The Mystery of Dragonspyre

Dragonspyre is a mystery. It's one of those worlds that you can't figure out what it's based off of. There's so much contradicting evidence that you can't pick just one culture. I decided to do some research, and I think I finally have the answer.

First, I started with a Twitter Poll. I asked if people thought Dragonspyre was based off of Rome/Greece, Russia/Czech, or Russia/Byzantine. Each tweet had the majority voting Rome/Greece. So I referred to everything I knew about Rome and Greece. Coincidentally, my current world history unit at school is Rome and the Byzantine Empire!

• I figured that the architecture is Greek and Roman, especially all the columns
• Creatures like the Minotaur and Cyclops roam the streets. These are straight out of Greek mythology
• Being a militant society, it could be based off of Sparta
• The Forum is a Roman place of government and exchange of ideas
• The Necropolis, meaning "cemetery," has the word -polis in it. -Polis is a Greek word for "city."
• The Atheneum, meaning "school," also means "Temple of Athena." Athena is Greek goddess
• The Basilica, which means "royal palace" or "church," is originally a Greek/Latin word
• The Labyrinth is from Greek mythology. 
• The Dragonspyre standard is from Rome's Eagle Standard

Not to mention the layout of Dragonspyre: It looks like an acropolis. Notice the tiered levels and walls, surrounding the more important parts of Dragonspyre? Dragonspyre Academy is in the up most area. Also, the volcano could symbolize Mount Vesuvius and Pompeii, which explains how destroyed the world is. Dragonspyre seems pretty Greco-Roman, right? But then we hit a wall...

Unless you played with mute on the whole time, chances are you heard the accents of the NPCs. They don't sound Italian or Greek at all. Their names aren't either. So I looked up the origins of some names, and what I got was unsurprising. The names were from Russia, Ukraine, and Czechoslovakia. 

This actually makes a lot of sense. Why? There was a blend of these cultures, and it was called the Byzantine Empire.

The Byzantine empire was created when the Roman Empire was split into East and West. While Rome fell and descended into the Dark Ages, Costantinople rose. It was located between Greece and modern-day Russia. Now we have Greek, Roman, and Russian cultures all in one area!

This excerpt sounds a lot like Justinian's campaign to take back the Roman Empire from the Barbarians.  

The Empire was brought down by a plague, which is mentioned in the History of Dragonspyre.

In short, Dragonspyre bares enough evidence to point towards being based off of the Byzantine Empire. Do you think Dragonspyre is based off of the Byzantine Empire? Why? I look forward to seeing other point-of-views!