Minorities in Medieval Europe

[Esin]

I am working on a piece of fiction where the various nations are inspired by Medical European populations. Rather than go with the major stereotypical populations that most people tend to draw influence from (AKA Germany, France, Russia, Etc) I would like to highlight some of Medieval Europe's lesser known minorities/populations.

The Volhynian Hetmanate (based off of Ukrainian Cassocks)
The Gitani Kaale (Romani/Gypsy: haven’t decided what nationality, maybe Italian, French or Hungarian.)
The Kingdom of Tengria ( Draws heavily on the Kingdom of Khazaria & Medieval European Jewish Diaspora)

Actually so far it looks like I could do the whole thing drawing solely on Eastern European populations, but I am willing to consider any suggestions. Other ideas might include Moors, Gnostics, etc. I am trying to avoid even medium sized modern populations such as Czechs, but sub-populations within a major community would be great. So for example, Spain would be a no no, but Basque would be a go!

[eynon81]

Awesome. Eastern European history is epic!



maybe the Ole' Prussians. I had no idea about them until I read a book about the Northern Crusades. I was all like "the Prussians are Slavs? huh..."

[The Dharma Bum]

How about the Cathars and other religious minorities?

[Esin]

Eynon, great suggestion, but I am not sure how I could differentiate the Prussians from the Cassocks in an interesting and meaningful way..

[The Dharma Bum]

[Esin]

Dharma, ohh I like that! I was not familiar with them but that's a great way to incorporate Gnosticism (which I had always associated it with France and the Mediterranean/Near Eastern Byzantine populatians such Egypt.

[Esin]

And actually I am thinking of synchronizing minority populations with minority religions. An example would be having the Volhynian Hetmanate's population/culture drawing from Cossack culture/history, while their religion draws heavily from Gnosticism rather than their traditional Orthodox Christianity.

[PoS]

Would you consider Eastern minorities like the Ummayads, Hashashin, Avars and the Jews and their golems?

The Picts in Scotland would be cool too.

[Esin]

I don't want to go toooo far out of Europe/Eastern Europe for direct cultural inspiration, but I might be able to combine a group's history from the middle east with a culture from Eastern Europe. Actually, on second that I think I'd rather stay away from non European groups just because it opens up a whole new can of worms and I want it to stay fairly focused.

[The Dharma Bum]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alans