As it was quite common for fantasy in the 80s and 90s, the world of Darkwind takes strong inspirations from historical medieval lands and cultures from Northern and Central Europe. Unlike most worlds that reference typically 15th and 16th century England and France, or Classical Grece and Rome, Darkwind is drawing primarily on the Southern Baltic Sea region, now consisting of Denmark, Germany, Poland, and Lithuania, from the 9th and 10th century. Though part of the medieval period, these cultures existed half a milennium before those most commonly seen as representive of the Middle Ages, and even then belonged to the remote periphery of Europe.
At the start of the 9th century, the Saxons on the German North Sea coast were defeated by the Franks, were officially converted to Christianity, and became part of the Carolingian Empire. The old pagan faith didn't completely die out immediately, though, and many of the Saxons were not happy about becoming subjects to a foreign king.
To the North was the homeland of the Danes, consisting of modern Denmark and also the southernmost parts of Sweden, though during this period there was not yet a clear distinction between Danes and Swedes as it exist today, and they can be seen as a single culture. The Danes had started their first raids to England in the final years of the 8th century, and the 9th and 10th century became the main period of the Viking Age. The Danes worshipped the same gods as the Saxons had. but the first churches in Danish lands were build only in the mid 9th century, and the first Danish kings became Christians in the later 10th century.
To the East of the Saxons, on the Baltic Sea coast of Germany, lived the Slavic Wends, who had allied with the Franks to fight against the Saxons but did not become part of the Carolingian Empire themselves. They spoke their own language and worshipped their own gods. In 936, it fell under the influence of the Dukes of the Saxons, though the Wends retained their identity into the 12th century.
Further East, on the coast of what is now Poland and Lithuania, were the lands of the Balts, who were neither Germanic nor Slavic. Many of their tribes disappeared and were conquered by Germans, Poles, and Russians in the 13th century. but in the 9th and 10th century they were still a large and important group in the region.
At the end of the 9th century, the Magyars from the Eurasian Steppes conquer Hungary and continue to raid all across Europe for some 80 years. Most of the raids and major battles take place in Southern Germany and Italy, but the Magyars invade the Saxons in 906, 908, 915, 924, 933, 936, and 938. Among the wars with the Magyars, Duke Henry of the Saxons becomes King of the Germans. In 955 his son Otto defeats a large Magyar army in the South, and the army of the revolting Wends two months later. Six years later he conquers Northern Italy and becomes the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
This was a time period when even major cities rarely had over 20.000 people and before the appearance of large stone castles. It was long before the introduction of any kind of plate armor, and crossbows appeared in Europe only at the end of the 10th century. None of the cultures of the region would have anything resembling the knights of later centuries (though of course there were already high-status mounted warriors). Churches are only slowly appearing in the region and Christianity took a long time to spread and find widespread adoption. In many ways, these cultures still had much more in common with the barbarians of Roman times (which were only three centuries earlier) than with the typical image of the Middle Ages.
©2004-2025 Martin Christopher