also, here's all my ramblings and historical notes for dream eater so far, if you're interested (long post and spoilers)
i'll start off with an edit i actually made in Part I, being Yenmir's title. There's actually not a lot of solid documentation on the medieval Bosnian Church that isn't just speculation, but we do know it was separate from both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church, due to its isolation and clashes with Hungary, and was often accused of heresy. Some of the terminology includes djed ("grandfather," the bishop or head of the church), strojnik ("steward"), starac ("elder"), and gost ("guest" or "wanderer"), and the adherents referred to themselves as krstjan. I debated between the title of starac or gost for Yenmir, since he is a lone church representative in the town, but ultimately settled on starac, due to the villagers already referring to Milica as an elder in her own right. i also made really minor edits to MC's clothes, mainly her shoes, which are now depicted as opanci, rather than "boots."
There's a lot more historical references in Part II than Part I, and I hope you all will forgive me for any mistakes or inaccuracies. I am mostly relying on Bosnia: A Short History by Noel Malcolm since it is very difficult to find reliable sources in english, though the medieval chapters in that book are barely even a quarter of the history he covers. He doesn't discuss the plague in Bosnia at all, and mostly focuses on the power struggle between the Bosnian Bans, Hungary, and Serbia during that time. There were (politically motivated) crusades led by the Hungarian army in the 13th century against Bosnia, but none against the krstjani during the 14th century (though they were still accusing them of heresy); this specific conflict with a Hungarian voivode in Dream Eater is entirely fictional for the sake of the story. The Ban of Bosnia was actually busy preparing for war with the Serbian Empire over Hum in 1349 (though that didn't start until 1350).
As for the plague, I have, unfortunately, not been able to find much else about it in regard to medieval Bosnia, so a lot of it is speculation and imagination on my part. In The Great Mortality by John Kelly, he cites record of a plague ship that arrived in Split in 1347; and in the following year, 1348, Ragusa (now Dubrovnik) was also infected. From there it spread through the Balkans, into Hungary, Austria, and Germany (and there was also a concurrent spread happening, from Austria back into the Balkans). It's likely that the spread was slower than in western Europe, but without being able to source any records, I can't be sure of the extent of it.
At this point, the Kingdom of Bosnia had not yet come into fruition; it was a de facto independent state, called the Banate of Bosnia (though Hungarian kings considered it to be under their jurisdiction, hence there being Hungarian voivodes and other nobles in the area). The town of Argentaria is what is now present-day Srebrenica and was a major medieval mining town that employed both Saxon and Vlach workers, and traded heavily with the Republic of Ragusa. As the Lady is invested in the mines around Argentaria, I figured she would recruit various women from the area back to her keep, which is where Swithulf would have met her.
I think this covers all of the historical references (currently) in the game. The MC's village, the city of Talzin, as well as the White Wolf, the Pale Lady, and the concept of dream eaters are all completely fictional; however, the White Wolf and the Pale Lady are closely inspired by Slavic mythology, both the god Dadźbóg and the vukodlak, which is sometimes depicted as a shapeshifting wolf-vampire hybrid. The face painting during the first feeding ritual is also inspired by what is now a Slavic Muslim tradition. One example is the Bosniak wedding tradition from Kosovo:
Largely practiced by Bosniaks, Gorani, and Pomaks, it is believed to be a blend of Turkish and Slavic "pagan" traditions, and appears in different variations across a handful of villages throughout the Balkans. I thought it would be interesting for the MC's village, with the Lady's enduring Slavic influence, to have a similar tradition that survived alongside their Christian practices that would eventually evolve and change meaning under the reign of the Ottoman Empire and with the conversion to Islam.
this has all been very interesting (and frustrating) to research; I had actually started learning about more recent Balkan history before I started Dream Eater, and that's ultimately what influenced me to make it the setting for this game. I definitely made it difficult for myself, and when I released Part I, i was vague in the game's description about it (and also relied too much on the more "generic" medieval vibe); but the more I wrote the more apparent it became that I needed to commit to the setting in order to make it feel more real. You can only handwave at vague "soldiers" for so long before you have to put a name to them...
if you read this far, thanks, and i hope you enjoy the update :o)
