From: Paolo Guccione (teigupa@tss.tei.ericsson.se)
Date: Wed 11 Sep 1996 - 19:20:01 EEST
Michael Schwartz
About Safelster
> I have heard several people compare the region
> to the Hanseatic League or to the great Italian city-states
> of the Renaissance
I agree with the parallel between Safelster and Italian city-states
(though the exact period should be the end of the Middle Ages and not
the Renaissance, IMO). I know the subject rather well, as I am Italian,
though not a historian. I have also been running a long Safelstran
campaign for the last three years.
The Hoenstaufen Emperors of the 12th and 13th century claimed supremacy
over the newly formed city-states, which had just developed a form of
Republican government. Obviously the Italian cities were rather
unsatisfied with paying tithes to a German emperor. Frederick the First
invaded Italy and destroyed Milan (with some help on the part of rival
cities), but eventually the cities formed a powerful League and defeated
him at Legnano, where the Emperor barely escaped death by pretending to
be dead on the battlefield. Curiously, there is currently a political
party in Italy inspired to this League. This to show you how much of
Italian cities national pride depended on their struggle against the
Empire.
A cunning Gloranthaphile can easily see the resemblance to the current
One point that makes the parallel not totally fitting is the fact that
claims of Guilmarn over Safelster. However, this all happened in the
Middle Ages, not the Renaissance. The parallel with the latter period
comes from the universally accepted supremacy of the merchant guilds in
Safelster, but as far as I remember this started in Italy during the
Middle Ages, too. In Dante Alighieri's Florence (around 1300), for
instance, the guilds were already well-developed and structured, having
a sort of "coat of arms" and a different patron saint for each one. I
have developed a Safelstran parallel to this, where in Rokari areas each
major guild has a Malkioni Saint as his patron, while in Henotheist
areas this role is taken over by a god of the Orlanth pantheon. In the
latter case the guildmaster should be at least an Acolyte of the deity.
For instance, in our Rokari city, the Guild of Healers might be St.
Xemela's Guild, while in a Henotheist city it might be called Chalana's
Guild. There might even be two guilds in some city...
there has never been any religious struggle in and between the Italian
city-states. To find a good Earth counterpart for the sects of
Safelster, you must go to the Renaissance period, but in Germany. Here
three different churches (Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed) struggled,
sometimes even in arms, for supremacy, involving the Electors and
Princes in the struggle. The religious geography of the HRE (i.e.
Germany) during that period should be extremely similar to the current
Safelster situation, where one county could host a Rokari ruler and
majority, while another Prince could be Henotheist or what-you-like and
persecute the Rokari in order to favor his personal faith (this is what
actually happened in real history).
I do not know much about the Hanseatic League, but the paralles is not
so good IMO because the cities in the league did not fight one against
the other, which their Italian (and Safelstran) counterpart did!
Glad to be on the Digest, and Hi all!
- --
[ Paolo Guccione ]
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