Mother Africa Takes Us All

From the ambitious failure that was the Conan MMORPG

I think most of these are west-African, I vaguely remember a map someone posted with a huge variety of different swords on it
If someone has that I'd appreciate it because I couldn't find it by googin

Here's a place to get started. Just been clicking around randomly, lots of interesting stuff.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:African_mythology

So far I've learned that Senegalese fairies are called Yumboes. They have servants that are mostly invisible, but have visible hands and feet; that's cool. They steal corn, invite humans to their parties, classic fairie stuff. Oh, and they're also called the Bakhna Rakhna, the "good people."

Funny how humans keep telling the same stories in different ways.

got a couple more, but they tend to follow a trend so I won't flood the thread

it implies they're all based on a singular, horrifying truth. Just like the separate existing cultural tales of dragons and vampire-predators

I remember reading somewhere that the weird shapes were because they were designed for throwing and other utility purposes, but with some of them it seems just decorative, like with European or Asian weapons

...

they seem excellent for getting people off horses

yeh, when I said decorative I was mostly talkin about

I'd be very into an African fantasy setting.

I'm always bummed out by fantasy games with odd multi-cultural settings where not!europe is filled with all sorts of ethnicities.

I don't take issue with this because of some racist nonsense, but rather because it takes away from the richness of diversity. Non-majority characters end up seeming like contrast pieces in a banal medieval modernity instead of something deep to explore.

On the other hand, having settings in which non-european cultures are dominant can be really interesting. Not to go to /v/ but one of the reasons Morrowind was great was its being based in a different sort of culture. Having an African fantasy game would accomplish diversity and inclusivity of non-european consumers without the boring and anachronistic multiculturalism

...

Africa is full of Africans and consequently has no stories because no one figured out writing until foreigners came along. As such there are no archetypes.

Nyambe isn't particulary worth of anything as a game but it's very interesting as an inspiration for african fantasy.

The Berbers almost conquered all of Europe if not for a few pig fucker proto germans and cold temperatures. The Ethiopians had a pretty powerful empire, and a nobility that practiced blacksmithing. Inner African tribes were incredibly diverse and unique considering they lived in one of the most inhospitable places on the planet. Those are just three generic culture types you could find in a not!africa setting

It's a continent, and big chunks of it are heavily balkanized, to boot, so their ancient mythological flotsam can get all over the place. As you mentioned, that's like asking a quick rundown on all European folklore, if Europeans mostly passed their myths down through oral tradition. Doesn't help that a lot of information today is plagued by "KANGZ AND SHIT"-type revisionists, so it's hard to get an objective view of many African cultures and nations.

Anyway, ignoring the brainless meme answers above, I just know a little bit about Yoruban mythology. The general gist of the religion is that all Gods and people are reflections of parts of the Creator Being, Olorun, and all of them are destined to rejoin with him at some point. Because of this, most of the important deities act as a one-way connection in some way between mankind and Olorun. A lot of Yoruban magic focuses on Divination and this communication between men and Gods.

The most famous of the minor deities is Eshu/Legba, a trickster God charged with carrying the prayers of the enlightened and their sacrifices to Olorun, like a divine bellhop. He's also something of a God of Fortune and Crossroads, and is present whenever an important decision is to be made in life. Unfortunately, as one should probably guess when you have a Trickster God in charge of your prayers/choices, he's also kind of a dick, who enjoys miscommunicating people's prayers or messing about with their decision making if it could lead to an interesting result. Legba, one of his overseas versions, represents this by being a senile but very cunning old man, who often has "trouble" remembering the messages he's supposed to carry.

Big chunks of Yoruban folklore are about changelings, babies possessed by evil spirits. Another interesting belief are were-hyenas, men who transform into these creatures to devour livestock, and often lure people away from their houses into the wilderness to be killed through their calls and "laughter".

>what is an oral tradition?

Because the beauty of the White Aryan woman must not perish from the earth.

>Were-hyenas.
Ethiopians go absolute nuts over these. Traditionally, Ethiopian blacksmiths strangely tended to be something of an "unclean" caste. The profession is hereditary, and all blacksmiths were believed to be sorcerors that could turn into hyena-like monsters at will, and would plunder cemetaries at night. Interestingly what with Ethiopians being also strongly anti-semitic, the were-hyena curse is also associated with them. It's believed that, much as in the same way that Jewish were generally money-lenders in Europe, Ethiopian Jews were instead blacksmiths, hence the assotiation of the curse between the two.

>Be member of the 12 Villages aka The Whole World
>Finished beating papya into a thin paste to use as substance on the hunt tomorrow
>It's sundown, I shouldn't be out much later, at least not without sprinkling boar's blood on the path to my house
>Hear laughter, hear someone call my name
>I shouldn't, but they keep calling
>Trot out to the edge of the village, they're calling from the high grass.
>Nowayfagot.jpg
>Turn back towards village
>WereHyena standing behind me
>Nothing personal, rafaki
>My head leaves my body, my body hits the floor

...

There was a thread awhile back debating the merits of riding lions into battle. I believe the consensus was they'd have to be pretty big lions and always have access to meat

It is worth noting that Christianity spread to Ethiopia pretty early on.

To contribute something else. Islamic preachers hoping to compete with native folk religion create charms with verses of the quran written on them (the common African does not know how to read Arabic of course but just repeats the sounds without understanding the words) and tell the user that the charm only works if they obey various Islamic rules such as not eating pork and peeing while sitting down.

As a bit of silliness when Islamic preachers preach there are three people involved.

1. The preacher reads from the quran in its classical Arabic.
2. A translator translates the preachers words into the native language.
3. A megaphonist repeats the translated words very loudly.

This of course, leaves a lot of room for error.

Another thing is that there is a group of muslims in Africa that believe that the caliph Ali was saved by a pig in the desert and explain the prohibition on pork that way. This of course completely reverses the sense of the prohibition but recontextualizes it in terms of the native African folk religion that has sacred tribal animals. Interestingly enough, in certain cultures in the past pigs were considered sacred. Adonis (in Hebrew Adonai) was born from a boar ripping open a tree that was pregnant with Adonis and then later died from a boar killing him. It could be that Adonis was originally a pig god and the pig was a sacred animal. Typically such sacred animals are never eaten except during a sacred sacrifice. However, later on as Adonis was anthropomorphised the idea of sacrificing the pig as Adonis grew distasteful and the myth was edited to say that the pig killed Adonis and therefore turning the sacred into the profane. If this is right then the prohibition on eating pork has gone a double inversion. First the pig was a sacred animal representing Adonis, then the pig was an evil animal that killed Adonis, then the pig was an unclean Hebrew food which became an Islamic practise and then the pig became a sacred animal as a savior of Ali.

>riding bearded lizards

My imagination has been captured again.

In Africa to create holy water Islamic preachers write verses of the quran on a slate of wood and then wash it off with water. That water becomes the holy water.

...

>speech don't real

I'm pissed when fantasy games in boring not!europe have a random black person, and there's no explanation about where they're from, why they came, why they have the job they do, etc.
Race becomes nothing more than a palette swap when there's no culture, immigrant story, or different status in society along with it.

Everything sub sahara in Africa is worthless, and has been populated with 60 IQ blacks for tens of thousands of years, with no written languages, inventions, or anything of note.
Northern Africa used to be populated with mediterraiians and arabs in antiquity, so you can look at carthaginians and egyptians and stuff.

Exactly. Its the fantasy equivalent of that horrible milquetoast multiculturalism where everyone looks different but are exactly the same

For magic you have the witch-gun, witch-doctors, and shamans, I think
For monsters you have adze (vampire who transforms into a firefly instead of a bat) grootslang (elephant with the tail of a snake, or snake with the head of an elephant) tokoloshe (evil little drawves)

Ge'ez has 1500 years, actually.

...

Come back when you know something and are not a retarded /pol/ faggot. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_Empire

back to /pol/, kiddo

>dragonborn, gnomes, tieflings, monks, and half-elves are all core with multiple pages dedicated to them
>asians, africans, slavs, middle-easterners, indians, mesoamericans, and oceanics equivalents aren't even briefly mentioned in the core books.
just end my life desu

Ge'ez comes from southern arabia.

Explain how this disproves anything I said.

...

...

why did she put that poor baby on the ground?

Africa is a good and different setting for apocalypse. zombies in particular

It is treated like two countries, because it contributed about as much to world history as two minor european countries

Like Greek alphabet comes from Phoenicia? Great Scott, who would've tought!

sorry, I don't have a picture book to give you.

>Like Greek alphabet comes from Phoenicia?
I don't think that's actually true.
The Greeks also developed several languages.

Further, what the fuck does this have to do with anything?

>not even attempting an argument
You don't have to get so upset about your inability to think. It's a problem most people have.

>I am a retard that can't read a wiki page and has no argument to start with.

Mostly unknown, that's the answer for most questions you'll get on Africa.
History's a bitch when you don't have a written language

the fanart is fucking amazing

Where's the section on the written language they invented, inventions they made, and other notable accomplishments other than selling slaves and ivory to Europeans?

sure is

>thinking greeks didn't get the alphabet from the Middle East

See Veeky Forums? This our board on /pol/.

>The Ethiopians had a pretty powerful empire

Still think it's ironic Africans cite Ethopia as an example for a powerful state when it was ruled by a Jewish and Arabic upper class for of it's successful history.

...

...

>thinking greeks didn't get the alphabet from the Middle East
So what if they did?
You know they had alphabets other than what we call ancient Greek, right?

And why is any of this relevant to anything?
You brought up Greece out of nowhere as if it was in any way related to the argument.

Maybe you should stop being a retard.

Why would you be so transparent about how angry you are at your own ineptitude?

He thinks the middle East is part of Africa,and that he has thus disproved your claim that Africans never did anything of use.

Unfortunately, he is wrong, Arabs are not black, and everyone knows that they did a good deal of good for the world for a while there. Africans, on the other hand...

Yeah, you're probably right about him.

You are the one that is too stupid to read a wiki about a empire that lasted a good amount of time fag lord.

Fun Fact: Egypt is located in Africa! And unlike nearly every other culture in Africa, the Egyptians left tons of writing is stone and clay, and, better still, we got lucky and can read them.

>tfw those fate women are smarter than at least 30% of all africans

Did I ever claim that no sub-saharan empires existed?
No, I did not.
Lots of black people made lots of money off of trade with Europe and slavery, using it to make empires. So what?
The mali Empire of 1500 AD was inferior even to ancient mesopotamia in terms of culture and innovation.

You imply it by saying Africa is worthless, and has been populated with 60 IQ blacks. The fact sub-saharan empires existed shows you are wrong.

jeremyvarner.com/blog/2016/06/south-african-cryptids/

jeremyvarner.com/blog/2015/08/alternative-mythology-creatures-of-central-africa/

Have fun

>You imply it by saying Africa is worthless,
Aside from its slaves and ivory, that is true as a historical fact.

>and has been populated with 60 IQ blacks.
Also true with objective modern IQ testing

>The fact sub-saharan empires existed shows you are wrong.
How?
They were all built off of European trade wealth, and none of them lasted long or made any contributions to humanity.

/pol/ morons have zero facts the post.

Genuinely surprised the /pol/tards weren't worse in this thread. Only one who was furiously samfagging in agreement with himself. We might soon be able to add "Anything to do with the African continent" to setting discussions that don't attract the undesirable parts of this website

That's only because it's halloween and they're all busy giving out less candy to black kids

Your own wiki article has the facts about how Mali existed entirely because of foreign trade.
If you want facts about their IQ, that's a google search away.

...

Yep, no facts from butthurt /pol/ faggot.

>can't make an argument so he passive aggressively makes a post about several people who he calls the same person so he can feel better

>if a continent never produced a nation that conquered well outside its original borders and exploited the natives and resources of those lands it's worthless
That's not very progressive of you.

>I can't read

Which facts do you want?
From your own article
>The Mali Empire flourished because of its trade above all else. It contained three immense gold mines within its borders unlike the Ghana Empire, which was only a transit point for gold. The empire taxed every ounce of gold, copper and salt that entered its borders. By the beginning of the 14th century, Mali was the source of almost half the Old World's gold
Oh look, it was literally sitting on half the known world's gold, and traded with Europeans.
And it still only lasted in any relevant capacity for a couple hundred years.
AND contributed NOTHING to humanity, which is my main point from the beginning that you have not offered a refutation for.

Do you want facts on their IQ too?

>Aside from its slaves and ivory, that is true as a historical fact.

an "infograph" on /pol/ is not "historical fact" senpai

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_Empire

Him:
>Did I ever claim that no sub-saharan empires existed?
>No, I did not.
You:
>You imply it by saying Africa is worthless
Which is to say, you think that worthless continents have never produced empires.

...

You do know that linear A was from gerophlics, right?

Damn son, that's actually a pretty solid argument.

>and traded with Europeans.
nowhere it says that,actually,on the second pharagraph of your own post it says they traded withing west africa

>Do you want facts on their IQ too?
lol

...

No I did not, and neither did you until a tons of googling and frantic wikipedia searching.
Anyway, it appears there are many theories on the origin on that one particular language.
What does any of this have to do with African invented written languages?

>Implying anyone is going to fucking touch African related anything

This isn't the good ol days of fantasy anymore where Europeans could study all other cultures and use them as fantasy inspiration. That's "Cultural Appropriation"

you gotta stop replying to the /pol/ samefag, let him recite his "TRUE africa-facts THEY dont WANT you to SEE" speech in the corner

i know,im bored
still waiting for the /pol/ IQ infograph tho

>nowhere it says that,actually,on the second pharagraph of your own post it says they traded withing west africa
It is strange how wikipedia intentionally left that out.
For example, they refer to "the old world" instead of saying Europe.
Even though you can see by their trade lanes that they were almost all heading north and towards Europe.