Non meme-tier African Fantasy

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Pigmen usually come out terrible but this design is really solid.

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Just ignore /pol/ shitters and you should be fine.

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pastebin.com/PKFJzHfA
imgur.com/a/iHF95

These should be helpful

Would be easier if Veeky Forums weren't so easy to bait

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Dahomey Amazons, good taste my fellow of african descent

>Black person
>Electrical powers
Oh for fuck sakes

Thanks for all the art and support boys. It actually means a lot!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shango

Orisha of Thunder and Lightning yo

Hey man, I'm glad someone else is interested. If you really want to make something cool I'm all fucking for it. Interested in posting any of your lore?

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>Abonsam
A malevolent spirit from the Gold Coast region of West Africa and Ghana. When accidents, disease, etc. afflict an area and local shamans have determined that an Abonsam is to blame, the spirit is driven into the sea in a ritual that begins with four weeks of total silence, followed by removing all furniture from the homes involved. The interior of the homes are then beaten with sticks, and loud noises are created by shouting and gun fire.

Sure. What kind of lore would you be interested in? I mostly have nuts & bolts kind of stuff about politics/culture/daily life etc.

Not him, but do you have anything about magic? That stuff's always interesting, or even what role magicians play in society? Or how magic affects people's daily lives?

How about the geopolitics of the region?

Just thinking of a lore tidbit that reminded me of.
>state is a major force in maritime trade, connecting more 'conventional' fantasy lands with more exotic trade goods
>in order to appease the winds and seas, the priests cast masked effigies into the ocean once per month in a great torchlit ritual at night overseen by major political leaders
>character brings up the question about whether those effigies weren't effigies at some point in history
>told its best to ignore the savagery of the past
>besides, if the gods wanted real humans they'd have let us know by now right?

Turns out the sea gods are tired of the puny humans chucking fancy statues at them instead of proper sacrifices. The gods ARE pissed, they just react so cosmically slow that they're only just beginning to punish the people for a crime their great-great-great grandparents committed.

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Pretty cool user!

>Eloko
Eloko (pl, Biloko) is a term in a Mongo-Nkundo language referring to a kind of dwarf-like creature that lives in the forests. They are believed to be the spirits of ancestors of the people living there. Legend has it that they haunt the forest because they have some grudge to settle with the living and are generally quite vicious.

Magic is entirely based on contracts and the concept of fair exchange - part of why the society became such adept merchants. That means every magic thing, from a minor buff to a single/temporary fireball cast, to a life-ruining curse needs to be bartered from the spirits who have those powers. Want to ward off disease? Make a deal. Want to turn into a bird? Make a deal. Want to have the spirit world sweep your for you? Make a deal.

Problem is, the spirits are often pretty smart. So what are you gonna offer them?

Mages are a big deal for this reason. For any number of reasons, they've gotten in good with the spirits so now not only are they mages on par with those from other settings, but they can make a lucrative living interceding to their old 'business contacts' in the spirit world on behalf of their clients.

The southern kingdom I mentioned in the OP is devoted to a fire god that embodies 'progress' towards perfection. They believe that the priest-kings are blacksmiths who need to forge humanity into the image of their demiurge-like god since their prometheus/satan figure 'ruined' humanity during creation. Our 'hero' country (Castabar) is ever more wary because they're navy is awesome but they lack the manpower to sleep soundly with these fire nation wannabes to their south. They've managed to avert war for centuries by being too valuable a trade partner to conquer. Now that the sea is growing restless and the trade routes are withering, there is a real threat that the Priest Kings might just try to swoop in and annex them outright.
Even worse, their longtime allies over in not!carthage have become a dictatorship and are starting to encroach on trade and send corsairs to plunder the coasts.

Caught between the sword at your neck and the knife in your back :0

Fucking cool. Are these gods members of a pantheon?

>Magic is entirely based on contracts and the concept of fair exchange - part of why the society became such adept merchants.

Lol no, history masers student here with much research done in east Africa, do not trust Africans at all.

The reason why most expeditions where so big and took so long during the exploration period was carrying bribes (kuhongo) and being forced at certain points to stay put white greedy local rulers tried to squeeze ore out of whatever people had stopped by.

Thanks man!
Humans have their gods for sure, who serve as advocates on their behalf to (capital-H) Heaven - the source of creation. Not cohesive enout to be a personal god, but the top deity around.
Then there's the gods who advocate for the other aspects of creation - plants, spirits, the dead, birds, the seas, the deserts, the swamps, etc.
For common folk religion is a matter of not pissing off gods who didn't know existed and praying to other higher ranking gods in the hopes they'll bail you out.

And as I mentioned before, people don't really understand that gods act in the span of eons. You might piss off the scorpion god only for your grandson to get stung.

>Lol no, history masers student here with much research done in east Africa, do not trust Africans at all.

Dude. It's fantasy. Lighten up.

SPEARS OF THE DAWN

check the OSR trove in the thread for it.

Furthermore to a large proportion of Africans, you grew enough for your family and gave away the rest, both as a show of generosity/largesse and to avoid accusations of sorcery, its why missionaries found the whole thing very hard, to them Africans were lazy - to Africans their talk of building up resources sounds like naked greed and the prelude to magic enslavement.

Also large families that you provided for with many wives was a status symbol.

Read between the lines my dude. Corporate law is based on 'equal value' too. It's all memes.
What is 'fair', really? ;)
Kidding aside in effect I'm saying every time you want to learn a spell, your wizard has to negotiate a deal with some weird fucking spirit and manage to not get fucked up by said spirit (oh you wanted to LEARN fireball? Sorry all I gave you was a single cast oops my bad got any more to trade?).
They didn't become good merchants by being naive and optimistic lol

just calling historic inaccuracy and that kind of inaccurate thinking that infantilises them - and I find the best fantasy has a solid ''real world'' base to ensure suspension of disbelief.

I recommend the book Livingstone by Tim Jeal for a great insight into African culture in a why that westerners can get.

Also slavery was run of the mill to the point that it was common to march up to a column of soldiers, offer to sell yourself as a military slave to the boss, then use the money he gives you to buy your own slave to carry your weapons lol, a great way to avoid starvation/murder while gaining prestige and free personal slave/bearer!

My favorite trope for not!African settings is dinosaurs. The mokele mbembe and such are fascinating to me and if I ever have my PCs visit the continent, I make sure there are some dinosaurs to find. any dinosaurs in your world OP?

>Kidding aside in effect I'm saying every time you want to learn a spell, your wizard has to negotiate a deal with some weird fucking spirit and manage to not get fucked up by said spirit (oh you wanted to LEARN fireball? Sorry all I gave you was a single cast oops my bad got any more to trade?).
>They didn't become good merchants by being naive and optimistic lol

I see, I just took umbrage at the wording, African merchants that did exist where far from even close to fair lol.

Also a point to my setting - humility culture is very much a thing. Much is made to avoid garish displays of wealth/status/etc but there's plenty of passive agression. It's often said that outsiders can be standing right beside a heated argument without even realizing it because of the subtle sniping that usually makes those arguments up.

>just calling historic inaccuracy
Its fantasy, he's explaining why his fictional nation are adept merchants, not writing a dissertation on the trade practices of the Edo people.

Hey, just here to pick your brains. My chapter in Warhammer 40k is Space Africans, because the only named character in it is Ekene Dumbako so that's what I'm working with, and I'm not wanting to just use generic common african names; the equivalent of having a space marine be Brother Joseph. Is there a good resource somewhere for good african war-leader names? I tried googling african warlords and it didn't quite work how I wanted it to.

Fuckin this^

Also worth noting, at least in Yoruba/Voodoo tradition is the spirit that connects you with the other spirits. Legba the gatekeeper. You gotta be good with him otherwise you can't communicate with the spirit world. Other things include lots of sigils "veves" and improvised symbolism. ( a shrine for the god of war could include a plastic army man or a Black Hawk Down poster)

That actually sounds pretty cool. I think before you put ink on paper you should watch a bunch of documentaries on African civilizations and mythos.

You're better off picking an African region and using the term 'military leader' or 'king' rather than warlord.

Like 'west coast African military leaders'. Or 'medieval East African kings'.

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This works very well, in many of the official explorer accounts passive-aggression and no overt moves was common, excuses would be made to keep guests in one place - for example the chief is coming but he is ill right now(with the implication that attempting to leave before he arrives would be seen as an insult).

Although real African cultures are all about displays of wealth, hence why must shipments of bribes to chiefs would be made up of rare cloths, beads and different types of wire - all wearable wealth.

I get that but if you are going to go African inspired...shouldnt there be some accuracy there? Otherwise its just fantasy black people.

No worries! Text is hard to parse that way. That was 50% my bad.
I actually really appreciate the insight. Part of what made me think of the setting is the fact that I made friends with people from places like Kenya, Nigeria, & Cameroon. They're real fucking people with flaws and virtues and individual backgrounds. The fact that africans are now being boiled down into either the 'nobile savage' nonsense or the deafening /pol/ chorus of WE WUZ and DINDU is infuriating. I'm a historian myself and I HATE how modern people look down and sneer at the people of the past - even though their sweat and blood got us to modernity in the first place.
/rant.

Thanks for the recommendation man. I want a much historical validity as possible without making it a direct ripoff of real life.
Sort of, but dialed back from the lost world motife. I like more along the lines of how king kong movies like to handle it - a mishmash of weird creatures from long long ago. Big angry crocodilians, megafauna, that sort of deal.
And yeah my hydras are totally pleiseasaur based but shhhh lol

That pastebin is exactly what I've been looking for.

I've been building an Africa-based setting on and off for about half a year now and it's so hard to just find out minutiae about some of of these societies. A lot of the books I've been researching from take a very detached view.

sultan was a commonly used word for chiefs in east africa.

Shamans are call mganga, look up swahili words for flavour.

Well for a start, I have a problem with reducing all of African culture to the specifics of a certain type of West African culture as 'accurate'. You're simplifying a whole host of different kingdoms and clan networks into a single type of culture that was dominant during the European explorations.

I'm just gonna come right out and say it: I doubt you know enough but the totality of African history across the continent to comfortably makes such absolute statements.

It's a big continent that had a history before European traders came. Nobody makes these statements about Asian or European peoples as a whole. Don't do it with Africa either.

>I actually really appreciate the insight. Part of what made me think of the setting is the fact that I made friends with people from places like Kenya, Nigeria, & Cameroon. They're real fucking people with flaws and virtues and individual backgrounds. The fact that africans are now being boiled down into either the 'nobile savage' nonsense or the deafening /pol/ chorus of WE WUZ and DINDU is infuriating. I'm a historian myself and I HATE how modern people look down and sneer at the people of the past - even though their sweat and blood got us to modernity in the first place.
>/rant.

This enrages me too, reading between the lines of the scramble for Africa period, many warlords wanted to be absorbed(to avoid being murdered by rivals for example) and white men explorers where at the mercy of Africans - the Africans only started to 'lose' when they went up against nations rather than individuals - with some notable exceptions.

All is forgiven, behold my child, scans of every single work done by explorers Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke, Grant and others - burtoniana.org/index.html it has everything from books to notes to minutes of the royal geographic society - I recommend the Burton stuff as he was fascinated by different cultures - although he got in trouble for focusing on sex and letting slip that part of his time in africa was spent measuring BBC'S with a tape measure...for science.

What are the playable races? Any beastfolk?

Haven't totally fleshed it out yet. A whole lot of room to modify. Beastmen are a thing, both as shapeshifters and as people transformed permanently for any number of reasons. There's also some that are kind of like tieflings where lesser spirits get reborn as an exalted beast which watches over lesser versions of itself (gnolls to hyenas, for example).
'Tricked into becoming a rhino man' is surprisingly not an isolated incident. Soemtimes people wish for a belt of strength but word it wrong and get turned into something a lot less human.

My observations could be applied to 'east africa' - or indeed any part.

My research currently is picking up on the fact that due to arab traders especially, homogeneity was present for a large part as Africans learned the tips and tricks of the arabs and turned them to their own advantage, for example in my research I have found that due to widely travelled arab traders we have african tribesmen in the far north using the same phrases and names as tribesmen deep in the Congo basin as a trader culture that white men encountered fully formed had sprang up in the intervening centuries.

I'm just gonna come right out and say it: I doubt you know enough but the totality of African history across the continent to comfortably makes such absolute statements.

I am well read enough to notice large scale patterns, exceptions existed certainly but the bulk followed very similar patterns of culture at the tribal level, some went on to form kingdoms and did things differently - but even then some things stayed for example largesse and generosity.
''It's a big continent that had a history before European traders came. Nobody makes these statements about Asian or European peoples as a whole. Don't do it with Africa either.''

True, but Asia and Europe had one huge difference, lack of the tsete fly and much lower rates of malaria meant that their was a back and forth flow that Africa did not have, their is a reason why Africa is called the dark continent - until relatively recently it was not explored and avoided by outsiders apart from coastal regions, as I see it Africa has might potential but geographical conditions and fauna have forcibly retarded African cultural development.

Any particularly skilled cavalry kingdom?

if you want to see odd examples look up Zimbabwe news sights for odd stories of young men doing strange shit on the advice of shamans, like one guy that let a hyena eat his junk for wealth, he had been assured he'd get rich and his cock would grow back...it did not.

sokoto caliphate is pictured but for the most part cavalry was not utilized by Africans due to the tsetse fly as well as unfavorable rearing conditions.

>True, but Asia and Europe had one huge difference, lack of the tsete fly and much lower rates of malaria meant that their was a back and forth flow that Africa did not have,
You just presented argument in opposition to your stated position. This is an argument for a unique level of cultural diversity not present among other continents, not for overarching themes and such.

FANTASY

>for example in my research
Wow, in your research you've discovered basic linguistic roots, congrats, big applause. Study Indo-European root dialects and get ready to have your mind blown.

I don't take anyone too seriously if they're still using Richard 'looking for boi pussy' Burton and his gang of fetishists as a main source though.

The Southern Kingdom. Their infantry are basically only there to pin for their cavalry. There was actually a very 100 years war style moment where the priest king's shining cataphracts were shredded by longbows. The Kingdom's response wasn't to rethink their strategy - since the notion of heavy cavalry was outlined by the fire god eons ago - so they just threw even more armor on there.
t-thanks user. Reality can be stranger than fiction after all.
RIP that guy's junk :(

I see that now, I though he was asking for real life examples to look at for inspiration.

Is there a desert separating not!Carthage from not!West Africa? If so, is it impassable or just inhospitable?

>but for the most part cavalry was not utilized by Africans due to the tsetse fly as well as unfavorable rearing conditions.
That's an exaggeration. Cavalry was more expensive due to the effects disease had on horses, but it was used pretty extensively by the nobility of the West Coast.

Imperial Mali fielded as much as ten thousand armoured noble cavalry at its peak.

>Wow, in your research you've discovered basic linguistic roots, congrats, big applause. Study Indo-European root dialects and get ready to have your mind blown.

I'm talking a short hand language used by cultures with vastly different regular languages, i this case the trade speech actually comes from an outside force - the Arabs for the most part, with some words borrowed by them and then popularized elsewhere.

> I don't take anyone too seriously if they're still using Richard 'looking for boi pussy' Burton and his gang of fetishists as a main source though.

Do you have actual, legitimate objections to his observations/research, or do you just reject him for being an asshole?

I was recommended Burton for my research by respected academics, like it or not, he was one of the guys there boots on the ground, doing the dirty work, personally I think he was a megalomaniac asshole that wanted acolytes and liked to shock people - but that doesn't change the fact he achieved some amazing things at the same time - an observation you could apply to many respected historians.

There's something terrible. Not sure if it's just plain desert yet or not, but it's bad enough that no caravans even pass through. Everything between the two is by ship.

For inspiration on the obnoxious expansionistic empire in the south look at the zulus or the empires in subsaharan africa

50% of guildwars 1 (pre expansions) was inspired by African themes.

I did not know that interesting, I guess some stereotypes linger even now, I never see cavalry mentioned in any great detail with regards to Africa...it probably doesn't help that I have focused on the east coast almost exclusively for the past few years.

Ooh.

good points, also the Masai where very aggressive.

>I'm talking a short hand language used by cultures with vastly different regular languages
This is not unique. Trade languages, pidgin languages, what ever, have been are very, very common around the world, and root words related to trade are often drawn from the languages of dominating trade powers, like Latin, Cantonese, English, Arabic or even Spanish.

>I was recommended Burton for my research by respected academics
Your respected academics are recommending vastly out dated work that focuses on a specific era when it was very much within the interests of academics like Burton to paint a specific idea of Africa to promote the ideals of British empire. There was no line between academia and propaganda at the time, and everything put out by those people should be judged very carefully against other sources.

Will do guys thanks.
Very neat! I'll look up some art/lore. I heard they did a good job on their pseudo-asian setting

>This is not unique.

I didn't say it was, but it does point towards a homogenity, sure exceptions exist but from t least 1850 you could wander into any trading area in east africa and say, request a kirangozi and they know what you were about.

> Your respected academics are recommending vastly out dated work that focuses on a specific era

The thing is, looking at the specifics of what i am studying Burtons work is one of the few works that do exist, you work with what is available.

> when it was very much within the interests of academics like Burton to paint a specific idea of Africa to promote the ideals of British empire.

You are thinking of a much later attitude, sure he was a racist for example but at the time of his explorations, interest in Africa was not all that igh and the powers that be where very much against any form of imperialism there - no resources and an appalling survival rate die to malaria, in fact in many of the works i Have read, one of the big hurdles was funding/permission from the government - the though of Richard Burton wandering through Africa(and seen as representing the British Empire when in reality he was working at the behest of the RGS) was the stuff of nightmares to many politicians, the scramble period occurs long after Burton's journeys had ended and partially was less a case of wanting African land and more a case of grabbing the land to keep it out of rival hands hwre it could do dmage - for example cutting off ports to inland suppliers.

> There was no line between academia and propaganda at the time,

True for some but also an unfair generalization, while many explorers did contribute to Imperial ambitions later - it wasn't a conscious choice in all cases. Looking at Burtons notes for example, he hated the establishment, and in some cases the thought of British culture overtaking African would have revolted him.

I don't have anything to contribute, I'm not really that well-versed in any culture's history. But I just want to say that this is a very cool idea and if you ever do write those stories set in a world like this I would love to see them. Non-traditional fantasy is delightful, when written well.

> and everything put out by those people should be judged very carefully against other sources.

No shit Sherlock, that's historical research 101

Something that might be useful:
youtu.be/Jk3iOqKOD7g

>The thing is, looking at the specifics of what i am studying Burtons work is one of the few works that do exist, you work with what is available.
There's like, zero works you could draw from that deal with the historiography and anthropology of Africa since Burton?

>The reason why most expeditions where so big and took so long during the exploration period was carrying bribes (kuhongo) and being forced at certain points to stay put white greedy local rulers tried to squeeze ore out of whatever people had stopped by.
And you trust the primary sources literally?

>African merchants that did exist where far from even close to fair lol.
C'mon dude. You're better than this.

>>The thing is, looking at the specifics of what i am studying Burtons work is one of the few works that do exist, you work with what is available.

>There's like, zero works you could draw from that deal with the historiography and anthropology of Africa since Burton?

I am working on a specific time period, looking at the interactions between explorers/Arabs and Natives, what i am attempting to do is pretty niche and I take what primary sources I can get.

The fact is the people like Burton are the only ones that made these observations, the locals are too busy fighting the Arabs for supremacy and the Arabs are too busy making bank from ivory and slaves (and the bulk of both sides are illiterate to a greater or lesser degree), it leads into the whole problem of only wealthy white guys having the time/money/inclination/education required

Not to mention that explorer has become a dirty word, unless you are bashing them nobody wants to talk about explorers.

> And you trust the primary sources literally?

Given that it happens to every single explorer I have studied, yes, I dont just take Stanleys word for it, later studies of them by newer historians backs it up(although as I have pointed out elsewhere anything even tangentially related to explorers has become verboten in a way)

not to mention historical records of goods bought exist (to justify to the RGS what their money was spent on) - Livingstone and Stanley didn't purchase swathes of cloth and bundles of beads(several tonnes of each), not to mention hire all the porters necessary to carry them for shits and giggles.

The really fucked up thing is it wasn't just rulers, porters would also try and squeeze explorers knowing that the explores needed the to carry their food and goods.

> >African merchants that did exist where far from even close to fair lol.

C'mon dude. You're better than this.

Fuck off with your faux-concern, I have read the accounts to back it up, yeah some may have been fair...but this was a long time before the age of standards and regulatory bodies - i'm not even blaming them, in their position i'd probably be an even bigger bastard.

The Arabs had been interacting with the east coast of Africa since at least the 9th century, user.

>The Arabs had been interacting with the east coast of Africa since at least the 9th century, user.
Realistically, probably a lot longer than that too considering the Arabic peninsular is pretty damn close to the east coast.

This is not a small window of time you're studying if you're interested in Arabic/African exchanges.

Basic historiography user: don't take your pirmary sources as gospel. They're pieces that fit into a wider whole, not the foundation for your thesis.

I know this.

I am looking at how they interact with white people and natives during a specific time period and how specific conditions led to a unique shared culture of trade and services exchanges - all based around the ivory and slave trades - which boomed in the 18th century.

White people weren't part of the equation earlier - and consequently records and primary sources are much rarer and mostly in languages I dont understand.

More inspo pics!

Fuck the fighting, just tell us more about your world OP, dealer's choice.

I know this too, I didn't get this far by ignoring the basic lessons my professors taught.

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Hello, I wrote the pastebin and uploaded the images in . Some of the images have information on them, so be sure to check them out.

Seeing you said "Pseudo-Carthage", I recomend:
europabarbarorum.wikia.com/wiki/Karthadastim
europabarbarorum.wikia.com/wiki/Eleutheroi_(North_Africa)
europabarbarorum.wikia.com/wiki/Eleutheroi_(Egypt_&_Ethiopia)
The mod as a whole helped me with worldbuilding.

Here is a bit risky. They're full of lore, but will also contain racial bias. The very last one is which started the whole "we wuz kingz" idea, way back in the 50s.
sacred-texts.com/afr/index.htm

This is all about potential african crops.
nap.edu/read/2305/chapter/1

However, to avoid never-ending worldbuilding and still be genuine, rip off some stuff from these:
alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/african-rice-domesticated-in-fourth-millennium-bc.343483/
alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/wi-phoenician-carthaginian-west-africa.67262/
alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/nok-steel-a-map-of-the-month-timeline.319345/
Some or all of these require site registration and a 24h period afterwards to be seen.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amba_(landform)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akpeteshie
ilbonito.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/whispers-in-the-sand-a-message-from-a-lost-civilization/
plato.stanford.edu/entries/africana/
web.archive.org/web/20090221033010/http://historyexplained.com/page02.php

>The very last one is which started the whole "we wuz kingz" idea

Moving away from me defending my masters lol, that has recently been debunked by DNA i had heard.

Also while very old-timey racist, some of the Solomon kane stuff isn't bad for African fantasy.