Gurkhal
Auror
Ok, this is a issue which ahs been bothering me and which I need to settle. I've wrestled with it myself but I've come to the conclusion that I need some other perspectives on this.
The issue at hand is to focus my historical interest, and by extension the type of fantasy settings that I could develop, on either Medieval Europe or the Ancient Near East? My mind is with Europe but my heart with the Near East. But my wallet, time and energy shows me that I can only get a good grip on one of these fanastic areas.
The way I say that my mind is with Europe is because there's so many accessable books about all parts of it. Be it straight history of all kinds, the enviroment and nature, the languages etc. There are tons of stuff and I think that I could do research with less money and effort involved. For example there's no great mystery to find the way to construct Norse names or lists of Celtic names. Or if I want to research northern European nature I can get books about that very easily as well. Therefor I realize that its the most accessable area and would probably be the smartest to focus on.
But when I say that my heart belongs to the Near East I mean it because it kindles my imagination. The names of Assyria, Hatti and Elam draws me in, in a way that England, France or Venice do not. But on the other hand these kind of things are much more veiled from me in that there is less litterature, I have still been unable to actually get how to construct an Akkadian name, and getting information on pre-modern Near Eastern fauna and flora has shown itself elusive, although there are of course things here and there. And while for example I've found plenty of accessable books on wolves the result for searching for lions have been less. Not to mention that much of the additional books that I could want to buy would come from specialized bookstores with shipping costs not of this world. But while its much more difficut my heart is trigged in a unique way by the mysteries of the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean world.
If anyone could help with some advice on how to solve this I would be immensly grateful.
The issue at hand is to focus my historical interest, and by extension the type of fantasy settings that I could develop, on either Medieval Europe or the Ancient Near East? My mind is with Europe but my heart with the Near East. But my wallet, time and energy shows me that I can only get a good grip on one of these fanastic areas.
The way I say that my mind is with Europe is because there's so many accessable books about all parts of it. Be it straight history of all kinds, the enviroment and nature, the languages etc. There are tons of stuff and I think that I could do research with less money and effort involved. For example there's no great mystery to find the way to construct Norse names or lists of Celtic names. Or if I want to research northern European nature I can get books about that very easily as well. Therefor I realize that its the most accessable area and would probably be the smartest to focus on.
But when I say that my heart belongs to the Near East I mean it because it kindles my imagination. The names of Assyria, Hatti and Elam draws me in, in a way that England, France or Venice do not. But on the other hand these kind of things are much more veiled from me in that there is less litterature, I have still been unable to actually get how to construct an Akkadian name, and getting information on pre-modern Near Eastern fauna and flora has shown itself elusive, although there are of course things here and there. And while for example I've found plenty of accessable books on wolves the result for searching for lions have been less. Not to mention that much of the additional books that I could want to buy would come from specialized bookstores with shipping costs not of this world. But while its much more difficut my heart is trigged in a unique way by the mysteries of the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean world.
If anyone could help with some advice on how to solve this I would be immensly grateful.