I am creating a homebrew campaign off of the following idea. I am using many cultures that I like from real history with a fantasy twist. I created a Viking, Celtic, Arthurian, Mongol and Japanese with more to be added. Then it hit me! How am I going to get all of these war-like cultures to mesh in a fantasy type setting allowing adventuring and such.

I was thinking of a cataclysmic event that threw them all together in a fantasy world with Orcs and Dragons. I was thinking maybe only a small portion of the population was transported to this world. I thought how would they react, would they interact cohesively? Probably not as they wouldn't be very diplomatic as most are oppressive and take what they want or subjugate their opponents.

I am asking for some ideas on how these cultures would mesh in a fantasy world. The new world would contain many of the fantasy tropes of Elves and Dwarves or maybe they were meshed together. Any ideas would be appreciated. I want to stay in the fantasy swords and sorcery type world.

Thank you in advance.

Sounds like you need to set it at least a few decades after the event so the different cultures would have had time to band together. Of course they would need a reason. A common enemy is a typical trope, the orcs in your example could be that enemy. Also maybe other races like the elves or even an already existing alliance may have taken / forced the humans under their wing.

Doing same kind of fantasy idea (Alternate Earth Historical Nations). I'm taking the approach that all the fantasy elements always were there. While there might be places that have a higher concentration of Elves, they are everywhere. (And same goes for any intelligent species). Where things come into question are Myths & Lore about thing like Dragons. Minotaurs, etc. In my setting, Minotaurs are a playable race, so the real world myths/lore would just be explained in that "It was a Minotaur", and instead maybe naming the Minotaur, creating the legend of that individual. Can take the same approach to all of the mythological creatures too. In my setting, Dragons are not a common thing, so myths/lore tends to help them a bit. But I've named my twin moons after Two Dragons, given them a lore about them, have a religion established around them, and ultimately have a nation built around the religion.

A big thing I would say is sticking to real Earth nations that you know. I have found myself struggling with my "Oriental" nation, because while I know Japanese and Chinese history and culture, I don't know they're religions enough to do them justice. And I am wanting to be a little lazy, after developing everything else, that I don't want to have to look up their gods/religions.

I recently watched the Shannara Chronicles on Amazon. Setting is fantasy with magic on our earth but only ruins remain of the civilizaion as we know it now. I haven't read the books it's based on so I don't know the background story but maybe it is something you could look into.

This is the exact premise of the Yrth setting from Steve Jackson Games: a magical storm has been snatching up people from medieval Earth and depositing them in a fantasy land, where they've reconstituted themselves into new kingdoms and nations. They have a whole book devoted to it, GURPS Banestorm . Might be worth a look for inspiration for your own world or to run in wholesale.

You might also be interested in the Riverworld series, which is similar but more focused on named historical characters forced to live together in a fantasy setting. There also a GURPS book for that!

1 hour ago, SavageBob said:

This is the exact premise of the Yrth setting from Steve Jackson Games: a magical storm has been snatching up people from medieval Earth and depositing them in a fantasy land, where they've reconstituted themselves into new kingdoms and nations. They have a whole book devoted to it, GURPS Banestorm . Might be worth a look for inspiration for your own world or to run in wholesale.

You might also be interested in the Riverworld series, which is similar but more focused on named historical characters forced to live together in a fantasy setting. There also a GURPS book for that!

Thanks Savage Bob, I will look into these ideas.

You could band the humans together in one city and the city is divided by their cultures, they would fight to protect their city but every once in a while there is inner strife from the cultures wanting to take complete control over the city, kind of like what happens the ffg dragonstar setting but is on the universe level.

51 minutes ago, gilbur said:

You could band the humans together in one city and the city is divided by their cultures, they would fight to protect their city but every once in a while there is inner strife ...

LOL, sounds like "the city-state of the invincible overlord"

Gilbur, thanks. I like it.

3 hours ago, gandalf9700 said:

Gilbur, thanks. I like it.

Not a problem and you can check out my dragonstar races topic for races. I have two topics started on dragonstar one for races and the other right now is for everything else i have started to work on kind of put it on hold as i am working on a battletech conversion now...

You could have the world they are transported to be a kind of Valhalla, where fallen warriors go after they die. It could be a repository for the notable warriors of many worlds, giving them a new life, with new challenges. Like the old Sega Genesis game, Eternal Champions, or Mortal Kombat, for that matter.

It could be, as mentioned above, due to a phenomenon in the "real" world gobbling up people and sending them off. D&D 4th Edition had basically one thing I really liked about it--the notion that the world of the Fey is basically lurking just behind our own world, occasionally pushing through in places. I believe the analogy they used was it's like looking at a still like, where you can't see anything below the surface, but in reality it's vibrant and contoured, and maybe there's an island poking up through the surface. That's the Feywild extending into the Material Plane. You could have something like that, where there are "thin" places all over, and occasionally someone wanders through by accident (or is kidnapped, or goes looking for the strangeness on their own). I've always like the idea of someone riding a horse through a snowy wood and discovering a small clearing that looks and feels like it's the middle of summer. The character strides out of the cold and snow in wonderment, looking at the bright sunlight, colorful flowers, and verdant grass, then looks back and realizes he can't see the cold woods anymore. Very Narnia feel, that.