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Oops, sorry, was trying to reply to an old question about World of the Five Gods. The original question had to do with places, and in your reply you said some of the events had real-world event jumping-off points. I was wondering about examples from that series.
I don't know if this is what you mean but if you squint at the plot of Curse of Chalion it's not hard to see the contours of the Spanish Reconquista, with Iselle as Isabella of Castille and Bergon as Ferdinand of Aragon. As you reference in the old question, the map of Chalion is more or less the Iberian peninsula flipped over, with the Roknari sort of vaguely standing in for North Africa and the Islamic taifas in southern Spain. The Golden General is maybe sort of analogous to the Almohads, though that's more of a stretch. Historically Ferdinand and Isabella united Spain and completed the Reconquista. Which does make one wonder if there will be any "New World" equivalent in the Five Gods, that being the other notable event of their reign.
Great Audar of Darthaca vaguely matches the timeline for Charlemagne. There are references to the old Cedonian Empire that pretty clearly maps to the Roman Empire. If we assume that Curse of Chalion is roughly analogous to the late 1400s, Penric would be somewhere in the 1300s, and the Hallowed Hunt a century or two before that.
None of these are direct correspondences, more like flavor, or "jumping off points" for Bujold's imagination.
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Mary
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Jan 05, 2020 09:28AM
Oops, sorry, was trying to reply to an old question about World of the Five Gods. The original question had to do with places, and in your reply you said some of the events had real-world event jumping-off points. I was wondering about examples from that series.
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I don't know if this is what you mean but if you squint at the plot of Curse of Chalion it's not hard to see the contours of the Spanish Reconquista, with Iselle as Isabella of Castille and Bergon as Ferdinand of Aragon. As you reference in the old question, the map of Chalion is more or less the Iberian peninsula flipped over, with the Roknari sort of vaguely standing in for North Africa and the Islamic taifas in southern Spain. The Golden General is maybe sort of analogous to the Almohads, though that's more of a stretch. Historically Ferdinand and Isabella united Spain and completed the Reconquista. Which does make one wonder if there will be any "New World" equivalent in the Five Gods, that being the other notable event of their reign. Great Audar of Darthaca vaguely matches the timeline for Charlemagne. There are references to the old Cedonian Empire that pretty clearly maps to the Roman Empire. If we assume that Curse of Chalion is roughly analogous to the late 1400s, Penric would be somewhere in the 1300s, and the Hallowed Hunt a century or two before that.
None of these are direct correspondences, more like flavor, or "jumping off points" for Bujold's imagination.
