The 'great figure' theory is definitely the most conducive to narrative - you gotta have characters! A narrativist approach such as Tolkien's is almost inevitable. Add to that my strange love affair with Harold Lamb... But if you think about it, the organizing principle of history in Earwa as opposed to Middle-earth is actually more hermeneutic and Braudelesque: not only are their interpretative questions, the impersonal has a powerful role to play in the production of events as well. I think this explains why my stuff feels more historical and less mythic than Tolkien's. view post