Ostland Questions...

[Lord Squidar]

What is the real world counterpart Ostland is based on? I would guess some of the medieval Baltic states (aside from the sea aspect) or perhaps Poland

[Athelassan]

The Imperial provinces are kind of weird in that their characters sometimes seem to be informed as much by British regional stereotypes as central European history (Altdorf/London, Middenland/Yorkshire, Stirland/generic inbred rural England - Norfolk, Devon, etc.). Ostland doesn't so much, though. I think Ostland is probably closer to Poland than anything else, although there are also Polish-Lithuanian elements to Kislev too of course. Perhaps the best match would be somewhere like Pomerelia or Silesia where there are/were both German and Polish elements.

It seems kind of fitting from a religious perspective, too, in that Ostland is largely Sigmarite, which is unusual for the area, where Poland is Catholic, which is also unusual for the area (both also match the religion of the dominant Imperial power - Reikland/Austria).