The cultures of wheel of time

[Amylia Lerato]

My Dad is a history buff and a minor wheel of time fan. He likes to point out every influence of every culture in the book and the show (the sea people are apparently egypt crossed with the fall of the bronze age). I love the fact that it's not the classic "medieval europe feudal system" like a fair few other fantasy books. But I'm not a history buff, what easter eggs have the history nerds got to share with me?

 

[Lealenya Terim]

I love that your Dad likes to point stuff like that out! I guess I always try to attribute a real world people to the ones I read about in the book. Whenever I think of Cairhienin, I think of the French.

 

[Alora Sionn]

Whenever I think of Cairhienin, I think of the French.

I see them as Japanese because they are reserved in their day to day life but when it’s time to celebrate it’s wildin out time lol

 

[Alexr al'Petros]

It's interesting to think that perhaps a blend of 2 or more cultures were used in the creation of the WoT cultures. Like I see some Japanese samurai era culture in Shienar but also "Shinar" itself is a known Mesopotamian culture and aspects of it also appear.

I hadn't considered Cairhienin as having an aspect of Japanese reservedness (nice insight Mama Wolf); but now that it is mention...I can see that mixed with the French "Golden King" era.

 

[Lealenya Terim]

I think it started with the pronunciation or Moiraine. (mwah-RAIN)