Nations to Nations... WOT nations compared to real world nations

[Dagon Thyne]

I don't think it's really set in stone which nations are counterpart to which ones on earth.

 

 

Yep, each one of them is a mixture of familiar traits of our nations, and several new. None of the WoT nations are good matches, just partial ones. I've seen this topic brought up before, and some people try to read maybe too much into it which can result in absurdity or unnecessary arguments. I just try to enjoy the ambiguity of some of these traits.. and I think RJ wanted us to speculate about what was on purpose and what was not. I seriously doubt he wanted to make any unambiguous political statements.

 

There are a few of them that are very close.....Shienar is very much based directly on Japan, with the Samurai like culture for warriors, and public baths. That is one of the few times when a nation is based primarily on a single culture.

[nolirion]

While I know RJ mixed and matched to make the nations their own, I still think a lot of them line up really well with real world nations. Here is an initial list I came up with:

 

Andor = England

Cairhein = France (shorter, never seem able to defend their city)

Tear = Spain (Darker skinned, coastal country, oiled pointy beards)

Tarabon = Persia (Style of dress, veils)

Illian = Not sure. maybe Itally

Mayene = Manaco (Small city-state, surrounded by much bigger country)

Aiel = Scandanavian physically, American indian culturally.

 

There are others, and would like to hear how correct or off you guys think I am.

 

I would say that the Aiel are closer to Muslim or Arabic culture.

 

Huh? Aiel women are respected and empowered, they have a place in their society.

In true Arabic culture women have a lot of power in fact the Arabic culture gave right to women long before occidental did .

 

 

Andor = England

Cairhein = France (shorter, never seem able to defend their city)

The Lilith flower Sigil of Elayne if I recall is the emblem for royalty in france ., and never able to defend a city ?

I love how people reduced french military to the two world war , Just love it .

[Dagon Thyne]

While I know RJ mixed and matched to make the nations their own, I still think a lot of them line up really well with real world nations. Here is an initial list I came up with:

 

Andor = England

Cairhein = France (shorter, never seem able to defend their city)

Tear = Spain (Darker skinned, coastal country, oiled pointy beards)

Tarabon = Persia (Style of dress, veils)

Illian = Not sure. maybe Itally

Mayene = Manaco (Small city-state, surrounded by much bigger country)

Aiel = Scandanavian physically, American indian culturally.

 

There are others, and would like to hear how correct or off you guys think I am.

 

I would say that the Aiel are closer to Muslim or Arabic culture.

 

Huh? Aiel women are respected and empowered, they have a place in their society.

 

In Ancient Arab culture, women were given a place of respect. Before islam was formed.

[MasterAblar]

The Lilith flower Sigil of Elayne if I recall is the emblem for royalty in france ., and never able to defend a city ?

I love how people reduced french military to the two world war , Just love it .

 

Yeah the Fleur-de-Lys.

 

Just to the Second World War actually, and a pretty bad understanding of it anyway. Paris was successfully defended twice in the first, at the two battles of the Marne, 1914 and 1918, not to mention all the other ghastly battles fought in the war. The battlefield of Verdun is essentially one massive graveyard now.

[thisguy]

While I know RJ mixed and matched to make the nations their own, I still think a lot of them line up really well with real world nations. Here is an initial list I came up with:

 

Andor = England

Cairhein = France (shorter, never seem able to defend their city)

Tear = Spain (Darker skinned, coastal country, oiled pointy beards)

Tarabon = Persia (Style of dress, veils)

Illian = Not sure. maybe Itally

Mayene = Manaco (Small city-state, surrounded by much bigger country)

Aiel = Scandanavian physically, American indian culturally.

 

There are others, and would like to hear how correct or off you guys think I am.

 

I would say that the Aiel are closer to Muslim or Arabic culture.

 

 

The American Indian culture would be connected to some of the tribal peoples in Seanchan

Aside from their headgear, I don't see anything that is Arabic or Muslim about them. I guess the fact that they live in a desert...

[Suttree]

While I know RJ mixed and matched to make the nations their own, I still think a lot of them line up really well with real world nations. Here is an initial list I came up with:

 

Andor = England

Cairhein = France (shorter, never seem able to defend their city)

Tear = Spain (Darker skinned, coastal country, oiled pointy beards)

Tarabon = Persia (Style of dress, veils)

Illian = Not sure. maybe Itally

Mayene = Manaco (Small city-state, surrounded by much bigger country)

Aiel = Scandanavian physically, American indian culturally.

 

There are others, and would like to hear how correct or off you guys think I am.

 

I would say that the Aiel are closer to Muslim or Arabic culture.

 

 

The American Indian culture would be connected to some of the tribal peoples in Seanchan

Aside from their headgear, I don't see anything that is Arabic or Muslim about them. I guess the fact that they live in a desert...

 

Per RJ the Aiel were based off a combination of...

 

Cheyenne, Apache, Zulu, Bedouin, Japanese, Berbers (RJ)

 

This breaks it down a bit more.

 

http://www.steelypip...s/node/163.html

[wcbrooks]

I don't think it's really set in stone which nations are counterpart to which ones on earth.

 

 

Yep, each one of them is a mixture of familiar traits of our nations, and several new. None of the WoT nations are good matches, just partial ones. I've seen this topic brought up before, and some people try to read maybe too much into it which can result in absurdity or unnecessary arguments. I just try to enjoy the ambiguity of some of these traits.. and I think RJ wanted us to speculate about what was on purpose and what was not. I seriously doubt he wanted to make any unambiguous political statements.

 

There are a few of them that are very close.....Shienar is very much based directly on Japan, with the Samurai like culture for warriors, and public baths. That is one of the few times when a nation is based primarily on a single culture.

 

Except in Japan majority of the Public Baths are separated by Gender, while the Shienar public baths are mixed (recalling this from memory when Rand had women enter the bath). I think Russian Public Baths or Banya is a shared one.

[wcbrooks]

As others in this thread (and all over) have stated, RJ pulled from a multitude of sources to create his nations...from across all known history and cultures, so we shouldn't get too hung up on trying to pin down what inspired what, exactly. This kind of worldbuilding was what RJ was the master of. The verisimilitude is almost instant, but there's also plenty left to surprise us as we dig further into each culture.

 

Needless to say, as a young fellah many, many moons ago creating AD&D worlds...Jordan was right up at the top of the list when it came to worldbuilding inspiration.

 

Totally agree

[driedraspberry]

I Googled Berbers and I'm seeing some Tinkker resemblance in the clothes, well mainly the bright colors. :) Otherwise, I see a lot of Andalusian and gypsy influence.

 

http://mathildasanthropologyblog.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/berbers.jpg