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Jim in Alaska's avatar

Passing thought upon reading your excellent essay: The winners write history. The whiners re-write it. Among the fiction writers interpretations perhaps lies the truth.

Hey, as I say, just a passing thought. ;-)

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Eric Hinkle's avatar

One problem with getting the sources for an obscure era is when you can't find any. Years ago (back before I had steady Internet access) I tried to make a rather odd swords-and-sorcery series up set in a world based on pre-Islamic Iran and Central Asia. I could find a ton of works on Achaemenid Persia, but almost nothing on the Sassanids and or the early Turks. Heck, I found more books on the early Indo-Europeans than on the Sassanids! That sort of thing can get frustrating. You did point this out but I felt it should be emphasized. If you want to get off the beaten trail with your settings, make sure you can either find the information you need or fake it really well.

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