I’d call the Sword Coast more “Western Europe following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire if that happened a thousand years later than it did and it happened all at once because of magic and also it’s been 1800 years since then but for some reason no one’s centralized power beyond the city state level or improved military or magical technology and THEN an actual real God got killed and everything got fucked until it was decided that was dumb and a mistake let’s pretend it didn’t happen”
I’d call the Sword Coast more “Western Europe following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire if that happened a thousand years later than it did and it happened all at once because of magic and also it’s been 1800 years since then but for some reason no one’s centralized power beyond the city state level or improved military or magical technology and THEN an actual real God got killed and everything got fucked until it was decided that was dumb and a mistake let’s pretend it didn’t happen”
…
Okay maybe the Wild West metaphor is simpler.