory trial - she is mentioned as having a lot of books on herbs. What the western media get out of it is burn the witch, but fact of the matter was that similar books were pretty common among the nobility and (wealthier) commoners at the time. The actual trial documents don't find the books concerning, they are trying to find out if she kept poison formulae there - which yes she was and the defense was that you kinda have to do that to identify them.

As for the devil, well, that is almost certainly later tradition. Those stories are usually dated to 1700 at the earliest, and it's impossible to say where they came from for sure. One aspect no one mentioned, I think, is that these devils - sometimes there are more than one - are at times actually helpful and want to punish the sinners and therefore help the good guys. One pretty likely theory is that they come from old Slavic mythical beings that inhabited the woods (veela, rusalka, divozienka, hejkal, etc etc) and had a trickster role. Changing them into devil/s to make them fit better into the new christian system would be the logical thing to do. The earlier you go, though, the nastier they probably will be to everyone...

[Ninjadeadbeard]

My most well received homebrew setting was strongly influenced by Eastern Europe and Slavic concepts and themes. I've got a ton of material too, but I shall simply leave you with a quote from an anonymous internet person who helped me during the first draft (I will also field questions on the setting itself):

"Things used to be good. Now they're worse. And getting worse.

There is no great, ancient evil waiting to be awakened. It was always awake.

Witches are not always of sinister intent, and should therefore be treated with extra caution. If you can't trust them to be evil, you can't trust them at all.

Do not enter the forest. It will eat you. Do not go swimming in any body of water. You will be eaten.

There are many tales of great cities in lands far away. You will never get to see them.

Fantastic creatures and wilderness are often bad. The nobles ruling you are generally worse.

The best thing you can do with your time is go cutting down trees. It kills the forest that would eat you, and it gets you wood that can be used either to throw on the fire or to build your coffin with. If nothing else, at least it takes the mind off how much you hate life and everyone who are not from the same place as you."

Though keep in mind, much of the mythology from those eastern regions has elements of hope and great heroism standing in stark contrast to the above quote. I think the type of feel you want in such a setting is in the contrast between supreme despair and the heroic ideals.

[Bohandas]

Making ghouls a prominent creature with a broad role also somehow seems right, though I am not really sure why.
If you added a werewolf's alternate form ability they would probably make a decent varcolac (although adding the ability to a vampire spawn would possibly be more thematically appropriate)