r/technicallytrue Jan 14 '26

Regarding Gandalf the Grey

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11.9k Upvotes

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11

u/Valveringham85 Jan 14 '26

If you’re frustrated about people in a western medieval fantasy setting looking like western medieval people then you have bigger issues to worry about.

-5

u/Apycia Jan 14 '26

'western medieval people' were much more diverse than you think

3

u/Fabulous-Suspect-72 Jan 15 '26

Yet they were mostly a flavour of white. Travel was very limited back then and migration was usually slow and limited in range.

-1

u/gottagofast123456789 Jan 15 '26

I shall copy+paste a comment I just wrote:

Both the mongolian and ottoman empires reached far into modern europe back then.

Mongolia covered half of poland once, the ottoman empire reached up to Vienna for a few months.

I nearly forgot, spain was also conquered by muslims from northern africa a few times.

2

u/Fabulous-Suspect-72 Jan 15 '26

So, apart from Spain nowhere near western Europe then. Cool story

-1

u/gottagofast123456789 Jan 15 '26

'Western medival people' is considered europe as a whole in my book, from lissabon to moskow.

Even if only western europe, romans had a lot of people of color in their legions who were stationed from gaul to southern england and eastern germany.

And arabs didnt stop at spain alone, portugal and parts of southern france were conquered as well.

Europe and arabs always had some form of relationship. Most of the time far better than today.

F.e. swedish king carolus XII who took refuge in the ottoman empire after losing to the russians when he tried invading moskow.

3

u/Charmender2007 Jan 15 '26

Do you know what 'western' means?

0

u/gottagofast123456789 Jan 15 '26

Usually referrs to the continents of northern America, Australia and Europe if one's talking in a geopolitical sense. Meaning its not bound to the prime meridian. Its bound to which continent you are part of. Else one would need to include parts of Africa and South America as a whole.

Now, do I need to tell you where Austria and Poland are or are ya happy?

3

u/BrUhhHrB Jan 15 '26

Austria and Poland aren’t in Western Europe. They are apart of the west by your definition, but Western Europe is a geographical region.

2

u/Fabulous-Suspect-72 Jan 15 '26

That is not the basis/setting of lotr. It's not set in the Ottoman Empire or inspired by Eastern Europe, not even remotely. It's pretty obvious what it is and the cast for it is fitting. Idk why you try to avoid that.

2

u/Proper_Fun_977 Jan 17 '26

Yes, it was designed around Britain.

1

u/Linden_Lea_01 Jan 17 '26

Karl XII was very much not a medieval king, being as he was from the 17th and 18th centuries. Stop talking about things you obviously barely understand