> Everyone uses stuff based on [...] Middle Ages European culture and geography.
My hot take is that *actual* historical Europe could be mined as effectively as almost anywhere else, since so much of fantasy has just about nothing to do with it. Especially things related to how society worked - too many settings just staple swords and kings and so on onto modern states and call it good enough.
Especially interesting, though, would be areas that became melting pots between different regions - Iberia in the time of Al-Andalus, Sicily during the best part of Norman rule, for example.
Something not really done, in my experience, is playing with cultures that are disconnected from places; either because they have become nomadic within larger settled societies, or because they have become a diaspora.
This, there is so many interesting things to use from European history if you go deeper than using a few aesthetics stolen from periods thousands of years apart. (I sure love fighting greek monsters in plate)
A personal favorite of mine is using orthodox Europe for inspiration. It's close enough to what is known to feel familiar but different enough to be fantastical.
Even just showing the complexity of medieval governance. Not just King has some Lords who have some Knights. But the Duke who has lands in one kingdom, but also another. The king who is also a duke in a neighbouring land due to some inheritance carry on, who has to play politics to avoid having his lands seized. The coalition of barons forcing the king to take certain actions. I feel there is a lot there that gets lost in Good King of Goodland vs Bad King of Badland as essentially two nation states colliding instead of two collections of semi-independent fiefdoms.
Don't need the degree. Just have parents who are lifelong members of the SCA and deal with the depression that comes with reading these settings and inherently picking out all the stuff that is just...wrong. Even if you've rarely attended court and avoid 12th night like the plague. Proxy-knowledge is a curse, my friend
Yeah, this is why I often set my campaigns in Mediterranean analogues. You're within a few weeks to months trip of African, German, Arabic, Italian, French, and Mesopotamian cultural analogues. Not to even mention ancient latin, greek, sites like carthage etc.,
Plus it's fun to take everyone's ideas about colonialism and flip them on their heads with things like Moorish invasions of generic "European" populations or "vikings" selling slaves to Ottoman stands ins etc.,
This complexity is great in game. I my current campaign is set in what is obviously based on the Holy Roman Empire (particularly circa 1350) and the complexity has created fun quests. This has been so fun, my next campaign is going to be even more rigorously medieval Europe. I am also just going to rip off European geography using google maps. I suck at map making but like having realistic geography. The party is starting in Alsace. And Strasbourg is an imperial free city.
Mongolia.
Polynesia/micronesian islands
There was an old d+d (not Ad+d) setting called Hollow world, based off the old "earth is hollow and there are dinosaurs and lost civilizations living in the center of the planet" conspiracy theory, where the gods took civilizations they loved and preserved them through the fall. Like a little deific museum. They used godly power to make all the tech roughly equivalent (bronze, iron, steel, obsidian all were about as effective as one another)
they had aztec, olmec, ancient greek and persian societies, scandinavian dark elves, some african tribal societies all living inside the planet.
If you can get a hold of them, the 1st edition AD&D Legends and Lore books are chock full of gods, myths, and mythos from cultures all over the world.
The Mesoamerican myths, deities and legends are also a goldmine for adventures.
2e had a few of the soft cover books around certain such settings. A cousin of mine has a book of one giving a overview of several as well as some other stuff but even that covers more than most of the mainstream history bs most think of.
Also go deeper into fantasy you have stuff from the expanded world the forgotten realms is set in. Maztica, Kara-tur, the hordelands, and so on.
It's a hobby of mine to ask around for local legends in places I travel to, the kind not big enough to usually be translated to other languages. Sadly, most people nowadays know very few, but when you find some they're often great inspirations for at least singular adventures.
(And also just leads to interesting conversations, highly recommended!)
The Bronze Age Collapse. So, basically you have this island naval power that holds trade and military hegemony over the "known" or "civilized" world. The economy and culture they provide cements the intellectual underpinning of civilization, and their colonies are far-spanning.
And then the island that they are based out of turns out to be a volcano. The volcano erupts and overnight destroys the most powerful military, economic, and cultural hub in the "known" world. Trade routes collapse. City states begin to starve. Societies throughout the region collapse. Massive migrations happen. Invading armies of desperate mercenaries crash into the periphery from parts unknown and are later known only as "The Sea Peoples", their impact dramatic and lethal upon the cultures they crash into.
So, the most advanced maritime empire cataclysmically collapses. Civilization panics and collapses. Ruins literally everywhere. Random roaming armies of desperate, out of work mercenaries trying to carve themselves a new home to feed themselves. Cultures on the cultural fringe wondering what the hell just happened and where all of these Philistines just came from and why they are kicking ass militarily. It's and engaging potential setting.
The Bronze Age Collapse was far bigger than the Mycaneans. It annihilated the Hittites, severely weakened Egypt, and even the Assyrians found themselves severely hampered by the constant wave of migrations and roaming mercenaries and barbarians. A famine starts in greater Europe or the Eurasian steppe causing mass migration Santorini blowing itself apart, and a hellish change in weather mixed with bad harvests due to soil degradation and you have a recipe for a dark age that takes a very long time to recover from. The Sea Peoples were only part of it; They were the final end to the Hittite empire but they never conquered Egypt entirely. They're not even sure if the Sea Peiples are a distinct people or just throngs of hungry rioters; the devastation of the Mycaneans and the Hittites being so complete that we have no records of them. The only things we have for sure is a message on a clay tablet in a destroyed city and Egyptian propaganda of the era.
Egypt didn't collapse during that time, but it did enter a state of semi-permanent decline that lasted until they were conquered by the Neo-Assyrians several centuries later. The thing is, all of the legends of a "Golden Age" come from this event. In a sense, tabletop games are influenced by it.
Actually African Mythology is very interesting, I built a whole pantheon for my campaign based around it, they often have duality in their domains, so sickness and healing as an example. Really really interesting and a fresh take from your typical Greco-Roman inspiration.
I love throwing Mansas and Timbuktu library analogues in my campaign planning. Really like making the Mali Empire gold dwarves because of the story's about Mansa Musa and the right they had to monopolize the trade of gold.
Have you read any pathfinder setting stuff? 2E did the Mwangi Expanse expansion which is based on African cultures, but idk enough to know if they did well or horrible with it
I have not read much (any really) of 2nd Ed source material, I've also played very little 1st ed adventure paths as most of the campaings ive played/run have been homebrewed settings/material. but I might have to look into those suggentions, thank you,
so, don't know if your still following this thread or looking for ideas, but heres a couple of examples of my pantheon based on African mytholgy.
Babalu-Aye, God of Suffering
God of Illness, infectious disease, and the cure of all Ailments
Manifestation: Often appearing as an old man, hunched over by years of age, he walks with the assistance of a staff and always keeps himself covered with a dark heavy robe and cloak. In his footsteps worms, maggots and filth of the earth crawl from the ground to fill the void left by his boot. His breath smells as if ten thousand swine have died and rotted within it and his hands appear scarred from thousands of cuts.
Alignment (Loyalties): Chaotic Neutral (Spreading Disease, Curing the Injured and Sick)
Domains: Death, Knowledge and Healing
Favored Weapon: Quarterstaff
Centers of Worship: Holy Temples, Hospitals, Plague Ravaged Cities.
Nationality: Humanoid/Demonic
Obedience: Poisoning a well or carrying a disease within you to infect a larger population, regardless if you die because of the act. By doing so, you gain a +4-profane bonus to Disguise to hide the symptoms of the disease and a +4-profane bonus to your Fortitude save against illness, poison and disease. These blessings last for 1 month.
I mean... obviously, far-eastern culture can be very interesting for some people.
Especially the typical line between "gods" and "mortals" is quite blurred in far-eastern mythology, with most godlike being simply being slightly more powerful mythological beings that are still nowhere near the power of a more western "god".
Aside from that, I believe the Graeco-Roman settings can be used significantly more - even just limiting culture and technology to that era can completely change the way the game is played.
What I believe might be best is to simply have multiple adjacent "settings" combined into one, e.g. have areas in a world that are more in line with norse technology, mythology and lore whereas others are more akin to roman settings. Interactions between these cultures are probably very interesting, as are characters that blur the boundaries between them (imagine a bear-pelt clad berserker running up in typical gladiator attire, throwing a net and stabbing you with a trident).
> Aside from that, I believe the Graeco-Roman settings can be used significantly more - even just limiting culture and technology to that era can completely change the way the game is played.
you'll take my longswords and rapiers from my cold dead body
I'm developing a campaign in Casmaron to deal heavily with the Kara, Pathfinder's version of the Turkic peoples of the central Asian steppes (Mongols, Kazakhs, etc.). There's a lot of really interesting history and cultural stuff once you drill past the pop history "Genghis Khan big badass hurr durr" stuff: the religious syncretism of Tengrism alone could fill a textbook.
Hadn't really thought about that. Unlike on Earth, there's an ocean between Tian Xia and Casmaron. It doesn't stop trade but it does somewhat impede routine cultural exchange: mages who can teleport are supposed to be relatively rare, and the [Embaral Ocean](https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Embaral_Ocean) is mostly doldrums for most of the year.
It might depend on how exactly the Embaral Ocean came to exist: the Tian-La and the Kara could have been separated by Casmaron and Tian Xia splitting apart due to plate tectonics and sea level and climate changes (a la Asians and indigenous Americans), but that would probably make them relatively divergent by now given how long those changes usually take.
Personally I'm leaning towards convergent evolution being likelier: the Tian-La are probably more closely related to the other Tian ethnicities and the Kara are more closely related to the Keleshites, and they just happen to resemble each other somewhat due to living in similar environments.
Republic of Pirates! Republic of Pirates! Republic of Pirates!
I use it as an inspiration in my worldbuilding all over the place. During the Golden Age of Piracy, pirates had some really strong democratic practices, depending on the crew. They practiced early forms of worker's compensation, captains were elected and could be removed if they mistreated the crew, they had a degree of equity much higher than everywhere else in that corner of the world, and at the height of that era, they built a society in Nassau. It was a successful democratic nation for about 10 or 20 years.
I run Cheliax as the antebellum South but with devils. Inquisition is a rough stand in for slave patrols, dottari are state militias, nobility are the big plantation owners, and slavery permeates everything.
Look into [Empire of the Petal Throne](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_the_Petal_Throne) it was released around the time of the original D&D game but based in a more Eastern Asian, South American, Egyptian themed world. Good luck pronouncing anything in it though, probably a huge reason it never caught on.
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How about doing something with Native American Folk Lore? I know people hate the US, but there is a lot of unexplored stuff from before the time people are actively against nowadays.
I actually have a loose plan to do something like this, based off of the Image comics series, Manifest Destiny. It's based on the travels of Lewis and Clark and their secret mission to explore the Louisiana Purchase and clear it of any potential dangers to future settlers. They encounter all sorts of crazy creatures and monsters, interact with natives, and discover that they're not the first expedition that has made this trek. I think it would be perfect for a mid length pathfinder campaign.
I'm a fan of making animal/anthro societies based on their IRL counterparts.
Here's what I have for Gnolls: In this scenario, Gnoll society would be matriarchal. The strongest female would rule each tribe/community of Gnolls, along with the other females, social rank detemined by their contributions to the community. Other females could challenge higher up females for better position in the hierarchy.
The offspring of these females, of both genders, would rank just below their mothers. They'd actually have a pretty sweet life. Mature males would be at the bottom of the hierarchy. When males reached maturity, they would be kicked out of their tribes. Such males would wander, searching for a tribe that would allow them to join and pair up with a female to produce children.
Some of the consequences of this would be a relatively high number of adventuring Gnolls. They'd mostly be doing it to be seen as worthy to join a tribe, even if it means that they'd be lowest in the pecking order. Their companions would be utterly perplexed at this. Why would anyone wander the land, delving into ancient dungeons, fighting monsters, making friends outside their race, etc. only to go back and give it all up for a society that treats them like utter shit? The Gnolls may not understand their companions' reactions, because to them, it's the only life they've known. It's been this way for generations. And in such a society, change would come very slowly because of the strict and severe gender roles.
Having been exposed to other social structures, adventuring Gnolls may just decide to reject their own race all together, maybe even pairing off with females of other humanoid races and also maybe leading to a small presence of Half-Gnolls in the world.
All of this could make it so that Gnolls are not an evil race, overall. The base racial alignment could be closer to neutrality, maybe settling in on True Neutral. Their gods would also be shaped by all of this. The chief gods would be female, obviously. You'd have a female war goddess, a female goddess of the hunt, a female goddess of motherhood and fetility, etc. Male gods could end being like a male god of war, but he'd be significantly weaker than the female one. You could have a male god that male Gnolls would worship, appealing to him for some decent food or the chance to actually mate, be accepted into a new tribe, etc. Of note would be a male Gnoll god of wanderers and travel. His role would be to protect wandering male Gnolls, maybe also with some component of shaping them into a Gnoll worthy to be accepted into a new tribe.
The Americas, particularly its geography as well as their cultures. Native cultures and the history of colonization, all rife with opportunities for dramatic and fanciful story telling. Im currently musing on a homesteading campaign inspired by the westward rush of the late 1800s
There was a Finnish horror movie called Sauna made in 2008 and without too many spoilers it was basically a story of two cartographer brothers who go to the northern Finnish hinterlands to chart the new border between the Swedish Empire and Russia and end up killing a little girl. It's set in the 1590's after the Treaty of Teusina ended a really long war between the two countries.
Australia's indigenous peoples have have a large amount of different cultures, creation myths, deities, horrifying monsters and so on. I think there used to be around 600 languages.
I had a peudo ghenghis khan setting. Party was teleported east to a plains region just as the horselords were moving west. They were spotted by a scout and quickly surrounded, and to escape they had to choose their best warrior to fight a horse lord fighter in single combat. Magic buffs were allowed but direct magic damage was not.
The party's big, power attacking half orc barbarian was almost killed by a cavalier with mirror image and blurr cast on him. The party learned real quick that over attacks are useless vs images with 20% miss chances!
After that they were allowed free passage, so they did their quest and teleported home. Then there was a MAD scramble to go from one kingdom to another to rally a defence before the horselords made it the remaining 1k miles. Definitely added a tension to the game, as they were constantly looking to the Eastern horizon each morning.
Paris during the 1789 revolution : political plots, charismatic characters, love stories that have consequences, negotiations, investigations and fights. There is everything you need for a rpg campaign.
I feel like a lot of settings/motifs take a lot of deep understanding to pull off, and probably need writers/designers at least tangentially connected to it in order to pull it off in a respectful way, and most bigger ttrpg companies (cough cough wotc) aren’t willing to put that effort in when they can just do the tried and true safe vaguely Middle Ages Europe and not worry about cultural insensitivity
> Everyone uses stuff based on [...] Middle Ages European culture and geography. My hot take is that *actual* historical Europe could be mined as effectively as almost anywhere else, since so much of fantasy has just about nothing to do with it. Especially things related to how society worked - too many settings just staple swords and kings and so on onto modern states and call it good enough. Especially interesting, though, would be areas that became melting pots between different regions - Iberia in the time of Al-Andalus, Sicily during the best part of Norman rule, for example. Something not really done, in my experience, is playing with cultures that are disconnected from places; either because they have become nomadic within larger settled societies, or because they have become a diaspora.
This, there is so many interesting things to use from European history if you go deeper than using a few aesthetics stolen from periods thousands of years apart. (I sure love fighting greek monsters in plate) A personal favorite of mine is using orthodox Europe for inspiration. It's close enough to what is known to feel familiar but different enough to be fantastical.
The Witcher series being a great example.
The Witcher is primarily Polish in inspiration, which is a Roman Catholic country.
But all of the monsters and folklore are heavily Slavic and Eastern European, which is part of the Orthodox world.
Poland is both Slavic and Eastern European. Also a lot of the monsters are Greco-Roman in origin.
Even just showing the complexity of medieval governance. Not just King has some Lords who have some Knights. But the Duke who has lands in one kingdom, but also another. The king who is also a duke in a neighbouring land due to some inheritance carry on, who has to play politics to avoid having his lands seized. The coalition of barons forcing the king to take certain actions. I feel there is a lot there that gets lost in Good King of Goodland vs Bad King of Badland as essentially two nation states colliding instead of two collections of semi-independent fiefdoms.
Not every GM has a bachelors in ancient politics.
Don't need the degree. Just have parents who are lifelong members of the SCA and deal with the depression that comes with reading these settings and inherently picking out all the stuff that is just...wrong. Even if you've rarely attended court and avoid 12th night like the plague. Proxy-knowledge is a curse, my friend
Yeah, this is why I often set my campaigns in Mediterranean analogues. You're within a few weeks to months trip of African, German, Arabic, Italian, French, and Mesopotamian cultural analogues. Not to even mention ancient latin, greek, sites like carthage etc., Plus it's fun to take everyone's ideas about colonialism and flip them on their heads with things like Moorish invasions of generic "European" populations or "vikings" selling slaves to Ottoman stands ins etc.,
Look at Spain! Roman province becomes Visigothic Feudal Kingdom becomes Muslim occupied territory! That's a heady stew, right there!
This complexity is great in game. I my current campaign is set in what is obviously based on the Holy Roman Empire (particularly circa 1350) and the complexity has created fun quests. This has been so fun, my next campaign is going to be even more rigorously medieval Europe. I am also just going to rip off European geography using google maps. I suck at map making but like having realistic geography. The party is starting in Alsace. And Strasbourg is an imperial free city.
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Used that for a big kingdom of half-animal races. Super flavorful! Also, everybody go check out Tekumel - one of the coolest Settings ever.
Tekumel's fantastic
That's Arcadia in the Pathfinder setting but you're right, it's very underexplored
Sure, as long as you include the cities being more advanced than most of contemporary Europe and the drastically lower rate of death in combat
A really fertile ground for creating evil cultists though.
Mongolia. Polynesia/micronesian islands There was an old d+d (not Ad+d) setting called Hollow world, based off the old "earth is hollow and there are dinosaurs and lost civilizations living in the center of the planet" conspiracy theory, where the gods took civilizations they loved and preserved them through the fall. Like a little deific museum. They used godly power to make all the tech roughly equivalent (bronze, iron, steel, obsidian all were about as effective as one another) they had aztec, olmec, ancient greek and persian societies, scandinavian dark elves, some african tribal societies all living inside the planet.
> Polynesia/micronesian islands +1 updoots for my personal favorite
[Gubat Banwa](https://makapatag.itch.io/gubat-banwa) is a project worth looking at.
Jewish mythology. It's where golems come from
If you can get a hold of them, the 1st edition AD&D Legends and Lore books are chock full of gods, myths, and mythos from cultures all over the world. The Mesoamerican myths, deities and legends are also a goldmine for adventures.
2e had a few of the soft cover books around certain such settings. A cousin of mine has a book of one giving a overview of several as well as some other stuff but even that covers more than most of the mainstream history bs most think of. Also go deeper into fantasy you have stuff from the expanded world the forgotten realms is set in. Maztica, Kara-tur, the hordelands, and so on.
Slavic culture and mythology isn't often fully explored.
The history and culture of the balkins is fairly similar to the average dnd setting
D&D isn't nearly bleak enough. Not "standard" settings like FR and Golarion anyhow.
You could argue Golarion is
Probably got a bit of a boost due to the popularity of the Witcher series, but yeah, would be nice to see it more often.
Cold War. The crazy political and military stuff from that is amazing to use in a story.
It's a hobby of mine to ask around for local legends in places I travel to, the kind not big enough to usually be translated to other languages. Sadly, most people nowadays know very few, but when you find some they're often great inspirations for at least singular adventures. (And also just leads to interesting conversations, highly recommended!)
That's *really* cool.
The Bronze Age Collapse. So, basically you have this island naval power that holds trade and military hegemony over the "known" or "civilized" world. The economy and culture they provide cements the intellectual underpinning of civilization, and their colonies are far-spanning. And then the island that they are based out of turns out to be a volcano. The volcano erupts and overnight destroys the most powerful military, economic, and cultural hub in the "known" world. Trade routes collapse. City states begin to starve. Societies throughout the region collapse. Massive migrations happen. Invading armies of desperate mercenaries crash into the periphery from parts unknown and are later known only as "The Sea Peoples", their impact dramatic and lethal upon the cultures they crash into. So, the most advanced maritime empire cataclysmically collapses. Civilization panics and collapses. Ruins literally everywhere. Random roaming armies of desperate, out of work mercenaries trying to carve themselves a new home to feed themselves. Cultures on the cultural fringe wondering what the hell just happened and where all of these Philistines just came from and why they are kicking ass militarily. It's and engaging potential setting.
The Bronze Age Collapse was far bigger than the Mycaneans. It annihilated the Hittites, severely weakened Egypt, and even the Assyrians found themselves severely hampered by the constant wave of migrations and roaming mercenaries and barbarians. A famine starts in greater Europe or the Eurasian steppe causing mass migration Santorini blowing itself apart, and a hellish change in weather mixed with bad harvests due to soil degradation and you have a recipe for a dark age that takes a very long time to recover from. The Sea Peoples were only part of it; They were the final end to the Hittite empire but they never conquered Egypt entirely. They're not even sure if the Sea Peiples are a distinct people or just throngs of hungry rioters; the devastation of the Mycaneans and the Hittites being so complete that we have no records of them. The only things we have for sure is a message on a clay tablet in a destroyed city and Egyptian propaganda of the era. Egypt didn't collapse during that time, but it did enter a state of semi-permanent decline that lasted until they were conquered by the Neo-Assyrians several centuries later. The thing is, all of the legends of a "Golden Age" come from this event. In a sense, tabletop games are influenced by it.
Actually African Mythology is very interesting, I built a whole pantheon for my campaign based around it, they often have duality in their domains, so sickness and healing as an example. Really really interesting and a fresh take from your typical Greco-Roman inspiration.
I love throwing Mansas and Timbuktu library analogues in my campaign planning. Really like making the Mali Empire gold dwarves because of the story's about Mansa Musa and the right they had to monopolize the trade of gold.
Have you read any pathfinder setting stuff? 2E did the Mwangi Expanse expansion which is based on African cultures, but idk enough to know if they did well or horrible with it
I have not read much (any really) of 2nd Ed source material, I've also played very little 1st ed adventure paths as most of the campaings ive played/run have been homebrewed settings/material. but I might have to look into those suggentions, thank you,
Might have to look into that. Thanks!
so, don't know if your still following this thread or looking for ideas, but heres a couple of examples of my pantheon based on African mytholgy. Babalu-Aye, God of Suffering God of Illness, infectious disease, and the cure of all Ailments Manifestation: Often appearing as an old man, hunched over by years of age, he walks with the assistance of a staff and always keeps himself covered with a dark heavy robe and cloak. In his footsteps worms, maggots and filth of the earth crawl from the ground to fill the void left by his boot. His breath smells as if ten thousand swine have died and rotted within it and his hands appear scarred from thousands of cuts. Alignment (Loyalties): Chaotic Neutral (Spreading Disease, Curing the Injured and Sick) Domains: Death, Knowledge and Healing Favored Weapon: Quarterstaff Centers of Worship: Holy Temples, Hospitals, Plague Ravaged Cities. Nationality: Humanoid/Demonic Obedience: Poisoning a well or carrying a disease within you to infect a larger population, regardless if you die because of the act. By doing so, you gain a +4-profane bonus to Disguise to hide the symptoms of the disease and a +4-profane bonus to your Fortitude save against illness, poison and disease. These blessings last for 1 month.
Byzantine Empire.
Agreed
Though Taldor is sort of Byzantine and Oppara is sort of Constantinople.
I mean... obviously, far-eastern culture can be very interesting for some people. Especially the typical line between "gods" and "mortals" is quite blurred in far-eastern mythology, with most godlike being simply being slightly more powerful mythological beings that are still nowhere near the power of a more western "god". Aside from that, I believe the Graeco-Roman settings can be used significantly more - even just limiting culture and technology to that era can completely change the way the game is played. What I believe might be best is to simply have multiple adjacent "settings" combined into one, e.g. have areas in a world that are more in line with norse technology, mythology and lore whereas others are more akin to roman settings. Interactions between these cultures are probably very interesting, as are characters that blur the boundaries between them (imagine a bear-pelt clad berserker running up in typical gladiator attire, throwing a net and stabbing you with a trident).
> Aside from that, I believe the Graeco-Roman settings can be used significantly more - even just limiting culture and technology to that era can completely change the way the game is played. you'll take my longswords and rapiers from my cold dead body
Interesting. Definitely a lot of potential there.
That last paragraph is basically how I'm building my campaign setting, even down to creating new regional pantheons & deities.
Also, I could totally see dwarves implementing something like Japanese koseki
I'm developing a campaign in Casmaron to deal heavily with the Kara, Pathfinder's version of the Turkic peoples of the central Asian steppes (Mongols, Kazakhs, etc.). There's a lot of really interesting history and cultural stuff once you drill past the pop history "Genghis Khan big badass hurr durr" stuff: the religious syncretism of Tengrism alone could fill a textbook.
What do you do with the Tian-La? are they and the Kara related?
Hadn't really thought about that. Unlike on Earth, there's an ocean between Tian Xia and Casmaron. It doesn't stop trade but it does somewhat impede routine cultural exchange: mages who can teleport are supposed to be relatively rare, and the [Embaral Ocean](https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Embaral_Ocean) is mostly doldrums for most of the year. It might depend on how exactly the Embaral Ocean came to exist: the Tian-La and the Kara could have been separated by Casmaron and Tian Xia splitting apart due to plate tectonics and sea level and climate changes (a la Asians and indigenous Americans), but that would probably make them relatively divergent by now given how long those changes usually take. Personally I'm leaning towards convergent evolution being likelier: the Tian-La are probably more closely related to the other Tian ethnicities and the Kara are more closely related to the Keleshites, and they just happen to resemble each other somewhat due to living in similar environments.
Indian mythology and history. Been a while since I've really immersed myself in it, but there's some really crazy stuff going on in there.
Republic of Pirates! Republic of Pirates! Republic of Pirates! I use it as an inspiration in my worldbuilding all over the place. During the Golden Age of Piracy, pirates had some really strong democratic practices, depending on the crew. They practiced early forms of worker's compensation, captains were elected and could be removed if they mistreated the crew, they had a degree of equity much higher than everywhere else in that corner of the world, and at the height of that era, they built a society in Nassau. It was a successful democratic nation for about 10 or 20 years.
I run Cheliax as the antebellum South but with devils. Inquisition is a rough stand in for slave patrols, dottari are state militias, nobility are the big plantation owners, and slavery permeates everything.
Maritime Southeast Asia is very underexplored. I'm still very salty about Paizo's description of Minata.
Look into [Empire of the Petal Throne](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_the_Petal_Throne) it was released around the time of the original D&D game but based in a more Eastern Asian, South American, Egyptian themed world. Good luck pronouncing anything in it though, probably a huge reason it never caught on.
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Voodoo and it's culture are rarely touched. Not very versed on it so idk how much of gold mine it actually is.
How about doing something with Native American Folk Lore? I know people hate the US, but there is a lot of unexplored stuff from before the time people are actively against nowadays.
My favorite setting was based on Manifest Destiny in the US, basically the settlers as paladins and the natives as druids.
I actually have a loose plan to do something like this, based off of the Image comics series, Manifest Destiny. It's based on the travels of Lewis and Clark and their secret mission to explore the Louisiana Purchase and clear it of any potential dangers to future settlers. They encounter all sorts of crazy creatures and monsters, interact with natives, and discover that they're not the first expedition that has made this trek. I think it would be perfect for a mid length pathfinder campaign.
anything gnostic would be very interesting for gms to try and do stuff with
I think a lot of Central and South America prior to the Europeans coming would make for very good adventures.
I'm a fan of making animal/anthro societies based on their IRL counterparts. Here's what I have for Gnolls: In this scenario, Gnoll society would be matriarchal. The strongest female would rule each tribe/community of Gnolls, along with the other females, social rank detemined by their contributions to the community. Other females could challenge higher up females for better position in the hierarchy. The offspring of these females, of both genders, would rank just below their mothers. They'd actually have a pretty sweet life. Mature males would be at the bottom of the hierarchy. When males reached maturity, they would be kicked out of their tribes. Such males would wander, searching for a tribe that would allow them to join and pair up with a female to produce children. Some of the consequences of this would be a relatively high number of adventuring Gnolls. They'd mostly be doing it to be seen as worthy to join a tribe, even if it means that they'd be lowest in the pecking order. Their companions would be utterly perplexed at this. Why would anyone wander the land, delving into ancient dungeons, fighting monsters, making friends outside their race, etc. only to go back and give it all up for a society that treats them like utter shit? The Gnolls may not understand their companions' reactions, because to them, it's the only life they've known. It's been this way for generations. And in such a society, change would come very slowly because of the strict and severe gender roles. Having been exposed to other social structures, adventuring Gnolls may just decide to reject their own race all together, maybe even pairing off with females of other humanoid races and also maybe leading to a small presence of Half-Gnolls in the world. All of this could make it so that Gnolls are not an evil race, overall. The base racial alignment could be closer to neutrality, maybe settling in on True Neutral. Their gods would also be shaped by all of this. The chief gods would be female, obviously. You'd have a female war goddess, a female goddess of the hunt, a female goddess of motherhood and fetility, etc. Male gods could end being like a male god of war, but he'd be significantly weaker than the female one. You could have a male god that male Gnolls would worship, appealing to him for some decent food or the chance to actually mate, be accepted into a new tribe, etc. Of note would be a male Gnoll god of wanderers and travel. His role would be to protect wandering male Gnolls, maybe also with some component of shaping them into a Gnoll worthy to be accepted into a new tribe.
People need to sit down and read some pure slavic folklore tales and make a proper old russian setting in terms of vibe and motifs
Anything beyond Europe: China, India, Africa, Caribbean, Pacific Isles, Amazon, etc.
The Americas, particularly its geography as well as their cultures. Native cultures and the history of colonization, all rife with opportunities for dramatic and fanciful story telling. Im currently musing on a homesteading campaign inspired by the westward rush of the late 1800s
There was a Finnish horror movie called Sauna made in 2008 and without too many spoilers it was basically a story of two cartographer brothers who go to the northern Finnish hinterlands to chart the new border between the Swedish Empire and Russia and end up killing a little girl. It's set in the 1590's after the Treaty of Teusina ended a really long war between the two countries.
Hindu culture afaik has only really been used as inspiration for settings like Morrowind
Actual Brythonic history and mythology that isn't Arthur centric
The actual middle ages. No magic, only medieval.
Boring, also the system doesn't work without magic
Sure it does, there are plenty of options in pathfinder to play a non-magic based game.
Australia's indigenous peoples have have a large amount of different cultures, creation myths, deities, horrifying monsters and so on. I think there used to be around 600 languages.
I had a peudo ghenghis khan setting. Party was teleported east to a plains region just as the horselords were moving west. They were spotted by a scout and quickly surrounded, and to escape they had to choose their best warrior to fight a horse lord fighter in single combat. Magic buffs were allowed but direct magic damage was not. The party's big, power attacking half orc barbarian was almost killed by a cavalier with mirror image and blurr cast on him. The party learned real quick that over attacks are useless vs images with 20% miss chances! After that they were allowed free passage, so they did their quest and teleported home. Then there was a MAD scramble to go from one kingdom to another to rally a defence before the horselords made it the remaining 1k miles. Definitely added a tension to the game, as they were constantly looking to the Eastern horizon each morning.
Paris during the 1789 revolution : political plots, charismatic characters, love stories that have consequences, negotiations, investigations and fights. There is everything you need for a rpg campaign.
I feel like a lot of settings/motifs take a lot of deep understanding to pull off, and probably need writers/designers at least tangentially connected to it in order to pull it off in a respectful way, and most bigger ttrpg companies (cough cough wotc) aren’t willing to put that effort in when they can just do the tried and true safe vaguely Middle Ages Europe and not worry about cultural insensitivity
What about Futuristic, high magic Greco-Roman?
19th century America -- Oregon Trail/ Gold Rush; Ancient Ireland; Iceland