I've said it before and I'll say it again: a good GM has to know how to steal. This is never more true than when you are creating your campaign setting. Even Tolkien, the father of fantasy worldbuilding, stole the language and culture of the Rohirrim from the historical Anglo-Saxons, with the twist that they are horse people of the plains rather than an infantry-heavy insular people.
It may be satisfying to create a whole continent of kingdoms and city-states and emirates from scratch, but it is even more time consuming and difficult. Plus, you'll have to spend just as much time explaining your world to your players as you did creating it. Worse still, you run the risk of creating a bland and unengaging world full of shallow, interchangeable kingdoms. Pilfering ingredients from history makes your world easier to create and more accessible for players. Once you've decided, for instance, than Kingdom X is going to be based on Charlemagne's empire, you can use pseudo-French and pseudo-German names to lend your kingdom a consistent overall character.
Immersion requires a sense of verisimilitude, which is just a big word that means realism. Verisimilitude helps players become invested in your world, lose themselves in it, and have great roleplaying experiences. For that, you need a world that seems real, that makes sense on a human level, and that is readily accessible. There is no better source for realism than the pages of history itself. You have ten thousand years of human history at your disposal, displaying a bewildering variety of societies, governments, religions, warriors, and architectural styles. Steal something from here, something from there, mix and match them, add a twist of your own, and you've got something. Even the more obscure historical civilizations will add that verisimilitudinous flavor to your campaign setting because they are inherently human, and on some level we understand them.
So go get an entry-level history book from your local library or used book store, read about history on wikipedia, watch some documentaries on Netflix (or the History Channel, if you can find anything that's not about aliens or Templar conspiracies or pawn brokers). Even just dipping your toes in the waters of history will improve your worldbuilding.
Now, let's take a look at how we can apply what we've stolen to our campaign setting.
1. The Carbon Copy Kingdom
At the most basic, uncreative level, you can just steal a whole civilization out of history, slap a new coat of paint on it, and plop it down in your campaign setting. In fantasy settings, this probably happens most often with the Roman Empire, Egypt, and the Vikings. The Romans get in there a lot, often as something from the setting's past, because it's a handy way to give a bunch of kingdoms a common background culture and language. Egypt gets copied in there because mummy tombs make great dungeons. And of course everyone wants the threat of ferocious seaborne raiders in their setting.
Sometimes you'll find a whole campaign setting that is made out of carbon copy kingdoms. The setting of Warhammer Fantasy is one example. The Empire is based on the Holy Roman Empire, Bretonnia is based on chivalric France and Arthurian Britain, the Vampire Counts' Sylvania is Transylvania, the Tomb Kings' Nehekhara is ancient Egypt, and so on. That works fine for them because Warhammer is a wargame about armies of painted models fighting each other - they don't need that much depth.
Carbon copy kingdoms are cheap and easy to make. They provide some easy and obvious flavor, but overuse of them can make your campaign setting seem generic and uncreative. Let's take carbon copy Egypt as an example:
Hieroketah
The priest-kings of Hieroketah rule over a kingdom more ancient than any other. Settled along a mighty river cutting through the desert, Hieroketah is a wealthy land of abundance. The priest-kings compete with their ancestors to build the greatest temples to their animal-headed deities and construct the most impressive tombs for themselves, where their mummified bodies will rest for all eternity - unless they are disturbed by greedy treasure hunters!
Hieroketah is ancient Egypt in all but name. Players will be able to grasp its essence very quickly, but there is little there to set it apart from other carbon copy Egypts. Even the name is pretty blasé, taking the Hiero- from hieroglyphics (actually a Greek word, not Egyptian) and adding some Egyptian-sounding ending.
The key to using a carbon copy kingdom is to find a more obscure civilization to steal. Ancient Egypt and the Vikings are instantly recognizable, but fewer people will be familiar with the Byzantine or Mughal Empires, and even fewer will recognize downright obscure states like Janjira, the tiny seafaring Indo-Ethiopian kingdom. Stealing from more obscure civilizations is an easy way to give a nice blend of exotic unfamiliarity and historical realism.
2. Kingdom X with a Twist!
The next step up in complexity involves stealing a civilization and adding a creative twist. As mentioned before, Tolkien's Anglo-Saxons on horseback is an excellent example. Continuing with Tolkien, we can look at the Shire as pastoral pre-industrial England, but everyone is three feet tall with hairy feet and they live in holes in the ground.
This sort of world building is very low-effort, but with just a dash of creativity you open up a world of infinite possibilities. Kingdom X with a Twist is just as accessible to the outsider as a Carbon Copy Kingdom, but that added dash of creativity makes it your own. Maybe you want an Arabian Nights style high-magic civilization, but set in the frigid northern wastes. Maybe you want a chivalric civilization based on High Medieval France, but spread across an archipelago of islands where brightly colored heraldic navies do battle on the high seas!
Let's continue with our fantasy Egypt example:
Akhem Setra
Built on the ruins of a once great civilization that fell when its life-giving river dried up, Akhem Setra is a collection of half a dozen competing successor states spread across a score of desert oases, oxbow lakes, and hippopotamus-infested marshlands. The Six Cities of Akhem Setra are ruled over by jealous priest-kings and power-hungry pharaohs striving to build great monuments to rival their fallen ancestors. Adventurers can find gainful employment guiding caravans across the barren expanses between oases, offering themselves as mercenaries and assassins in the intrigues and rivalries between the Six Cities, or robbing the ancient tombs that line the dry banks of the Wadi Khum and the Salt Lake of Qassar.
Akhem Setra is just Egypt without the Nile. That simple change gives us something that is both instantly familiar and wholly new. A player can easily understand some aspects of it, giving them more time to appreciate its unique twists. The name instantly tells us that this is a civilization based on ancient Egypt, but it feels more thought-out than Hieroketah.
3. Mix and Match
By combining elements from two or more historical civilizations, you can create something original yet easily understandable. Take the extravagant court culture and patronage of science and poetry from the medieval Arab caliphates, add in the mail clad heavy cavalry and northern setting of Charlemagne's empire, and throw in the totemic religious beliefs of Pacific Northwest Native Americans and you've got yourself a unique civilization for your campaign setting that is interesting and accessible.
The Mix and Match technique can be seen in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Dorne, the southernmost of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, is a blend of Cornwall, Spain, Arabia, and Carthage. The precursor Valyrian empire mixes Roman and Eastern imperial ideas. In Robert E. Howard's Hyborean world, in which the tales of Conan the Barbarian are set, the Picts are a blend of ancient Picts and Native Americans.
Again with fantasy Egypt, this time mixed with some Aztec and Amazon flavor:
Khaxoa
The priest-queens of Khaxoa rule over a mighty multi-ethnic empire spanning the length of the Omboc River. One one side of the river, the cultivated fields and mighty cities of the empire dominate the horizon, including the huge ziggurats where prisoners of war are sacrificed to the Khaxoans' animal-headed gods. Across the piranha- and crocodile-infested river stands a wild and thick jungle. The Khaxoans only venture there to bury their mummified dead in secret tombs full of valuable treasures and deadly traps.
Khaxoa is recognizably Egyptian, recognizably Aztec, and at the same time unique and interesting. The name combines Egyptian and Aztec elements, forming something completely new and alien.
4. Go Crazy
How many civilizations can you steal from? How many twists can you throw in there? You start out with recognizable historical ingredients, and by the time you are done you've created something that is completely your own.
Let's do one final fantasy Egypt, but this time we'll add in the Aztecs and Tsarist Russia, make it a seafaring power, and set it in the frigid north:
Khavysos
The frigid empire of Khavysos is ruled over by a brutal Tsarina and a cabal of bearded priests devoted to strange gods with the heads of polar bears and walruses. Centered on a major river that provides fertile soil for civilization, the 90% of Khavysites who are serfs spend half the year toiling on farms and half the year hauling massive granite blocks to construct huge monuments and tombs glorifying the Tsars and the aristocratic ruling class. The warriors of Khavysos set sail in the winter on mighty war hulks, sailing south to capture treasure and prisoners for sacrifice, for the Khavysites believe that they must reignite the sun each spring by burning one thousand fresh hearts on the altar of Czepset.
Familiar ingredients, unfamiliar results. Khavysos is a wholly new civilization, but because it is built with historical building blocks, it is interesting and easy to understand.
Remember kids: stealing can be fun!
-your verisimilitudinous d20 despot
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