# Does anyone here still use the medieval europe setting?



## Alex (Jul 9, 2012)

I want your thoughts on the medieval europe settings? Do you all think it has been overdone? Are there some of you who enjoy writing in the medieval europe setting?


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## Steerpike (Jul 9, 2012)

It can still be used effectively. Any number of stories can be told in that setting. Look at all the non-fantasy fiction set in the modern world (or even just the modern western world). No one asks if setting a story in the modern world is overdone. A medieval european setting has the same potential for unlimited stories.


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## Ireth (Jul 9, 2012)

I do, and I love it. One of my novels is set in 14th-century Scotland.


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## Roc (Jul 9, 2012)

I think that something can never be over used, because it can be varied in millions of ways, and you have to find out how to do that for your story, how to make it your own. I tried writing in that setting, but it was too hard for me to get into it because it doesn't particularly interest me.

My thoughts on the setting are slim. I don't have much thought for it, I might pick a book off the shelves about medieval setting, but like I said, it doesn't interest me too much.

Good luck


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## Alex (Jul 9, 2012)

Ireth said:
			
		

> I do, and I love it. One of my novels is set in 14th-century Scotland.



So you're writing something akin to an alternate history type thing? If so, that sounds interesting.


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## Ireth (Jul 9, 2012)

Alex said:


> So you're writing something akin to an alternate history type thing? If so, that sounds interesting.



Kinda, yeah. It's medieval Scotland with vampires, Fae and pagan deities (well, only one has a role in the plot, but where She is there must be more). Actual historical events aren't changed too much otherwise.


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## Chilari (Jul 9, 2012)

As long as you know the setting and understand it in depth, I don't see why any setting should be a problem. Problems arise when someone who has no understanding of the setting they're trying to use goes ahead and uses it anyway. That, I think, is the root cause of complaints that medieval western Europe as a template for fantasy settings is overused: not because people shouldn't base their societies on it, but because sometimes people who do think their rudimentary understanding of what they're basing their society on is enough and they get it wrong because they don't think in enough depth about the politics, religion, economy and other aspects of their world.

So go ahead if that's what you want to do.

I'll tell you a secret. I build my fantasy societies upon those of ancient Greece or Iron Age Britain because I've researched those in depth over the course of my degrees and I already know them to a certain degree. Therefore little additional research is needed, only pure worldbuilding on top of those foundations. Because I know rather a lot about ancient Greece I can pull elements of their beliefs, economies, social structure, political alliances, technology and so on to inspire those aspects of the fantasy worlds I create. Thus the world of my WIP is based on roughly 9th century BC Greece, including the level of artistic skill, the technology, social development, even the way houses are built and the laws about animal ownership*. And I can do that because I know the society.

*Actually the animal laws are based on a 2nd century BC Roman template, but they seem logical for an earlier society to have adopted, and we don't know how old those laws were by the time they were recorded.


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## ScipioSmith (Jul 9, 2012)

Chilari said:


> As long as you know the setting and understand it in depth, I don't see why any setting should be a problem. Problems arise when someone who has no understanding of the setting they're trying to use goes ahead and uses it anyway. That, I think, is the root cause of complaints that medieval western Europe as a template for fantasy settings is overused: not because people shouldn't base their societies on it, but because sometimes people who do think their rudimentary understanding of what they're basing their society on is enough and they get it wrong because they don't think in enough depth about the politics, religion, economy and other aspects of their world.



This. What most people think of as medieval european settings are actually just the modern west with ye olde medieval trappings. That's where a lot of their bad rep comes from. As long as you avoid that, there's no reason not to use the setting. I don't use it myself, but I do enjoy writing cod-shakespearean dialogue.


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## Jabrosky (Jul 9, 2012)

Medieval Europe isn't my personal favorite setting for stories, but I don't have anything _against _it, so if you want to use it, I say go ahead.


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## ThinkerX (Jul 9, 2012)

For the one world, I used 'ancient europe' (Celtic, Roman, Greek, Germanic) as a place to start from, then went and twisted it all out of shape.  Since the remote ancestors of my primary nation actually were whisked away by aliens from that time and era to the new world, I figure it works.


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## Fluffypoodel (Jul 10, 2012)

I think that I have a certain fondness for the Medieval Europe setting. Having read my fair share of early British Lit its easy to see why this is a favorite setting for fantasy. I think that it gives us a sense of mystery that we don't get in a more easily defined culture, like the ones that come before the middle ages and after. As long as that still exists then I think that this setting will remain strong.


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## ShortHair (Jul 10, 2012)

Your setting is like the furniture for a stage play. You can go with the familiar, which people will mainly ignore, and concentrate on the other elements. People have grown accustomed to the trappings of Merrie Olde Europe, particularly the anglophone audience. It hasn't changed much since _Canterbury Tales_ and the Arthur cycle, and you can combine it with other things in new ways, as Tolkein proved.

Speaking for myself, I'm sick of it. I don't use it.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Jul 11, 2012)

I'm using a pseudo-medieval England. Technologically and economically they're in the middle ages, but culturally they're in the 18th century.


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## Alex (Jul 11, 2012)

What about having a communist nation in a medieval era, I feel like that could be original.


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## D. Gray Warrior (Sep 11, 2017)

I used to avoid the pseudo-medieval European setting like the plague, but I've become more accepting of it now. The world I am building is different, but I like to combine the pseudo-medieval European setting with a different one, like Mayans with castles and steel swords, while still having it make sense for their world and have it develop naturally rather than shoehorning it in.

Personally, I find the setting to be a hit or miss. Some of my favorite games and manga use this setting, but I found the legend of King Arthur to be boring, tbh. I also couldn't get into LotR or Eragon.


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## Steerpike (Sep 11, 2017)




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## Demesnedenoir (Sep 11, 2017)

Nothing's ever over done, it's just poorly done, heh heh. Not 100% true, but close.


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## skip.knox (Sep 11, 2017)

Demesnedenoir said:


> Nothing's ever over done, it's just poorly done, heh heh. Not 100% true, but close.



This.

Well, eggs can be over done. But besides eggs, nothing's ever over done. And steak; steak can be overdone. Only two things can be over done, but that's all. And Monty Python jokes. The three things that can be over <fade to black>


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## psychotick (Sep 12, 2017)

Hi,

I used to use medieval settings - not necessarily European but similar. But lately I've been branching out. Modernising them first to gunpowder and then to steam power, and throwing in magic. More lately I've been adding in ancient Rome as a part of a magic celtic world, and also I've started a fourteenth century alternative Roman world in which Rome never fell and London is Londinium. Tech is eighteenth century / steampunk.

Cheers, Greg.


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## Russ (Sep 12, 2017)

Sure do.   My background is in history, and I know my medieval history pretty well.  I find it gives me a wealth of inspiration and material to write from.  When I am writing fantasy I suspect I will never write outside it, or some variation of it.


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## Corwynn (Sep 13, 2017)

I don't think there is anything inherently wrong about the Medieval setting, but to be honest, it does feel tired at times. I suspect cheap, imitative fantasy works are the culprit here. That being said, a writer who is passionate about the period can breathe some fresh life into it. Personally, I would recommend Cecelia Dart-Thornton's _Bitterbynde_ trilogy. It's not especially well-written, but her passion for her source material clearly shines through and makes it much more compelling than it otherwise would be.

As for me, my oldest and truest love is the Victorian Era, and I have always been drawn to works set in or around this period. As a result, the world I am working on has a broadly Victorian Era aesthetic and tech base. I've added other things to the mix over time, but that 19th century feel is still there in the broad strokes.

Choose whatever era you feel like to base your fantasy world on. As long as you are passionate and knowledgeable about your inspirational sources, your work will be better for it.


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## D. Gray Warrior (Sep 13, 2017)

I think it would be interesting to see a medieval European setting that doesn't default to England or Scandinavia.

I've thought about building a world based on the Caucasus region such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. I don't know if they are considered European or not. I consider them to be in an ethnic and cultural sense, but geographically Asian. I also wouldn't mind seeing a setting based on Finland or Byzantium.

Actually, I think a great setting would be Eastern Europe (including Hungary and Romania), the Caucasus, Turkey, Finland, and Western Russia.


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## Eden Lost (Sep 13, 2017)

I enjoy both truly medieval settings and pseudo-medieval settings. While they are common, I think there is still people who do them very well. On the other hand, I think urban or modern fantasy can be just as poorly done. I have read some truly awful urban fantasy too. I think bad fantasy is not understanding your setting (poor world building) or losing sight of the setting while writing. High fantasy and urban fantasy are just as likely to commit these failures.


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## Mythopoet (Sep 13, 2017)

D. Gray Warrior said:


> I think it would be interesting to see a medieval European setting that doesn't default to England or Scandinavia.
> 
> I've thought about building a world based on the Caucasus region such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. I don't know if they are considered European or not. I consider them to be in an ethnic and cultural sense, but geographically Asian. I also wouldn't mind seeing a setting based on Finland or Byzantium.
> 
> Actually, I think a great setting would be Eastern Europe (including Hungary and Romania), the Caucasus, Turkey, Finland, and Western Russia.



My world incorporates all of these.


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## pmmg (Sep 13, 2017)

I write typically in medieval settings, but I've no special love for them. I would just as easy pick another setting if a story seemed to be calling for it. A diverse world, of course, would have many different settings at once, whether the characters travelled to them or not. In the current one, I set the story near the frozen north, and the nobility are few and do not have a very wide reach.

The original poster asked this back in 2012, so I suspect he does not care very much about the answers. I do enjoy the site, and I enjoy very much the questions that pop up, if nothing else, it gets me thinking about stuff I might not otherwise. Seems people don't mind answering the old threads (and I think the google bots help to put them back into circulation). Just wondering how others feel about pulling back old threads? Some of the past questions do seem very cool, but I usually pass on them because of their age.


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## skip.knox (Sep 13, 2017)

D. Gray Warrior said:


> I've thought about building a world based on the Caucasus region such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. I don't know if they are considered European or not. I consider them to be in an ethnic and cultural sense, but geographically Asian. I also wouldn't mind seeing a setting based on Finland or Byzantium.



I have one story that goes from southern Germany into Switzerland. Another that is off the coast of Brittany, while a second one is in a Breton forest. My novel takes place in Dacia and Moesia and Thrace--lands north and south of the lower Danube. My WIP starts in the Camargue (southern France) and ends in the Pyrenees. Queued up are stories set in the Harz Mountains, one that runs from Sicily to Germany, and another in Venice (though I may relocate it to one of Venice's medieval outposts). 

I, too, am quite done with stories set in England, the British Isles more generally, and places that are modeled on them. Nothing wrong with the choice; I just don't want to write there.

Well. Maybe Stamford Bridge with dragons.


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## Corwynn (Sep 15, 2017)

pmmg said:


> I write typically in medieval settings, but I've no special love for them. I would just as easy pick another setting if a story seemed to be calling for it. A diverse world, of course, would have many different settings at once, whether the characters travelled to them or not. In the current one, I set the story near the frozen north, and the nobility are few and do not have a very wide reach.
> 
> The original poster asked this back in 2012, so I suspect he does not care very much about the answers. I do enjoy the site, and I enjoy very much the questions that pop up, if nothing else, it gets me thinking about stuff I might not otherwise. Seems people don't mind answering the old threads (and I think the google bots help to put them back into circulation). Just wondering how others feel about pulling back old threads? Some of the past questions do seem very cool, but I usually pass on them because of their age.



You raise a good point. Not all of a world will be at the same development level. Even now there are a few isolated tribes that never advanced past the stone age, and this was even more the case in the past. In my own world I wanted to level the playing field a bit, so that one region didn't get an overwhelming advantage over the rest like Europe did in ours. In my world, it is less of a case of haves and have-nots, but rather certain nations and cultures are better and more advanced at different things. One culture might be better with magic, another with machines, another with biology, and so on.

Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong with being a gravedigger (I prefer the term "resurrectionist" myself). There are a lot of old threads that I would like to weigh in on, but posting after such a long time still feels awkward to me.


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## skip.knox (Sep 16, 2017)

Haves and have nots work at a local level, too. There were parts of Europe that were very much worse off than other parts, and in some areas these were separated by less than a hundred miles. It's easy to say that Europe was advanced, but in fact medieval Europe was an extremely complex collection of cultures and sub-cultures. That's one reason why I find it an inexhaustible source of story ideas.


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## Maunus (Sep 27, 2020)

I use the bronze-iron age transition, I think this just a really interesting period in Europe - and most fantasy seems to be more in a high to late medieval type setting.


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## Son of the Roman (Sep 28, 2020)

I think European culture is largely ignored (don’t shoot me yet).
The reason I say is because we always end up getting a vaguely English or German flair, but we don’t often get stories based in other regions. Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean are rich with culture, yet they remain largely ignored. 

That being said, I don’t typically use European settings. What I’m working on right now takes place in a world based on the Mississippian culture, but afterwords I do hope on making something based in Bronze Age Anatolia.


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## S.T. Ockenner (Oct 2, 2020)

I use a made up setting based on European architecture and terminology quite often. I don't think many writers ever use actual Europe as a setting, I assume you mean made up lands that look like Europe.


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