Yes, that was the bunny.
They have an
English Albionese Civil War going on, and I personally see Germania as Thirty Years War-ish. Those are both solidly 1600ish, and, when combined with the fact that, from what we see in the Light Novel, the military tactics of the regiment that Guiche is placed with, is based around blackpowder musket units, means that it's actually more advanced than it would initially seem.
Plus, the Thirty Years War was historically cool, and I like the way that Roundheads look. You can't ask me to use Oliver Cromwell without proper Roundheads.
Socially, yes, they're backwards; they still have feudalism (in part, because no equivalent to the Black Death to break the old landholding systems... which tells you that the Great Contagion
didn't reach here, and it's a damn good thing that no-one got summoned from Creation then), and the middle-classes role is mostly played by the
inexprimé houses, at least in Tristan - though Germania is another matter.
And even if it was earlier, people underestimate the amount of trade and travel that even happened in the medieval times. Now, with that said, neither Albion nor Gallia has found an America-equivalent... they have, however, found
other floating islands, and Gallia has colonies on the Iceland equivalent, as well as more conventional island landmasses. There are tales, though, of in the far West, of places so thick with floating rocks that it appears to be a dome above the world, vast areas of sea stuck in eternal night that never see the sky, and of strange creatures that live on the underside of these floating landmasses that dwarf Albion.
Also, there be sea dragons. And sky dragons.
Broadly more Mongolian, yes. The Germani may have been called barbarians by the Brimiric nations, but they had their own sophisticated culture. The conquest of old Tristan resembles more the Mongol foundation of the Yuan Dynasty in China, as I mentioned.
The Germani bought tales of other civilisations, yes, and other tribes and cities (many of which they raided). But when their lands tore themselves apart, their steppes wrecked despite their prayers to the spirits of the earth and the winds, they lost all track of them. The former lands of the Germani are now a fell place, rocky and impassable, broken land and volcanoes. Craters are everwhere, and where there are not craters, there are vast upswellings of rock, areas flooded with liquid fire, torrential gales that blow eternally, and inland toxic seas which swirl eternally as whirlpools... you know, not-nice places.
You remember the final level of KotOR II? Like that, but less green-Malfeas-glow, crossbred with the Ash Wastelands of Morrowind.
What's that, Louise? Yes, they most certainly are areas of desolation. Why do you ask?
Only a few have returned, but they indicate that the lands of Cathay were invaded by the
other Germani, who seem to have done the same as their Western cousins. Cathay, likewise, lacks the mages of the Brimiric nations, but it is said that they are well schooled in strange, lesser sorceries which are learnt by all; arts of alchemy and weather control and astromony, and that they consort and breed with the spirits.
But now the elves control the only passages to the east. Likewise, elven fleets prevent attempts to sail south, to the Africa equivalent. That's part of the reason that Gallia, Albion, and Romalia all sponsor expeditions to the West; it is argued by some that the world is round, and so it might be possible to avoid the elves, and their unnatural forces and fleets, by heading
the long way around. But others fear that the elves are everywhere and that they will not allow men outside of the known lands.
