Cultures in a fantasy setting

[Ace]

Chimera Productions is creating a true high-fantasy game, with an original world setting and mythos, etc.
The Chimera fantasy setting will have multiple cultural options, we are looking to provide a wide-world blend of different cultures and opportunities.
We can't tell you much about it right now, but we are interested in input from potential players.

Question:
What kind of cultural setting/s would you be interested in seeing in a fantasy game?

For example, a culture linked to Ancient Roman traditions, one inspired by Mayan influences, or a Nordic mythology and culture, etc., etc.

Comments, links and inspirations welcome.
(If possible, consider things that are LARP possible. E.g. I'd love to play in a wild horsemen of Rohan culture, but without the horses it might not work so well...)

[Ruslan]

My favourites in order are:
Roman, Norse, Arabic, primitive*(plains indian or Australian aborigianl), Celtic, Japanese & Chinese .

*for want of a better term
I'd give a reason for each, except I'm at work and haven't the time to spare .

[vonsanchez]

I'd also look at chopping and changing elements of certain cultures. For example you could have the clan structure of the Bedouin tribesmen with a Mayan religion and a late European technology.

For individual societies I'd go for values and structure more than historical precedent.
For example does the culture value money, honour, family, piety, prowess, ambition, magic, dedication etc?
Is the structure a monarchy, clan based, democracy, meritocracy, theocracy, coalition of city states etc?

[Wiggett]

if it were to be a singular culture larp like l5r I'd like to see either roman or nordic.

[Guile]

Hi WIggit,

There will be multiple cultures, we are looking at what people want to play or, as vonsanchez added, what elements people enjoy.

[Brad]

I may be sounding old here but I would really like a basic setting. Something akin to AD&D.

[unspoken]

nothing basic about ad&d, an incredibly diverse racial base, heaps of mythology and facets to the pantheon and incredible map size..... wow. I would like a close to historical setting ( something close enough to reality that players can bind to it, ie camelot etc.) Throw in enough high fantasy to change it and add some driving force be it religion or a unique element and voila.... that being said a culture with a class based, feudal structure and a many and varied pantheon with politics kgo.

[Shamoth]

Yeah, I dunno. Norse does sound good. Easy to define style, lots of documented traditions, etc.

[Merinnan]

Norse and Celts. Nomnomnom.

[Marcus]

As a non re-enactor i am getting sick to death of the rehash of human cultures again and again and again with the same typical dnd races again and again.

Death Cult
Id like to see a culture where the gods of the dead are worshiped favorably. Gods of death are not about killing people but about helping souls pass on their journey to the next world.
Where the armies of the cultures are made up of zombies and skeletons, those that do not think evil and can be used to fight their wars controlled by those who have the power.

Those who are about to die of old age quite often pass their mortal remains over to continued service in the house. Skeletons and zombies are ritualized and marked with powerful spells to maintain their original shape without the rot associated.
Army commanders are taught enough about necromancy to be able to control units of skeletons and zombies. Even to the point that flesh golems are common place as well often built from remains of the battle field.
All in all so the living don't need to die in their wars and allow the general populace to live longer.

But as a whole the truly evil spirits of the dead are reviled due to their inherent hatred of the living.

Mageocracy
Don't think I've seen a true Mageocracy either for awhile.


The War Torn.
They are a scavenger race/culture but have managed to keep an ancient teaching of healing down to an art. It is believed they once had a thriving culture and that something happened to loose all their advancements. As a result a few select teachings were learnt and passed down from generation to generation as a means to keep the culture alive and the secrets of healing alive.

As a result the surgery of the race is the best in the known world. So advanced they can re-attach limbs and other body parts to themselves. If shot through the heart there is a small window of time that a new heart from a recently deceased individual can be transplanted to the new host. Limbs from others can be used to replace their own if needed.

Unfortunately there are two side effects for doing this. The first is the culture has become so broken and re-attached that almost none of them look like what they originally were. They look like Frankenstein monsters with stitching across various parts of the body.
Secondly they cannot reproduce due to the constant replacements and instead to repopulate their kind and culture they raid villages and commit to wars for the sole purpose of creating more of their people. Some one who has had a limb removed and replaced by a different limb often gets cast out by their own people and they have no where to go but into the arms of those who originally attacked them.

It is due to their inherent healing abilities that the culture has existed for so long passed its use by date. The rich and wealthy often seek them out to have failing body parts replaced, mostly failing hearts and the like.

[Storyteller]

No offense, Marcus, but 1 & 3 don't actually sound like fun to me in a LRP setting.

They would make solid settings for a novel, though.

[Hatred]

Dark Sun! Defilers and Dragons running city states with a boat load of killing things thrown in for good measure! I'd love to see someone play a thri-kreen lol!
As always I'd love to play an Orc again (hint hint!!)
as to human based cultures Romans, Nords and Celts are a big win for me.
I've never been huge on the magic thing but ritualistic magic would be something i'd enjoy, taking the time to set up props and get people involed and casting takes a good length of time, hell even something like the mages circle Guile and myself set up at PG one game, that was fun!
A limited pantheon of gods would be interesting and to follow them would grant a benefit (I'm gonna flog a dead horse here) A benefit should be relevant to a characters class and the purpose of the god.

Im a firm believer in good roleplay through conflict, weither it be a challenging quest, a personality clash between classes or races or even what should be served for dinner.

Please! dont be afraid to have directly opposed classes, races or cultures (Like Orcs and Elves Or Samurai and Ninjas) as these things can dramatically improve the roleplaying experiance for those who wish to give it a try, eg; Zepplin Games have Ramians and Fumareans and I have found the cultural devide to be a massive amount of fun to roleplay with, with little to no detraction from enjoyment by most players.

I'll post more later if I rememeber this is here lol

[Boojum]

In terms of cultural settings, I would love to see a decent nomadic tribal structure.

Ideally some sort of cross between the Mongolian, Scythian and Australian Aboriginal tribes, with possible Cimmerian elements.

There is some good information, and further reading links regarding the Scythians on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scythians

In terms of religious elements, I'd like to see some conflict, rather than the one pantehon than everyone accepts. Bonus points for animistic religions, and any elements of Tengriism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengriism) that make their way into the setting.

I'm also happy to provide assistance in any way I can with setting.

[Ruslan]

Boojum, I liked the Tengri tennent 'There is no 'one true religion'. Humanity has not reached full enlightenment.'. Explains why the mongrol empire was so religiously diverse.