Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86191-20161105215400/@comment-61022-20161107165607

You pose a very interesting question. The depictions of Latveria have created a lot of confusion in terms of its cultural influences. Early Marvel stories from the 60s depicted Latveria as a more Germanic society. In those post-war days of Marvel, Doom was modeled more as though he were a Nazi-esque tyrant.. Which is contrary to his Romani roots. But you also see that kind of flip-flopping with Magneto as well.

As writers started crafting more details and "historically accurate" depictions of these characters, applying real world history to their fictional lives, it creates a bit of a strange melting pot. Particularly with Doctor Doom since any fleshing out you have to do with Doom you also have to work into his fictional nation of Latveria.

I've often wondered if Stan and Jack were trying to come up with something exotic and just created the fictional country based on Latvia (at least by name). Wouldn't be the first time they did that with countries or organizations (The Maggia being a stand in for the Mafia for example)

More contemporary interpretations of Latveria have placed it near Hungary. I think the first time they placed a geographic location for the country was in the first edition of the Official Marvel Handbook. The Romany background has always been part of Doom's origins, but it was kind of a sidelined thing until John Byrne started writing Fantastic Four and zeroing in on that part of Doom's origins (whereas most just focused on the despot he became and not his journey to that point)

The most prevalent cultural influences to Latverian culture depicted these days are primarily Romany and Hungarian, the Germanic aspects to their culture have been muted in recent times.

As far as religious beliefs in the region... That's a tough one to peg down. When you look at Cynthia von Doom making a pact with Mephisto, the recognizance of pre-Christian pantheons, and the fact that Doom himself setting himself up as an all-powerful ruler, what the Latverian people actually believe in now is hard to peg down. I tend to agree with most that it's likely a melting pot of all the various faiths and belief systems that have been popular during specific points in history. Since Doom has taken over, I get the feeling that he basically has his people worship him.

However, Doom's nation is one free of prejudices and persecution (mostly under fear of repercussions of Doom's wrath) so I'm sure the people of his country are free to practice whatever religion they wish so long as they don't put it above his rule.