Isolated nation

[Scurron]

I'm writing a story, and I'm at a part where the characters embark on a journey to a nation roughly the size of Ireland across the sea, and I just seem to lack the inspiration to start writing about it. Does anyone have any examples of fantasy countries that want to stay cut-off from the rest of the world? A rl example would obviously be Japan during most of its history, but I'm not sure if I want to make them violent towards strangers - they would be more of an ignorant people, unaware that they're actually part of a bigger world, mostly because of the politics of their authorities.

 

[Jabrosky]

How do your characters learn the local language? I don't want to discourage you since I like the concept of characters traveling to faraway foreign lands, but an isolated country (maybe they live on some island in the middle of the ocean) probably will have a language only distantly related to those on the mainland at best.

 

[jpoelma13]

So you want some examples? Westland from the Sword of Truth series was isolated by a large magical barrier. In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader the lone isles were quite isolated from the rest of Narnia. In Harry Potter, the Wizards are isolated from the muggle world. In the Silmarillion, Valinor is isolated from the rest of the world.

 

[Feo Takahari]

Well, if you just want a list: Main/Hidden Elf Village - Television Tropes & Idioms

To try to address the problem, what concept or theme is your story really about, and how have you represented it in the society you've so far represented? Can the new nation be designed to present a different perspective on the theme?

 

[Terry Greer]

The original Stargate film had a neat (if a little speedily resolved) solution to the learning of the alien language on Abidos.

When they first got there the language was incomprehensible, but it turned out that Daniel Jackson knew ancient Egyptian (it was the reason he was picked to go in the first place) - but as a 'theoretical' language - not the pronunciation as no one had spoken it on earth for thousands of years. So when he discovered this his learning rate was very fast. A bit like going to a place with a strong regional accent - which is at first unintelligible - but after a while you get your 'ear in' and it suddenly makes sense.

It's not fantasy or SF, but I read Shogun (James Clavel) some years ago. Its about a ships pilot that gets shipwrecked in feudal Japan while it was still though of largely as a mythical place by the west,and get embroiled in the local power politics. It's based on a true story and is really almost a 'first contact' book and I read it as such. I can't recommend it highly enough as a great (if non-fanatsy/SF) example of how to deal with meeting an entirely 'alien' (as in strange) culture.

 

[Scurron]

These are all very good examples, thank you! I particularly like the bit about the magical barrier; the country has so far only been referenced in the story and I still have major parts to be fleshed out, so I can change a few things along the way, no? I was thinking about a giant storm cast along its shores from all sides so anybody trying to enter its territory would find themselves in huge trouble.

Heh, I just realized how little information I gave you! I didn't even think that some might be interested in the full story.
One of my big passions is music so I'm kind of trying to make a particular culture surrounding a kind of music the only culture of a country or region, if that makes sense? For example, Rock has the Heartlands, a loose federation of city states and the most interesting political project to date, with generally peaceful but hedonistic people, Classical music has Illustria, a strict theocracy with a conservative but emotional folk, Metal has a confederation of kingdoms called Helsing and so on... the isolated nation in question, called Albia, would most likely be Punk, but with a dystopian feel to it: the rebellions of old are now but mere myths and the wish for ultimate freedom and liberty became its exact opposite, trapping the people in a crumbling society and a bubble of storm.
As for the thing about the language, it's all the same one, except for maybe in the most remote parts of the north. Albia was a great imperial power in the past and had the whole continent under its control, and the language kind of got stuck there through the centuries. An even older tongue, called Imparil, is used for "magic" in this world.