Writing Prompt Obscure real-world cultures/settings for an Isekai

[DesiRable]

Drawing upon @ViniPaiva25's thread; the pseudo-Medieval Europe setting's effectively the default staple setting for the majority of fantasy fiction, especially Isekais (with pseudo-feudal Japan and China occasionally featuring, and practically all others not featuring at all), and many voice their opinions that it feels increasingly tropey, dull, boring, stale, unoriginal and overdone. But one of the problems is that, quite frankly, they're the only historical pre-industrial civilizations and societies that most fantasy authors have any half-decent knowledge of, (i.e, beyond the knowledge that such-and-such civilization/kingdom/empire existed at all). And as such, here's a writing prompt thread where you can nominate any relatively obscure non-European historical societies, cultures and civilizations which you'd like to see used as a basis/template for an Isekai setting. Any ideas?

 

[Biggest-Kusa-Out-There]

But... who is forcing authors to write a pre-industralization fantasy world? 'Industrial civilization' doesn't directly translate into rampant capitalism and environmental contamination. That's how it went for us because we only had coal and stuff to make things work. Medieval-inspired fantasy is usually terribly written imo. If you build a world that's not earth, build it from the big bang. Why take Earth as a basis at all?

 

[Kitsura]

Would love to see a maya/slav/Hindu/African sort of isekai but obv that wouldn’t be as popular

 

[DarkGodEM]

Drawing upon @ViniPaiva25's thread; the pseudo-Medieval Europe setting's effectively the default staple setting for the majority of fantasy fiction, especially Isekais (with pseudo-feudal Japan and China occasionally featuring, and practically all others not featuring at all), and many voice their opinions that it feels increasingly tropey, dull, boring, stale, unoriginal and overdone. But one of the problems is that, quite frankly, they're the only historical pre-industrial civilizations and societies that most fantasy authors have any half-decent knowledge of, (i.e, beyond the knowledge that such-and-such civilization/kingdom/empire existed at all). And as such, here's a writing prompt thread where you can nominate any relatively obscure non-European historical societies, cultures and civilizations which you'd like to see used as a basis/template for an Isekai setting. Any ideas?

I made a Pseudo Medieval/Renaissance Europe in one novel, but focusing on lesser known details of west european countries and culture.

A colonial south american story would be fun, but the slavery/cruelty would make it a redo of healer style novel. And you can't write that period without blatant racial bias... not exactly what works for webnovels

 

[Plantorsomething]

Gonna put stuff down for inspiration/get the ball rolling.
There is a cop urban fantasy philopino Netflix anime that was pretty aight. ATLA (avatar) had a fuck ton of different inspirations. Places like Native American and stuff just have less known history to work with for most people in general, so it’s pretty difficult. Rick Riordan did an egyptian urban fantasy but it didn’t take off as much as his other works. There’s also Raya and Moana for East Asian and Hawaiian(I think) respectively. There are also many Korean web novels (I just got into Kidnapped Dragons and it’s pretty good) and Manhwas’ that are obvs heavily influenced by korea.
It’s hard, because fantasy has pretty much become intertwined with old Europe and it’s familiar to a lot of (American as far as I know) people now. Non European stuff would be hard to get into cuz they’re not used to it and don’t know what to expect from it.

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

Well tbh, I think a couple of Isekai do have some other cultures based on the real world aside from what you stated, just that they're delegated to a desert arc XD.
What makes me wonder is how little magic plays a part, with magic there should be a sort of "magical industrialization", in a lot of high fantasy magic can easily replicate modern utilities, so magical civs should have specced into them. (Creating fire from mana or whatever is a great renewable source of energy). Widely-used magic should spark an industrial revolution tbh.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

But... who is forcing authors to write a pre-industralization fantasy world? 'Industrial civilization' doesn't directly translate into rampant capitalism and environmental contamination. That's how it went for us because we only had coal and stuff to make things work. Medieval-inspired fantasy is usually terribly written imo. If you build a world that's not earth, build it from the big bang. Why take Earth as a basis at all?

Cuz its familiar.

I mean we could make a world from scratch. I've seen Brent Weeks and Brandon Sanderson do that very well. But I'm lazy and dont like to think too much. In mainly a comedy writer anyway, so yeah. I dont out in all too much effort into world building. I shine mainly with characters and interactions.

 

[Jemini]

I'm in the middle of making a bronze-age set Isekai based off of the original lore of several cultures, but most heavily borrowing from elements of Sumerian from which I ripped the entire Enuma Elis and took my own take on it along with making Tiamat's children the gods of my world, and Chinese from which I took the guardians of the 4 corners of the world. I also have Avitars and Bahamut, who are from Hindu mythology (and portrayed a lot closer to their respective original forms than most writers tend to portray them.)

Spoiler: rant

Seriously, I think Terry Pratchett and his disk world series is ironically the only case of someone getting Bahamut right. He's not a dragon. He's a freaking fish, but if you want to be generous then it is perfectly viable to interpret him as a turtle. Definitely not a dragon though, that's stretching things too far.

The only reason people think of Bahamut as a dragon these days is because of D&D, and the reason D&D portrayed him as a dragon is because they looked at Tiamat and Bahamut and zeroed in on that "mat" and "mut" part of their names and thought they should make them oppositional to each other. Thus, they took these two incredibly powerful primordial level beings that are stronger than all the gods combined in their own respective lore, turned them both into dragons who happened to be mid-tier demigods just because they were the leaders of the good and evil sides of the dragon race, and then made them creatures the players could casually encounter on epic level campaigns.

It is more or less a heavy mix of original lores, but the important point for this discussion is the fact that it is very much set in the bronze age with even worse technology than your usual medieval Europe set world.

(If Mushoku Tensei is any indication, a fantasy-set story actually is made a LOT more interesting if the author limits magi-technology to such an extent that the hinderance can be plainly felt by the main cast's inability to do a lot of things that are easily available in other fantasy stories. For instance, using MT as the example, teleportation and the ability to restore lost mana are both non-options for much of that series, and those limitations add a LOT to the tension in the story.)

 

[CupcakeNinja]

I'm in the middle of making a bronze-age set Isekai based off of the original lore of several cultures, but most heavily borrowing from elements of Sumerian from which I ripped the entire Enuma Elis and took my own take on it along with making Tiamat's children the gods of my world, and Chinese from which I took the guardians of the 4 corners of the world. I also have Avitars and Bahamut, who are from Hindu mythology (and portrayed a lot closer to their respective original forms than most writers tend to portray them. Seriously, I think Terry Pratchett and his disk world series is ironically the only case of someone getting Bahamut right. He's not a dragon. He's a freaking fish, but if you want to be generous then it is perfectly viable to interpret him as a turtle. Definitely not a dragon though, that's stretching things too far.)

It is more or less a heavy mix of original lores, but the important point for this discussion is the fact that it is very much set in the bronze age with even worse technology than your usual medieval Europe set world.

(If Mushoku Tensei is any indication, a fantasy-set story actually is made a LOT more interesting if the author limits magi-technology to such an extent that the hinderance can be plainly felt by the main cast's inability to do a lot of things that are easily available in other fantasy stories. For instance, using MT as the example, teleportation and the ability to restore lost mana are both non-options for much of that series, and those limitations add a LOT to the tension in the story.)

Alot of that is due to being lazy. Motivated writers can work with thos restrictions well, but I would probably get impatient

 

[Ddraig]

I'm in the middle of making a bronze-age set Isekai based off of the original lore of several cultures

That actually kinda sounds interesting...

Another interesting setting could be of silk road merchants, like you can start the story in med europe (and you have a decent timeframe to decide which kind of med europe you want) but then move on to like multiple other cultures like Arab, India, China etc. Plus the return trip and you have a perfect start, end and middle points for your story. Every next civ or even the travels between them can be an story arc or something.

This also lets you explore other cultures without knowing everything about them and stuff

An alt for similiar idea could be after Alexander campaign going xd in India. So like after Alexander dies, or maybe during Maurya period of India or something dont remember exactly.

 

[Jemini]

That actually kinda sounds interesting...

Another interesting setting could be of silk road merchants, like you can start the story in med europe (and you have a decent timeframe to decide which kind of med europe you want) but then move on to like multiple other cultures like Arab, India, China etc. Plus the return trip and you have a perfect start, end and middle points for your story. Every next civ or even the travels between them can be an story arc or something.

This also lets you explore other cultures without knowing everything about them and stuff

An alt for similiar idea could be after Alexander campaign going xd in India. So like after Alexander dies, or maybe during Gupta period of India or something dont remember exactly.

Yeah, pilgrimage and journey-home stories are another premise that has traditionally done rather well, although I suspect most of this has more to do with the crazy high bar for entry. I mean, seeing and experiencing all these different cultures along the journey is good and all, but I can tell you that it takes a REALLY skilled author to world-build to that extent.

Once you have an author that skilled in world-building, these pilgrimage or journey-home stories (2 different premises to establish the same effect) become a very basic and understandable plot premise that allows the author to show off the wonderful world they have built. And, if the author is just as skilled at building characters as they are at building the world, it usually tends to work out.

William Chaucer's "The Canterberry Tales" would be the famous earliest known example of this premise in story telling, although that was set in the real world on a real pilgrimage that was frequently taken by a lot of people in those days. The driving point in Chaucer's story was less about showing off the locations and more about setting up some examples of characters he felt were good examples of various roles in society of his day. You can also tell he didn't like the church all that much by the way he portrayed the Summoner and the Pardoner.

 

[SakeVision]

I am Isekaid to 1990's Sierra Leone and They Got Me Addicted to Drugs so I Don't Have to Feel Guilty About Shooting Villages Up and My Only Entertainment is Watching 1980's Action Movies and Literally Playing Rambo in the Middle of the Actual Battlefield!?!?!!?

 

[Biggest-Kusa-Out-There]

Cuz its familiar.

I mean we could make a world from scratch. I've seen Brent Weeks and Brandon Sanderson do that very well. But I'm lazy and dont like to think too much. In mainly a comedy writer anyway, so yeah. I dont out in all too much effort into world building. I shine mainly with characters and interactions.

I'm not saying not to consider Earth as basis for familiarity. I mean social/cultural progression can't be the same in a usual fantasy setting. It branches since tribal times if not before that.
Comedy is more permissive as the objective is not immersion but the funny situations, and a completely alien culture would have different jokes/humor.

btw, what happened to the colors, Your Holyness?

Would love to see a maya/slav/Hindu/African sort of isekai but obv that wouldn’t be as popular

For slavs it'd actually be 'easier' since we have fantasy settings of slav culture in popular media. Especially the best RPG ever done, The Witcher 3.

 

[K5Rakitan]

Aché - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Arkus86]

Well tbh, I think a couple of Isekai do have some other cultures based on the real world aside from what you stated, just that they're delegated to a desert arc XD.
What makes me wonder is how little magic plays a part, with magic there should be a sort of "magical industrialization", in a lot of high fantasy magic can easily replicate modern utilities, so magical civs should have specced into them. (Creating fire from mana or whatever is a great renewable source of energy). Widely-used magic should spark an industrial revolution tbh.

Well, it took us around 4-5000 years from the forming of the first civilisation to the start of industrial revolution, with progress comparatively slow in that period, and I would argue that high convenience and abduance of magic would make this even slower, as magitech would be largely considered unnecessary, superfluous.

 

[Vnator]

Would love to see a maya/slav/Hindu/African sort of isekai but obv that wouldn’t be as popular

Yes please! I have an idea for a story that makes use of the chinese xianxia with mythological India at the same time, essentially a mountain range splitting the two. Coming up with how their power systems interact and service from mostly the same source will also take some time.

Also with the research I've done so far, the Ramayana from Hindu mythology is technically the basis for your stereotypical japanese fantasy of a chosen hero fighting against a demon lord. Probably got carried over through Buddhism, but it's nice to get at the source to see how it was there.

 

[Ediav42]

Can see if this amusing video gives any inspiration:

 

[Biggest-Kusa-Out-There]

Well, it took us around 4-5000 years from the forming of the first civilisation to the start of industrial revolution, with progress comparatively slow in that period, and I would argue that high convenience and abduance of magic would make this even slower, as magitech would be largely considered unnecessary, superfluous.

But why? Why would it be considered unnecesary in the first place? First you have to decide how available magic is, how magical the world itself is. Is water/trees/stone magical as well? Does mana permeate everything? Is food also magical? Do monsters exist, replacing regular animals? Is survival more demanding than in our world thus the need to develop magitech more urgent? Is coal and oil a subpar energy source? Does coal even exist in the first place? Is every settlement surrounded by walls to avoid monsters thus the population can't grow as comfortably?

Challenge and need would be different, and developing tools wouldn't be "superfluous" at all. True, a smartphone would be useless, but solar pannels or something that absorbs ambient magic would be pretty high on the list of things to develop. Gather water from rivers/rain/dew = gather mana with some tree that absorbs it well and you have an energy source later. Don't compare our development to a fantasy world where there are more factors to consider.

 

[DesiRable]

But why? Why would it be considered unnecesary in the first place? First you have to decide how available magic is, how magical the world itself is. Is water/trees/stone magical as well? Does mana permeate everything? Is food also magical? Do monsters exist, replacing regular animals? Is survival more demanding than in our world thus the need to develop magitech more urgent? Is coal and oil a subpar energy source? Does coal even exist in the first place? Is every settlement surrounded by walls to avoid monsters thus the population can't grow as comfortably?

Challenge and need would be different, and developing tools wouldn't be "superfluous" at all. True, a smartphone would be useless, but solar pannels or something that absorbs ambient magic would be pretty high on the list of things to develop. Gather water from rivers/rain/dew = gather mana with some tree that absorbs it well and you have an energy source later. Don't compare our development to a fantasy world where there are more factors to consider.

Think about all of the extra factors, though. Can everyone use magic equally, or can only a share of the population wield it? How controlled is the use and tutelage of magic? How does this affect social mobility as a result? Which religious beliefs and taboos are there concerning magic, and/or magitech- is it deemed heretical and/or sacrilegious? Are there 'Dark Arts' which are forbidden from being explored or used due to moral/ethical concerns- how much potential is there for a particular branch of magical technology to be abused and misused, and does this magical society have any laws in place to curtail such abuse and misuse?

Take your "solar panels or something that absorbs ambient magic", for example- if it does so actively, and magic is not limitlessly abundant and available, then couldn't this magitech wind up permanently depleting and draining all of the magic in a given radius, including the ambient magic possessed by all of the people unfortunate enough to be within its area of effect? Perhaps even permanently depleting all of the magic in the entire world over time? Couldn't the environmental fallout and health risks caused by this sort of magitech wind up being far greater and more damaging than the use of fossil fuel and/or nuclear weapons IRL?

 

[Ddraig]

Yeah, pilgrimage and journey-home stories are another premise that has traditionally done rather well, although I suspect most of this has more to do with the crazy high bar for entry. I mean, seeing and experiencing all these different cultures along the journey is good and all, but I can tell you that it takes a REALLY skilled author to world-build to that extent.

Once you have an author that skilled in world-building, these pilgrimage or journey-home stories (2 different premises to establish the same effect) become a very basic and understandable plot premise that allows the author to show off the wonderful world they have built. And, if the author is just as skilled at building characters as they are at building the world, it usually tends to work out.

William Chaucer's "The Canterberry Tales" would be the famous earliest known example of this premise in story telling, although that was set in the real world on a real pilgrimage that was frequently taken by a lot of people in those days. The driving point in Chaucer's story was less about showing off the locations and more about setting up some examples of characters he felt were good examples of various roles in society of his day. You can also tell he didn't like the church all that much by the way he portrayed the Summoner and the Pardoner.

Yeah that is true. That being said if someone were to try this, their world building might suck a bit at start (and getting carried by med europe at first coz that is where the start is) but like after a few arcs, there world building would genuinely improve a lot.

I also just realized Avatar is similarly a story about a journey and expecting something like that might be a bit too much >.>

That being said in my silk road premise, I would probably add some fantasy, low magic elements and mythological demons/gods/creatures/stuff - probably an bastardized representation of them. Add some economics and action, sprinkle in some good ol' harem (or not?) and you are golden ~

Also with the research I've done so far, the Ramayana from Hindu mythology is technically the basis for your stereotypical japanese fantasy of a chosen hero fighting against a demon lord. Probably got carried over through Buddhism, but it's nice to get at the source to see how it was there.

That is one way too look at it, and I guess it does boil down to that if we summarize it in a single sentence. Both the epics are much more than that though ~

And even Ramayan is a story about journey >.> Um... <.<

Take your "solar panels or something that absorbs ambient magic", for example- if it does so actively, and magic is not limitlessly abundant and available, then couldn't this magitech wind up permanently depleting and draining all of the magic in a given radius, including the ambient magic possessed by all of the people unfortunate enough to be within its area of effect? Perhaps even permanently depleting all of the magic in the entire world over time? Couldn't the environmental fallout and health risks caused by this sort of magitech wind up being far greater and more damaging than the use of fossil fuel and/or nuclear weapons IRL?

> Implying humans think about future consequences ever before doing stuff
> And no, magic or not, progress occurs ~