>>5648202Oh my knowledge is very superificial, it is mostly just curiosity and reading wikipedia hehe. Do you know a lot of Persian poetry? I borrowed / horribly culturally appropriated a few Zoroastrian legends and myths in my past quests, eg my pirate / sea witch faction Vourukasha, I just liked the pretty-sounding names hehe. Sometimes I also like to make weird allusions like when Rukh can refer to the Persian Roc (mythical bird) but also the People's Movement Of Ukraine when George Bush (older one) gave his famous Chicken Kiev speech hehe
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Kiev_speechAnd in some of my game settings there are references to a game-within-a game, I called it Shahmat (old name for chess, from "checkmate" etymology the Persian phrase "Shah Mat", ie The King Is Dead). However I imagine the fictional game within my fantasy game world less like chess, more like a ttrpg though hehe. I was actually inspired by a section from Tad Williams Memory Sorrow Thorn (the !notElves Sithi race have an elaborate ceremonial ritual game) and also those tales from old Welsh Mabinogion / King Arthur legends where a king plays a dream game that becomes real on the battlefield. I just really like these myths and legends hehe
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_RhonabwyThe only Middle Eastern poem I remember (Arabic not Persian) is I think Al Mutanabbi (was he from Iraq?) I don't know if the translation I read on the internet was exactly correct but I think it went something like this
I am the one whose literature can be seen by the blind,
Whose words can be heard even by the deaf.
The steed, the night and desert all know me
As do sword, spear, scripture and pen.
Also I read a little of Ibn Khaldun a while back (because economics hehe) I have to admit I did not fully understand it or the history but I know of him as an influential philosopher. I thought it would be a cool name to use for a !notDune philosopher space wizard faction. Gargaresh (a raider / slave marauder faction) mentioned in my settings is named after some town in Libya where I read a lot of such human trafficking activities have apparently taken place.
You can see some of my worldbuilding tangents in a few of my quests for instance references to the Apportionment (I learnt about this from R Scott Bakker Prince Of Nothing series) but it really comes from Muhasasa Taifia (literally, Sectarian Apportionment) the failed post regime change Iraqi democracy / proportional representation system. The Skycraper tower in the finance plaza of my Golgotha quest alludes to Al Sephina - a star constellation, but also I think in Arabic it means... The Ship ( al safinah ?) which hints at the conspiracy idea suggested in the quest that the skyscraper tower could have indeed been a spaceship intended to escape the cursed city of perpetual night in that game setting hehe.
