> I very much like the idea of Western magic being something like Kabbala, something like Neo-Platonism. Of course this does mean that their wizards actually are quite a bit like Medieval wizards, or at least Renaissance ones, who tended to mix all this stuff in with the general syncretic mess of stuff they favoured.
Or like Plotinus and classical Neo-Platonists. Or like actual Kabbalists, who were nothing like the silly Christian Kabbalists of the Renaissance.
> I really like the Kabbala element there - the runes aren't the same as sephiroth, but there are inspirational parallels.
Yes. BTW, the Middle-Sea Empire book Greg and I did is filled with those sorts of parallels.
> Jonatings - I am fairly sure I am not alone in not alone in not understanding what the relevant details are in a culture that is described as being like medieval Lithuania, but NOT like Medieval Russia. I was under the impression that Lithuania and Russia are not just physically close, but culturally fairly similar. Could you elucidate the differences that you are getting at here?
Sorry - that's probably a byproduct of the combination of living in Berlin (Baltic history is a lot more relevant here than in the UK, the States, or Australia), and that my gaming group includes an archeologist who specializes in pre-medieval Lithuania for the Neus Museum. As I said, those are my internal notes and have references that might not be readily understandable.
But here's the thing - the Lithuanian ruling class did not convert to Christianity until the end of the Medieval period (14th century) and the peasants maintained their traditional pre-Christian polytheistic religion well into the 16th century (there was no persecution of pagan priests until the Counter-Reformation). So what you ended up with throughout the Medieval period was a ruling class either pagan or superficially Christian, advised by Catholic and Orthodox priests, and with a pagan peasantry. That's not Russia.
Jeff
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