[DF] Arabian Nights questions

[jason taylor]

Of course most Arabian Nights is Low Fantasy rather then High Fantasy-more concerned with interesting but not to spectacular doings in a world where magic is assumed and less concerned with mythic adventures.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Of course most Arabian Nights is Low Fantasy rather then High Fantasy-more concerned with interesting but not to spectacular doings in a world where magic is assumed and less concerned with mythic adventures.

That ... really varies. A lot of the shorter stories are like that, but you also get djinn all over the place ("Aladdin" isn't that atypical), and some very powerful magic items like the Ebony Horse.

What you don't get are Conan-esque warrior heroes or spell-caster protagonists.

[LoneWolf23k]

One option I would consider for the "Pagan Gods" is to go with the "Third of the Angelic Host that didn't go along with Lucifer's Rebellion, but didn't stop him either so they got banished to Earth" option.

They were still well-disposed about Humanity, thus setting themselves up as protectors of Civilization, but no longer being under the watch of Heaven meant they sorta "went native", becoming more vulnerable to sinful behavior.

As Monotheism spread across the Earth, these "Not-So-Fallen" have progressively stopped trying to be worshiped by Humanity. Some have begun seeking Redemption in Heaven. Some have signed up with Hell. But most now live in hiding, pursuing their own interests.

[b-dog]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf23k

One option I would consider for the "Pagan Gods" is to go with the "Third of the Angelic Host that didn't go along with Lucifer's Rebellion, but didn't stop him either so they got banished to Earth" option.

They were still well-disposed about Humanity, thus setting themselves up as protectors of Civilization, but no longer being under the watch of Heaven meant they sorta "went native", becoming more vulnerable to sinful behavior.

As Monotheism spread across the Earth, these "Not-So-Fallen" have progressively stopped trying to be worshiped by Humanity. Some have begun seeking Redemption in Heaven. Some have signed up with Hell. But most now live in hiding, pursuing their own interests.

That was sort of my plan. In Islam the angels are all good but the djinn could be good, neutral or evil so I was,thinking that the good and neutral djinn could be the pagan gods and like you started as monotheism became more dominant these djinn/pagan gods lost their place.

[b-dog]

I was thinking that spells could be written in ancient languages like Egyptian and Babylonian. They may be written in obscure form as well. The idea is to have wizards know a lot of different languages and thus the the reason why they are assumed to be so intelligent and scholarly. I was thinking that maybe the spells were grantee to mortals by the earlier pagan gods or maybe they were some sort of prayer to then that they responded to by granting supernatural favors in any case, the spells were part of an earlier time before Islam became dominant.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by b-dog

I was thinking that spells could be written in ancient languages like Egyptian and Babylonian. They may be written in obscure form as well. The idea is to have wizards know a lot of different languages and thus the the reason why they are assumed to be so intelligent and scholarly. I was thinking that maybe the spells were grantee to mortals by the earlier pagan gods or maybe they were some sort of prayer to then that they responded to by granting supernatural favors in any case, the spells were part of an earlier time before Islam became dominant.

That's cool and goes with the flavor; just as the lost cities are now archeological digs, the ancient writing is now something like, "Buy me another slave, this one is lazy and good-for-nothing." But there were real lost cities and there were real lost languages.

[mukibear]

Islamic and Indian Magic Squares, part 1

if you sign up with JSTOR, you can read the whole thing - which is actually kinda nice.

[b-dog]

Ars Magica has some monsters called the blemmyae which are headless men. I am not sure what advantage they would have over other men but they might be sort of scary or they could be supernatural. Also they listed cynocephali as a type of dog headed man who is savage. They could be a sort of Middle Eastern orc or hobgoblin type monster. Or they could be like gnolls in D&D.