origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Settings, background, books - all the things around which are not only the PC game.

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Test
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origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Test » Sun Jul 01, 2001 10:33 am

For those of you interested...most of the story for the Fading Suns Universe is drawn directly from Italian history..specifically the 14th-15th century Venice.<P>Venice is capitol of the Western world = Byzantium Secundus<P>lots of uncharted map = The Unknown Worlds<P>The Doge = Regeant<P>The Second Republic, Merchant Guilds of immense power, mercenaries hired from foreign lands. <P>the Council of Ten was formed in early 14th century Venice...composed of Nobleman elected by the Ventian people to make quick decisions to strengthen the Doge..powered by a secret service that extended to the far corners of the known world<P>Sound familiar? Originally their were Ten Houses of power under Emperor Vlad...and the Imperial Eye...<P>The Unholy Trinity<BR>The most feared men in venice were the the three Inquisitors chosen from the COuncil of Ten. They dealt with matters of state security, and could order the death of almost anyone.<P>House Decados is most assurdly representive of the families that betrayed Venice in its wars with Genao and the eastern European powers.<P>A plague and barbarians at the gate...<P>Here's an interview link with Bill Bridges and Andrew Greenberg.<P>interesting yes...more so because of the lack of credit given to the plunder of Venitian history...but this is most likely more due to the fact that Ed Pike and the Merchant Prince is big factor in the EFS game development, not so much the RPG.<P><A HREF="http://www.rpg.net/sf/interviews/interviewHRI.html" TARGET=_blank>Andrew Greenberg Bill Bridges Interview</A>
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Re: origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Shocker » Sat Jul 07, 2001 8:19 am

Interesting,<P>I always thought it was an off-shoot of Dune.<P>Maybe Dune stole a little history as well :-)
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Re: origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Maur13 » Sat Jul 07, 2001 5:46 pm

Fading Suns always reminded me XV century Germany :)

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Re: origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Russell » Sat Jul 07, 2001 6:07 pm

Well, when you think about it, it's hard to come up with completely new ideas now ;)<P>I like the futuristic parts of EFS, the ones from past history such as Orthodox Church sometimes are a little Cliche, but I think they fit in perfectly.

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Re: origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Maur13 » Sat Jul 07, 2001 6:51 pm

FS is a nice mix of Science and Fantasy.<BR>New Dark Ages basically.<BR>When i first read the book, i got impression they were inspired by Dune (Hawkwoods and Decados obviously), Alien 2 movie (dreadful Symbiots) and history, may be Germany or Venice.<BR>Vau...<BR>They are mystery for me, i think they reminds me something but i am not sure what :D<BR>'shrug'<BR>Chinese?

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Re: origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Test » Sun Jul 08, 2001 8:32 pm

On the Vau<P>I read somewhere that the Vau were supposedly representive of the Persians...but I don't have the reference anymore.<P>I imagine the inspiration was taken from Chinese culture...since they use mandarins.<P>I don't think we ( as in the western world ) refer to any other culture to have mandarins..except the Chinese??<P>On Dune-<P>That's funny...myself I never felt that the EFS universe drew heavily from Dune. I guess because I felt "spice" control was such a large part of the story...I just never thought about it. <P>On XV Century Germany-<P>Yeah the Hanseatic League...was there anything else?
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Re: origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Maur13 » Sun Jul 08, 2001 9:03 pm

Electors and Emperor,minor nobles,strong church, disunity and strong merchants(Hansa), and all of that feudal stuff :)<BR>But Germany because of HRE and electors and minors nobles and Hansa, all other things can be found in almost any medieval european country<BR>Dune, hmmm<BR>I just can't get rid of feeling that Hawkwoods are based on Atreides and Decados on Harkonnens ;)<BR>And btw, that XV century made itself here because of Darklands, methinks :roll:

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Re: origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Russell » Sun Jul 08, 2001 10:27 pm

I can only see a small connection between EFS and Dune.<P>Atreides were humble, Hawkwood are not. <P>Harkonnen were violent and great fighters, while Decados are stealthy and tricky. <P>I doubt the Vau was supposed to represent anything from history, but perhaps they are.<P>I like how medievil times are mixed so well with the future. Normally it would be hard to see feifs mixed with starships, but somehow it strangely works. I think the Guilds are a lot different than merchants from the best, but the Church seems very typical. All in all, the whole thing seems a lot more deep and rich than even history itself ;)

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Re: origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Maur13 » Sun Jul 08, 2001 11:00 pm

Let's go and have some flame war about Dune :cool: <BR>Harkonnens weren't stealthy and tricky?

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Re: origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Russell » Mon Jul 09, 2001 2:27 am

They concentrated on more military brute force, which is better portrayed by the described "military machine", the Hazat. House Ordos would better suit House Decados. <P>Paul Atreides (or whatever his name was) dueled that Harkonnen near the end of the movie. Considering Hazat duel with larger weapons, and more brute force, that Harkonnen would've been better known as Hazat ;)<P>Besides, the Hazat and Decados both were the oppisition of House Hawkwood, and the Hazat were the last to concede. And besides the color blue and noble attributes, I don't see much similarities between Hawkwood and Atreides. Hawkwood are arrogant and believe they are the center of the universe, which would be more fitting as a Harkonnen trait. So basically I think how the fading suns houses would be completely mixed up Dune houses, I don't think human characteristics that are similar in both would warrant it being inspired from Dune. I mean, someone's gotta be good, and someone's gotta be evil. I guess everyone copies from the Bible? ;)

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Re: origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Maur13 » Mon Jul 09, 2001 9:28 am

Look at portrait of Nicolai Decados and Baron Harkonnen :)<BR>hmmm, i think Atreides colors were smtg like black-green?<BR>Well, i always idealized Hawkwoods a bit, that's why this is my preferred house to play :D<BR>(Well, if our game will start, it doesn't mean i will be nice to Hawkwoods, since i would be playing Decados :D)<BR>Ordos???<BR>they weren't in the book at all, i think<BR>Hazat's are courageous, and Harkonnens weren't. Also Atreides were noble, as Hawkwoods, but they weren't martyrs, they were Nobles, after all, and they were destined to rule from the beginning of time.<BR>(exactly from ancient Greece)<BR> :D

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Re: origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Test » Mon Jul 09, 2001 9:31 am

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR> And btw, that XV century made itself here because of Darklands, methinks <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>What do you mean by this? Darklands kicks...<P>On the Harkonnen bit...I feel that the Harkonnen are characterized by brutality and decadance. Making them far enough away that they cannot really be compared to any one singular FS house. The Hazat maybe brutal and militaristic, but they are also much more honourable and ordered. I think it would be out of character to find a Hazat sucking the life out of his naked cabin boys...
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Maur13
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Re: origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Maur13 » Mon Jul 09, 2001 10:22 am

Yes, Darklands kick<BR>to bad i deleted them, and Underdogs doesn't have it :(<BR>But Nicolai ?<BR>it's perfectly imaginable<P>(i won't imagine what Salandra would do with that boy... :eek:

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Re: origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Haakon_Stormbrow » Mon Jul 09, 2001 3:22 pm

I guess i always saw fs as a futuristic version of europes dark ages. Hawkwood i saw as england, hazat was like spain, decados was france or russia. Al malik was mabye byzantium or something, and li halan could be italy? strecthing it for the last two. Then they added the vuldrok raiders (vikings) and the kurga caliphate (muslims). the church is the church, heh, and the legue is one or all of the medieval bank/leagues (hanseatic, etc)<BR>A lot of it was their own stuff though, lots of detail makes it believable and compelling.<BR>Darklands rocked, except for the bugs.
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Russell
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Re: origins of the Fading Suns Universe

Postby Russell » Tue Jul 10, 2001 5:08 am

I always pictured this...<P><BR>Hawkwood were from Europe, germanics and celtics. <P>Decados were from Russia and Ukraine.<P>Hazat were from Spain/Mexico any Latino derived race.<P>Li-Halan were from Japan and asia, and like Japan when they were introduced to Christianity, the sudden conversion :)


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