What are neat real life historical counries to base space opera factions on? Rome, Soviets...

They're space gypsies and space mexicans(there's a portion of their codex entry that is literally they took our jobs!).

I mean this has been done to death too, but generally pretty well so whatever

so, Dune?

Excuse me, you can never have to much space nazi you fuck.

But anyway:
>US
Obnoxious cosmos police.
>Babylon
Why not? Space mesopotamia seems like a good idea to me, and babylon is best mesopotamia.
>Space Nazis
Fuck you, it's always the best flavour.
>Germany
Regular good old fashioned well educated psychologically minded straight forward space germans are good too, scientists and engineers and shit, think about it.
>AUSTRALIA
Give me some fucking space australia, under represented best country. Think about it, loud mouthed, confrontational, xenophobic, bigoted in general, good looking, active space people who drink far too much and eat far too much. Even potential for "Get out me galaxy." jokes.
>Czechia (as it's now called)
Loud alcoholic space people with shaved heads who fly their ships too fast and complain about how beer costs more than 70 cents when not in their home system.

Also
Adding to what this guy said do that too.

Mix things up, and for the record space nazi blends well with all sorts of cultures.

Also spice things up with different types of governments and rulerships.

So basically a federation of sorts?

Humans don't belong in space. It belong to us, your superior children. We will determinate the future of Earth's Civilization. Not you, fleshbags.

America during Andrew Jacksons presidency. Go full on manifest destiny with them, and crank up the patriotism while you're at it.

Phoenicians, Mongols, pretty much any culture that was known to travel a lot and/or kick ass across many nations

Mongols the roving hoard fleet, travels from system to system destroying their armadas then demanding tribute from the planets. They never settle having become accustomed to the 0g life.

Some systems are now so heavily fortified (core systems) that they hold out, while the outer rim is terrorized.

Mexico.

You shouldn't base fantasy cultures on real ones. Real cultures are a product of their geography, history, religion, politics, etc. Instead you should look at what makes cultures as they are and do the same for your fantasy cultures. Make them products of their own history instead of copies of someone else's.

give me examples of fantasy cultures not being based on real life in any way

I dunno, I just take two cultures and mash them together and add some kind of diversifier and see what happens.

16th century England with 16th century Japan and they've got a lot of bird related imagery.

Pre colonial maoris and vikings, and they're not actually that aggressive.

Zanzibar and ancient Java and they live in the mountains.

Ancient Korea and Babylon, duh.

British Empire
>Not racking up resources and systems by colonizing in all directions that aren't already in possession and then raising up the alien peoples stumbled upon them in return for servitude and titles.

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN, LONG MAY SHE REIGN AS A MECH BODIED BRAIN.

Also infighting on an odd personal level among the upper classes.

I meant follow the logic behind how real cultures develop instead of cut-paste a real one onto yours without much thought to how that culture got that way. You can obviously draw inspiration from real cultures doing this, but going in with just the intention "I want arabs but with elves" is a shit way of doing things.

Has anyone attempted to space opera the historical records of Dracula instead of just doing "lol space vampires"?

Right, you should start with "this culture mostly lives in hot, arid climates - so how does that make them dress? how do they make their cities? how do they cope with extreme climate? where does their water come from?" Then move on to stuff like "their religion is kind of Buddhist" and "their language is sort of French" but always feeding that back into "how does the desert shape that?".

Exactly what you have pictured here. An entire species of ultra-heavily armed refugees in a central horde fleet appearing on the edge of known space. They are in and of themselves an interesting culture (think about what you can do with a space faring group that can't settle down), they are a faction to be reckoned with, and there are a pre-packaged crisis ready to happen. What will the other nations do with a vast "barbarian" horde appears?

Mongols are a good start. The Vasari from Sins of a Solar Empire might be useful to look up.

>Venice
A resource-poor system that happens to occupy a major trading lane. While wealthy, its existence is based almost completely on balancing trade contracts, tarriffs and taxes with more resource-rich neighbors.

I agree. She's pretty cute and her hips don't lie.

So, 40k?

>ultra heavily armed
>a bunch of old ships sold on the cheap
>most don't have any combat capabilities
>space rats ever

>inb4 it's okay because muh chromatic space babe

Confederations in general seem kinda uncommon. The only one that really comes to mind off the top of my head is the Confederacy in Starcraft, and I guess the CIS in Star Wars, but it never really seemed all that confederate to me.

For a setting where space travel can be a little on the slower side, a confederation would be a logical government structure, too.

>Rome, Soviets, and Nazis have been done to death.

Well, those are the only three cultures that are worth anything, so you're probably SOL, OP.

I barely see the following space:

Imperial China, Islamic Caliphate, India, Imperial Japan.

You can use those if you like. Probably would make a more interesting universe.

Early 1900s USA
>We don't give a shit if the Kaiser, Nazis, space monsters from hell are raping you just leave us out of it
>When they do get dragged into war they mobilize the largest economy in the galaxy with one of the largest populations

The Dutch.

A hodgepodge of different sates ranging from stuck up puritans to mad artists all held together by shared language, culture and the desire to seize key trade ports and take everyone else's money. They're fiercely protective of their rights and each other and you can't turn around somewhere important without bumping into a group of them trying to get you invest in the intergalactic spice trade.

The Space-Dutch are everywhere, they grease the wheels of industry and commerce and have become dreadfully essential.

The Empire of Brazil - A vast Empire with a large population and resource base whose distant homeland was conquered by an even more powerful empire.

I feel wrong stealing Tali away from her people. Those hips are meant for impregnation.

I can't make out what says on the mug

>space late medieval/early modern Switzerland

Don't. I did a thorough check on every female Quarian in the games and they all got mad hips so it's ok.

Imperial Russia

There's Vorkosigan Saga, and nothing else

What sci-fi setting has adapted the Soviets? Only one I can think of is maybe Honor Harrington, but I can't force myself through the first book, so I can't say for sure if that's accurate.

But sorta on the subject, has there ever been a setting that's done a truly communistic, or pseudo-communistic, society? Only one that comes to mind is the Federation from Star Trek.

Has anyone done Space Poland? Because mechs that look like flying Hussars would be fucking great.

'Normandy's Greatest Mechanic '

How about space polynesia?

Because the Netherlands have to keep their dykes repaired and water pumps running, they have cooperated since medieval times to keep the whole nation above the ocean. Even when city-states were at war with one another, they would still meet up and keep those systems working. I've always thought that was pretty cool and could be adapted for space.

Maybe there's a bunch of habitable planets and moons in a system, but it's in the middle of some shitty nebula and everybody has to cooperate to keep the dust out of the system with some weird tech.

You're just taking the Dat Ass Prime™ home with you.

sure, why not

* The Boer Republics pre-Boer War. So I guess space nomads that conquered some alien space and set themselves up as rulers.

* Something based on Brazil during its imperial period. Very powerful, very vast stellar nation with an extremely magnanimous (but constitutional) monarch. Probably a very colorful faction, figuratively and literally.

* The last years of the Eastern Roman Empire. Tiny empire that still commands a lot of respect by virtue of once controlling like half the galaxy.

* Like others have said, pre-1900s USA. Probably something involving veneration of a goddess of freedom like Columbia.

* Fuck it, Haiti. Faction formed out of a massive slave rebellion with lots of crazy space creole rituals/beliefs.

>you will never live in a world where the White Russian factions united behind him
>you will never live in a world where a young Julius Evola became his royal vizier
>you will never live in a world where the Bloody White Baron captured Mao and personally executed him on live TV in the 1950s
Why even live, senpai?

A very, very loose confederation with a monarch that nobody listens too.

Polish lithuanian commonwealth

youtube.com/watch?v=N0N3djtj38Q

...

had to.