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JonStryker said:
For being most true to the source all Northern states would have to be Polish. There is one common tongue which would be Polish. Surname-wise the books give us a wide variety of origins of names, explained by the conjunction of spheres. But to me saying "Aedirn should be German because ...] is equally wrong as portrayed in the mod.

Since "everything is clearly Polish" was seen as rather boring the kingdoms were each given an identity derived from a European nation.

Reasons for each are rather arbitrary (since canon info about some of them is ultra-scarce):
- Redania, mostly because of the COA is usually seen as Poland
- Novigrad has parallels with Gdánsk/Danzig
- Temeria, the old rival of Redania was made German-ish (yet France, based on the fleur-de-lis in the COA makes also sense)
- Brugge - mixture of German and Czech; the ruling dynasty (in the mod!) was inspired by the Vítkovci of Southern Bohemia
- Kaedwen, has parallels with Russia: Huge, vast, cold, not very densely populated, yet militarily strong
- Toussaint, that very, very French place.
- Aedirn, in the mod, has places and names that are a mixture German and French. Additional place names are taken from Alsace, a region that has been francisized in the 20th century.
- To keep Romance languages close to each other Lyria&Rivia got to be Italian
- Western petty kingdoms, Cidaris, Verden, Kerack with their Viking tendencies was turned Scandinavian (Norwegian, Danish, Swedish)
- Kovir, has parallels to the Baltic nations -> Lithuanian, Latvian, (Old-Prussian)
- Cintra - an odd choice - is Scots
- the Nilfgaardian nations are mostly rather obscure, not too much is known about them, yet they are big and need names for lots of counties and baronies. Therefore some of them are odd in terms of real-world parallel:
- Ebbing, hungarian. Reasoning was mostly that Matilda de Nementh-Uyvar, one of the few known characters from there has a very Hungarian looking name.
- Metinna, anglicised Irish
- Nazair, anglo-saxon
- Geso, spanish
- Etolia, Roman (portrayed as almost non-existant at the start of the game -> Nilfgaardianized)
- Maecht, saxon

For some reason I always regretted Metinna the most. For a possible WitcherKings for Crusader Kings 3 a new concept for the cultures would make sense. Nations should be distinct, yet in a reasonable way. Kingdoms conquered by Nilfgaard 20 years ago should feel different than the core of the empire. And maybe break off of Nilfgaard when it is in a weak state.



At the start of the Witcher 2, Isengrim is supposed to have travelled east with Dijkstra and Boreas Mun, never to be seen again. CD Projekt created Iorweth as a carbon copy of him (shares looks, scars and history). Iorweth was supposed to show up in Velen in Witcher 3 but that questline was cut from the game. Isengrim or Iorweth could of course be made leaders of the Vrihedd brigade. But keep in mind that that brigade had all its officers (but those two) executed and itself was disbanded.
Click to expand...

Skellige would be Norse-Celtic-Scottish. Quite possibly Innse Gall.
 
JonStryker said:
For being most true to the source all Northern states would have to be Polish. There is one common tongue which would be Polish. Surname-wise the books give us a wide variety of origins of names, explained by the conjunction of spheres. But to me saying "Aedirn should be German because ...] is equally wrong as portrayed in the mod.

Since "everything is clearly Polish" was seen as rather boring the kingdoms were each given an identity derived from a European nation.

Reasons for each are rather arbitrary (since canon info about some of them is ultra-scarce):
- Redania, mostly because of the COA is usually seen as Poland
- Novigrad has parallels with Gdánsk/Danzig
- Temeria, the old rival of Redania was made German-ish (yet France, based on the fleur-de-lis in the COA makes also sense)
- Brugge - mixture of German and Czech; the ruling dynasty (in the mod!) was inspired by the Vítkovci of Southern Bohemia
- Kaedwen, has parallels with Russia: Huge, vast, cold, not very densely populated, yet militarily strong
- Toussaint, that very, very French place.
- Aedirn, in the mod, has places and names that are a mixture German and French. Additional place names are taken from Alsace, a region that has been francisized in the 20th century.
- To keep Romance languages close to each other Lyria&Rivia got to be Italian
- Western petty kingdoms, Cidaris, Verden, Kerack with their Viking tendencies was turned Scandinavian (Norwegian, Danish, Swedish)
- Kovir, has parallels to the Baltic nations -> Lithuanian, Latvian, (Old-Prussian)
- Cintra - an odd choice - is Scots
- the Nilfgaardian nations are mostly rather obscure, not too much is known about them, yet they are big and need names for lots of counties and baronies. Therefore some of them are odd in terms of real-world parallel:
- Ebbing, hungarian. Reasoning was mostly that Matilda de Nementh-Uyvar, one of the few known characters from there has a very Hungarian looking name.
- Metinna, anglicised Irish
- Nazair, anglo-saxon
- Geso, spanish
- Etolia, Roman (portrayed as almost non-existant at the start of the game -> Nilfgaardianized)
- Maecht, saxon

For some reason I always regretted Metinna the most. For a possible WitcherKings for Crusader Kings 3 a new concept for the cultures would make sense. Nations should be distinct, yet in a reasonable way. Kingdoms conquered by Nilfgaard 20 years ago should feel different than the core of the empire. And maybe break off of Nilfgaard when it is in a weak state.



At the start of the Witcher 2, Isengrim is supposed to have travelled east with Dijkstra and Boreas Mun, never to be seen again. CD Projekt created Iorweth as a carbon copy of him (shares looks, scars and history). Iorweth was supposed to show up in Velen in Witcher 3 but that questline was cut from the game. Isengrim or Iorweth could of course be made leaders of the Vrihedd brigade. But keep in mind that that brigade had all its officers (but those two) executed and itself was disbanded.
Click to expand...

Personally, I don't think the kingdoms should be calques of real nations for the most part. A large feature of place/people names (in the books, at least, I'm not familiar with the games) was that they were often references to the real world. I disagree with labeling any of the kingdoms as "clearly Polish" because the names of people and places from the books were mostly not Polish at all. I'm not advocating for the complete removal of cultures (e.g. the Elves and Nilfgaard have a clear Celtic substrate), but they are far less distinct than they are in the mod.
e.g. "baccalà" is an Italian word meaning "cod". It's also a port in Nilfgaard.
"Maribor" is a city in Slovenia and doesn't fit with a German-ish theme for Temeria
"Cervantes pass" in Toussaint is a clear reference to the author of Don Quixote (haven't played this mod in a while, but I remember that the duchy of it was called "Cervantesa", which is a mistake, since it's not in the nominative case)
"Montecalvo" is in Redania whilst it's clearly Italian
Character names:
Menno (van) Coehoorn is actually a historical Dutch figure, in the lore, he was a Nilfgaardian general
There's really no reason for Kovir/Poviss to have any Baltic substrate. Sheala de Tancarville (clearly French sounding last name) was from there. The ruler, Esterad Thyssen, clearly has a Dutch-sounding last name. Tancred, the prince Ciri was supposed to marry, also sounds more like a Frankish name than anything else.
There were often random mixtures, e.g. Biruta (Lithuanian-derived first name) Icardi (Italian sounding), Zoltan (Hungarian first name) Chivay (Romance. Apparently it's a small town in Peru)
Sabrina Glevissig is from Kaedwen, clearly not a Russian/Slavic name, neither is Filippa Eilhart (Germanic last name, the mod would make her Polish)
Similarly, the dwarves are clearly many cultures mixed together, with Italian last names sometimes (Cianfanelli, Vivaldi, Giancardi etc.) and at other times with names like the mentioned Zoltan Chivay, or Sheldon (English) Skaggs.
There's also Falwick (English) and Tailles (French), knights from Temeria.
There's plenty more, such as Condwiramurs (I believe it's from a Medieval story?), Nimue (Arthurian legends of course) or Agloval (I'm certain I saw this name in another of Sapkowski's books, the World of King Arthur, which is an overview of Arthurian legends, I believe)

I could go on and on. The point is, I really think there is no reason to hyperseparate kingdoms as European cultures the way it's implemented in the mod, with the exceptions of Elves and Dryads, who clearly correspond to Celts, and to an extent, Nilfgaard, which also has a big Celtic substrate (maybe others, like Skellige, which mostly corresponds to Norse, it appears, but even then, it is more of a tendency than a rule as you can see with Eist Tuirseach, his last name meaning "tired" in Gaelic Irish). It's not immersive to create an artificial lore-real world culture correspondence. Everyone's language except for Elves and Dryads should basically be a mix of European languages, both when it comes to first & last names and place names. I feel like that would be much more true to the manner in which Sapkowski created his world. If there are hidden references somewhere, it's even better.
 
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I am with you on this stuff. If we would be making a mod for CK3 (and I'd be totally willing to participate if people were so inclined) I would suggest to do it in the way you suggest. The cultures of Nilfgaard being my biggest pet-peeves with my map making work on the Witcher mod. Metinna, for instance, is an Anglo-Irish mix. I decided to do it that way and always regretted it after.
That being said: Certain names to be exclusive for certain culture does make sense to me. If you see a Henselt, clearly he is from Kaedwen. But with those cultures where there isn't much known about them that is hard to do.

Just for the record:
- Maribor is a German city name. "Marburg" bent to look and sound more Slovenian. Only coined in 1836 during a time of national awakenings.
- Kovir/Poviss is clearly mirrored after the Baltic region in lore. Thyssen is a name most prominently used by the German Thyssen family that founded the Thyssenkrupp company that is still existing. Tancred is a name mostly seen in connection with the Norman rulers of Sicily that participated in the crusades -> Tancrède de Hauteville.
 
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JonStryker said:
I am with you on this stuff. If we would be making a mod for CK3 (and I'd be totally willing to participate if people were so inclined) I would suggest to do it in the way you suggest. The cultures of Nilfgaard being my biggest pet-peeves with my map making work on the Witcher mod. Metinna, for instance, is an Anglo-Irish mix. My fault but also something I always regretted.
That being said: Certain names to be exclusive for certain culture does make sense to me. If you see a Henselt, clearly he is from Kaedwen. But with those cultures where there isn't much known about them that is hard to do.

Just for the record:
- Maribor is a German city name. "Marburg" bent to look and sound more Slovenian. Only coined in 1836 during a time of national awakenings.
- Kovir/Poviss is clearly mirrored after the Baltic region in lore. Thyssen is a name most prominently used by the German Thyssen family that founded the Thyssenkrupp company that is still existing. Tancred is a name mostly seen in connection with the Norman rulers of Sicily that participated in the crusades -> Tancrède de Hauteville.
Click to expand...

I'd totally love a CK3 mod.
I also agree with you about some names being culture specific. Makes sense, given the history and lore links of specific names to the areas.
I also wasn't aware of the cultural connections you pointed out. It's not like they would make much difference in the argument, though.
 
1591706400655.png

The lore's map is based on Poland.

1591706624394.png
 
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I added Reginald as husband of Meve. I don't know how to merge the files to update the mod to 3.3.3. I also added in the timeline the time when Nilfgaard ruled Lyria and Rivia under Villem.

It would be nice to add the rulers of Lyria for the title's history.
The rulers of Lyria since 1133:
Berrik - Lyria and Rivia
Egon - Lyria only, his brother would get Rivia
Queen Impecca - Coat of arms gets cintran arms merged.
Queen Kalis
Queen Meve
Villem - Temporarly under Nilfgaardian occupation
 

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Jackzee said:
View attachment 586807
The lore's map is based on Poland.

View attachment 586811
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Is it, though? The link seems rather vague to me. Yes, the coastline mostly fits, but the rivers only pretty much fit, and there is no equivalent to Skellige, or to any of the mountain ranges. It seems like a very far fetched connection, which I wouldn't agree with based on the evidence, unless the author said that's what he did.
 
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Dude said he based it on king arthur, there's poland stuff but who cares? Like the GOT mod isnt all about making westeros more like where its author lives when he named half the houses and places after rivers and towns there or ireland after the upside map meme. Authors just be like that, they use resources and what they know to make a coastline look like a coastline but it doesnt make them the same location in story so it doesnt matter right.
 
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The whole stuff around the map was because some dude wanted to know about the cultures in the witcher world. For me there are nearly all the same, there are some differences around language, the Nilfgaardian dialect is different from Skellige and the northern ones but is a difference like spanish - portuguese or british and american english. And concerning modding... Well there is a Github....
 
Jackzee said:
Beyond Nilfgaard there are other nations like Zanguevar, etc
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Of the other nations like Hakland, Zerrikania, Hannu, Zangwebar, Barsa, and Ofir even less is known than of the nations already in the game. No canon or even semi-canon maps exist. The references to these lands are so scarce I could easily quote them all here. Adding these lands to a mod would need an even greater amount of fan fiction than we have already seen in this mod.
 
JonStryker said:
Of the other nations like Hakland, Zerrikania, Hannu, Zangwebar, Barsa, and Ofir even less is known than of the nations already in the game. No canon or even semi-canon maps exist. The references to these lands are so scarce I could easily quote them all here. Adding these lands to a mod would need an even greater amount of fan fiction than we have already seen in this mod.
Click to expand...

For me that would be useless since there are deserts and large mountain ranges in the middle that ''Isolate'' the known world from the other tribes or wildlings.

witchernetflix.com

Netflix | The Witcher | Welcome to the Continent

Welcome back. New faces, locations and lore awaits. Uncover hidden mysteries and explore the expanding Continent.
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A map from the official netflix site that shows the huge desert next to the mountains.
 
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