Modern Day Assyrians

Apr 11, 2013 08:36

I'm writing an AU modern-day fanfic from a canon set during the reign of the Roman Empire Republic (ETA: Specifically, between 73-71 BC) and I have several interdependent questions ( Read more... )

middle east (misc), roman republic & empire, iraq (misc), usa (misc), ~human culture (misc), middle east: history

Leave a comment

reapermum April 11 2013, 14:24:24 UTC
At what point do you diverge from history? Did the Islamic conquest and arabisation take place? Or is your area still Christian? Or does Christianity not exist?

After the disintegration of the Assyrian empire the area was ruled by four or five different empires.

Reply

hexeengel April 11 2013, 14:29:57 UTC
It's not exactly a divergence, I'm basically transplanting the characters from then to now. Their canon time period though is roughly 73-71 BC, and I've edited the post to include that.

ETA: Also, the character/canon only refers to Roman Gods, not Allah or Jehovah or Christ, nor any other non-Abrahamic pantheon.

Reply

alextiefling April 11 2013, 14:51:16 UTC
Does the character have a name that might provide some guidance as to their ethnicity?

Reply

hexeengel April 11 2013, 15:19:49 UTC
Yes, his name is Nasir.

Reply

rheasilvia April 11 2013, 17:48:44 UTC
Just popping in to say: Names of unhistoric characters from the TV series "Spartacus" should not be considered a clue to anything! I mean, the guy from East of the Rhine is called "Agron". Agron was an Illyrian king in the 3d century BC; you'd have to invent really wild theories to explain how the name migrated to this guy's parents in the unconquered Germanic territories by the time of the slave rebellion...

So, please take the name "Nasir" with a huge grain of salt. :-)

Reply

hexeengel April 11 2013, 20:11:28 UTC
Heh, thanks for outing fandom lol (No hard feelings, really :D)

I knew that about Agron's name, so it makes sense to be suspect of Nasir's as well.

Reply

rheasilvia April 11 2013, 23:14:00 UTC
Ooops - it never occurred to me you might be trying to be secretive. :-) The time and the details of the Syrian in question are so distinctive!

Anyway, yay for more shippy fanfic! (I am assuming your lovely icon means that that is what you're writing, and that you're not being secretive about it. *g*) :-)

Reply

hexeengel April 11 2013, 23:23:20 UTC
Nah, just didn't figure it was relevant, heh.

And yes. There will be Nagron fic. I was inspired by a gif on Tumblr that showed Nasir standing with Sybil, Kore, and Laeta, and it just looked like a group of military wives when their husbands get shipped overseas. So it's a modern military AU, post-DADT repeal :-P

(Confession though, I've never seen any of the episodes *hides* I don't have cable and my only net access is on my smartphone. But because of Tumblr I've become so enamored of not only Agron and Nasir but Dan and Pana as well. So I read what I can and flail at gifs and now have managed to find a plot bunny lol)

Reply

rheasilvia April 11 2013, 23:35:14 UTC
Sounds interesting! :-)

Oooh, you should definitely try to watch the series, though... I knew Nagron from gifs, short movie clips and the like before I watched the series too, but the characters and the dynamic between them ended up being very different (and far more multi-faceted) when seen in the full context. Especially the characters' individual development during the course of the season...

Maybe you can rent DVDs of the earlier seasons in a video store?

Reply

hexeengel April 11 2013, 23:50:38 UTC
Thanks :) I'm justifying my necessary "liberties" with characterization due to ignorance, by hiding behind the AU category lol

No I would love to see it, I have a lot of respect for Dan and Pana for their acting, and for Steven DeKnight for his attitudes toward human sexuality and relationships (well, and for Dan and Pana for those reasons too. They are inspiring people, all three of them). I have a friend who's hinting she might buy the DVDs for me, so we'll see!

Your icons are distracting! So pretty!

Reply

syntinen_laulu April 12 2013, 09:53:39 UTC
Better still, don't take it at all - it's an Arabic name (meaning "helper" or "one who gives victory") and until the rise of Islam the Arabic language was confined to the Arabian peninsula. The name has always been pretty much confined to Muslims; Middle Eastern Christian communities, even though they may have been Arabic-speakers for a millennium, don't use it.

Reply

alextiefling April 12 2013, 20:41:09 UTC
Is there an analogous name in any Semitic language - such as Aramaic - which would have been spoken in the area?

Reply

reapermum April 11 2013, 15:03:52 UTC
Ah, I was thinking you were allowing canon to develop through 2000 years, rather than transplanting it.

Ok, no Abrahamic religions. They won't be worshipping Roman gods as such, but the Romans tended to identify equivalents, our sun god is the same as your sun god so it doesn't matter which name you use.

As others have said the area was an ethnic mix, so you'll need to decide which your character identifies with.

Reply

hexeengel April 11 2013, 15:21:22 UTC
Thanks much. I'm trying to infuse some historical accuracy and cultural sensitivity with my modernization :)

Reply

marycatelli April 12 2013, 01:44:55 UTC
How true. We have an author recording that the chief god of the Germans is Mercury.

Odin, if you're wondering.

Reply

reapermum April 12 2013, 08:38:13 UTC
I'm of an age when a lot of primary school education was through stories, especially history and geography, so we learned a lot of mythology. I found it odd after learning Jupiter as chief Roman god and Odin as chief Norse god to find Odin equated to Mercury.

Do you happen to know if that comparison was made before Odin was regarded as chief (it was Tew then?) or after when Thor was promoted?

Reply


Leave a comment

Up