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As am I. But I've been on a Byzantium kick recently, so it intrigued me.
Ah.
Well it just happens that Trebizond's entire existence is an obscure fact.
It is pretty esoteric.
The weird fantastic parallel world that my novel-thingy is set in has remnants of the Eastern Roman Empire surviving into the early 20th century, one of which is the successor state to Trebizond, so it's semi-relevant...
Here's some fun little facts:
There have been Byzantine statuettes recovered that depict warriors in various sword guards. These guards actually correspond to another historical source -- the MI.33 "Tower" manuscript, which is the earliest known European manuscript that discusses swordsmanship in an effort to teach it, detailing the use of a sword and buckler. It's dated to the late 13th or early 14th century, written in Latin, appears to be of German origin, and has significant points of correspondence with later German material from the Liechtenauer tradition. Mind you, the "later material" I speak of here could be as many as one-hundred years younger than the Tower manuscript.
One interesting point is that the Tower manuscript appears to have been written by a priest, and he refers to himself as such within the text as well as depicting himself in priestly garb. Could it be that this swordsman was once a crusader who returned to Germany and taught swordsmanship on the side of his new career? Despite being the earliest known source, the manual also depicts the priest instructing a female student, which is actually consistent with how treatment of women differed in Europe compared to other places. Career warrior women were quite uncommon, but less so were those who didn't have some idea of how to defend themselves, especially amongst the nobility.
We can also ask questions about the origin of this sword style. Was it Byzantine in origin? Was it universal to Europe? Our two biggest leads are via the Byzantine Empire and Germany, so it could be that either was the origin point of this art that became shared later on. There's a lot we can't quite know, except that this style of swordsmanship appears to have been practiced in both locations. How extensively is another mystery. It's also interesting to note that both the Holy Roman Empire of the German People and the Eastern Roman Empire claimed to be the true claimants of the Roman tradition and culture (the Germans were full of shit -- they were the same tribal people, just in nicer clothes. The Byzantines might have had a point. Perhaps.), so perhaps this method of fighting draws on Ancient Rome? But the flaw in that hypothesis is that very little of medieval or modern Germany were actually under ancient Roman control, so Germany's fighting arts were much more likely to resemble those of the ancient tribes than those of the organised Romans.
Unfortunately, concrete information about this matter is scarce. Soon after the Tower manuscript, the Germans begins to focus very heavily on two-handed weapons, or one-handed weapons without a shield. As warfare changed, the combat styles adapted in order to take advantage of the quicker, harder-hitting, more easily controlled two-handed weapons of the era, and what instruction we get on the use of arming sword and buckler together is threadbare -- at least in comparison to the extensive attention lavished on the two-handed longsword. Later, some sources would return to the buckler with more earnestness, but this is often in combination with transition rapiers or true rapiers. Even later, we also get instruction on the use of the targe shield, largely from Scottish masters.
While I'm very happy with the knowledge of gained of German, English and Italian fencing throughout the late medieval and early-middle Renaissance eras, the mystery of the Byzantine statuettes and the "crusader priest" still tickles the back of my mind on a regular basis. There's enough information to accurately reconstruct this sword style as a practical tool of combat -- we just don't know where the thread starts, or where it goes.
I am aware of the Empire of Trebizond's existence, origins and fall, but apart from that I don't know anything about it.
Those facts are neither fun nor little.
Oh come on, that ain't even essay length.
They are if I'm the one writing the essay.
dohohohoho
Fun facts:
People die from eating shark being eaten by a shark. You can die from being eaten by a shark-eating shark, because some of them die from poisonous meat. And sharks kill many people, as you might think. You can die from lightning. You can die from bee stings, then shark bites, being eaten by a shark.
@Alex: That's actually really interesting to me, and potentially useful. May I pick your brain further on the matter? (Perhaps elsewhere; the good people here have other things to discuss.)
Also, I think that my dweebiness peaked when I thought, "So that's what Homura had on her arm..."
I've played a bunch of obscure games, like:
...does that count?
>Super Metroid
>Obscure
Really, the Kirby thing is the only potentially obscure one since shitty spinoffs go unnoticed all the time.
Ikachan is by Pixel, so plenty of people know about it because Cave Story is the least obscure indie game ever.
Terranigma is a classic that shows up on best SNES game lists all the time.
Seiken Densetsu 3 is a sequel to an extremely popular game. Maybe a lot of people didn't play it because it was never released outside Japan, but people definitely at least know about it.
And Super Metroid is fucking Super Metroid.
How about
Who was it who has like a ton of old systems? Edmania or MoeDantes?
It was Edmond.
> Edmania
> Edmond (Dantes)
No wonder I'm confusing the two of them.
You know, it occurs to me that it may be very difficult for people who spend a lot of time talking about games online to figure out which ones are obscure.
Anyway:
Which of these would you all say count as obscure and not obscure?
Of course. Send me a PM if you like.
I'd say LIMBO, Terraria, Planescape Torment, and maybe Nethack and Recettear definitely don't count as obscure.
The others I don't know enough about to say for sure.
Thing is, I've seen a lot of these names, but through Steam and SteamGifts. However, I just gloss over them if I'm not interested in them.
Yeah, I'd say so too, but the only places I've heard about them are from people who discuss games online and thus would know about a lot of obscure games.
Planescape Torment and Nethack predate Steam by a lot.
And of course, it matters what audience we're talking about. The Japanese gaming world knew of Recettear long before the U.S. gaming world knew of it.
Yeah.
Bascially, what I'm getting at is: what does obscure actually mean?
Because some of the games on that list are definitely obscure, and some of them probably aren't, but where's the line?
Obscure to a single person means something he/she doesn't know.
As for a society with basically two "tiers" of knowledge--lay and specialist--about a particular topic, I'm going to suggest the scale I came up with a while back: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlidingScaleOfAnimeObscurity
Adapting that, let's try this:
Level 0: Game or series is so well-known that many people outside the gaming fandom generally know about it. Examples: Mario, Sonic.
Level 1: Some people outside the gaming fandom may have heard of this. Pretty much everyone in the fandom knows about the game or series. They may not know it in great detail, but they should know enough to talk about the game or series and likely have an opinion on it. You may find limited traces of it in pop culture. Examples: Mega Man, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter.
Level 2: Detailed knowledge is mainly restricted to a specialized fandom, but most people in the general gaming fandom know about it enough to have some idea what it's about, though often not enough to have an opinion. Examples: Chrono Trigger, Portal, Castlevania.
Level 3: General awareness is not guaranteed, but specialized fandoms are sizable enough to be notable. Examples: Fire Emblem, Terraria, Nethack.
Level 4: Type A: Fandoms are small, but sizable enough that the series still shows up on some radars. For example, you may be able to find a number of fan-videos focused on these series, and chances are that in any bunch of 10-20 tropers you might have one or two who know the series in question other than you. The internet has really helped bring these fandoms together, due to how small and scattered they tend to be. Type B: Games that are more well-known but have few dedicated fans with lots of knowledge of the series. Type 1 examples: Recettear, Parodius. Type 2 examples: Paperboy, The Great Giana Sisters.
Level 5: Even more obscure. Fandoms if any, are very small. Frequently don't have much of a fandom. If the game or series isn't recent, you might be one of only a handful or the only one on a general gaming website who knows of it. Examples: Dream TV, Tail 'Gator, Monster Tale, Tobe's series.
Level 6: For things that, while they exist, seem to be impossible to find, even on the internet with modern proliferation of filesharing. This is the "off the charts" category. Example: Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill (sorry, that might actually be more like level 7 since it really never got a commercial release at all, but I can't think of a better example).
Anyone got ideas for improvement?
Let me tell you. About Homestuck.
REVEAL YOUR ALLEGIANCES
UPVOTE AND DOWNVOTE EACH:
Hetalia: no
Homestuck: no
League of Legends: abstain
Minecraft: can I abstain because this is a nice game, or will my
Terraria-loving constituencyfellow Terraria fans threaten to vote me out of office unless I vote no?My Little Pony: no
Team Fortress 2: yes
Touhou: yes
I know nothing about any of those (Well, all my Pony knowledge is from before G4 so that doesn't count). Is someone going to revoke my nerd card now?
Hetalia: no
Homestuck: yes
League of Legends: abstain
Minecraft: Yes
MLP: Yes
TF2: No
Touhou: No
Hetalia: No
Homestuck: No
League of Legends: Abstain
Minecraft: Yes
MLP: No
TF2: No
Touhou: Yes