What less-known cultures were you inspired by?

Caucasian, - Georgian, Armenian, etc. - Hittite and Anatolian.

Not sure if these things count, but here's a list of them: germanic tribes (visigoths, vandals, and franks for example); the "sea peoples" (seriously, do we not have ANYTHING on them?); Cossacks; steppe peoples such as Kazakhs, Tajiks, and so-on; the Moors people; Nubians; Messopotamia (hey, I was never really taught about them in my school); and possibly the Axum peoples.

Edit: I forgot to mention Pacific islanders.

I used the Guaranis for inspiration in one of my worlds, and the Mosuo tribe in another.

The Guaranis because I want to spread awareness about my country's native culture.

The Mosuo because they are the only known example of a modern urban matriarchal society.

While my high elves are inspired by Greece, I mainly drew inspiration from time periods different from what's usually drawn upon for most fantasy. Rather than the Classical period of Greece, I mainly drew from the Byzantine Empire and the Hellenistic period.

The Danes, but like, not Vikings

Minoa - modern-day Crete, Greece

Sumer - modern-day southern Iraq

Shang Dynasty - modern-day Yellow River Valley, eastern China

Bantu peoples such as the Mongo people - The Congo River Basin

My pirates are more based on the Barbary Coast pirates than the Caribbean ones.

One of the main focus of my world are the Toulimar; seafaring crab riding tribes of the Ivory Sea, and they are inspired by the Sama Bajau of Southeast Asia.

Then I have a region inspired by Siberia and its conquest, were I take inspiration from the Tungusic People and other native people of that place to develop the factions!

Igbo cosmology, primarily for the metaphysics of my setting.

I take a ton of inspiration from real world cultures, and while some of them are definitely familiar geographic regions that pop up as inspiration in a lot of fantasy, I tried to pull inspirations from time periods in those places that don’t get a lot of love.

For instances, I have a region based on Ireland but rather than draw from ancient Ireland, I instead drew its inspiration from high medieval and early modern Ireland. Likewise I have a kingdom that was inspired by Denmark in the high Middle Ages (something I don’t think I’ve ever seen in fantasy before), rather than the far more common Scandinavia in the Viking age (in fairness though, I do also have a Viking inspired culture).

On the other end of the spectrum I’ve also drawn inspiration from cultures like the Ilkhanate, the Mamluk Sultanate, the Knights of St John, Sassanian Persia, and Circassia. I’ve even mixed and matched cultures here and there to create something new. One of my favorite ethnic groups is a beyond of northeastern native Americans and ancient tribal Germans.

Kingdom of Earth: other than the standard Germany fantasy inspiration, I also picked up a bit of Amish influence for them.

Kingdom of Water: their whole culture/geography could be described as “Byzantine Greece dropped into the Caribbean jungle.” There’s also a bit of SE Asia influence (Vietnam, etc).

Kingdom of Fire: mostly inspired by India; their religion is Zoroastrian based, but I’ve given them some of the Middle East.

Kingdom of Wind: mostly boring England, but I’ve given them some Chinese culture - Chinese dragons, pottery, focus on dynasties, etc.

Kingdom of Lighting: combined Colonial America mixed with eastern Slavs.

Kingdom of Ice: Nordic, but with no boats or Vikings! There’s also Japanese hot springs and Shinto-like beliefs. Plus Kitsune.

Moroccan/North African cultures were the root of inspiration for Elysia's elves. A part of fairy history was inspired by Irish mythology with the Fomori, but they're only similar in name.

The native american/first nations tribes from Washington, BC, and the Alaskan Panhandle. So like the Salish, the Tlingit, the Haida, etc.

Anatolia

A very specific aspect of Japanese culture that I'll be correct to assume most people don't think about

Well one language for my World is inspired by finnish/estnii

I made my man snakes Mycenaean and my humans Armenian, also the very far eastern civilisations are inspired by Siam and Khmer

Assyrian

I certainly won't call them lesser-represented, but for my sci-fi seed world in a setting without FTL, and therefore colonies are irrevocably removed from their source world - the pioneers include some distinct Romani influences, plus Hebrew and Gaelic - historically immigrant and persecuted populations, choosing yet again to emigrate.

Lithuania, because I live here and am inevitably inspired and influenced by the place I was born and grew, where I craft each and every story.

But in a less meta sense, probably old Polish fashion and saber fighting.

I take a lot of inspiration from the ancient Near East — especially Assyria! My favourite pastime is to write fictional victory stelas for my kings.

Love the Sami

My race is inspired by various countercultures instead of centralized cultures.

I havnt done much of a dive into the culture of it yet but I want to do something based off of the sámi.

Also I want to look at Cumbrian but the culture mostly evolved alongside the English and I heard somewhere that a mix of Anglo-Saxon and Cumbrian cultures formed the Scots while the Gaelic people kept culture in the scottish high lands

Mauryan Empire era Bharat

Babylon, ancient Assyria, Bhutan, Nepal, Central Asia, West Asia(or "Middle East"),South Asia, Southeastern Asia.

Lapis_Wolf

Basque, Occitans, Tatars, Ainu, Ethiopians, Sami, Catalans, and Maltese.

The Shu of the Sichuan Basin. (China)

They are a minor antagonistic people in book two of my Four Swords of the Sky trilogy.

Polynesian and Australian Aboriginal cultures both play a prominent part in my universe. Specifically, the eastern Polynesian cultures of the Leeward and Society Islands and the Gumbaynggirr culture of Northeast New South Wales.

The Tuamoutuan culture of Eastern Polynesia is also very prominent.

Unfortunately, a lot of my fleshed out ideas draw from common cultures, but I do have ideas for stories that need to be more fleshed out in areas that draw from Gullah culture called the Okla Islands and another that's based on Slavic culture called Karpath Rus.

Hungarians, Morovians, Siberians and also Crimean Tatars like you.

Though my story about anthropomorphic amphibians has a lot of Japanese and Korean influences, there's a lot of Javanese, Sinhalese, Borneo, Malagasy, and Tamil influences too.

Cats

Post-Revolutionary Greece, Albania and Bulgaria.

OP, your world sounds super interesting!

Central Asian Greeks (Greco-Bactria etc.)

I have a Renaissance age Hittite-like culture running around. I have magical Armenians who can draw the essence of life from people. They are worshipped as living gods by another culture that is based on India. I have Nigerians that rule the seas. They're sailing across the ocean as expedition and settlement fleets. I have a culture based on ancient Egyptians that inhabits the north pole and taigas. And yes, they have ice pyramids. I have Malaysian and Filipino inspired sea based culture that focuses on trade. Croatian based culture was once the Alexander tier conquerers of the world. Their founder amassed the biggest treasure in the world and hid it. Centuries later, they found the treasure, and now they're running a kingdom tier money lending operation or occasional market manipulation to get what they need. Hungarians are the fastest growing empire in the current day of my story.

There are many examples. culture layer of my world map is really complex and filled with minority groups or hints of past expansions/genocides/migrations/cultural shifts.

Samnites, Bronze Age Achaeans/Trojans, early medieval (pre-Tang) Chinese.

The Inuit and Tuareg have influenced 2 major ethnic groups in my world.

Most of my cultures are inspired by multiple cultures, I have one that I'm slowly building up inspired by a mix of Sámi and Ainu.

The Minangkabau, specifically for their matrilineal households and clans.

I am trying to learn about indo Chinese cultures like the champa and Siam. I am trying to also throw on pre feudal germanic cultures as well as thracians. I have also gained a recent fascination with the Kipchaks.

The clothing and architecture of my ancient civilizations were heavily inspired by the Inca. I even went out of my way to learn a few phrases in Quechua for one of its surviving members.

Seihkism. I've been reading more and more about their culture and religion recently as part of a project to expand what I know for my seventh book. The creed they follow and the culture they have is utterly fascinating.

The Ashenan People are wolf people nomad pastorials based on the Turkic legend of Asina, the boy and the she-wolf that gave birth to the Turkic race

Ashenans are based heavily on central asian turkic nomads as a result (and i do get annoyed when everyone keeps thinking they’re mongols, there are other steppe nomads other than mongols grrr)

Similar to Turkic peoples of history, the Ashenans became the premier “warrior people” of Andulos and many nobles and lords would find one way or another to gain Ashenans as their military, be it mercenaries or slave soldiers.

African nations are not lesser known, but their mythologies, aesthetics and history are rarely portrayed in the fantasy I consume.

They’re a huge inspiration for a large section of my Bronze Age setting and its lore.

The culture of Patun was inspired partly by various Andes Mountain indigenous peoples and by the Mongols, both cultures I think deserve more representation

One of the empires in my five empires setting is strongly influenced by Assyria, with some Sumeria and Babylon spice mixed in.

I'm more likely to pull from obscure mythology or zoology than obscure human cultures.

Love myself some Mesoamerican stuff. I've had multiple "deities" kill eachother and make eachother into objects or create worlds out of other beings. Cipacti being a crocodile/alligator is the icing on top as they're one of my favorite animals.

The way ancient people and cultures sometimes seem to be more advanced that we give them credit for has played a large part is my story. The Land Of Aurora had technology comparable to an early steampunk civilization in its later years, yet after its fall, it took people decades to centuries to rediscover and replicate it

A lot of my "worldbuilding" is just unfinished, but I do plan, per say, to be inspired by cultures less present in fantasy.

Tibetan is a core inspiration for my world's main plateau culture, the Occorati.

The rest are sort of blends between a popular one and one I believe is less utilized but interesting. I try to have Reuna a cross between Imperial Roman and Renaissance Italian city-states. There's another that's a mix between Norse and Irish. India with Mesopotamia.

I want to be more inspired by Native American, Romanian, Modern Greek, Turkish, Vietnamese, Filipino, Georgian, Basque, as much of India as my brain can handle, Polynesian, Sub-Saharan, & pre-late-19th century European united kingdoms and empires like the Swedish, Denmark-Norway, Austria-Hungary, Poland-Lithuania, etc. I've got a lot ahead that I plan to find inspiration from, just saying.

Traditional Russian mixed with Italian southern

I have an Etruscan - Carthaginian city state in my world and a Songhai-Mali hybrid society.

I think the most unique civilizations I have is a society based on the Haida people and an empire based loosely on the city of Cahokia

I have tribes based off of pre-proto Indo-European cultures like the Vinča and Cucuteni–Trypillia cultures. One of my major antagonistic forces is based off of the Yamnaya culture.

It's hard enough to research these cultures as is, but unfortunately a lot of the media surrounding them is plagued by certain political ideologies from the 1930's.

Thankfully not every culture in my world is inspired by cultures from that general sphere, such as several island cultures based off of the Taíno and Rapa Nui.

Polynesians, they charted and traversed the pacific ocean hundreds of years before western civilization with nothing but the stars to guide them.

Aztecs, only 400 years ago they were sacrificing, eating, and enslaving their own people. Their architecture and culture was very unique.

The Mongol Empire, and no, not the horse riding, civilization raiding aspect of them 

I've got some Sudano-Sahelian and Pacific Northwest Indigenous inspiration in my world.

My elves are heavily inspired by the Acadians/Cajuns. I watched some really interesting videos on how their culture developed and changed and it gave me some great ideas.

My dwarves were influenced by Incan/Qechuan culture after I took a trip to Peru several years ago.

I was inspired to make a culture based off the Native American Cree tribes after playing a little bit of Civ VI. 😅

Not sure if it’s they are that “less known” but the Berbers.

I'm Navajo (Southwest Native American) and I heavily am inspired by South West tribes and cultures for a bulk of my world building. The other portions are equally other Indigenous Peoples of the Americas and traditional DND style medieval European

The citizens of my main story village are inspired by a mix of ancient hawaii and medieval England

One of the main cultures in my world is heavily inspired by the Mapuche of Chile and Argentina. That specific group I felt was missing something for a long time but it clicked together with the Mapuche influence, which fit together perfectly with their pre-existing Amazonian, Northern European and Siberian influence for the effect I was going for.

The other cultures of the world are also quite eclectic in their origins. The main superpower is heavily inspired by East and South Asia. The trading center has mostly Bantu elements but also Turkic ones and the last main culture mostly takes from the Indigenous Australians and Americans.

One thing I usually despise about fantasy is formulaic copy pasted cultures from real life that only emulate stereotypes about non western societies. Because of that and my pre existing interest in anthropology, ethnology and history it just made sense to attempt to create a world that tries to rectify this and reflect much more of the human variety that exists in the real world than most traditional fantasy.

For now I’m only using the Ainu but I plan on using more little known cultures as well

The Inuits

Pre-Roman European cultures. The Southlands were based on the Welsh, Gauls, and Iberocelts.

Also, pre-Islamic Arab paganism.

Nubian

I took some inspiration from the Sami people who live in the northern parts of Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Sami are heavily centered around caribou herding. I integrated that into one of my cultures.

Man of the Dinosaurs is an alternate early 2000s BCE Liguria/Piedmont, so it's inspired by the Rinaldone and Remedello cultures. I also came up with the character at one point in the story making a pile dwelling, and then found out after this that pile dwellings are within that time period in Central Europe area, including Northern Italy.

In Elenon, Uqquannallitkallallit aka North Insing is loosely inspired by Inuit and Yupik cultures.

Even within cultures significant differences or minor details exist that can be Explored:

Smaller, lesser known, martial arts. Festivities, all that jazz.

Using a culture is easy, using the things that make that culture different isnt as easy since it requirzs far more thorough investigation but can really make it different.

I've taken inspiration from literally every culture on Earth, i'm more focused on how to make them as different as possible and adapt them to my world. If people cant tell which culture was the original inspiration after all the modifications, I'll consider myself successful

I am currently brainstorming a new world set in the 2050s, and I already have several cultures in mind. There are several mainstream ones in there, but I tried to put a twist on them, mainly by using a different era or fusing them with another culture:

• Hyacinth - Revolutionary France + 1770s America
• Tvembov - Pre-Christian Russia + Cossacks, with a Technocratic government for good measure.
• Avenal - Late 1800s/Early 1900s Mexico
• Reiwan Empire - Late 1980s Japan + Singapore
• (China expy I have yet to come up with a name for) - Republic of China (The 1912-1949 one, not Taiwan)
• Monsargentis - Late 1800s Italy but Stratocratic
• Taungne - The multiple kingdoms that ruled Myanmar before the British came knocking

Matriarchal societies in general, but the Mosuo people of China inspired some of the home/family life stuff.

Make up your own cultures from scratch based on ecology modeled from receding ice sheets. It's the best way to do it.

Neurodivergent culture because I am neurodivergent