History FantasyCounterpartCulture / Literature

* Brandon Sanderson's ''Literature/{{Elantris}}'' features several Fantasy Counterpart Cultures, though there's a bit of mix-and-matching going on. The Fjordell Empire occupies a political position similar to Rome, but is culturally and linguistically more Nordic, with a religion that seems equal parts Islamic and Catholic. The nation of Teod (of which one main protagonist is princess) is very obviously England- a small island that is nonetheless regarded as a great power due to its very impressive navy and canny leadership. The nation of Jindo, mentioned often but never seen, seems to be a stand in for medieval China. The nations of Duladel and Arelon, on the other hand, don't really seem to have any real-life counterparts.
* Also from Brandon Sanderson, ''Literature/TheAlloyOfLaw'' has the Roughs, which are an equivalent of 19th century TheWildWest. There are small towns inhabited by people who've had enough of city life (and laws of civilized societies), lawkeepers who hunt bandits for bounties, and savage koloss as a fantasy equivalent of Native American tribes. Even fashion is very Wild West-like, with long dusters and hats.

* Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett's ''{{Havemercy}}'' and ''Blood Magic'' are set in the nation of Volstov which is very similar to late 18th-early 19th cent. Russia [[FantasyGunControl minus guns]] and plus {{Magitek}} but with the geography reversed so that it's capital is close to the border of the rival Ke-Han Empire which itself is an amalgam of Manchurian China and Samurai Japan, especially the latter.

* In the ''Drake Maijstral'' series by Creator/WalterJonWilliams, the Khosali, one-time conquerors of Earth, are modeled on the British Empire. Very proper, very strict, very formal, very prudish (in their alien way)--very Victorian.

** There is also a second Space Germany, ''Deutschstirne'', which Hanover bloodily broke away from centuries ago in a war that led to the passage of the [[FictionalGenevaConventions Abbentheren Accords]] to govern interstellar warfare. ''Hso-Hsi'', Space China from the sound of it, has so far only been briefly mentioned by name.

* Much of the work of Creator/CJCherryh is powered by this trope.

* ''Literature/ArcOfFire'': Kajin is one for China, going by the names of its people and customs like using chop sticks. It even has the equivalent of Buddhist monks. It seems probable Mohender Gosh's home country is one of India, judging by his name and culture.

* Cook's ''Literature/BlackCompany'' novels start light while the Company is in the north, then runs with this trope when they get to Taglios. Gunni are copy-and-paste Hindus, Vehdna are close to Muslim, and the whole pluralistic, pacifistic culture is what could have happened if the two religions and smaller sects had to join together or die. Painfully. In the name of a demon-eating goddess their gods are afraid of. Even later on, Hsien (China) gets tossed in there too.

*** The implication is in the name. Agamemnon and Menelaos are collectively referred to in TheIliad as the "sons of Atreus" or, for short ''the Atreids''. Then again, Herbert indulges so heavily in FutureImperfect (according to the history of the setting the first Padishah-Emperor was UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, and Washington was the name of the first noble house to use atomic weapons in war) the two may very well have gotten conflated somewhere along the line.

** Red Indians (Native Americans) exist on the Discworld[[note]] Ref. One-Man-Bucket, the spirit guide to Mrs Cake in ''Discworld/ReaperMan''[[/note]] but are assigned the rolling prairies of central Howondaland -- the proto-Mid-West is transplanted to the Discworld Africa.
** A version of Ireland has been conspicuous by its absence in the books but ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'' mentioned the ''very'' Irish sounding 'Great Bronze Spoon of Cladh' so perhaps one exists and will appear someday.

* The Kargs of the ''Literature/EarthseaTrilogy'' have some striking similarities to Vikings, what with their habit of traveling around in longboats and doing the RapePillageAndBurn routine on helpless villages. They're also the only people in Earthsea with light hair and pale skin. Subverted in that when, in ''The Tombs of Atuan'' we get a look at Kargish culture, it doesn't bear much resemblance to that of the Vikings.

* ''Literature/TheSilerianTrilogy'': Sileria has many similarities to Sicily-feuding clans, powerful crime syndicates which extort and murder people, plus a succession of foreign rulers. Valdania, meanwhile, has a resemblance to the Roman Empire, and it also has the same geographic relation of mainland Italy to Sicily, plus it's religion may be a vague Christian counterpart-it apparently involves "the Three" with a "sign of the Three" and believers say "Three into one!" On the other hand, its priests sacrifice goats. The Moorlands mirror Britain somewhat. Kinto, however, does not appear to have a counterpart, though it has vague similarity to some East Asian nations.

* ''Literature/TheSilerianTrilogy'': Sileria has many similarities to Sicily-feuding clans, powerful crime syndicates which extort and murder people, plus a succession of foreign rulers. Valdania, meanwhile, has a resemblance to the Roman Empire, and it also has the same geographic relation of mainland Italy to Sicily, plus it's religion may be a vague Christian counterpart-it apparently involves "the Three" with a "sign of the Three" and believers say "Three into one!" On the other hand, its priests sacrifice goats. The Moorlands mirror Britain somewhat. Kinto, however, does not appear to have a counterpart, though it has vague similarity to some East Asian nations.

* The Literature/{{Rigante}} are essentially very Scottish Celts (and later, simply Scottish). The series also features counterparts of Romans and Vikings as well as, in the chronologically later parts, Native Americans, Cavaliers and Roundheads.

*** The scale of the invasion of the Andals itself is reminiscent of the European conquest campaigns on the Americas. The manner of the invasion, a religion-driven pursuit, is reminiscent of the Crusades and the Andals painting the Seven-pointed Star in their shields is similar to Constantine I's army's adoption of the Christian Cross.

** The world first introduced in ''The King's Peace'' features fantasy parallels of a whole bunch of [[Myth/KingArthur Arthurian legend]], with the island of Tir Tanager standing in for England and going on from there, down to Saint Patrick, Jesus and Arthur himself. Figuring out what the real world equivalents are is a great deal of the fun.
** ''Tooth and Claw'' features a dragon society that matches very closely to Victorian England. Except, of course, that they're ''dragons''.

** The Sathuli have a lot of Muslim/Arab cultural features.

* One of these for Ancient Rome is the setting for Creator/TimMarquitz's ''Literature/WarGod'' novel, which is a DeconstructiveParody of this genre. The antiheroes intend to rig a tournament about this by upping the violence and murder to make their FakeUltimateHero look good so they can clean up when he crashes and burns.

* Isle de la Lumiere, where ''Literature/MaledictionTrilogy'' is set, seems to be an equivalent of 17th century France, as shown by the names of characters, their aristocratic titles, fashion, entertainment and weapons. Funny enough, the only character with an English name, one monsieur Johnson, is a foreigner and comes from ''the continent''.

** There are also 13 districts ruled over by a distant authority, not unlike the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteen_Colonies 13 Colonies]] that would some day become the modern United States of America.

** Red Indians (Native Americans) exist on the Discworld[[note]] Ref. One-Man-Bucket, the spirit guide to Mrs Cake in ''ReaperMan''[[/note]] but are assigned the rolling prairies of central Howondaland - the proto-Mid-West is transplanted to the Discworld Africa.

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': Panem is a futuristic, sci-fi version of Rome. The country's name is an adoption of Rome's "Bread and Circuses" motto. The Capitol is an incredibly authoritarian superpower that brutally reigns over conquered territories to feed the decadent desires of its own citizens. The gladiatorial parallels with the Hunger Games are obvious, of course. Parties at the Capitol feature guests who induce vomiting so that they can consume more food, which is popularly thought to have been common at Roman banquets. The Capitol residents almost all have Roman first names.
** As a bit of extra GeniusBonus, the lottery slips that entitle the residents of the districts to free food (at the cost of increasing their chances of being reaped) are called ''Tesserae''. In Ancient Rome, the Tesserae Frumentariae are tokens handed out to citizens of Rome which can be exchanged for free grain. In the districts, bread and circuses [[DealWithTheDevil come in a single package]].

* Averted and played straight in the ''{{Literature/Inda}}'' books. The Venn are clearly based off the Vikings, but that's because they ''are'' Vikings, or at least are descended from a bunch of Vikings who crossed from our world to Sartorias-Deles. Their distant descendants, the Marlovans, have a completely different culture that presumably developed after they split away from the Venn. Other nations and cultures within the world have no clear Earth equivalent, having been in the world and developed away from Earth for long enough that they no longer resemble whoever their initial progenitors were.

* Also from Brandon Sanderson, ''Literature/TheAlloyOfLaw'' has the Roughs, which are an equivalent of 19th century Wild West. There are small towns inhabited by people who've had enough of city life (and laws of civilized societies), lawkeepers who hunt bandits for bounties, and savage koloss as a fantasy equivalent of Native American tribes. Even fashion is very Wild West-like, with long dusters and hats.

** The Free Cities are similar to the city-states of medieval Italy, and derive their languages and culture from the Valyrian Freehold, a Rome analogue. Braavos is even a CityOfCanals like Venice, although it is influenced by Amsterdam as well.
*** In a more literal sense, the statue of the Titan of Braavos is the counterpart to the Colossus of Rhodes.
*** The Rogare family of Lys, a wealthy banking family, may be partially based on the Medicis. The Head of the Family, Lysandro Rogare, was called the Magnificent, like Lorenzo Medici, and a woman of the family married royalty.

*** There are also comparisons to be made with the Minoans, including the fact that they were apparently destroyed by tectonic activity.

** The Targaryen conquest of Westeros mirrors the Norman conquest of England, but the Targaryens themselves also have some Byzantine trappings (ex. "wildfire", a green-colored version of Greek Fire). They are of Valyrian (i.e. "Roman") origin, too.

* In ''Literature/WhoFearsDeath'', which takes place in an AfterTheEnd Africa in which TheMagicComesBack, there is a war between the Okeke and the Nuru. The main character, Onyesonwu, is an Ewu, or a child of rape of an Okeke woman by a Nuru man. Even before [[spoiler: the book is revealed to take place in Sudan]], the Nuru are heavily implied to be Arab and the Okeke are implied to be black Africans. [[spoiler: This is further confirmed in the {{prequel}} ''The Book of Phoenix'', in which "Arab" is considered a slur by the Nuru.]]