"The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East..."
— Dracula, Chapter 1.
Requesting ideas for an eastern Europe setting
Will contribute pics
From what I've gathered it needs lots of cynicism, dark humor, humanoid monsters, trickery, and heroic sacrifices
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Work in the conflict between steppe and forest.
Make one big river empire.
picrelated is a part of the Volga. Ever since I first saw it, I've thought it needs a fantasy city. Something built on this peninsula in the bend, with a wall and moat/canal running across the isthmus. IRL this area in the bend is mountainous - not tall, but the terrain is mostly rough. I was thinking the nobility would have mansions and estates scattered throughout the rougher area, while the plebs live in an urban agglomeration near the isthmus.
Depressing, violent, mysterious, barbaric, east meets west.
play kings of dragon pass.
Look up gloranthia
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Depends on what kind of east you want. North Eastern with Finnic peoples running about with reindeer and shit is a lot different than Balkans or Russia.
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How would you describe medieval Russian folklore?
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I think you mean: [a shit-ton of] humanoid monsters.
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depressing
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Unfortunately, I don't know anything about Russian folklore other than Baba Yaga and the evil spirit who killed people for working too hard in daylight via sunstrokes.
Depends what you mean by "folklore" because that can mean a lot of stuff. If you mean the stories of the Bogatyrs and Baba Yaga and the like, what shit is 100% epic high fantasy. If you're just talking the folkloric superstitions of the time, about shit like leshii and domovoi and upirs, that's more... not grounded, but darker and more about the supernatural forces that humans are at the mercy of. It'd be somewhat lower magic, and not as grandiose. Can't think of the right term for it off my head.
You mean the Poludnitsa, Lady Midday?
Not quite
Russian folklore is bittersweet
Imagine the ending of LOTR
Not the grey havens but when Frodo and Sam have just destroyed the ring and awaiting their doom while thinking about the shire
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I guess. It's been a while since I heard the story.
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Okay, so, ideas. Let's first establish: do we want high or low fantasy/high or low magic? Do we want a fantastical Thrice Ninth Kingom style setting, where many-headed dragons, shapeshifting knight-wizards, and cackling witches are all over the place? Or do we want a grimmer, pseudo-historical approach where the magic is dark, dangerous, and oozing up through the cracks in human society or crawling out of the cold, ominous forests like mist? Both are good approaches, but it's worth considering which you want.
Read a Czech or maybe Polish story about an adolescent girl who meets a beautiful blonde maiden who mysteriously appeared from the forest then enticed her to dance with her all day. The girl neglected her chores and worried about being punished but the strange girl magically finished them.
Same thing happened 3 times before the girl's mother said "my god, it was a noon-maiden! If you were a boy she would have killed you! Be grateful"
There was more to it but it had HUGE yuri vibes
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Nuh. That sounds more like a vila than a poludnitsa.
Huh.*
Why is Orthodox art so ballin'?
Built in either the 13th or 14th centuries.
Interesting
Are Vila normally lesbian man killers?
I thought they were like mermaids
Vila are more like fairies. Beautiful, enchanting female spirits seen in the woods or in mountain glades, who sing hypnotic songs and whose attentions may be beneficial or fatal, depending.
At a guess? They inherited more of the early Christian tradition, and never had the disruptions of the reformation or counter-reformation.
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You don't need folklore, Veeky Forumstory provides plenty of stories to create an Eastern European setting. Princess Olga comes to mind. Think a Princess isn't threatening? Guess again
Veeky Forumstorian here, from , and this image is really great considering all the various symbols and color choices the artist made when drawing the two sides. It really is cool and rather deep. Even the horses' colors
For a second I thought he had a boombox
This is why I need feminism
Look up Ravnica
The devil is a loser and quite an idiot in eastern european lore
Anyone with half a brain can trick him
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Im trying to include some slavic mythos into my campaign as well. Aside from a lot of the stuff mentioned here, i really want to work in this cartoon
youtube.com
its not based on any particular myth as far as i know but it was a favorite of my childhood and certainly has the slavic mythological feel
Also d&d 3.5 had a bunch of slavic monsters, i can dump them if anyone wants
It's was made by Armenians and has nothing to do with Eastern European folklore
nigga i said its not based on any particular myth, but you cant deny that it certainly feels like it could be a slavic myth
Night is a dangerous time, evil spirits become active when the sun is gone
Winter is an especially sinister time of year, not only due to cold but to the longer nights
>it could be a slavic myth
It's not but I'm Russian and other guys from Eastern Europe might disagree
Are Georgians and other caucasians considered part of eastern europe?
im russian too, the cartoon and the other armenian ones put out by the same company do share some themes and elements with russian folklore. supernatural animals helping people tormented by evil entities. Im not saying the monster or the fish are specific personalities from russian folklore, but the themes and tone are fitting.
Besides, it was a soviet era cartoon, there was a large amount of cultural overlap everywhere. so get over your russian nationalism dude
>slavic mythos
Usually no. Their culture is closer to Persians and Turks but not much, region is culturally insulated. There are hundreds of small tribes with own languages and customs.
I wonder what makes it feel slavic too you. I often see it when Witcher is mentioned, people point at each others regions as major inspiration for the setting. Western Europeans think it's heavily based on Slavic mythology, Eastern Europeans think it's based on Western folklore and Central Europe, Central Europe think it belongs somewhere else. It raises question what details feel weird and alien to different people.
>I wonder what makes it feel slavic too you.
supernatural helper animals, and the pigish face of the demon, mainly. Plus the fact that its in russian and i grew up with it helps. Honestly the main themes of this cartoon are general enough to fit the mythos of many cultures, but i see absolutely no reason why 'talking shapeshifter fish saves old peasant couple from chaos demon by using clever wordplay" wouldnt fit in the world of baba yaga, leshii, koshchei, and the rest.
The Witcher is a bizarre Frankenstein monster of a setting, mashing Western European influences (the way it depicts elves/dwarves, inclusion of various Nordic/Celtic elements) with more traditional Polish folklore, plus a bunch of stuff it just made up. At the end of the day it's mostly a stereotypical fantasy setting, though.
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Eastern European themes work best of there's something to contrast it with - the effect described in the quote can tell you that: it's still part of Europe, but it's harsher, more wild, the forests and nights are darker.
That sort of effect really benefits from something to be compared with, possibly through the use of a familiar element from your "west", like the Polish Catholic church
Also, if you want to get a slightly more modern theme in theme as well, the looming remains/small squabbling countries of a harsh (possibly secular and low magic) empire scattered around the place could be good - I saw it done fairly well in a couple of Prattchets late books, minor mentions of a defeated "Evil Empire" down uberwald way
>Requesting ideas for an eastern Europe setting
Juts go with the universaly negative slav stereotype. All of them are mentally inferior, dirt poor, ugly, alcoholic and bigoted savages (pic related) who squat on a good land that should belong to the noble men of the west.
Youn know you want to.
Aw man, this brings back memories, I have these books somewhere back home. Some of the fairy tales are fucking brutal though, they often ended with the villains being straight up executed. Like I still remember that one witch was hung
>There are many tales of great cities in lands far away. You will never get to see them.
Bullshit, characters travel to magical kingdoms all the time, this post wants the grim dark where there isn't one.
>Eastern European Fantasy
You want to travel to the city? You want to travel to the magical city of gold?
Go then, travel through the forests that hold death, fight against beasts that all wish your demise, hold on to hope until you see its walls.
Then get imprisoned when you enter the city, because the men of the city do not like your kind. They know not the struggle you fought to escape that hell. You are a beast to them, no better than the monsters' whose blood stains your clothing.
There are great cities in lands far away, but why take the chance that they are not so great?
Interesting bit:
There are roads you have to walk without ever looking back. If you look back something unspecified yet way worse than death will happen to you.
Anyone know of any good books that have a good collection of Finnish/Slavic tales and folklore?
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Slavs, adidas, cheap cigarettes and vodka, squatting, fake watches, gypsies stole your iphone
ok I haven't done any world building for a long time. I'm willing to spend time on this.
I vote for low magic. Shapeshifting knight-wizards can still exist and be end bosses controlling big portions of the land.
Like warhammer fantasy. Most people believe no skavens/demosn exist and most adventures are low level trash cleaning. But scarier shit exist in the background and it can fuck you up.
What do we want to do about the talking animals? Are they some special aimals? Do some people simply have the talent to speak with animals?
Armenian here. No, is right. Our ancient history is more linked to the near east and persia, and our culture is more or less a mix of that and our own, native stuff. The only we're even associated with eastern europe was soviet times.
Straight up Wuxia.
Curved
Swords
Talking animals are special and their origins are vaguely described. They have talent of human speech and talk to people they like. Everybody can hear them when they speak so animals usually talk to protagonists in private to hide their nature.
Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka aren't folklore
>implying curved swords aren't dopest thing ever
Fuck off
Witches get stitches and wind up in 6 foot ditches
Odd
The fantastical kingdoms tend to be hospitable if you're not a jerk
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Do we want them?
Uplifted servants of the nature spirits?
Name of the book? Googling the image just gives me the name of the fairy tale.
Chopping and hacking at certain creature will make things worsen
The impression I'm getting here is eastern european fantasy is low fantasy + nobledark
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Nah, there are definitely high fantasy stories in Eastern European folklore. Giant kingdoms ruled by noble kings and protected by noble warriors, dealing with dragons and Mongols attacking, plus stories of the Thrice Ninth Kingdom with its gleaming palaces of gold and crystal and the like.
Tell me moar
Not necessarily. See en.wikipedia.org
Well, take Ilya Muromets. His story is a classic high fantasy epic about a noble hero protecting a kingdom against an evil army of savage invaders. He fights monsters and has adventures, and it all leads to a climactic battle between huge armies, and the bad guys have a many-headed dragon on their side.
Tales of the Thrice Ninth kingdom are basically like Western European stories of Fairyland. It's a fantastical place, beyond the world we know, that hapless peasants and noble heroes alike can stumble into, and find it is full of talking animals, wicked witches, enchanted cities, etc.
How is this different to any other European folklore?
Honestly I'm Russian and I don't get the "russian folklore is depressing" meme. It has its ups and downs, and if Russian fairy tales appear brutal to you, then you haven't read the Grimms' Fairy Tales.
Reading the Bogatyr stories could be a good start.
>Tugarin has many different names in East Slavic mythology, such as Zmey Tugarin, Zmey Tugaretin, Zmeishche Tugarishche and others. Tugarin Zmeyevich is best known from a bylina about his duel with Alyosha Popovich, which comes in many different versions. When the two approach each other in a field, Tugarin is hissing like a snake and his horse is neighing like a beast. Tugarin's torso is covered with fiery snakes. It appears that Tugarin represents the element of fire, which he uses in different forms as a weapon. He threatens to strangle Alyosha Popovich with smoke, throw fiery sparks at him, scorch him with fire, and shoot charred logs at him. It also appears that Tugarin represents the element of water, because their duel usually takes place near the Safat River. At the same time, Tugarin is also a dragon. He is flying in the sky flapping his paper-like wings, which fail him when it rains.
>Some bylinas mention Tugarin's intimate relations with the wife of knyaz Vladimir. When she finds out about his death, she turns sad and reproaches Alyosha Popovich for separating her from her "dear friend".
Here's your BBEG.
I've always found it interesting how Eastern dragons, in addition to having many heads, are frequently associated with storms and rain, perhaps moreso than fire.
Not him, but an example of a bright high fantasy story would be the old legend of the Wawel Dragon. A dragon appears in the kingdom, terrorizes the country, eats up all the cattle, starts demanding tribute. Knight after knight tries to defeat him in vain. Finally a young shoemaker decides to give it a try, but instead of fighting directly he sets up a trap by filling a dead sheep with as much sulfur as he can fit inside and placing it in front of the lair. The greedy dragon comes out and swallows the sheep in one gulp. His throat and stomach start to burn horribly, so he immediately rushes to the nearby river and drinks. And drinks, and drinks, and drinks until the water can't fit inside anymore and he bursts. And everyone lived happily ever after.
Derp. I meant Eastern EUROPEAN dragons. Although it's interesting that Eastern/Asian dragons also tend to be associated with rain and water.
That's not a story unique to Eastern European traditions. There are a ton of British folktales, for example, about dragons being dispatched by cunning peasants using trickery and rustic know-how.