#Roman empire but with some other bits of history (later in feudalism; a Muslim character) and ahistorical stuff (Camelot) thrown in

[deanmarywinchester]

really really enjoy how The Bright Sword depicts post-Arthurian britain as this once colonized, twice abandoned place. like it was conquered and then abandoned by the romans, who remade the aristocracy and language in their image and christianized the country and left behind works of engineering that would not be replicated for a thousand-plus years. then it was this land of christian miracles held together by Arthur and God, and then God abandoned the country and those kinds of miracles were never seen again

and the book explicitly plays with the connections between the Roman Empire and Christian/monarchist power, mentioning that some crackpots believe in the eventual return of the Roman Empire the way that people believe Arthur will return some day, and having the protagonist marvel at roman mining machinery that seems impossible to believe could have ever worked the way he marvels at stories of the Quest for the Grail

not 100% sure where this is going but it’s very effective for being a story about how the age of heroes is dead, because the age of wonders and power is sort of twice dead.