Is your story set in historical earth?

[Devor]

Yes, the willing suspension of disbelief is a strange thing. Not always logical. There is this one picture about polar bears and penguins playing tennis. People claimed it is unrealistic because the bears and birds live on opposite poles.

Sometimes it's not about disbelief. Sometimes it's about the thought, "This guy doesn't know what he's talking about."

 

[J.P. Reedman]

Many moon ago I had a barney with Marion Zimmer Bradley over this! Now as you know, she wrote MISTS OF AVALON--peaceful celts worshipping a Great Goddess above all other gods (they weren't and they didn't), a stone circle on Glastonbury Tor (no, just no...had she ever climbed it?) and loads of other non-authentic elements. She even felt the need to put in a forward to the book, 'this is fiction...' It didn't really matter; the story convinced nonetheless.
Anyway, I sent her a short story set in a PSEUDO Britain (not even called that) of the bronze age, complete with a barrow dwelling dead man and strong fantasy elements. This is my area of study and all the monuments were based on real ones, some with descriptions of astronomical events; clothes and jewelry were described from actual finds, along with pots,weapons etc. Anyway, she rejected it with the 'kind words'--'your anthropological archaeology is suspect'! You could have knocked me over with a feather, I was more offended than if she's said the writing was rubbish! Obviously if something didn't tally with her vision of ancient Britain it was 'wrong' but if you queried her words 'it's only fiction.'

 

[mbartelsm]

You also have to consider the reasons for wearing X instead of Y, things were that way in those times for a certain reason, for example making soldiers use hoplite formations in a medieval setting. There was a reason why those formations were abandoned, what is the reason why your soldiers would still be using it? have they not found a replacement for the formation? (ie: rome never existed so those military improvements where never made) or is the formation specially effective against a certain monster or enemy that only exists in your world?

I'm all in for doing thing they way I want instead of the way they were, but there also need to be a reason for such oddities.

 

[Mindfire]

"Hoplite" was a type of soldier, not a formation...

 

[Zero Angel]

"Hoplite" was a type of soldier, not a formation...

Hoplites did give rise to a specific style of fighting however...and the roman legionnaire gave rise to another.

Anyway, my take on the original post. I agree wholeheartedly. If it is fantasy, it is fantasy, but I agree with what other people are saying also in that whatever is done should be done for a reason. It has to be consistent and if you are doing something just because you like a style...well come up with a reason for that style then and poo poo the rest.

I even go a step farther and alter history. "Oh, you were there at the Battle of Hastings? So you knew exactly what EVERY SINGLE soldier wore and did that day and where they defecated before and what they ate that night? Isn't it possible that there was one guy there wearing something nontraditional? Yeah, that's what I thought."

Maybe the recorded history was the norm, but exceptions exist everywhere. And depending on the stage of history, it is always possible that what is recorded is the exception!

 

[Ireth]

Don't think I've commented in this thread before. My vampire novel is set in medieval Scotland, though there are some alterations to historical fact (even if you ignore the presence of the aforesaid bloodsuckers, their patron goddess, and the Fae). The most major thing I've changed is getting rid of the MacKenzies who were in Eilean Donan castle in the early 1360's, and leaving the place empty (except for a lonely ghost) for my protagonist to wander into and occupy. I kept the MacRaes who arrived there in 1362, but I played around with their reason for being there. It's never outright stated, but heavily implied that the protagonist accidentally summons them there in a bout of loneliness while playing his bagpipes, which were enchanted specifically to lure people to him, ideally as prey (though the protagonist doesn't know about the enchantment).