AFRICAN FANTASY ANSWERS: DEY WUZ SMITHYS edition

I'll start to make this thread from time to time.

pastebin.com/PKFJzHfA

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=wTC_1HRgbuo
oriental-arms.com/items.php?coll=3&cat=2&page=0
twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?686248-Medieval-warriors-of-East-Africa-2D-Concept-Art-Project
gambargin.deviantart.com/art/HWS-Medieval-Rev-Women-Warriors-of-Africa-WIP-467655521
byzantinum.deviantart.com/gallery/?catpath=/
vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=12707
liberiapastandpresent.org/RitualKillingsIndex.htm
smithsonianmag.com/history/dahomeys-women-warriors-88286072/
rvbomally.deviantart.com/gallery/40213575/Vivere-Militare-Est
rvbomally.deviantart.com/art/VME-The-Congo-Crisis-Part-I-643088181
alternatehistory.com/wiki/doku.php?id=timelines:vivere_militare_est
orias.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/styles/openberkeley_image_full/public/general/inbbattutamapsmaller_1.jpg?itok=pFAs6Jk4
historyoffighting.com/art-blog/traditional-fighting-in-africa-engolo
sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1354-ibnbattuta.asp
rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/thakane
hgesch-gallery.com/cities/Shibam01.jpg
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c7/5b/b8/c75bb8a3ab6627bb6c9a96ff440b393c.jpg
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amba_(landform)
rejectedprincesses.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/sotho.jpg
oriental-arms.com/item.php?id=6614
oriental-arms.com/item.php?id=3014
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bete_Giyorgis_01.jpg
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Monolithic_churches_in_Ethiopia
sacred-texts.com/etc/mhs/mhs10.htm
uh.edu/engines/epi385.htm
youtube.com/watch?v=1gdTOHWYVLM
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/middle-earth-roleplay/images/4/4d/Giant_eland_2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160515161322
sargassosart.deviantart.com/art/Ventus-Cultures-341525180
abookofcreatures.com/2016/03/18/usilosimapundu/
abookofcreatures.com/tag/african-folklore/
warosu.org/tg/thread/30685000
vampireunderworld.com/african-vampires/
wraithdt.deviantart.com/art/African-Vampire-Hunter-551202284
img10.deviantart.net/011b/i/2016/155/c/8/grootslang_sketches_by_yefumm-da4xh6g.jpg
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/07/45/38/074538cd8062e1a6b217532747248ebc.jpg
suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/38388096/
suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/49940009/
reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/index.html
twitter.com/NSFWRedditVideo

You know, I'm impressed by the lack of anything. I would post the content here, but Veeky Forums thinks the links are spam.

bump

Will post folklore if thread is alive after work

t. Ashanti

Oh shit this is gonna be cool

...

Gonna throw in stuff about the Himba because it's kind of interesting.
The Himba (singular: OmuHimba, plural: OvaHimba) are indigenous peoples with an estimated population of about 50,000 people living in northern Namibia, in the Kunene region (formerly Kaokoland) and on the other side of the Kunene River in Angola. There are also a few groups left of the Ovatwa, who are also OvaHimba, but are hunters and gatherers. The OvaHimba are a semi-nomadic, pastoral people, and are considered the last (semi-) nomadic people of Namibia.

Himba women especially, as well as Himba men, are remarkably famous for covering themselves with otjize paste, a cosmetic mixture of butterfat and ochre pigment, to cleanse the skin over long periods due to water scarcity and protect themselves from the extremely hot and dry climate of the Kaokoland as well as against mosquito insect bites. The cosmetic mixture, often perfumed with the aromatic resin of the omuzumba shrub, gives their skin and hair plaits a distinctive orange or red-tinge characteristic, as well as texture and style. Otjize is considered foremost a highly desirable aesthetic beauty cosmetic, symbolizing earth’s rich red color and blood the essence of life, and is consistent with the OvaHimba ideal of beauty.

Is that an alligator?

Yay.

Yes, made into a scabbard.

Bump

bump

What is the lady with the Afro wearing? Looks like a jacket.

What's up with African swords?

Does anyone have any historical pictures of African warriors with their weapons and armour, preferably with some indication where they're from? You don't need to know the exact tribe etc. just some general "east-african/north-african/central-african/south-african/west-african" pointer is good too.

Pretty sure those are supposed to be used as throwing swords.

Basically, when the enemy puts up a nice deep square shieldwall, you throw some throwing swords in there. Their aberrant shape ensures that they keep jumping around between the shield tops, the helmets and more importantly, the faces of your enemy. They probably aren't really used as a lethal weapon, but more as a disruptive psychological weapon. You see those things coming down in your line, and you want to get away, but you can't because you're in a square shieldwall. That causes enough chaos in the ranks that the enemy can make an easy charge into your block.

Kind of the same idea as the Frankish throwing axe, except taken the jumping into enemy lines to an extreme.

WHOEVA PULL DIS SHIET FROM DA STONE IS KANGZ OF ALL EGYPT AIGHT

That makes sense for the sickle shaped swords, but the long linear ones just wouldn't bounce like that. If anything I'd guess the spikes are to catch and tear away wicker shields.

The loss of bounce might be offset by the ease of aiming. A straight sword is just as easy to throw as a spear. A sickle-shaped sword has the same problem as a throwing axe. Wonky balance, so you have to throw it into some rotating flight.

I dunno man. Maybe it's just ceremonial or shamanic, similar to how European magicians and occultists used swords when doing magic.

Now are you throwing these swords overhand, like a spear? Or flinging your spears end over end?

Of course it's ceremonial. I was asking what's up with that.

If you took San women out of the bush and gave them a first world life style, they'd probably be the most beautiful women in the world.

(sorry for the salt I appreciate the content)

> alligator

Crocodile. Alligators are only in the Americas and China.

>Now are you throwing these swords overhand, like a spear?
youtube.com/watch?v=wTC_1HRgbuo

I prefer Matt Easton's video on swordthrowing, but Skal is good too.

That's metal but also wouldn't work with anything that didn't have a straight spine.

Well, problem is... no one is going to try swordthrowing with one of those African antique swords. Who knows, maybe one of these days, some company starts making replicas and we can try it in real life.

I have no idea but I'd presume that they would be pretty good for parrying and redirecting spears and blocking clubs or something. Also ripping into flesh and causing immense pain if the opponent tries to move that limb.

this too

Maybe not. It's quite common for people in underdeveloped countries to suddenly get all fat and get British teeth after getting that Western lifestyle.

Obesity is quickly becoming the #1 killer on the African continent. Goes to show how the economies of the various stable African countries grow.

As it happens, one of the first gifts of Western civilization that tends to get to foreign countries, long, long before the modern medicine and wifi coverage and running water, is OMNIPRESENT MCDONALD'S BRANCHES. I swear, you're driving through Kenya and there are places where the houses are literally made of mud and straw and people walk around the "streets" naked with their goats, and in the middle of that village there's going to somehow be a McDonald's. Where it even gets water and electricity from, nobody knows.

>they'd probably be the most beautiful women in the world.
And then develop the most disgusting ego and attitude.

To be honest, houses made of mud and straw are pretty good.

There's a guy running a million-dollar company in my town, that makes villas using African mud-and-straw techniques. It's relatively cheap as fuck, and it is a perfect way to keep a house cool in the summer and hot in the winter. Even has a real low environmental footprint. You just gotta add some sealant to keep it from getting water damaged in Western climates. And the craziest thing is... he's using that African mud-and-straw stuff to build villas. Bigass villas for rich people.

There's also the fact that many less technologically advanced peoples are genetically predisposed towards fattening, since for God knows how many thousands of generations it's been evolutionarily advantageous for them to be able to retain the most out of what little they can afford to eat. It balanced out because they also had physically demanding lifestyles and food was scarce anyway. Suddenly allow them to lead "first world lifestyles" with ample junkfood and days upon days spent sitting down, and they balloon up in a matter of months.

>Suddenly allow them to lead "first world lifestyles" with ample junkfood and days upon days spent sitting down, and they balloon up in a matter of months.

Plus there's the psychological/cultural factor. It goes away after a generation or two at most, but it's noticeable in third world shitholes that've just now started seeing modernization. People are still operating under a "when there's food you should eat it" mentality aimed at maximizing their chances of survival. When there's ALWAYS food, they're just ALWAYS EATING, so they get fat fast.

That's wrong mate. All humans are genetically predisposed towards fattening.

The key here is education on proper diets.

I don't know.

I suggest you go to the .pdf thread in here or one in his, request the Osprey stuff like "Warrior Peoples Of East Africa 1840-1900".

Please keep in mind that many of the outlandish examples, probably, are no more than badges of office or smiths showing their skills. One wouldn't use them any more than an european king would use his royal sceptre as a mace.

Also, the most eye-catching artefacts of any culture tend to be the ones preserved. This may lead to the Everest Fallacy:
>that is a tendency to illustrate a category by an example which is exceptional. The exceptional nature of the illustration is not made clear, and the illustration veils rather than reveals the normal. For example, Mount Everest is a "typical" mountain, Cicero is a "typical" new man, M. Aemilius Lepidus becomes a "typical" noble.
This is what lead to people thinking european swords were very heavy, basing themselves on the execution and cerimonial examples in museums.

oriental-arms.com/items.php?coll=3&cat=2&page=0

NOPE. WHOEVA STICK DIS IN DA STONE IS THE MAIN MAN.

Noted.

It's good in dry climates, of which Africa has a lot. One has to put more mud from time to time, but any dwelling requires some sort of maintenance.

>I suggest you go to the .pdf thread in here or one in his, request the Osprey stuff like "Warrior Peoples Of East Africa 1840-1900".
I forgot to mention, I'd like to see something from medieval days. No guns allowed.

What's the deal with this sword in the OP pic?

It's a straight sword. With a sheath made of a babby crocodile.

Interesting, given the context would it be safe to assume it was made in africa? If so, when?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVw1Ky_21Is

There isn't much in the internet of that, AFAIK. Even M&B mods seem to lack this kind of stuff, and they have a lot of obscure medieval and historical equipment. This guy made a thread just to make such material available, for example:
twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?686248-Medieval-warriors-of-East-Africa-2D-Concept-Art-Project

She has other african realistic ahistorical warriors princesses, won't post all links to avoid Veeky Forums thinkin I'm spam:
gambargin.deviantart.com/art/HWS-Medieval-Rev-Women-Warriors-of-Africa-WIP-467655521

This one has several:
byzantinum.deviantart.com/gallery/?catpath=/

The rest of deviantart is packed with serious "we wuz kings".

Subsaharan Africa is simply understudied in many ways.

Took from here:
vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=12707

>DEY WUZ SMITHYS

And they are still at it!

>Brent Stirton; National Geographic;
>Tuareg master sword maker Abda Ahmoudou, 35, works on Tuareg swords in his workshop in Agadez city, Niger, 30 September 2009. Tuareg swords are seen as an important symbol for a Tuareg man but functions primarily as decoration and less as a defensive weapon nowadays.
>The best swords says Ahmoudou are made from the driveshafts of 1960's Land Rover driveshafts which apparently produce the best weight and the straightest piece of metal with which to fashion the sword. The swords can fetch prices often in excess of 150 000 CFA, around $350.
>"A man without a sword is missing something. Every Tuareg man must have a sword. It would take me a month to explain the reasons behind the Tuareg sword, every sword has a name based on the quality of the blade and the swordmaker".

Any Ethiopian stuff to share?

>Brent Stirton; National Geographic;
>Scenes at the Agadez animal market, Niger 29 September 2009.

One last Tuareg sword and I'm off.

>A Tuareg man poses with the sword handed to the Tuareg leader by the French after the Tuareg were finally defeated at the battle of Tit (1902), photographed in the desert outside the Tuareg town of Djanet, Algeria, on April 9, 2009.

>steve stop showboating with that coffee you're going to make a mess

>Any Ethiopian stuff to share?

>Afar Tribe Girl With Sharpened Teeth, Danakil, Ethiopia
>Eric Lafforgue

Motherfucker he probably hasn't seen a camera in four years. Are you saying you wouldn't show off for the first picture taken of you in half a decade, especially when the other guy's making a sword? Fuck that, let Steve have his fun, it's probably the event that he's been getting hype for so he doesn't kill himself because he lives in a fucking desert.

>Hamer Girl, Ethiopia (People) - National Geographic Photo Contest 2012
>Pascal Mannaerts;

>The Hamers are a people of East Africa living in southwestern Ethiopia, in a fertile area of the Omo Valley. The gracious Hamer women, freeing pride and dignity even in the midst of the bustling weekly market, are easily spotted with their characteristic outfits. They take pride in their dress and accessories and win the prize as the most decorated of the Omo people. The traditional dress code for unmarried Hamar girls includes elegant cowrie-shell collars, seeded or glass-beaded necklaces and decorated goatskin clothing.

>Young Hamer girl, Turmi, South Ethiopia
>izla kaya bardavid;

Is this the African version of Ice?

>Hamar couple, Omo Valley, Ethiopia
>Luciano Bovina;

>winner of Nikon Photo Contest International 1996

All my other pics of contemporary Ethiopian seems to be heavy on guns and nipples, so lets jump back in time.

>Two Amharic women pose holding umbrellas to shade themselves in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, June 1931.
>W. Robert Moore; National Geographic;

>1931, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. St. George's Cathedral. Noblemen (they're wearing crowns made of lion's manes).

You think that's weird? You have only begun your descent into the weirdness that is indigenous African weaponry. Google 'African Throwing Knives' - that's what anthropologists call them, but most of them are almost certainly not intended to be thrown.

Anyway, Yoruba city-state setting when?

>The Northern Stele Park at the town of Axum, Ethiopia.

I'm so proud of Veeky Forums. 50 posts and no one has said nigger or made racist jokes.

I've been thinking of an not!African mech vs zombies type campaign for a while. One of the big aspects that I'd like to know more about are African secret societies. Because the setting I have in mind has a big, continent-wide clusterfuck ala the Congo Wars. One faction dabbles a little too deeply into necromancy and Eldritch gods and when they are getting their shit pushed they go for one last hurrah with an absolutely devastating ritual that finishes them off, but ensures that their legacy will haunt not!Africa for centuries. The nations as they existed are gone and walled cities have taken their place. But allegiances from the old order have persisted in the form of secret societies. Most are toothless and/or benevolent like the Kiwanis Society. But on the other hand you have groups like the Leopard Society

>King Ezana's Stela
>The central obelisk still standing in the Northern Stelae Park. Probably the last erected one and the biggest of those remained unbroken. 21 m tall, smaller than the fallen Great Stela (33 m) and the so-called Obelisk of Axum (24 m, reassembled and unveiled on September 4, 2008).

>Exemples de stèles non sculptées d'Axoum

While by no means secret and more commonly associated with Jamaica , the Rastafari are one possible source of inspiration.

>The Rome Stele (known also as the Aksum Obelisk) in Aksum (Tigray Region, Ethiopia).

>Obelisk of Axum
>24 metre, 160 tonnes, granite. Properly termed a 'stele', as it is not topped by a pyramid. It is found along with many other stelae, carved and erected during the 4th century A.D. by the Kingdom of Aksum, an ancient Ethiopian civilization).
>The Obelisk of Axum was collapsed and broken at the end of 1935, following the Italian conquest of Ethiopia. In 1937, it was taken as war booty and moved to Italy by the Fascist regime.
>The monument was resurrected in its original home and unveiled on 4 September 2008.

Thats pretty phallic

Africans have a weird fetish for phallic shit, and nobody really knows why.

>The plot is advanced by earning admittance to various secret societies through either feats of heroism impressing whichever community it's host to, or by winning your way into the inner circles through bribery, favor-trading, manipulation of public ceremony and general politicking. This lets you get the knowledge you need to try to trace the origins of the undead/eldritch crisis, and hopefully do something about it, at least weakening it locally.

>City-states exist in tributary systems, with some cities essentially taking protection money from the others and controlling trade but in return using their extensive armed forces to keep the pressure off the less fortunate ones. Unfortunately, this means perennial civil war as cities jockey for position during lulls in the undead crises. Not only will players need to make sure they get in with the right societies, politics both in and between cities will force them to pick sides and possibly wind up on the wrong end of a conflict.

>Discrimination against 'bushmen' who live outside the cities, either as nomads or in villages that have managed to survive without joining the city-state system. They're viewed as primitive, superstitious, innately criminal or feared to be using dark powers akin to those that brought about this crisis in order to survive (which, depending on the group, they might be). They're also responsible for feeding the city-states and guarding/guiding the trade caravans between them.

>Supernatural sicknesses spread in the cities like wildfire, decimating communities unpredictably and uncontrollably. To make matters worse, many of the less-well-off cities live only one siege, natural or supernatural disaster from famine, largely because the more powerful cities are hoarding food.

>fetish for phallic shit
>nobody knows why

See here These are the societies I know of:

liberiapastandpresent.org/RitualKillingsIndex.htm

smithsonianmag.com/history/dahomeys-women-warriors-88286072/

Note that smiths, shamans and witches also had some sort of secret society/guild, if only to pass over their arts and techniques.

Generally about half the population does. Otherwise the population would die out

Good ideas, but not really what I had in mind. I wanted a more recently post apocalyptic setting, with the city states still being somewhat isolated from each other and life outside the walls being virtually impossible because the zombieocalypse is still going on. Those who live outside aren't feared or loathed, merely pitied (and basically extinct).

The PCs will represent the first generation of well-planned attempts to re establish humanity outside of the cities.

Probably going to use that

>people sitting around being fancy three years before Mussolini's Big Fuckfest
It's an abstract kind of feel.

throwing knifes and spear tips.

wandering smiths

...

...

This may be inspiring, map related

rvbomally.deviantart.com/gallery/40213575/Vivere-Militare-Est

rvbomally.deviantart.com/art/VME-The-Congo-Crisis-Part-I-643088181

alternatehistory.com/wiki/doku.php?id=timelines:vivere_militare_est

>What's up with the exclusion zones? Are they like atomic death areas, ultra-prisons, inhospitable areas, or controlled by anarchistic groups?
>All of the above, sans the prisons and with cults and horrifying supernatural creatures thrown in.

bhump

bump

ijalu

Yeah. Those crazy Africans and their weird phallic obsession...

African culture is so primitive when compared to superior japanese culture.

the irony of this post is that that monument is based on Egyptian monoliths.

One of mankind's deepest, most primal desires is to fuck the sky.

For proof, look to the sky(sc)rapers

>AFRICAN FANTASY
Could be cool if /pol/ stays out.

African dwarf crocodile, as that sword is a Sudanese Kaskara

Its a modern picture, so it probably is.

Swords like that, and the crazier hunga (throwing knives) are conspicuous consumption: Showing off wealth.

>Does anyone have any historical pictures of African warriors with their weapons and armour, preferably with some indication where they're from? You don't need to know the exact tribe etc. just some general "east-african/north-african/central-african/south-african/west-african" pointer is good too.

I got you. I do warn that the vast majority of it is textile.

I own some Tuareg pieces. They are amazing smiths.

I know this is 5e but

The Tuareg style swordsmithing sounds like it could fit an Artificer archetype in the same vein as the Gunsmith archetype

Improving and personalizing their swords until they're basically one with their weapon. That sort of thing.

...

...

...

PCs and NPCs

>Nzinga Mbande, the Queen of Ndongo: "From there, she moved south, started a new country, conquered the infamous ruthless cannibal tribe known as the Jaga, began offering sanctuary to runaway slaves and defector soldiers, and waged war on the Portuguese for THIRTY FIVE YEARS." Plus she had 60 male concubines dressed in women’s clothes. Definitely a PC.

>Speaking of african PCs...
"Traveling - it gives you home in thousand strange places, then leaves you a stranger in your own land... At the banquet were present the Khān’s jugglers, the chief of whom was ordered to shew some of his wonders... With death all around him, perhaps he felt the need to go home. He was 45 years old and had been gone for 24 years."
orias.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/styles/openberkeley_image_full/public/general/inbbattutamapsmaller_1.jpg?itok=pFAs6Jk4

>Swashbucklers with shotels and bucklers disguisable as hats and made from rhino leather. Go discover the secrets of the Indic Ocean, trading gold and ivory for damascus steel and peppers.

>Ever seen capoeira? Engolo, or N'golo, is (probably) its predecessor, and it is very similar to it. Said to be based on the way zebras fight each other. A particular tribe could have the totem as a zebra, and the mix of martial art and dance as a way of celebrate the ancestrals and court potential partners.
historyoffighting.com/art-blog/traditional-fighting-in-africa-engolo

>Shamans are also judges of crimes. Legal oral tradition is easier when you can invoke ancestrals and ask them about precedents, the deceased victim may be called to testify, and in some places non-human spirits may as well.

>A whole harem made of dahomey virgin amazons:
"Dahomey is renowned as a 'Black Sparta'... The sound told every male to get out of their path, retire a certain distance, and look the other way... The scaling of vicious thorn hedges was intended to foster the stoical acceptance of pain... She then squeezed the blood off her weapon and swallowed it."
smithsonianmag.com/history/dahomeys-women-warriors-88286072/

>There's filthy rich, and then there's this guy:
"Mansa Musa had passed through the city making his pilgrimage to Mecca with thousands of slaves and soldiers, wives and officials. One hundred camels each carried one hundred pounds of gold. Mansa Musa performed many acts of charity... So much gold spent in the markets of Cairo actually upset the gold market well into the next century... In the later Medieval period, West Africa may have been producing almost two-thirds of the world's supply of gold! Mali also supplied other trade items - ivory, ostrich feathers, kola nuts, hides, and slaves. No wonder there was talk about the Kingdom of Mali and its riches!"

>Don't be afraid to have barbarian tribes, but don't make all of them like that.
"Sultan Mansa Sulayman was visited by a party of... negro cannibals, including one of their [princes]. They have a custom of wearing in their ears large pendants, each pendant having an opening of half a span. They wrap themselves in silk mantles, and in their country there is a gold mine. The sultan received them with honour, and gave them as his hospitality-gift a servant. They killed and ate her, and having smeared their faces and hands with her blood came to the sultan to thank him. I was informed that this is their regular custom whenever they visit his court. Someone told me about them that they say that the choicest parts of women's flesh are the palm of the hand and the breast."
sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1354-ibnbattuta.asp

>Dragonslayer princesses like Thákane
rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/thakane

>Savanna druids like wildfires, they understand it is fundamental on the life cycle and idversity of the local biomes. Just like in modern times, druids will create controled burnings to avoid an acidental big one. They may or may not care if the local people and/or nomads survive this, which may or may not understand why what the druid does is 'right' but their slash-and-burn farming/transhumance is 'wrong'. Jungle druids don't get along with savanna druids.

>child heroes and people born specifically to be heroes. There are a lot of stories about a woman giving birth to a supernatural child, that can sometimes speak to them before it's even born. They usually come out the womb already as intelligent as an adult or sometimes with the body of an actual adult. Most times they're born to deal with a specific threat, some monster has started attacking the village, a punk hyena says it's going to eat the mom's children. stuff like that. But occasionally they're born with no noticeable purpose at all and just set off to prove how big their balls are like Makoma.

>"Mansa Musa had passed through the city making his pilgrimage to Mecca with thousands of slaves and soldiers, wives and officials. One hundred camels each carried one hundred pounds of gold. Mansa Musa performed many acts of charity... So much gold spent in the markets of Cairo actually upset the gold market well into the next century... In the later Medieval period, West Africa may have been producing almost two-thirds of the world's supply of gold! Mali also supplied other trade items - ivory, ostrich feathers, kola nuts, hides, and slaves. No wonder there was talk about the Kingdom of Mali and its riches!"

MFW I can never get enough gold to form the Kingdom of Mali in CK2. Why does Paradox hate west africans so much?

PLACES

>Mali:
"There is complete security in their country. Neither traveller nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence... The women servants, slave-girls, and young girls go about in front of everyone naked, without a stitch of clothing on them. Women go into the sultan's presence naked and without coverings, and his daughters also go about naked. Then there is their custom of putting dust and ashes on their heads, as a mark of respect, and the grotesque ceremonies we have described when the poets recite their verses. Another reprehensible practice among many of them is the eating of carrion, dogs, and asses."
sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1354-ibnbattuta.asp

>A citadel made of eleven-stories tall mudbrick buildings, fighting nomad raids.
hgesch-gallery.com/cities/Shibam01.jpg
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c7/5b/b8/c75bb8a3ab6627bb6c9a96ff440b393c.jpg

>fortresses atop mesas. Their defenders include archers lying on the ground, using both arms and legs to fire javelin-sized arrows from elephant-hunting longbows. The guards are there to prevent anyone from kidnapping the exiled brother of the king.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amba_(landform)

EQUIPMENT

>Pangolim scale cuirasses were rare but real, said by chinese to be very tough and reserved for high officers.

>weird-shaped shields lined with fur
rejectedprincesses.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/sotho.jpg

>It is either a machete or an axe or a chopper.
oriental-arms.com/item.php?id=6614

DWARFS

>Throwing clubs.
oriental-arms.com/item.php?id=3014

>Why build a temple when you can carve it out of the bedrock?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bete_Giyorgis_01.jpg
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Monolithic_churches_in_Ethiopia

(have I convinced you dorfs should be darker? No? How about...)

>the local smith guards his metalworking techniques as secrets which may give him a mystical status, like a mage and his apprentice. One of these secrets is using mud from termite hives to build his furnace. Instead of ordinary metalurgy and mages, one can consider magic users are artificers.
sacred-texts.com/etc/mhs/mhs10.htm
Note: this isn't really exclusive to african folklore, but the african continent has more beliefs about the special/mythical/magical status of smiths than elsewhere.

That coat is from Rajasthan, India, not Africa.

>Btw, WE WUZ BLACK SMITHS, you know, inventing carbon steel and shit, for the last couple milennia.
uh.edu/engines/epi385.htm

(And now?)

>Mmoatia are "dwarves " or "fairies". All over west africa we have these cognate hairy dwarves. They like caves and mountains in Mali, but in Ghana they love forests. The black dwarves are cool and might kidnap you to teach you magic sometimes.

>Red dwarves and white dwarves are sociopathic little fuckers who love stealing and tormenting people. Their master is the evil forest god Sasanbosam. As far as I know, they're like a mix of dwarves and elves/fairies.

>Follow very specific rules, and you can get great magic/power out of them.

>Fuck up the specific rules about how to deal with them, and you're fucked. Except instead of "OOOH YOU BROKE ELF LAWS NOW YOU'RE STUCK IN ELFLAND FOREVER!" they just eat you.

I know. It is to give ideas of equipment for african fantasy. This isn't a weapons and armor thread. And while pangolins were spread across Asia, they are associated with Africa nowadays.

BESTIARY

>Be afraid of the hippo. It fucks up crocs and lions, runs faster than you, is very territorial and agressive. It kills more people each year than crocs, lions, elephants etc.
youtube.com/watch?v=1gdTOHWYVLM

>Flies kill horses, rhinos and zebras are unlikely to be domesticated? Who gives a fuck. Elands and giant elands are your fantasy/alternate history beasts of burden and mounts. Cooler, well-adapted to local environment and distinct.
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/middle-earth-roleplay/images/4/4d/Giant_eland_2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160515161322
sargassosart.deviantart.com/art/Ventus-Cultures-341525180

>Africa has a lot of monsters that devour people whole, like the Ugungqu-kubantwana, which is pretty much a living island walking on land.
abookofcreatures.com/2016/03/18/usilosimapundu/

>African monsters
abookofcreatures.com/tag/african-folklore/

>african witches
warosu.org/tg/thread/30685000

>I actually forgot that one. I've read accounts of african witches creating a wide variety of zombies and other monsters as minions. There's also stories where killing a witch just creates a powerful evil spirit. I read a Hausa legend about how witches have small mouths of razor sharp teeth all over their backs. They can cause blight, storms, and plagues. And almost all of them shapeshift into creatures of the night or ride on them. The reference I've got here shows them with talking owls, baboons, and hyenas to deliver messages. And just about all of them are cannibals. There's an account of witches using nightmare demons to kill their enemies in their sleep through sheer terror.

>Another thing, there are a lot of spirits that seemed to focus on killing you in your sleep. I think one day I came across like a dozen creatures who were all some variation of "this thing comes into your house at night and feeds on/chokes out the life of children and the sickly. You usually have to keep them away with wards and such.

>African vampires have iron teeth and hooks instead of feet
vampireunderworld.com/african-vampires/
wraithdt.deviantart.com/art/African-Vampire-Hunter-551202284

>According to legend, the Grootslang is a primordial creature as old as the world itself. Tales state that gods, new to the crafting of things, made a terrible mistake in the Grootslang's creation, and gave it tremendous strength, cunning, and intellect. Realizing their mistake, the gods split the Grootslang into separate creatures and thus created the first elephants and the first snakes. But one of the original Grootslangs escaped, and from this first sire all other Grootslangs were born. It is claimed to devour elephants by luring them into its cave. The cave is known as the "Wonder Hole" or the "Bottomless Pit". Supposedly, it connects to the sea which is 40 miles away. According to local legend, the cave is filled with diamonds. It is also said to live in warm rivers and lakes. In Benin, it is said to be a huge elephant-like creature with a serpent's tail. Also according to the tale, Grootslangs covet gems, particularly diamonds, and despite the creatures' lust for cruelty, victims can often bargain for their freedom by offering a Grootslang enough precious gems. While searching for treasure in the richtersveld of South Africa in 1917, English businessman Peter Grayson disappeared after members of his party were attacked and injured by lions, prompting legends that the Grootslang had killed him.

img10.deviantart.net/011b/i/2016/155/c/8/grootslang_sketches_by_yefumm-da4xh6g.jpg
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/07/45/38/074538cd8062e1a6b217532747248ebc.jpg

SACRED CHIEFTAINS

>The idea of a 'sacred' king or chieftain was quite common in Sub-Saharan Africa. Or course, first and foremost it should be kept in mind that Africa encompasses thousands of different groups and cultures each with their own beliefs, but there were certain ideas that popped up fairly frequently.

>One belief that some cultures had was that the kings feet could never touch the ground for fear that his divine energy would burn through the soil and prevent anything from growing their again. Others so deeply tied the health of the king to the health and fertility of the land that he had to be without blemish and if he became chronically ill or disfigured he would actually be ritually smothered.

>Meanwhile, in Central Africa - I unfortunately can't remember the exact details of the cultural group or groups that did this but I believe it was in the modern-day Congo region - whenever a chief died the entire village he ruled from would be converted into a shrine. Eventually there were hundreds of these monuments spread throughout the landscape and apparently a bunch of them are still around today.

>"We thought elephants are our reincarnated kings and chiefs. But we did bury them with full honors if they died."

>"When our ancestors were tribals, they had bodyguards than sweared migthy oaths to bind themselves to they chiefs, part of the oath was to kill themselves after a year and one day of the dead of his employer, and in that time they had to kill the perpetors of the dead of his boss. So, any tradition like that were you live?"

TOTEMISM

>Most African clans at some point thought their ancestor was some sort of animal, or was saved by an animal, or their ancestor saved the animal. This created an affinity with the creature.

>The Bush soul is usually a bigger, stronger, and more powerful version of the real thing with sometimes a noticeable peculiarly like albinism. Most typically have wild animals for bush souls, bust women often have domestic animals for bush souls.

>People have the ability to project their "bush soul" into the totem of their clan.

>Killing a bush soul will kill the person attached to it, but killing a person's body while they're projecting their bush soul causes the bush spirit to run wild and even become a malevolent spirit.

>Sorcerers can capture other people's bush souls and use them to do their bidding, or sell them.

MISC

>Duality plays a big part in a lot of culture's where monotheism hadn't really taken shape yet. I know some people in Africa regarded twins as being supernatural and possessing magical powers. I remember reading a story that said that all the Gods were born with a male and female partner and that they needed each other to form order. One time a Male god tried to form a universe on his own, but it all unraveled into chaos without his other side.

>Foodstuffs are made from sorghum, millet, yam, breadfruit.

>Baobabs are the most important and representative trees. Its breafruit makes it the "tree of life".

>African (mostly western) folklore and history.
suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/38388096/

>Sikh, Berber, Bedouin and Pashtun people
suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/49940009/

>Ancient Egypt
reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/index.html

...