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Thread: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
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2011-01-06, 03:55 PM (ISO 8601)
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Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
In most of the published campaign settings, Human culture tends to be most similar to RL European cultures, with maybe Scandinavian, Middle Eastern and Asian cultures thrown in for spice. I was wondering, where are the Slavs? Are there any Slavic-esque cultures in any campaign settings that you are aware of?
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2011-01-06, 03:57 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
Well, Slavic and Scandinavian are European indeed, so they're kinda there.
Anyway, Rashemen is somehow stereotypically Cossack/Eastern, at places, it seems.Last edited by Spiryt; 2011-01-06 at 03:58 PM.
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2011-01-06, 04:36 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
There are Slavic-mythology inspired monsters peppered throughout the various sourcebooks--the Rusalka in Frostburn (and may have been reused in MMIII unless I'm misremembering), the iconic Winter Wolf (giant intelligent wolves are a big part of the Prince Ivan story), the Phoelarchs in MMIII (the Firebird that turns into a beautiful maiden), and of course the prototypical Lich is Koschei the Deathless.
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2011-01-06, 04:49 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
And let's not forget Baba Yaga and her chicken-legged hut!
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2011-01-06, 04:56 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
There was an issue of Dragon a long while back devoted to Slavic cultures, including deity stats for the main Slavic pantheon and various monsters like vodyanoi and russalka. One of their better-done issues really.
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2011-01-06, 05:06 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
Zobeck and the Open Design stuff from www.koboldquarterly.com is modeled after Slavic Europe.
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2011-01-06, 08:37 PM (ISO 8601)
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2011-01-06, 08:48 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
Karrns from Eberron are sorta slav+scandinavian with the serial numbers filed off, which, IIRC, somewhat happened in the northern coastal areas of Eastern Europe (more so than it stuck in the rest of Europe's coast) and Russia. Several of the Dimensions of Dread/Ravenloft princedoms were Slavic-based, including the original of Borogravia.
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2011-01-06, 08:49 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
Lord Raziere herd I like Blasphemy, so Urpriest Exalted as a Malefactor
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2011-01-06, 11:16 PM (ISO 8601)
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2011-01-07, 05:44 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
In one issue of Dragon (can't remember off the top of my head), the Demon Lord Kostchtchie seems to have been inspired by the legend of Koschei.
EDIT: Dragon 345.Last edited by Amiel; 2011-01-07 at 05:45 AM.
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2011-01-07, 07:31 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
Lamias are in the SRD (MM1 i think), although they are different to what they are portrayed as in Bulgarain folklore (multi-headed flying serpents)
Note on Koschei the Deathless: now I know where Jordan took the idea of Balthamel from. Robert Jordan was a massive plagiarist, almost nothing for the WoT series is original. I'm realizing this more and more as time goes by.
I don't consider Bulgaria a predominantly Slavic country by virtue of 70% or more of our genome being older than that of the Polish and Russian and evidently pointing to our blood being Thracian. The Thracians were the most numerous tribe according to Herodotus anyway.
However most of the Balkans and Eastern Europe have their mythologies mixed and inspired from others. Fore example our Samodiva is equivalent to a Western Dryad, albeit not tied to any trees or acorns and such nonsense. A Rusalka is basically just a Mermaid.
We also have the Zmei who is a man born with wings and in possession of superhuman strength. The usual suspect whenver Lamia slaying is required, apart from the traditional third and youngest prince.
We also have "The Land Below" equivalent of the Celtic "Otherworld" and DnD's Faerie.
In Bulgaria specifically we have the Talasum which is some imp-like nightstalker who snatches children from their cradle. Descriptions vary greatly from one tale to the other, but they are usually hairy, small and able to hide well and sneak inside locked houses.
Baba Yaga is indeed your traditional evil Witch, who by DnD standards is probably a level 15 Transmutation Domain Wizard or something. I think I have seen her statted out somewhere to be well into the Epic levels and with around 40 or 50 Int but that's overkill.
A specifically Balkanic hero (Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia) is Krali Marko, who has been breastfed until age of 21. He posseses nearly Herculean like strength, a massive mace, a trusty horse called Sharkolia and goes around doing adventures.
All of these are easy to represent or stat up in DnD methinks, though published representations I have not seen.
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2011-01-07, 07:49 AM (ISO 8601)
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Last edited by Yora; 2011-01-07 at 07:49 AM.
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2011-01-07, 08:11 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
There is a Drekavac in PF
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/mon...ndead/drekavac
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2011-01-07, 08:20 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
I think the Pathfinder Setting has at least one slavic country, maybe even more.
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
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2011-01-07, 08:22 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
You are right. Most of North and Western European myth draws heavily from Indian mythology. Celtic and Indian in particular are very tightly connected, especially the early tales.
Southern myth is basically Roman which draws from Greek which draws from Thracian and Egyptian which in turn draw from Assyro-Babylonian which are (to our knowledge) the oldest in existence.
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2011-01-07, 08:27 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
Actually both "northern" european and indian culture originates from the same culture that originally lived north of the Kaukasus and seperated into two groups that migrated into different areas about 5,000 years ago. (Not a very well proven theory, but it makes a lot of sense and is widely accepted.)
We are not standing on the shoulders of giants, but on very tall tower of other dwarves.
Spriggan's Den Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying
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2011-01-07, 08:29 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
Aye hence Indo-European language group etc.
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2011-01-07, 09:52 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
Riddle of Steel does the job (again!).
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2011-01-07, 11:15 AM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
Not to get to off-topic, but yes, most mythology draws from/is inspired by/has its origin in/etc. some earlier mythology.
For any gamer who is serious about their storytelling and fluff, Joseph Campbell's "Hero With a Thousand Faces" is required reading. At the least, watch the PBS Special "The Power of Myth." When I first dove into Joseph Campbell's work in grad school, it changed my nerd life.The extra ingredient is otter.
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2011-01-07, 12:03 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
Not D&D, but Ravnica from M:TG is pretty Slavic. I'm sure someone's converted it to D&D by now.
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2011-01-07, 12:33 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
In Birthright, there were the Vos, which had some Slavic elements. You also see some in Ravenloft.
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2011-01-07, 12:55 PM (ISO 8601)
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Re: Slavic cultures in DnD settings?
it's probably done that way to ensure that the idea of her as Iggwilv's mentor/adoptive mother, and one of the few beings out there more powerful than her, continues to make sense- since that's how Baba Yaga is used in Greyhawk- and Iggwilv is one of the epic characters of Greyhawk.
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