The world in which the Tale of Iskander takes place is different in many 
respects from the one we know. One of the main historical divergences was
 that Alexander the Great did not die young but lived to the old age of e
ighty four. This enabled him to consolidate his empire, although part of 
the Eastern reaches in India were lost during his life time.

As a consequence, the history of the Middle East and the Mediterranean re
gion evolved very differently.
 
The Roman Empire never emerged. Italic influence (mainly Etruscan and Lat
in) remained restricted to the Italian peninsula, Southeastern France, an
d the northern part of the Balkan. Instead, Greek dominion extended over 
the whole Mediterranean, remaining in uneasy peace with the Punic empire 
of Carthago which dominated the western regions for several centuries unt
il it fell to the Turcs. The Iberian peninsula was alternatively Greek or
 Phoenician until it became definitively Greek after the fall of Carthago
 to the Turks.

Christendom never became a world religion because Judea was never occupie
d by the Romans, and hence Jesus was not crucified. In addition, Saul die
d falling from his horse on the way to Damascus. The Joshuite group remai
ned thus an obscure sect within the Judaic tradition. Judaism itself rema
ined confined to the Palestine area as the region was never destroyed by 
the Romans in 70 AD. In Iskander's time, this was the autonomic province 
of Judea. Islam raised in the same manner as in our world but was restric
ted to an area covering the Magreb in the West to Persia in the East. Gre
ek religion slowly evolved towards a quasi monotheistic creed around Zeus
/Apollo and Minerva. Real polytheism was frowned upon in the times of Isk
ander, although it was still in practice along the Yann. Gancaloon has se
veral temples dedicated to polytheistic creeds.Neither was Constantinople
 ever built. Instead, the large city of Neoilion (Greek: Neoilion) on the
 Asian side of the Bosporus became the focal point of eastern civilizatio
n and a major hub for trading, in particular with the East over the Silk 
Route. It became also the capital of the Sultans after the invasion of th
e Turks, before the times of the Tale of Iskander.

After the invasion of the Turcs, Greek hegemony remained strong in the tr
aditional Greek area, and westwards until the Iberian peninsula. North an
d West of the Alps however, Celtic kingdoms vied for living space, and in
 constant conflict with Germanic tribes from the East. (Greek) Ůphrbore
a (Hyperborea) is the Greek name of the region we know as the United King
dom.

The river Yann is an imaginary river created by Lord Dunsany. Here it is 
included in the world as we know it, replacing or parallel to the Nile. T
his is how Lord Dunsany described this part of the river in Idle Days on 
the Yann, from the book A Dreamer's Tales:

And now as the sun's last rays were nearly level, we saw the sight that I
 had come to see, for from two mountains that stood on either shore two c
liffs of pink marble came out into the river, all glowing in the light of
 the low sun, and they were quite smooth and of mountainous altitude, and
 they nearly met, and Yann went tumbling between them and found the sea.
And this was Bar-Wul-Yann, the Gate of Yann, and in the distance through 
that barrier's gap I saw the azure indescribable sea, where little fishin
g-boats went gleaming by.

And this has inspired the location of the city of Gancaloon, which was bu
ilt, long after Dunsany's visit, at Bar-Wul-Yann.

The Tale of Iskander takes place around the equivalent 11th to 12th centu
ry AD of our world.

The Tale of Iskander is anchored in several interlocked traditions: 
The Classic history of the Mediterranean, in particular Alexander the Gre
at, but with many references to the Iliad, to Mycenae, or to Minoan Crete
. 
The Edda.
The tales cycle of Thousand and One Nights. 
The short stories of Lord Dunsany, especially those about the Yann.
The stories of Fritz Leiber about Lankhmar.

Last but not least, an analysis of story telling by Stephen Donaldson in 
his afterword to The Gap into Conflict – The Real Story. This became th
e true backbone of the tale. Donaldson develops an interesting idea about
 the use of the pattern of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. 

Neoilion (Greek: Neoilion): Vast capital city of the Sultan, built on the
 Asian shore of the Bosporus. Founded by Alexander the Great as the new c
apital of his empire after is conquests East and West. Named after the my
thic city of Troy, or Ilion.

Gancaloon (Greek: Gaggalwn): Vast port city on the lower reaches of the r
iver Yann. Also know as “The Gate of Dreams”. Has two distinct harbou
rs, one on the Yann, mainly concerned with fluvial trading and fishing, t
he other turned towards the open sea and an international trading hub. Th
e name and pronunciation of the city was originally (Greek) Gaggalwn (pro
nounce Gang-alone) but influence of foreign traders changed the pronuncia
tion into (Greek) Gaggkaloun (pronounce Gang-kaloon). The writing of the 
name remained identical however.