Reply To: WHtOW – fluff and does it make sense ?

[onlyonepinman 18109xp 2]

No one in the western world knew anything about China until the 20th century – are you kidding me? There were chinese people living in England and America during the Victorian era.  Britain fought wars with China in the 19th and 18th centuries, Portugal had been fighting wars around those parts since probably 15th/16th centuries and people in Europe had been trading with them for many centuries before.  And let’s not forget the Mongol invasions in the 12 and 13th centuries.  So while Herr Peasant may not have known a great deal about China, they would certainly have known that it existed and perhaps even what people from that area looked like and many people in the merchant and noble classes would have had much greater knowledge and possibly even first hand experience.  It’s complete nonsense to say that westerners were unaware of China; uneducated perhaps but absolutely aware.

 

It is possible for something to be an anachronism in fantasy even though technically anything goes – you still need to create a sense of consistency so it feels real such that the fantasy elements that you then add in (magic, monsters etc) then also become more believable.  You could have a world where gravity is reversed and everything floats away or flies, but if you do it then becomes more difficult to add more weird things like magic at the same time.  Fantasy elements work when they’re placed against a backdrop that feels real and relatable – I personally find Bretonnians stick out like a sore thumb against the other Human Kingdoms in the Old World. In a world as dangerous as the Old World, it really doesn’t make any sense that they would not have adopted things like the gunpowder weapons and heavier plate Armour of their neighbours even if they maintained their more fuedal society. So yes, as much as I absolutely love Bretonnia (they’re the army I collected), they ARE an anachronism. Like I said, just because you can do literally anything doesn’t really mean everything you do will work and I personally feel Bretonnia need a bit of an overhaul to make them more believable within the context of the Old World. I doubt GW will do that because they sort of doubled down on the backwards nature of Bretonnia and Arthurian Legend (again, not very Warhammery) in the last edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, possibly from a need to make them fundamentally different, visually and literally, to the Empire. But they weren’t always like that, I remember seeing Bretonnian bombards for example. The problem with changing Bretonnia to be more like the Empire is… we already have the Empire and you just end up with two factions that are too similar. Cathay on the other hand represent an opportunity to create a larger than life faction full of vibrant colours, interesting and visually distinct units, monsters and war machines that could have near peer technology to the Empire whilst looking totally different. The same is true of Kislev.

 

However it is not really true for Albuon. Albion, while it’s mentioned as a place, is generally described as an isolated, primitive backwater.  Is Celtic Mythology very rich?  Absolutely, it’s amazing.  Is it very “Warhammery”?  Nope.  Not even a little bit. It suffers all the same problems as Bretonnia and Arthurian lore and then some. The Old World is a Renaissance themed setting, Bretonnia are a Medieval themed faction based on medieval (or perhaps pre-medieval) lore. Albion is based on something even older, dark age, possibly even antiquity era Celtic Mythology – it just doesn’t work. Unless, of course, you like your fantasy to just be “all kinds of everything” in which case, sure let’s have Albion as well. I had the same reaction to the City States models for Parabellum’s Conquest – absolutely LOVE the models because I love Greek mythology but given that they have a faction that looks like the Empire, those Greek Hoplites just look out of place.