Bay 12 Games Forum

Finally... => General Discussion => Topic started by: axiomsofdominion on January 06, 2022, 10:01:37 pm

Title: Any good historical blogs focusing on non-roman history or unique times/places?
Post by: axiomsofdominion on January 06, 2022, 10:01:37 pm
If you've checked other games you know I'm making a game that while fantasy tries to be able to simulate any given time or place up to the middle of the Victorian Era. I've been looking for non-wiki in-depth info in a mid-level complexity format, something like Brett Devereaux's history blog but just not Roman-focused, to make sure the systems are flexible enough for a wide range of political, military, administrative, and cultural set ups.

Google has been really failing to turn up strong results for me though I've connected to a few ancient history forums to see if they can help. I know Bay12 has some top quality nerds. Anyone have some good recommendations? Anything about medieval Albania or Poland prior to the PLC for instance. Or 900-1200 era Russian stuff like the grand duchies?
Title: Re: Any good historical blogs focusing on non-roman history or unique times/places?
Post by: delphonso on January 06, 2022, 10:30:45 pm
I asked a dnd group and they sent me this book. (http://www.hungarianhistory.com/lib/halecki/halecki.pdf) Central Eastern Europe (Hungary mostly), though maybe only the first few chapters are in the time-frame you're looking at.
Title: Re: Any good historical blogs focusing on non-roman history or unique times/places?
Post by: EuchreJack on January 07, 2022, 04:40:13 am
Nice book, but it makes me sad in regards to current events in that I worry that parts of Eastern Europe are going back to being controlled by the descendants of the Soviets.
Title: Re: Any good historical blogs focusing on non-roman history or unique times/places?
Post by: axiomsofdominion on January 07, 2022, 08:57:07 am
I asked a dnd group and they sent me this book. (http://www.hungarianhistory.com/lib/halecki/halecki.pdf) Central Eastern Europe (Hungary mostly), though maybe only the first few chapters are in the time-frame you're looking at.

Ah something slavic/steppe adjacent was on my list so I'll definitely read that. I get responses a lot of places saying we just don't have much outside rome and western europe. Sad times.
Title: Re: Any good historical blogs focusing on non-roman history or unique times/places?
Post by: anewaname on January 07, 2022, 02:20:51 pm
Are you looking for places where you can interact and ask questions, so that you can arrive at an better understanding of specific civilizations or cultures?

I mean... there is a decent outline of the Albanian timeline in wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_Albania), which includes many book references, and some of the authors have published recently, so you might be able to find additional media released by those authors, or find places where information is talked about by searching for those authors or books.
Title: Re: Any good historical blogs focusing on non-roman history or unique times/places?
Post by: delphonso on January 07, 2022, 07:25:20 pm
That dnd group continued with suggesting some of the usuals like Guns, Germs, and Steel - and also suggest just searching for podcasts. The way of the blog is pretty dead, but certainly there would be something out there.
Title: Re: Any good historical blogs focusing on non-roman history or unique times/places?
Post by: EuchreJack on January 08, 2022, 06:01:02 pm
Uh, play Darklands (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darklands_(video_game))?
They were decent enough to at least marginally include Greater Germany, which included Poland and other Slavic lands.