Mindfire
Istar
I'm not sure how many people here are familiar with the Dragon Age games and the rich lore behind them. But as I was worldbuilding the other day, I noticed that one of the new nations I'm building has a history very similar to that of the Tevinter Imperium, one of the big players in Dragon Age's history and politics. How similar? Well this nation (which I have not yet named) is the only remaining vestige of a once great and powerful empire that dominated the entire known world until their arrogance and penchant for dark magic brought about divine punishment and said world's near destruction at the hands of terrible dragons. After the catastrophe the empire lost control of all its former lands and territories and is now a shadow of its former self, but retains great skill and power with magic, bestowing upon them a sinister reputation.
So basically almost identical. I SWEAR I DID NOT DO THIS ON PURPOSE. I wasn't even thinking of Tevinter or Dragon Age when it happened. Everything grew organically out of backstory elements that I planted before I had even played Dragon Age: Origins for the first time, much less learned about the lore. The "mankind's arrogance brought doom upon us" thing and the dragons were already there. It's just that before I was going to make the empire responsible a dead civilization. So when I was looking for a good place to squeeze a new nation into my geopolitical scene it made perfect sense to have them be the last remaining shred of that culture. So... yeah. The Tevinter similarities only dawned on me today. I've decided to base this nation on Hatian Creole culture and give them French-sounding names- perhaps with additional influences from Algeria and Ethiopia- to get it as far away from Tevinter's Roman/Byzantine feel as possible. But is this enough to distance the two? I'm looking for opinions and suggestions.
Oh! And my nation has vast underground cities that they built to hide from the dragons. Another difference from Tevinter.
So basically almost identical. I SWEAR I DID NOT DO THIS ON PURPOSE. I wasn't even thinking of Tevinter or Dragon Age when it happened. Everything grew organically out of backstory elements that I planted before I had even played Dragon Age: Origins for the first time, much less learned about the lore. The "mankind's arrogance brought doom upon us" thing and the dragons were already there. It's just that before I was going to make the empire responsible a dead civilization. So when I was looking for a good place to squeeze a new nation into my geopolitical scene it made perfect sense to have them be the last remaining shred of that culture. So... yeah. The Tevinter similarities only dawned on me today. I've decided to base this nation on Hatian Creole culture and give them French-sounding names- perhaps with additional influences from Algeria and Ethiopia- to get it as far away from Tevinter's Roman/Byzantine feel as possible. But is this enough to distance the two? I'm looking for opinions and suggestions.
Oh! And my nation has vast underground cities that they built to hide from the dragons. Another difference from Tevinter.