10-01-2010, 02:14 PM
Havard Wrote:Ethnicity/Physical: East European, Bulgarian, Gypsy
Culture: Arabic Nomads/Sarmatians/Scythians
Beliefs: Native Americans
Technology: European/Middle Eastern medieval (13th C)
-Havard
Ethnically, I think they must be distinctive in both appearance and language, judging by thier names and the general sense I get from RJK's story and the FFC. I'm thinking tan skin and brown/black hair but I wouldn't necessatily pin them any more specifically to any real popuations than that.
Culture - not seeing much relevance of arabs here, though I do get the Dune connections in Blackmoor generally. Nobody has mentioned the Mongols or Huns, surely horse and warrior centered cultures. Ostrogoths, the inspiration for the Rohirrim deserve a mention too.
Belief- Plains Indian? Okay, good as any.
Tech - Early medieval "Hun" level seems reasonable and portable, but high medieval "Knightly" level tech seems like it would be impractical and unnatractive to horse nomads. OTOH they could likely get anything through trade.
In general the Huns might be a rich model to draw on as elemets of scythians, Mongol, and Germanic peoples are mixed in there.