Some OOC References

I always intended something along these lines, but its something you need a bit of time to think about.
Being un able to use my PC for a few days recently I found that time. I looked at maps of other fantasy worlds and it was obvious to see that the creators had all simply taken their favourite parts of history and knitted them all together with a generous helping of Mythological entities.
This is what I did here, as anyone with even a slight interest in fantasy worlds will have spotted.
That being said, it is no easy task to stitch these divers cultures together and make them look like they belong. In most cases I tried hardest with the names. I believe a name of a land or a people should convey if possible the feeling of those people or lands. I have used some very well known names and modified them only slightly with the addition of a vowel. I see no reason in Creating completely new names to hide the fact that one has used something obvious, but the slight change does at least dislodge it from the usual place in memory.
The region names are not actually made up though, and mostly are taken straight from the map of the ancient super continent called Pangea which was supposed to have existed before the continents divided into what they are today.
So why bother doing all this anyway.
For me it makes a place more real the more history you discover about it. I never want our sims to just be square lumps of  virtuality, where if you pan out to the edges you just see the end of your fantasy. What lies beyond the desert that stretches to the horizen ? More fantasy I hope.
And that is what this is about as well, fuelling the imagination of those who play here.
With that in mind, anyone who would like to contribute, is welcome to fill in the blanks so to speak, maybe you know a bit more about these other tribes, maybe you have visited these other lands before you ended up in Ireem, what did you see and do there. Put it in a note and share it. There are many things unfinished and still to do.
There is also the possibility that we might strike it rich one day and get the chance to build all of this world in SL. So in future rather than building random disconnected places, we can possibly have trade and raids happening between sims. We may even add a few of these new tribes to the possible races that can be Role played in KOS.

To make sure everyone is on the same page as far as what these places and Races are like, I will add some references that I would recommend as definite pointers as to what I had in mind for each race and region.
Please bare in mind though that although these real and fantasy peoples are the jumping off points for the inspiration, they should not in any way limit your personal imagination.
These suggestions also show the path I would most likely take if I were ever to get around to building these places in SL

Thule
Thule is of course based on the lands of the Vikings and Norse people of the so called dark ages.
I have like many people always loved Viking and Norse Mythology and I did a mass of work with it when I was younger. Recently my imagination was fired by two movies Beowulf, and The 13th Warrior which is based on the same story but is much more of a straight up action movie.
The people portrayed in these movies are to me the Norsk People, although just looking up Viking will
Get you too the same place.
The Vorgoths are easy to get, just watch Underworld the Rise of the Lycans and take in the look and feel of the Vampires.
The Lycans in the movie are also the inspiration for the Warg.
Although this name was used by Tolkien it is simply an old English word for a rouge or wild wolf.
The Vhen are typical European demons as in medieval paintings
The Eleven I guess everyone knows about. In Norse mythology there are light and dark Elves of course, and they are usually far more sharp and wild than the cute ones we see to much of today.

Avalonia

Avalonia is based on  Britan under the Rule of the Romans around the time of Boudicca
But with a huge amount of Irish Celtic mythology mixed in.
I guess I need say very little about the Caesarians. I didn’t want to just call them Romans though
The idea to get across was a military based society roman in look and feel.
The Keltoi are really Iron age Celts but heading towards the look found in the Slaine comics. Just Google Slaine and look through the images, or look for Celtic Warriors or stuff on Boudicca.
Slaine was based on a fantastic Iron aged Hero Called Cuchulain, the hound of Ulster.
I added the Romani Gypsy type here just because I like them and I imagined them a kind of Norska/ Keltoi mix. They could possibly be leaning more to the tribes of the Russian steppes.
The Fae or irish Sidhe need little said about them, they are the nature spirits everyone knows.
The Formori are traditional Irish celtic sea demons but I have taken the name only and think of them just as demons.

Amazonia

Amazonia is a bit out of my comfort zone as far as backgrounds based on real tribes go.
The Anuki I see as an all human,  none blue, version of Avatars Na’vi people, except they live in communities based in the trees, ok who said Ewoks.
The Toltek are based on the Aztecs and Mayans. If I wanted a great boost of inspiration for these people I would watch Apocalypto.
Loa is a term I have always loved so I borrowed it from Voodoo for the name of the spirits, they are kind of African nature spirits.
Baka is another Voodoo term I have borrowed for the Jungle demons.
And of course no fantasy world is really complete without its tribe of warrior woman The Amazoi are that tribe in Pangea.

 

Read More:

Last modified: October 26, 2011