Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 spellweaver Oct 27, 2004 13:48:46	I got to thinking what the mixing of and interaction between Known World cultures might lead to? Some examples: 1) The spread of the worship of certain immortals, e.g. Al-Kalim in Ierendi and Odin in Thyatis. 2) Food and drink might become cross-cultural in borderlands between nations and in all major cities. 3) Games, sports and other customs such as sharing a meal with strangers, welcoming guests with a drink, entertaining with stories etc. might spread from one nation to another. 4) National attitude. Thyatis is a prime example of this. They quickly adopt the best of conquered civilisations and add it to their own. 5) Centres of learning and knowledge. The Darokin Diplomatic Corps gathers knowledge about enginering, crafts and trade from all over and bring it back to Darokin. Thus, Darokin is one of the nations that qualifies for the renaissance cultural feat from the Lighthouse Website. What else? :-) Jesper
#2 Hugin Oct 27, 2004 18:22:11	I got to thinking what the mixing of and interaction between Known World cultures might lead to? The Lupin thread made me think about the same thing and I almost posted on it. IMCs I like using a more "historical" flavour when it comes to cultural interactions; most don't like to. Much of it has to do with cultural barriers such as language, preferences, and customs. That's the reason most cities have a "foreign quarter"; take the Dwarven Quarter in Darokin City for example. This doesn't have to be in a negative way, as happened many times throughout our history, but there is a sense of "we are a great people and if you'd like to come live with us we have reserved seating for you". D&D is a game in which the PCs encounter many moral decisions and I think their stand on anti-racism is a point in which most of them would naturally shine. Of course, not all cultures have an "our culture is fine the way it is" ideal. Thyatis is definately a sponge culture, absorbing customs of others, as is Darokin to a fair degree. But, most commoners see their culture as better and hold that predjudice even though it doesn't usually show itself as in-your-face. This can serve as a background force that can create wars and even adventures for the PCs (think of Davinos' Complaint from gaz 1). Over on the MML I read some cool posts about the uniqueness of Mystara. One of the main points was that it is not a mainly good vs. evil world but rather things are much more grey and often depend on your point of veiw. A great example was given there about how the Alfheim gaz portrays the Shadowelves as evil, etc. and then the Shadowelves gaz comes out and showed how this wasn't true of the vast majority of them. This is why I think PCs, as adventurers with a much broader point of veiw then the commoners with their narrow veiw of the world, would be greatly more accepting of any culture and not base such veiws on one bad seed. So, any mixing of cultural aspects in most of the Known World would be a slow process just because of tradition and sense of ethnic pride. And as I said, this doesn't have to be in a negative sense. I'd be interested in other's thoughts on this. Oh, and Jesper, good thoughts. Number 2 really got me thinking about how towns on borders could give PCs some surprises!