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Balancing Historical Accuracy with Modern Ideas



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Sat May 02, 2020 6:41 pm
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WaitingCynicism says...



Hi all!

Currently my story is set in a low fantasy version of 1100. I’ve been trying to research as much as I can, though I've found I have more questions than answers. I've listed them here in no particular order - any ideas for these would be greatly appreciated. As a note, I am having LGBT+ characters be accepted in the setting since it's also a tabletop setting and I want players to feel comfortable playing a gay or trans character or whatever they feel comfortable playing. Of course, with that being said, I have a LOT of questions. I apologize if these are too controversial or political.

Is there a way to balance historical accuracy with more modern ideas generally? I'd want this to be as close to history as possible while still allowing for LGBT couples to live openly, though I realize that this would probably have to be rule of cool.

What would courtly love and flirting look like (especially between two men, but really in general for same-sex couples)? Snippets/ideas would be greatly appreciated as well. I have seen the Wikipedia page on courtly love.


Let's say a guy is in a religious military and is courting the local lord - would the church allow him to marry the local lord? I know they can marry other knights in military orders, but would the church allow members of military orders to marry into secular noble families?

How would inheritance work with regards to a same-sex couple?

What would the title of a lord's husband be? A knight's husband?

How exactly would arranging a marriage work if the person being married was gay?

How exactly can I make dialogue sound more medieval-ish without being drastically over the top?
  





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Sun May 03, 2020 7:52 pm
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Carlito says...



Hey!! The first thing that comes to mind with all of your questions is that you're writing a fantasy version of the year 1100. Key word there is fantasy. You're not writing historical contemporary fiction. You're not writing nonfiction. You're creating your own fantasy world set in history. So I think if you want to have LGBT couples in your fantasy world, great! You get to set all of the rules because it's your fantasy world.

Maybe in your fantasy world LGBT couples are treated the same as hetero couples and they're considered a normal part of society. Maybe they're not. You get to decide. I think once you decide how your fantasy world views these couples, you'll have an easier time answering your questions. You can still include aspects of the historical features of that time period in clothing, speech, jobs, homes, modes of transport, weapons, etc. But since it's fantasy, you get to make all of the rules.

In terms of making the dialogue not over the top. That's a great question! It can get very cumbersome for a reader to read dialects (and depending on what you're writing it can come off as offensive). I think for readability, write as normal but maybe include vocabulary words that are pertinent to the period at times. Like if the historically accurate word for a sword is something different, call it something different.
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Sun May 10, 2020 9:25 pm
WaitingCynicism says...



Thank you! The main thing I've been trying to figure out is how gay rights could even have developed in the middle ages, since besides dragons, I want the setting to be as accurate as possible to actual history (besides gay rights too). do you have any ideas how that could have happened,or is it so out there that basically the rule of cool is the only way to have it happen?
  





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Mon May 11, 2020 2:47 am
Carlito says...



I think it's totally up to you! It could be that in this society it was always viewed as normal and was never an issue. It could be that it used to be an issue and now it's generally accepted but some people still find it wrong (mirroring modern day society). It could be that it's taboo and people have to be secretive about it.

If you go with the middle option and you're kind of mirroring our society, think about how gay rights have developed now - education, people speaking out, etc. Maybe in your world this happened on some scale and people accepted it and were able accept LGBT couples into the society. Remember it's your world so it's totally up to you.

I think you can also think about what you want the overall aim or message of the story to be. Are you trying to make a political statement in the story? If so, then maybe go with the second option (that it used to be an issue and now it's generally accepted but some people still find it wrong, and there was some kind of gay rights movement in the society). Or the final option with it being taboo. That also adds some natural conflict to the plot if there are people who are opposed to LGBT people in your world.

If you're not trying to make a political statement and you're not trying to have any conflict around people who are opposed to LGBT people in your world, then I'm not confident the backstory about how these rights came to be matters. If you want to know just for your own worldbuilding purposes and not for it to necessarily be in the story, that's fine. In that case, again, it's your fantasy world so however you want them to arrive at this type of equality is fine!

:)
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Tue May 12, 2020 1:44 am
WaitingCynicism says...



Carlito wrote:I think it's totally up to you! It could be that in this society it was always viewed as normal and was never an issue. It could be that it used to be an issue and now it's generally accepted but some people still find it wrong (mirroring modern day society). It could be that it's taboo and people have to be secretive about it.

If you go with the middle option and you're kind of mirroring our society, think about how gay rights have developed now - education, people speaking out, etc. Maybe in your world this happened on some scale and people accepted it and were able accept LGBT couples into the society. Remember it's your world so it's totally up to you.

I think you can also think about what you want the overall aim or message of the story to be. Are you trying to make a political statement in the story? If so, then maybe go with the second option (that it used to be an issue and now it's generally accepted but some people still find it wrong, and there was some kind of gay rights movement in the society). Or the final option with it being taboo. That also adds some natural conflict to the plot if there are people who are opposed to LGBT people in your world.

If you're not trying to make a political statement and you're not trying to have any conflict around people who are opposed to LGBT people in your world, then I'm not confident the backstory about how these rights came to be matters. If you want to know just for your own worldbuilding purposes and not for it to necessarily be in the story, that's fine. In that case, again, it's your fantasy world so however you want them to arrive at this type of equality is fine!

:)


A lot of it was for the worldbuilding purposes, but I might just use the rule of cool. Thanks!
  








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