“And most Western fantasy stories suggest that there aren't any good kings or emperors in the East. And I wanted to purposefully avoid that,” he explains. ![]() “A lot of fantasy that features Muslim and Eastern cultures, especially in previous Orientalist fantasies, portrays an ancient, mystical place that is now falling into ruin and decadence. He also didn’t want to perpetuate the myth that Eastern rulers are inherently bad or that everything can be fixed by a good king. The Tayyib Empire may have suffered through a devastating civil war, but Basheer was keen not to repeat common fantasy and sci-fi tropes based around that destruction. Suddenly, a lone gunslinger is no longer a meaningful force at that time, as a lone adventurer may no longer be a meaningful force in this region.” The Good King ![]() Individuals could be really important on the edges of an American state that hadn’t yet become fully centralized, until the final relics of disorganization were swept away. “One of my biggest inspirations is the end of the Wild West period in American history. Getting to bring some of that to Dungeons & Dragons, alongside my own historical appreciations, was a lot of fun,” he shares. ![]() “Parts of our family claim to have been involved in many of the twists and turns of Indian history, which has always fascinated me. This region’s cosmopolitan mix of the native people of Suristhanam, immigrants, and various invading groups draws upon his family’s long history in India. “One of my big hopes is that I see people posting fan art of characters from this region,” says writer and cultural consultant Basheer Ghouse, who has created the Tayyib Empire gazetteer for the “Beyond the Radiant Citadel” section of Journeys through the Radiant Citadel.
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