Dark Ages question

[Tymothi]

Would you consider a saracen a occupation or not? I would personally say it's not a occupation... Any thoughts?

[soltakss]

I have treated it as a background in Merrie England. OK, Merrie England is not Dark Ages Cthulhu, but shares many of the concepts.

Having Saracen as a Background means that you can have different Professions for that Background, so a Saracen Warrior, Saracen Priest, Saracen Mage and so on.

Does Cthulhu Dark Ages have Backgrounds? I vaguely remember that it does.

[g33k]

15 minutes ago, soltakss said:

I have treated it as a background in Merrie England. OK, Merrie England is not Dark Ages Cthulhu, but shares many of the concepts.

Having Saracen as a Background means that you can have different Professions for that Background, so a Saracen Warrior, Saracen Priest, Saracen Mage and so on.

Does Cthulhu Dark Ages have Backgrounds? I vaguely remember that it does.

Yeah, a "saracen" just means Muslim, really.
It isn't any sort of "profession" or "occupation," etc.

 

[Tymothi]

Yeah that is what I thought...

[Ali the Helering]

6 hours ago, g33k said:

Yeah, a "saracen" just means Muslim, really.
It isn't any sort of "profession" or "occupation," etc.

 

Etymologically it means 'tent dweller'.

[g33k]

12 hours ago, Ali the Helering said:

Etymologically it means 'tent dweller'.

(a) that's not actually a "fact" that everyone agrees upon.  There is a remarkably deep dive on the topic at Wikipedia...   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saracen#Early_usage_and_origins

(b) functionally, in the medieval & the dark ages, the etymology was unknown/irrelevant, vs. the term as-used in RL.

 

Also note it was a somewhat informal term, so you might find different people (in different places) using it to mean different things...  One place might consider it primarily religious; another might see it as primarily ethic; some might see the ethnic & religious meanings as identical, and presume both are implied by the term.

Depending on WHEN you set your "Dark Ages" (i.e. 7thC c.e.?  or later?  or earlier?) Islam may be a lot less prevalent than you may have thought.  Here's a nifty GIF for the 7th century, when the Caliphate really grew hugely:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam#/media/File:Mohammad_adil-Rashidun_empire-slide.gif

Edited October 6, 2020 by g33k

[Ali the Helering]

 

31 minutes ago, g33k said:

(a) that's not actually a "fact" that everyone agrees upon.  There is a remarkably deep dive on the topic at Wikipedia...   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saracen#Early_usage_and_origins

(b) functionally, in the medieval & the dark ages, the etymology was unknown/irrelevant, vs. the term as-used in RL.

 

Also note it was a somewhat informal term, so you might find different people (in different places) using it to mean different things...  One place might consider it primarily religious; another might see it as primarily ethic; some might see the ethnic & religious meanings as identical, and presume both are implied by the term.

Depending on WHEN you set your "Dark Ages" (i.e. 7thC c.e.?  or later?  or earlier?) Islam may be a lot less prevalent than you may have thought.  Here's a nifty GIF for the 7th century, when the Caliphate really grew hugely:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam#/media/File:Mohammad_adil-Rashidun_empire-slide.gif

Fine, just going by what I was taught at Cambridge Uni.  While they are not all knowing, I wouldn't dismiss it too readily, but there you go.