Are the parallels between cultures conscious?
Well, the parallels are conscious, but I’ve taken, I’ve tried to take come care that there’s no exact duplication. There are bits from this culture and this historical period, and this sort of other culture and other historical period, fitted together to make this culture or that culture. You cannot look at the Sea Folk for instance and say, “Oh yes, ah well, that’s from India. That is the culture of Japan, or India, or China, or England, or whatever.” Because there is no single culture in that way. The Aiel (eye-eel) for example have bits of Zulu, and bits of Apache, and bits of Cheyenne Indians, and bits of Bedouin and bits of Japanese cultures, and also some things that I simply thought would be neat. … So I could fit them into the culture.
Which cultures are in the Seanchan? (based on things in the Guide)
The Seanchan also are the melting of things that have come from many different human cultures to make their culture. There have been many rigid stratified, rigidly hierarchical cultures. It’s a very human thing. The concept of being able to climb above your station is a relatively new one in human culture. You were born where you were born for a reason, and that is the place you will stay, that has been the norm for human culture, for most of history.
I mean, even the groups…the Whitecloaks are the people who know the truth. Not just truth, they know Truth, they know Veritas , they know Truth with a capital T, they’re the Taliban, the Ku Klux Klan, they’re the people who know the truth and you must believe their truth or they will kill you. but they’re not the Taliban, they’re not the Teutonic Knights, they’re not the Ku Klux Klan. They are simply that concept.
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