There's something about Darkon...

[Dion of the Fraternity]

Maybe it's just me (or maybe I was out of the loop for too long), but I have the feeling Darkon has a cultural equivalent of the Roman Empire gone medieval.

>> It's cosmopolitan (classes and races mingle together);

>> Darkonese sounds almost like Latin;

>> It's an economic powerhouse (accdg. to Gaz 4).

>> It has a formidable army to defend its borders (army of undead, that is).

>> The Eternal Order looks curiously like the Lares and Penates of Roman mythology.

Any thoughts on these?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

I'm not sure if some of those parallels have anything to do with cultural specifics, as opposed to the simple fact that Darkon's meant to be big. It seems to me that any nation which grows that much larger than its neighbors, in-game or IRL, will be economically and/or militarily dominant and culturally/ethnically diverse. The same could be said of both Russia and the U.S., after all, or of many other large nations that are very unlike Darkon (Brazil and the old British Empire come to mind). I can recall similar parallels being drawn between Darokin (on Mystara) and the U.S., on that setting's web-forums, merely because the former is yet another big, diverse game-nation.

The Lares & Penates analogy is one I hadn't spotted before, though. Good call on that, Dion!

[Undead Cabbage]

I'm in support of Roti's opinion that Darkon is more the idea of an empire, which (like Rome, and like people predict will happen to the US) is headed for a decline due to internal corruption.

Although not 100% the case, I can see some association between Darkon and Oceania from George Orwell's 1984. This particularily comes into play with Darkon's memory alteration. Where Falkovnia is a nation where people are physically forced into submission, he will always have rebellions against him, and people can still think for themselves. Darkon, on the other hand, is a nation that can convince you that 2+2=5. The Overseer sounds a lot like Big Brother. Darkon's population sits in anticipation of the Day of Judgement (the Time of Unparralleled Darkness in Ezra's case). People know about the undead servants in the city, and yet no one questions their existance or how they might be tied to the government. The Kargat are different than Urik's or Drakov's or Azreal's secret police because the people of Darkon think the Kargat are there to protect them.

Darkon, is some ways, can also be tied to Renaissance despotism, particularily with Divine right Monarchs such as Louis the 14th, Peter the Great, and James the first. Drakov and Azrael rule their nations through a very physical sense of power, killing protesters out right and in the open. Azalin is smarter then they are, and so he instead rules through an absolute sense of the word power.

So to answer your question Dion, yes there are connections to Rome. But there are also connections to other totalitarian nations as well. Much like how Falkovnia is a mesh pot of Hitler's Germany and Vlad Dracula's Wallacia (although I'd argue it's more like Ivan the Terrible's reign of Russia), Darkon is also a mesh pot.

Another conneciton I see is Stalin's Soviet Union. To summarize everything I've said, my point lies that Darkon is an epitome of power in it's purest sense, a trait no doubt attributed to it's Darklord.

Back to the main point, bringing out the Roman theme in Darkon may actually be a good way to materialize what Darkon is supposed to be. When people think Rome, they automatically think 'archaic empire'. Real life references are often a good way to help players visualize a world.

Just be careful to make sure that players don't think that Darkon IS rome. There's more to it than that.

[Bluebomber4evr]

I believe the parallels to Rome are intentional. Azalin came from the Great Kingdom on Oerth, which is loosely based on both the Roman Empire of ancient history and the Holy Roman Empire of the middle ages.

However, Darkon also deliberately mirrors other large nations throughout history, such as the Soviet Union and the U.S.