AMAT = All Myths Are True. Germanic ≠ German. "Germanic" is a family of languages that includes not only Deutsch, but also English, Dutch, Old Norse (and its direct descendants Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, etc), and others. Alright, so I want to build a fantastic alternate world in which All Myths Are True, specifically the Norse/Germanic myths. All of it is true, including the cosmology, so my world is literally nine lands connected by a giant ash tree. Working title for the entire constructed universe is either Yggdrasill (the name of the tree itself) or Níu Heimar (Nine Worlds). Right now, I'm only concerned about only one of the eight worlds, Miðgarð, which happens to be the very one we're living on. Ideally, I'd like it to be as close to actual Europe as possible, but I have one major problem: It's easy to make an AMAT out of a place like Japan since Japan has been isolated from the rest of the world for much of its history. This is not true for the Germanic world, which has always been in contact with non-Germanics. This means that the history and culture of the Germanic world is interlinked with that of non-Germanics, like two pieces of cloth sewn together. I don't want to include non-Germanics. Because the whole point of this world is to be a Germanic AMAT, it would be very unfair to the non-Germanics, because their mythology will be either false or intangible next to the Germanic mythology which is always true. That and by including them, I am making them a target either way. They will be either those "other evil people who keep attacking us", or "those other people which we can plunder for gold and slaves". By not including non-germanics, I'm forced to change the history because now they're attacking empty air. It is true that, for example, the Swedes attacked Geatland, but Geatland at the same time was attacking the Gauls. When you remove the Gauls, who is left to attack? It would be silly to attack your allies, or to turn around and attack Sweden, who is much stronger. I could also just rip out the geography and just replace it with a completely constructed continent that happens to be entirely Germanic, but the problem I see with that is, I can't exactly include a system of worship that was important in, say, Sweden, without having a Sweden. That and there are references in the stories to historical places like Geatland. My point is that it would resemble Norse/Germanic, but it wouldn't be Norse/Germanic without any of the places in which it started. It would be like having Islam without Mecca, or Judaism without Jerusalem. What do you all think? edited 30th Mar '11 3:50:28 AM by annebeeche
Well, if the myths themselves could be proven to be true, other cultures might keep their cultural quirks but adopt Germanic religion and cosmology.
A set of myths being true is not particularly offensive. I'd say removing all non-germanic cultures outright would be far from offensive.
I'm more of a fan of deliberately incoherent/Mind Screw-y cosmologies myself, though.
You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.