#And/Or took the cultural diversity of medieval europe (esp early medieval) into account like… at all

[serpentface]

What is the purpose of this world building project? For funs or like a book? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fantasy book based in a world that’s so culture based that it feels real, one’s based in like old traditional medieval times. That don’t follow typical European type of fantasy. If you get what I mean.

It’s mostly for fun. There is a core story ‘Blightseed’ that I briefly attempted to make a comic of but is now unlikely to exist in that form if at all. There’s also two side stories, one of which I am attempting to write into a finished project. I don’t have a name but it’s kind of a prequel to blightseed.

It’s about Wardi empire internal politics, a previous Odomache (a high ranking general and religious figure, considered an avatar of God) is captured, desecrated and killed by North Finns struggling against Wardi imperial rule. After this happens, the rainy seasons fail for 7 years, the longest drought in memory. This is seen in Wardin as God’s connection to the empire and the earth being severed. A bunch of monks and soldiers are sent on a pilgrimage to sacrifice seven great beasts at the supposed site of creation to bring back God and Its Odomache avatar.

It’s functionally a road trip comedy.

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Also there’s PLENTY of authors and artists making fantasy and worldbuilding projects that arent just medieval europe or Tolkien, though not nearly enough penetrate the mainstream. Definitely worth expanding your horizons!

One series I read this year and really like is Marlon James’ Dark Star trilogy (Black Leopard Red Wolf, Moon Witch Spider King are out as of now). It’s kind of hard to give a summary of but its a dense dreamlike quest narrative (kind of) against a backdrop of political conflict in two warring kingdoms. It’s setting is based around the pre-colonial African continent and a variety of its folklore. Each book tells part of the same story from a different perspective without feeling repetitive, and both have unreliable narrators in a way that I think is interesting and makes them complement each other effectively. Though fyi read a content warning guide if you have basically any common violence/abuse triggers (especially for BLRW). It’s very brutal.

Also recently read ‘She Who Became the Sun’ by Shelly Parker-Chan, which is more historical fiction than fantasy (outside of a few very lite magical elements) but worth mentioning. It’s about the rise of the Hongwu Emperor, who in this story was born a girl and assumes her brother’s identity and fate upon his death.

These are both history based fantasy but theres also authors who are doing the same kind of thing as me where there’s no direct 1:1 historical basis for the cultures and settings. Can’t think of anything published off the top of my head but it absolutely exists.

Edit: this seems potentially promising for non-western fantasy recs