![dc6ff064b45b0371019e346283a9aa7e.693x455x1[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/7ktt8we.jpg "dc6ff064b45b0371019e346283a9aa7e.693x455x1[1].jpg")
http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/13/10022098/marlon-james-african-game-of-thrones-mythology-epic-fantasy?utm_campaign=kwameopam&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
>"I realized how sick and tired I was of arguing about whether there should be a black hobbit in Lord of the Rings. African folklore is just as rich, and just as perverse as that shit. We have witches, we have demons, we have goblins, and mad kings. We have stories of royal succession that would put Wolf Hall to shame. We beat the Tudors two times over."
>He's absolutely right. There's already a severe dearth of central black and brown characters in high fantasy. Judging from his letters and legendarium, Tolkien's work featured an inherent bias against "dark" peoples, usually casting them as servants of Morgoth and Sauron (though his writing did evolve to reject that early racism). George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire isn't much better, despite our collective love for Khal Drogo. These works are incredible on their own, but are inherently limited.
>A series with A Song of Ice and Fire's scope but set in medieval Africa would challenge how Western readers understand fantasy and the role of people of color in the genre.
Why aren't you Africanizing your setting /tg/? Are you racist?
I put Africa in my game world but made everyone white.
The land, animals, and some of the cultural elements are cool but the people are trash.
>>44196399
>We have stories of royal succession that would put Wolf Hall to shame. We beat the Tudors two times over.
WE WUZ KINGZ AN QUEENZ AN SHIT
>>44196399
Because in the settingof my bookAfrica as a continent is largely irrelevant because it is halfway across the world, and the African Union (the dominant government) only interacts with the setting in a cursory, exploratory fashion due to the size and impracticality of anything else, including conquest.
Far, far more important are the New Confederacy, the Cuban Socialist Republics, the Nueva Mexica, the Sabinites, the Mississippi River States, the Republic of Texas, the East Texas Empire, and Fort Cypress, as they are what the party interacts with either directly (RoT, ETE, Cypress, Aztecs, Sabinites) or indirectly (Confederacy, CSR, MRS).
>>44196399
>Are you racist?
Yes.
>>44196399
We're busy playing Star Wars and being Space Racists.
Fucking Sand People.
>>44196399
Well, why don't you niggers write some fantasy novels then? I ain't kidding, I'd read that shit. Stop whining about it and write. There's good African novelists.
>>44196399
Instead of all this complaining and shitting on things that exist, why doesn't someone go and just write this masterwork of African fantasy? If it was cool people would like it, if it wasn't they wouldn't.
Wanting to try something different is cool. Being too lazy and incompetent to do something different, so instead just shitting on what already exists is faggotry.
>>44196399
I already did, Anon.
It's modern fantasy horror in East Africa, with Jihadis, Zwimi, Lion Gangsters, Serbian Mercenaries and the mokele mbembe.
>>44196399
I could see some interesting African fantasy stuff being done, by people who care about that sort of thing (not me). I've always thought that stuff like the Liberian Civil War was ripe for urban fantasy style stuff, what with Satanic bargains, indigenous magic, and other stuff all being mixed in with the semi-modern warfare of AKs and machetes.
I don't really have an emotional connection to African myths myself though. All of the cultural stuff is just that to me, stuff. I prefer to make my games out of myths and ideas that resonate with me in particular, which are mostly those which were products of my cultural background.
>Are you racist?
Yeah but so is everything else, so how bad can it be?
>>44196690
>>44196724
You know the guy in OP is a novelist describing his next series, right?
>>44196690
I dunno if I can take 400 pages of monkeys howling and blowing on blowdarts
>>44196399
The problem is Africa never spread their culture or recorded their early myths.
We have massively complex and concrete mythologies for the Egyptians, we have a mostly complete timeline of the rise and fall of heroes in Islam, we have a guy who INVENTED a folklore for Limeyland since the Christians buried his people's culture.
Even Japan had scholars who collected all the local folktales in the regions that hated each other, codifying them into a single highly complex mythology that was accepted in the entire ethnic group as "our thing".
Most of Africa STILL has every tribe and nation believing their own things, having only a handful of exclusively orally-passed myths, and very little sense of unity in a broad sense.
Sure, you could collect them and attempt to get at least large regions of Africa on board with the whole thing. But there's no reason to complain about nobody doing it yet.
Don't blame people sharing stories based on myths from their background instead of yours when the root is in people of your own (or at least those you claim as "your people" since your average 'murrican or Euro black would rather be a black Thor than T'challa) not giving enough of a fuck to pass theirs.
>>44196399
>Jamaican
>talks about Africans as "we"
I love this belief in western nigros that they have something to do with Africa.
It's a very cute misplaced nationalism.
Silly racial stuff aside - didnt central Africa used to have kingdoms or something ? What happened to that place exactly?
>>44196824
It's a sense of unity beyond kin lines they've been infected with by Western European culture.
Africans don't give a fuck. If you're part of the tribe they've no qualms robbing and deceiving you, if you're outside the tribe you're an object to be disposed of like trash.
>>44196824
This.
To most of Africa, if your skin is a color lighter than dark chocolate you aren't even black let alone kin in any sense of the word.
Its funny, every time a black celebrity goes to Africa they come back knowi g two things:
1) These guys at best have it like your worst.
2) Almost nobody back home is "hard", THESE are the badass motherfuckers.
3) They fucking hate you at the start. To them, you're white and pretending to be a gangsta like in a bad comedy movie. Once you abandon any idea of a preexisting connection between you two and all existing assumptions, then you can be friends.
>>44196399
Implying white people could ever write an African fantasy setting without being called racist for either including African tropes, or reinventing them in fantasy.
You can't win with people who care that much about race, they're either gonna decide you need to represent them more, or if you do, that you did it in the wrong way.
At the end of the day it's just people who aren't the majority consumers of something bitching that it doesn't pander more to them, while ignoring how outrageously racist Africans are.
>>44196925
There was NEVER anything of meaning or value there. Just men with spears who couldn't even speak a real language and got stolen like fucking property because they was too damn dumb.Just google that shit
>>44196925
The Romans had Egypt's back but wanted to be exclusive so they couldn't build off each other via war and peace anymore (like European nations would do later in medieval times), then the various Muslim empires would slap their shit any time they started a good thing going for too long. Once the Arabs lost interest in them, they were mostly too fractured politically to unite and grow as a large group. Then came the Europeans first as trade partners, then rulers, then suddenly a power vacuum as the world powers lost interest in/could no longer sustain colonialism.
Now today you have a lot of very divided peoples of all faiths and many other cultures imposed on them left to givern themselves, usually resulting in short-term or highly corrupt governments since most folks give not enough fucks about politics to set up a stable system in the capital they'll never see.
>>44197020
Not that it's totally related, but it is possible.
I mean, look at Life is Beautiful. A non-Jew made a movie about the Holocaust and made it a comedy and he did pretty well by it.
>>44197036
Not a single cool thing? Well, I guess that's what you get for staying at that dumb millions of years ago.
>"Look at those stupid guys going to north, don't they know it's cold up there?? "
>>44196399
>Racism is bad.
>Criticizes books for not having enough black people.
>Needs to have more protagonists that are black, despite the very obvious detail that black people in fantasy settings aren't fucking African.
You can either not care about race, or you can bitch about how there aren't enough people with your own skin colour in a book.
You don't fucking get to do both.
>>44196399
>love for Drogo
Lol what? The Dothraki were violent, animalistic shitskins with a shit culture living a shit life and terrorizing better civilizations. I fucking take a swig whenever I hit one of Dany's chapters, they're so awful.
>>44196786
No, I never follow links. Good for him, though, I might read that.
>>44196801
I second this
>>44196472
You are supposed to say that when people let afro-centric bullshit revisionism infect things where it doesn't belong.
A book or series about Fantasy Africa would be at the very least novel. I don't know who Marlon James is so I don't have any idea how it would be. I'd still pick it up on a whim if I saw it.
>>44197116
It's almost like writing about an ethnic group that's successful everywhere they settle down and try not to draw attention to themselves is a lot safer than writing about the group with a colossal inferiority complex and who loves throwing the word racism around to get what they want.
>>44197144
Careful anon, you're being fantasy racist!
>>44197211
If you honestly think that doing a movie about the Holocaust and making it a comedy isn't a massive hot topic issue I have no way to help you.
>>44196925
Of course. You have like Kingdom of Mali, the Songhai, the Oyo. A bunch of sultanates too.
>>44196399
bait/10
>>44197137
Whites went west along the coast, learned to sail, then met neanderthals in Europe and fucked them and forgot how to sail. They got red hair out of the exchange.
Asians went east, then split between those who could sail and those who couldn't. The former got as far away from everyone else as possible, some of the latter got to 'murrica.
The Arabs followed the Asians who couldn's sail. They tended to settle anytime they hit water.
Once all the others left, blacks spread out and into every place that was vacant. Including some places that made Australia look like Candy Land.
>>44196399
>Why aren't you Africanizing your setting /tg/? Are you racist?
How does this follow on from your list, which is just some black guy talking about his upcoming African-inspired fantasy series? A series involving Anansi and the tribal kingdoms of Africa doesn't invalidate your whitebread eurofantasy game, nor should it. We absolutely could use more diversity in the kind of settings presented as fantasy.
>>44197267
I didn't mean safer as in non-controversial, I meant safer as in "jews aren't going to riot about it"
>>44196399
>Why aren't you Africanizing your setting /tg/?
Because an orientalist worldview is an integral part of any setting based off medieval or renaissance Europe. The Europe-analogues need the Orient as an alien other-group onto which they can project their own fears and insecurities, and to which they can contrast themselves favorably (i.e. civilization vs barbarism, moderation vs excess, freedom vs slavery, discipline vs unruliness, etc). It helps establish the Not!Europeans' identity by their relation to exaggerated depictions of the other.
I've been brewing up a bit of a story for a while that takes place in an Afican inspired fantasy setting, simply because it's more of a fresh land to build your magic place of magic upon rather then Midevil European Setting number 265
I think we should really get on this shit if anything simply coz we can't trust this American sjw Blacks write a good story about Africans and not make it about "MUH RACE MUH PRIDE "
>>44196724
/thread
>>44196399
Because the Mexicans and Irish cultures are a lot crazier.
As long as it's a new setting and not drastically altering a pre-established setting, sure, go nuts.
>>44197210
>You are supposed to say that when people let afro-centric bullshit revisionism infect things where it doesn't belong.
Claiming you are the lord of a little section of mud huts doesn't make you a king or queen.
Let them say they have stories of Royal Succession when any other empire in the land actually gave a damn about them.
Guess what? I'm KING OF THE COUCH right now. I succeeded the previous king by sprawling out while he took a piss. Clearly I am rivaling the tudors as well!
>>44197337
Implying that those stereotypes weren't true and still are.
Basically every country that had a huge population early is still a barbaric shithole.
Euros aren't the ones still whipping girls to death for being raped or throwing acid at them.
If anything bullshit orientalist stereotypes flatter the fuckers, because the reality is just way uglier.
>>44196399
Gee I dunno, does that mean we have to put Africans in a Chinese wuxia setting?
>>44196399
>Tolkien's work featured an inherent bias against "dark" peoples
Hey, he was just basing his works on cold, hard facts
They wuz ringwraiths an shit
>>44197283
Thanks, needed material on this but was too lazy to look for myself
>>44197478
>Man with the Iron Fists
>>44196399
I was totally down for this until I saw his bitter tone.
That little rant makes him seem so small.
>>44197487
The Kingdom of Mali had an unusual form of gold exchange that's pretty stealable in terms of running games.
>>44197538
He published one of the best regarded books of 2015, he's probably okay with you thinking that.
>>44196399
I just generally don't like brown people.
>>44197582
I'm a minority, but I have never lashed out against "whitey". Mostly because I believe that there are no barriers to entry for me, at least in our current climate.
This guy sounds like he's butt-frustrated.
>Why aren't you Africanizing your setting /tg/? Are you racist?
isn't "africanizing" a setting just being racist in the other direction?
>>44196399
>Why aren't you Africanizing your setting /tg/?
Why should I ?
>>44197340
There was a setting called Nyambe a while back. I thought it was pretty cool but i didn't know anyone else who played it.
>>44197672
To me he just sounds like he's an author hyping up his next novel, which will be an unusual fantasy piece. Like I literally don't see the difference between this kind of rant and M. John Harrison's kind of rant against Tolkien-style worldbuilding.
>>44197582
>one of the best regarded books of 2015
HAHAHAHAHA, what are you, the president of the fan club?
>>44197783
Nope, I'm just aware of what won the Man Booker Prize this year.
Egypt is a prime part of my campaigns.
IT'S APART OF AFRICA. AH-HA!
>>44197888
NOT!!11!Egypt should be a part of every campaign.
>>44196786
Well, he should stop bitching and get to work then.
>>44196399
>Why aren't you Africanizing your setting /tg/?
But I already did, not!Rhodesia is in the middle of conquering not!Africa, its beautiful.
>>44197478
What is "The Man with the Iron Fists"
>>44198270
You mean that shit movie series that the guy had to pay to get out and failed miserably because it was a blatant act of shoving literal shit where literal shit doesn't belong? That one movie who's whole point is a different form of racism perpetuated by those claiming to hate it?
>>44196399
These stories better feature a lot of white people. I think there's a severe dearth of central white characters in African folklore and legends. Seeing how Western stories apparently need to be "enriched" with black people, I don't see why the same should not apply the other way around.
Guild Wars Nightfall was actually really cool.
I've stolen several African myths. African stuff is cool as fuck. Also, I have these.They don't have fur below the neck, so they're not furry.
>>44197387
Why is it acceptable for people to be this painfully stupid?
>>44196824
It's fucking dumb. This concept of nation and race is completely Western. Africa has always been governed by ties of kinship and patronialism. To call yourself "African" based on some romanticist ideas you have made up about your skin color only betrays how little you actually share with the people there.
>>44198795
I'm convinced that a good portion of these threads are just idiots trying to get a rise out of people.
>>44196724
That's exactly what it says in OP. What's wrong with you?
>>44196399
>Tolkien was racist
>despite our collective love for Khal Drogo
>>44198795
Africa never produced anything of value south of Mali or so. and even the more northern states were primitive and never really amounted to much outside of their region. Most of Africa was shit before Europe got there, it was shit while Europe was there, and it's shit now that Europe is gone. It's just a continuous failure, yet they have the audacity to claim they can match Europe's accomplishments. If you can't see the idiocy here, it's you who is painfully stupid.
I can tell he's full of shit because nobody likes Khal Drogo.
>>44198854
>despite our collective love for a pillaging, murdering, raping warlord who sowed death and destruction everywhere he went
Truly an ideally chosen champion for your cause.
>>44198940
That's not the problem. Plenty of assholes are liked in A Song of Ice and Fire. The problem is that nobody likes Kal Drogo, or Daenerys for that matter.
>>44198270
Bad.
This thread was destined for shit, wasn't it?
>>44196399
>Why aren't you Africanizing your setting /tg/? Are you racist?
Settings need to be cool, and the only cool version of Africa I know of comes from Tarzan. I figure basing a setting on Tarzan stories would be more "racist" than simply not having an Africa-equivalent.
I don't think that was the point of this article at all.
Also, what Marlon James is doing there is the kind of shit that should be encouraged. You don't want people demanding that your favourite works be changed to be more widely inclusive? Encourage people that want to make new works that represent currently under-represented groups to do just that.
>>44198964
Dragon-lady is best.
>>44199116
Best for making you fall asleep, maybe.
>>44196399
No, it's just that Africa genuinely bores me.
>>44198794
>They don't have fur below the neck
What's that poking out fromt he top of his loincloth then?
>Read the article
Huh, well this could be kinda coo-
>I imagine fantasy based on the rise and fall of the Mali Empire. Maybe the hero would lead a coup against the ruling Mansa, but be possessed by an Adze, or firefly spirit, telling him to turn back.
>And maybe Ananse the Spider would play the Varys role
Never mind. This faggot should never write a fantasy novel.
>>44196399
>Actually writing a new work that focuses on the area instead of awkwardly inserting then into blatantly European stories with no explanation byond it somehow being a moral imperative
Great, good work seriously.
>Article goes on to take it in the opposite direction
Well that's a little silly.
>Calls Tolken racist
I will murder you and write a smug poem about your death.
I don't have Not!Africa or Not!Oriental stuff in my setting. It bores me to tears how every setting must have this shit in it
>>44196399
African, and to a lesser extent Asian settings are really hard to use because in doing so you're tippy-toeing in a minefield of unintentional racism, and the most recognizable cultural tropes are also the ones most likely to cause people to cry racism. So you end up with either an insulting setting, or a bland, boring setting that feels like nothing any white westerner recognizes, or both at the same time since I'm pretty sure these categories overlap.
>>44196399 (OP)
Should this technically belong to /lit/? Also, why the fuck would anyone link to the garbage that is The Verge?
>>44199496
*Shouldn't this
>>44199240
Pubes don't count!
>>44196399
I added a not!Africa region in my setting and I was called racist because it was composed of various tribes of gnolls that fought for honor and prestige to decide to was going to guide them to glory during the next war.
I don't know what was so racist about it.
>>44199803
Did you point out thats pretty true to heart on the actual origin materials?
Well, if I can find a site as extensive as certain yokai sites...
>>44196399
>>A series with A Song of Ice and Fire's scope but set in medieval Africa would challenge how Western readers understand fantasy and the role of people of color in the genre.
I love me some African folklore, but nigga be real.
No one is gonna read a fantasy book set in Africa.
>>44196811
Africa is also fuck-hueg compared to Japan.
>>44196811
The problem is Europe never spread their culture or recorded their early myths.
We have massively complex and concrete mythologies for the Egyptians, we have a mostly complete timeline of the rise and fall of heroes in Islam, we have a guy who INVENTED a folklore for Mali since the Muslims buried his people's culture.
Even Japan had scholars who collected all the local folktales in the regions that hated each other, codifying them into a single highly complex mythology that was accepted in the entire ethnic group as "our thing".
Most of Europe STILL has every tribe and nation believing their own things, having only a handful of exclusively orally-passed myths, and very little sense of unity in a broad sense.
Sure, you could collect them and attempt to get at least large regions of Europe on board with the whole thing. But there's no reason to complain about nobody doing it yet.
Don't blame people sharing stories based on myths from their background instead of yours when the root is in people of your own (or at least those you claim as "your people" since your average 'murrican or Euro white would rather be a white Anansi than Gabija) not giving enough of a fuck to pass theirs.
>>44196399
I actually 100% agree.
I would love to read a fantasy about an African-inspired world. African mythology is really cool---read about Yoruba religion sometime.
And you know what? I wouldn't complain that there's no white people in it.
BECAUSE IT'S SET IN FUCKING AFRICA
>>44200714
Read Carles saunders Imaro. out of print, hard as fuck to find, but fucking aces. Conan reimagined through a Yoruban lens. Efficient writing, kickass hero, good times.
>>44199803
Now I see what you were going for, with "hyenas are from Africa, so clearly my hyena-contintent should be africa inspired" but I also think it's not hard to understand why people might interpret it as you saying "blacks are subhuman"
>>44196399
>despite our collective love for Khal Drogo
Your collective love of violent child rapist?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbZIK9Ce0yM
Well, I would totally play in an african fantasy setting. Though I'm pretty sure that reality is a lot scarier.
>>44200677
>Europe never spread their culture
Yup. Mhm. I totally agree.
>>44201214
I think most people place "fantasy" at "pre-colonialism" same as with Europe. So... Actually, I have no idea if that would be more or less rape.
>>44200677
What's even the point of this post? Do you think swapping a few words around makes it any comparison?
>>44201334
Only to the Americas and some coastal areas. Nowhere important.
>>44201466
Do you think otherwise?
Fuck this nigga, I'M writing this.
Oh well, I'm following the Tolkienesque mythology route. Not the "edgy political backstabbing grimdarkness" route.
>>44199872
Not really, I was mostly thinking in hyenas' behavior and how it could be interpreted as a fantasy culture, which got me to develop some sort of caste system with a strong emphasis in martial prowess.
>>44201163
Yeah, I'd think that was the issue mostly. The party mostly confronted slavers and ruthless outlaws, but they seemed to have ignored those more civilized gnolls that carried a strict code of honor as they represented their tribe and their values. Those were some pretty cool guys.
Man when I was a kid I read and loved the Eye the Ear and the Arm or whatever order that title's in, which is like African distopian sci-fi or something, so bring on the fucking African game of thrones.
>>44201498
You're utterly and irredeemably dumb. Please step away from your computer.
>>44201637
You've made a valid deduction. All that's left is the leap of logic to apply it to the original point of comparison.
>>44196925
Lack of population density due to the local enviroment and diseases
>Malaria
>Tsete flies
>>44200677
>Greeks
>Germans
>Latins
>>44198739
I don't know never heard of it. Isn't this the identifying movies thread?
>>44201520
And matriarchs with big veiny cocks.
I wonder if any of the rulers in his book will resist the evil foreigners attempt to end the slave trade
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghezo
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madam_Tinubu
>>44202026
Aren't there like a half dozen different versions of every Greek myth depending on which city-state you're looking at? I know that there are many wildly different versions of both the Rape of Persephone and Medusa's origin. Each city state also had various different interpretations of the Gods and which one was most important.
>>44196399
>calling Tolkien racist
Proof of someone too stupid to read his works or a SJW who unironically deserves a gas chamber.
Yo this is hype as shit. Marlon James killed it last year in A Brief History Of Seven Killings. That book had as many characters to keep track of as an Ice and Fire book maybe even more. This will definitely be interesting though since his last two books were about Jamaican things and he's overall unproven on the Fantasy side of things.
>>44196824
You know that Marlon James is genuinely Jamaican right? Born there, lived half his life there, got all his education barring his master's there, etc. I know Jamaica ain't exactly Africa, but he isn't the kind of black person you're thinking he is.
>>44197020
Marlon is black though.
>>44197141
Nowhere does it say that there is racism in the piece though except when mentioning Tolkien. All Marlon James is saying is that there's a lot of untapped potential, and he has shown this in his book last year whose focal point was the attempted assassination of Bob Marley, but from that focal point introduced a FUCK TON of very different characters.
>>44198768
James' book from last year has bible loving white people to crazy Jamaican guys. I am not sure how good James will be in making a full fantasy setting, but he sure is great and having a wide variety of characters.
>>44199159
Do you know anything about Africa though? Probably not, because you decided to judge a book by its cover.
>>44200038
His premise for his last book was "Someone's tryna assassinate Bob Marley. Now what?" Not that interesting sounding of a premise, but it won a fuck ton of awards, is highly lauded, and I personally loved it.
Because post apocalypse Africa is boring.
"woooow it's mostly the saaaame yaaaay"
>>44202155
>Ghezo king of da homies
>>44202173
You're writing to blind eyes m8. This is a b8 thread.
>>44196399
>arguing about whether there should be a black hobbit
Who cares?
>African folklore is just as rich,
I wouldn't doubt it. The problem is that most African folklore we get is more akin to our fairytales in complexity and scope than our mythologies.
>and just as perverse as that shit.
lolwhat
>These works are incredible on their own, but are inherently limited.
>inherently limited
No more limited than your story will be.
>A series with A Song of Ice and Fire's scope but set in medieval Africa would challenge how Western readers understand fantasy and the role of people of color in the genre.
Not really. A black person can do anything a white person can. Fantasy is mythology. Nothing about your story will challenge my perceptions.
>Why aren't you Africanizing your setting /tg/? Are you racist?
Because I do not find the content of African myths I am aware of to be astoundingly different from the multitude of indo-european derived mythologies. as to ethnicity, race doesn't work that way in my setting. Also, how does this follow from what you quoted?
>>44200677
>Europe never spread their culture or recorded their early myths
Nothing about that statement is true.
As a mandinka I've got mixed feelings about this.
The author reeks of inferiority complex.
On the other hand, I'd cream my pants if I got to see the epic of Sundiata as a movie or something.
Best we have is some 2deep4u french movie about an outcast girl who is possibly the daughter of our pagan water goddess.
>>44202264
Yeah you're right. I am just happy to know that Marlon's already working on a new project and it sounds like one that's gonna be grand and ambitious as fuck.
Why don't Africans write their own fiction
>>44202851
Because the people who complain aren't actually interested in the things they complain about. They just want a hill to die on. Or a potential class-action lawsuit, in some cases.
>>44197304
Out of Africa isn't true
>>44202851
Our stories are told by word of mouth.
We use songs to relate fiction.
>>44197672
You aren't a minority unless you are white.
>>44202900
Just like the gravity conspiracy.
The overwhelming majority of biologists are lying to us so the jews can rule the world!
Wake up sheeple!
>>44202931
So write them down
>>44202851
They do, they just don't share it with westerners or write to western taste.
>>44203005
Why? Nobody really prefers reading over listening.
>>44202954
You do realize there are many theories with valid evidence other than out of Africa, right?
Is Multi Regional conspiracy tier too?
>>44203023
Must be why audiobooks are so popular vs normal books
>>44196399
The ethnic shit-talking is childish but I'm all for more Not!Africa settings. It's an underused continent.
>>44203043
Nobody prefers audiobooks either. Whatever you're thinking of isn't how it is in Africa, so it isn't relevant.
>>44196399
And I'm africanizing my setting for years. But I'm also arabianizing it, americanizing it, polynesiazing, europeanizing and all the other zings.
>b4 someone "autist", yes, but only some traits, not a full diagnostic.
Oh yes, I'm racist.
Pic of an inuit tactile map, used by my mountain dorfs.
>>44203005
I wanted to.
Then I learned that missionaries and european explorers did it before me.
The parallels between the Mandinka creation myths and the Dogon creation myth makes me think there was some sort of common origin or cultural overlap.
Yurugu and Musso-Koroni are weirdly similar beings.
>>44203007
True.
Black africans have a peculiar sense of fatalism not found in western storytelling aside from the Germanic tribes and the Greeks.
>>44203096
I love Americanizing my settings. Just throwing a bunch of different groups onto an island and letting the PCs interact with them of their own choice.
>>44203185
Tell me more about those creation myths.
>>44203209
What sort of cultures you use? Which part of the continent?
>>44203247
I use a Not!America that was recently reached.lots of people and groups coming over to claim a new land, so you get all sorts on a boat.
I mostly copied Mediterranean things, since they fit the look of the area I wanted to give. Lots of pics looted from photo sites when I wanted to get an image across.
What I did was use Google Translate and occasionally dig a bit deeper. If I liked how a translated word sounded in Turkish or Cambodian, I would end up making a NPC based from there. It doesn't sound like much, but it does liven up Adventuring Town #364 to have someone selling foreign weapons and armor, even if the stats are the same.
I'm confused. I thought the point of fantasy was REMOVING of all the black people.
>>44196801
blowdarts are awesome weapons
It's a Western. You are Bantu traders bringing brahman cattle to West Africa from India.
>>44196801
Would "Things Fall Apart" as a fantasy novel just be Elric of Melnibone with black people?
>>44200677
thats in no way true
>>44203235
Once upon a time Mangala created an egg.
From this cosmic egg came twins.
One was called Pemba, and he was so rebellious that he left the egg before Mangala was done. He drifted through the cosmos and used the placenta to create the earth. Pemba then had incestuous sex with the earth and now our world is impure. Faro was the other twin and was cut to pieces by Pemba's depravity. His chunks of flesh were the first trees. Mangala brought Faro back to life and made him mortal. Faro sailed to earth with the first humans and animals on an boat made of placenta, and landed in the mountains of Futa Jallon. One of the first humans was the ancestor of the blacksmiths. He crushed a rock with his mighty hammer and the first rain fell. Faro gave them seeds from the first cosmic egg and the people planted them. Ever since then Faro and Pemba have been locked in a struggle over the purity and impurity of the world.
Oh yeah, and a half-man/half-antelope taught us how to farm. The goddess Mousso Koroni fucked Pemba while he was in the form of a Cobra and gave birth to him.
>>44203339
Colonization race, huh?
Can the players settle somewhere on their own? I was thinking about house ruling colonies lately
I use a lot of google translate too, including some jokes and references. Like creating "Nyokakubas" for the african lands.
>>44202735
>epic of Sundiata
Interesting.
I have a new starting point for this mythology.
>>44203516
Another version says Dya and Gla were the twin forces of creation, from them came Faro of the sky and Pemba of the earth. Faro is female in this version and has a male twin called Koni. Koni is shy and lives in her shadow under her protection as her husband.
God flooded a pond where Faro lived and they took refuge on a golden boat. Afterwards Faro and the first blacksmith put stars in the sky, animals on earth, and Faro gave up her physical body to create the Niger river.
>>44203612
There are 266 symbols which embody all of knowledge. Doni Dyu is the seed of wisdom, and the reason anything exists. Everything which exists is the result of a mythic symbol.
This world is all the fantasy of the creator, given spirit. God carved all 266 symbols on a placenta. One who knows all 266 symbols can comprehend the thoughts of God.
>>44203731
The spirit Yo created 3 primordial beings. Faro is the master of words. He created 7 heavens to match the 7 parts of the earth. Teliko is the air spirit, he gives life to all creatures and brought forth 2 amphibious twins who are the ancestors of the fishermen. Pemba created the earth and a wife for himself by mixing spit with dust. His wife was Muso Koroni.
Humans used to be immortal, and when their bodies aged to 59 they'd immediately revert to 7 years old. They wore no clothes and had no need for food because Pemba sustained them. Muso Koroni was a bitch and started fucking men to kill them, she created ugly dwarves and monstrous insects and birds. She rose up to the heavens and was defeated by the virgin Faro and her allies. Muso Koroni lost her vitality with each man she fucked and looked like a shriveled up hag. As atonement for her sins she taught humans to farm.
Then Teliko tried to conquer the world and Faro ripped off his penis, and turned him into an albino. Now he's the spirit of the harsh desert winds.
>>44203576
Sundiata is the embodiment of what every Mandinka strives to be like.
Christians say "what would Jesus do?" and Hindus ask themselves what Rama would do. Sundiata plays that role in Mandinka culture. He was so pure of heart that even the great witches of Manden could not harm him.
Want the cliffnotes version?
>>44203516
>>44203612
>>44203731
This is about as similar to Indo-European myth as I thought it'd be. A little bit more placenta than I expected, but there's always weird shit surrounding birth in such stories.
>Mangala
Interesting that this is the name of a Hindu deity as well.
>cosmic egg
World eggs are a frequent motive in myth.
>twins - Faro/Pemba
good/evil duality (Ahura Mazda/Angra Mainyu)
>incestuous sex with the earth and now our world is impure
incest taboo that leads to the whole family line being cursed (for example, Oedipus)
>Faro of the sky and Pemba of the earth
Huh, generally the sky is male (El, Dyaus Pita, Zeus Patir, Jupiter, Yahweh) and the earth is female.
>There are 266 symbols which embody all of knowledge.
Here be runes.
>Humans used to be immortal,
>They wore no clothes and had no need for food
obligatory golden age
>Muso Koroni was a bitch and started fucking men to kill them
Women are cunts, don't stick your dick in them indiscriminately.
But yeah, overall this is all pretty fuckin' cool.
>>44203985
Sure.
>>44204089
Universal human motifs and symbols: people have dificulty putting good and evil into one person at the same time, every culture dealt with eggs and floods etc.
The sort of things that corroborate the junguian collective unconscious. Reading it gave me some interesting insights into making fictional cultures, like learning to avoid judging someone by my own terms.
>>44196925
>>44197036
Quite a bit, especially in Northern Africa.
The northern African kingdoms were actually fairly absurdly wealthy; one Muslim North African King on his pilgrimage to Mecca sailed through Venice and dropped so much gold on the way through it that he literally single-handedly destabilized the entire Venician economy for a short while, and he was still rich as fuck when he left.
The real problem is that most African cultures regardless of how developed they got didn't leave a WRITTEN history and we associate writing with advanced culture so the assumption is that they had none at the time when it fact they just didn't write it down very often.
That's also why folks don't know much about various African mythologies; nobody bothered writing it down. Imagine if the Danes and Saxons never had Christian scholars codify and clarify stuff like Germanic Paganism and Norse mythology and you have a good idea.
>>44204089
Nare Fa Magan AKA Magan Kon Fatta Konate in Keita, ruled over the small kingdom of Niani, beginning 1200 AD. “Nare” is a place name in Mali, one of the capitals of the Kings of Mali. “Magan” is a given name Sundjata and his father share; some say it means “master.” “Konate” is the clan name of Sundiata and his father’s family. King Magan was the son of a long lineage of distinguished Dozo hunters, known for their bravery, skill and their ability to communicate with spirits that hold influence over human lives. At this time, Manding [or Mande] rulers like Magan had adopted the religion of Islam, but the new faith from the north had not altered their belief in the world of spirits. So when a hunter from the north came to Magan and made a prophecy, the king and his griot took it very seriously. The prophecy said that two hunters would come to the king with a very ugly woman. Despite her ugliness, the hunter said, the king must marry this woman, for she would bear him Mali's greatest king ever.
>>44204357
Sure enough, two hunters later appeared with a hunchbacked woman. They explained to the king that this woman, Sogolon Kedju, was in fact the human double of a buffalo that had ravaged the land of Do, killing hunters and citizens alike. Armed with secret knowledge, these two hunters had felled the buffalo and brought the woman to Mali. Hideous and wild, Sogolon was also endowed with extraordinary powers. She had been the hunter's prize, and now they were offering her to the king of Mali. Honoring the prophecy, Maghan quickly married Sogolon, and they conceived a child.
>>44204395
King Maghan's first wife, Sassouma, was jealous. She has always assumed that her son, Dankaran Touman, would claim the crown of Mali. Now this interloper stood to threaten what she felt was her son's destiny. Sassouma plotted to kill Sogolon, but the buffalo woman's powers were too great, and the boy was born. He was named Mari Diata, but as the son of Sogolon, people later took to calling him Sogolon Diata, and eventually, Sundiata.
Having feared the new arrival, Sassouma was relieved when the new child turned out to be lazy, gluttonous and ugly. At three years old, Sundiata could not walk and rarely spoke. Even at seven, the boy still crawled, spent all his time eating, and had no friends. The king was deeply disturbed. "How could this pathetic child become a great king?" Still, honoring the hunter's prophecy, the dying king gave his seemingly crippled son a gift that signified his desire that the boy should become king after all. That gift was a griot named Balla Fasseke, the son of the king's own griot.
>>44204449
However, when king died, his first wife saw to it that her son, Dankaran, claimed the throne. Sundiata, still on all fours, could do nothing about it. One day, Sundiata's mother needed some leaves from the mighty baobob tree for her cooking, and she asked Sassouma if she could borrow some. Sassouma agreed, taking the opportunity to insult Sogolon's useless son. At last, Sogolon could take no more. She returned to her son, crying and angry, and told him about Sassouma's insult. Looking up, her son then said, "Cheer up, Mother. I am going to walk today." Sundiata then told a blacksmith to make for him the heaviest possible iron rod, and then, with trembling legs and a sweaty brow, he proceeded to lift himself up, bending the rod into a bow in the process. Before an a crowd of amazed onlookers, Sundiata thus transformed himself. And his griot composed and sung "The Hymn to the Bow," on the spot. That hymn remains a part of the Sundiata musical epic still sung by griots over eight-hundred years later.
Now that Sundiata was fit to claim the throne as his father had wished, he represented a great threat to the false king Dankaran, and his plotting mother Sassouma. Sundiata's mother decided to take her son into exile for their safety, but before they could leave, Dankaran sent Balla Fasséké, Sundiata's griot, and also Sundiata's half-sister, on a mission to the sorcerer king, Soumaoro Kanté. Soumaoro was the king of the Sosso, and he had been threatening all the kingdoms in the region with his growing army. Sundiata was furious at the loss of his griot, but his mother convinced him that the time to set things right would come later. Promising he would return to claim his crown, Sundiata went into exile with a small entourage, not to return for many years.
>>44204265
It wasn't Venice. He passed through Cairo and caused a decade-long recession.
>>44203365
Under-rated post.
>>44204466
Sundiata came to manhood while traveling through kingdoms hundreds of miles from his home. Along the way, he learned to hunt, to fight, and to wield proverbs containing the wisdom of his ancestors. One day, in the far off kingdom of Mema, Sundiata discovered people selling baobob leaves in the market. They had to be from Mali, for there were no baobob trees in Mema. The baobob sellers came to Sundiata's home and told him that the evil Sosso kin Soumaoro had conquered Mali, sending timid Dankaran into exile. At once, Sundiata began to gather a force of fighters, the core of his future army. Sundiata was determined to reclaim his kingdom, Mali. Sadly, on the eve of his departure from Mema, his mother Sogolon, the once powerful buffalo woman, died.
Meanwhile, Sundiata's griot and his half-sister remained captives in Soumaoro's court at Sosso. The brave griot, Balla Fasséké one day dared to enter the sorcerer king's secret chamber while the king was away. There, the griot found poisonous snakes writhing in urns, and owls standing watch over the severed heads of the nine kings Soumaoro had beaten. In the midst of this ghoulishness, stood the biggest balafon that Balla Fasséké had ever seen. Any ordinary mortal would have died instantly in this chamber, but the young griot had sorcery of his own, and even ventured to play the king's balafon, which produced a magnificent sound that charmed even the snakes and owls.
Soumaoro returned livid to find the griot in his chamber, but Balla Fasséké, thinking fast, improvised a praise song to Soumaoro that was so clever it disarmed the evil king. Soumaoro then declared Balla his griot, making war between Soumaoro and Sundiata inevitable.
>>44203528
That was the goal. Clear the lands of criminals, get paid, and settle down. I keep trying to bring the game back, but time keeps messing with all of us.
>>44204533
As Sundiata made his way homeward, he passed through all the kingdoms he had come to know during his exile, gathering fighters, archers and horsemen as he went. At Tabon, near the Malian city of Kita, Sundiata's army launched a surprise attack on Soumaoro's forces. Though a smaller force, Sundiata's side prevailed, sending the Sosso army into retreat. At the next battle, Sundiata and Soumaoro came face to face. Again, Sundiata's forces dominated the field through superior tactics, but Soumaoro escaped using his own formidable magic. One moment, the Sosso king stood before Sundiata on his black-coated horse, his tall helmet bristling with horns. But a mere instant later, Soumaoro stood on a far distant ridge. Sundiata despaired, feeling that his enemy's magic made him invincible.
Even as Sundiata's army grew, he knew he would need more that might to defeat Soumaoro. So he summoned soothsayers to council him on harnessing supernatural powers. Following their advice, Sundiata ordered the sacrifice of 100 white oxen, 100 white rams, and 100 white cocks. As the ritual slaughter began, Sundiata's griot and his half-sister arrived at his camp. They had escaped captivity in Soumaoro's city.
Sundiata's half-sister then told him that she had been forced to be Soumaoro's wife, but that in doing so, she had learned the secret of his magic. Soumaoro's totem, his sacred animal, and so the source of his amazing power, was the cock. This animal had the power to destroy Soumaoro. Like Samson losing his long hair and with it his strength, like Achilles with his vulnerable heel, Soumaoro too had a weakness that his enemy could exploit. Armed with this knowledge, Sundiata fashioned a wooden arrow with a white cock's spur as its tip.
>>44204265
>especially in Northern Africa.
It's more like that we know of them especially in northern Africa.
The great showdown between Soumaoro and Sundiata came at the battle of Kirina. On the eve of the battle, the two men observed the ritual of declaring war. Each sent an owl to the other's encampment, and the owls delivered messages of bravado.
"I am the wild yam of the rocks," boasted Soumaoro, "Nothing will make me leave Mali."
Sundiata replied, "I have in my camp seven master smiths who will shatter the rocks. Then, yam, I will eat you."
The verbal jousting continued. Soumaoro said, "I am the poisonous mushroom that makes the fearless vomit."
And Sundiata replied, "I am the ravenous cock. The poison does not matter to me."
"Behave yourself, little boy, or you will burn your foot, for I am the red-hot cinder."
"But me, I am the rain that extinguishes the cinder; I am the boisterous torrent that will carry you off."
"I am the mighty silk cotton tree that looks from on high on the tops of other trees."
"And I, I am the strangling creeper that climbs to the top of the forest creeper."
Having thus declared their intentions, Sundiata and Soumaoro made war at Kirina. In the midst of full battle, Sundiata aimed his special arrow and fired. The cock's spur grazed Soumaoro's shoulder, and all was lost for the Sosso king. By the time Sundiata's victorious forces entered Soumaoro's city and opened his secret chamber, the snakes there were almost dead and the owls lay flopping on the ground.
Victorious, Sundiata invited the leaders of all the 12 kingdoms of the savanna to come to Kaba, a city in old Mali. There, he told them they could keep their kingdoms, but that all would now join in a great, new empire. From that day forth, Sundiata's word became the law respected throughout the 12 kingdoms. The Empire of Mali was born, stretching from the forests of the south far into the Sahara Desert, north of the great Niger River bend. Sundiata ruled over this empire until his death in the year 1255. His empire survived for more than two centuries.
I've yet to seen an African themed setting that wasn't just a half-assed patchwork of stereotypes and short readings of Wikipedia, so I'm less than excited, and slightly annoyed that this is being used as a bait topic to draw out racists. That said, I understand that there is a shortage of black protagonists in most genres, but the solution is not to do the complete opposite and kick all non-blacks out of the narrative.
And what is the sudden fascination Western Blacks have with Africa? Most can't trace their ancestry back to their "home" country, but they keep trying to romanticize it instead of showing any pride in their own culture. I'd much prefer a fantasy setting with a society inspired by the LA county or Chicago or DC than I would another try at an African one.
Additionally, an attempt to "Africanize" an already euro-centric setting could be seen as culturally appropriation, and some type of rape. So, enjoy regular SJW raids if they ever find out.
>>44204468
>Mohammad encourages muslims to give charitably
>Mansa Munsa does so
>Everyone gets poorer
Christianity may have flaws in the natural sciences but at least there's no cuck-tier economics like this.
what's the problem? let blacks write afrofantasy and whites can write eurofantasy
readers can read what they want
the point of these threads i never understand
"Mali is eternal,".
"But never try, wretch, to pierce the mystery which Mali hides from you. Do not go and disturb the spirits in their eternal rest. Do not ever go into the dead cities to question the past, for the spirits never forgive. Do not seek to know what is not to be known..."
>>44204652
>the point of these threads i never understand
Right? I would like to read both. The lack of Afro-fantasy is hardly the fault of white writers.
>>44204357
>known for their bravery, skill and their ability to communicate with spirits that hold influence over human lives
AFRICA
>>44204640
>the solution is not to do the complete opposite and kick all non-blacks out of the narrative.
If they try to put white people into the Epic of Sundiata, I'd be every bit as mad as if they'd put black people into a European classical fantasy. Beowulf, for example.
>>44204640
>sudden fascination
>sudden
When have they not had this fascination?
>pride in their own culture
They tried that, it was called the Harlem Renaissance. The great depression killed it and it never came back, neither the pride nor the culture.
>>44204647
>neither a borrower nor a lender be
Christians had to be cucked by Jews when they actually followed that rule.
>>44204836
This.
The need for more diverse characters should not trump historical accuracy nor the intent/context of a piece of work. You shouldn't compromise a work to appease people's feelings about race, and this applies to 'race bending', which is rife in cinema these days.
There is nothing stopping writers of other ethnicities or races than 'white' from creating and distributing original works that showcase racially diverse characters, (same goes with the whole LGBTQ+ community and their desire for non-cishet characters).
With Amazon self publishing and access to blogs and blog networks, so-called minorities can no longer cry 'whites only' or 'men's club' in regards to literature and publishing. They have a range of options to get their content out there, and it will then sink or float on it's own merits.
Black Hobbits won't solve anything, it will only create more problems.
>>44196399
Khal Drogo? The pillaging, murdering, raping leader of a tribe of murdering, raping, pillagers? Yeah, great fuckin' guy.
>>44196399
>These works are...inherently limited.
So the fuck what? By who's standards? SJWs who call you racist for not including other races in your work then call you racist because you 'appropriated' another culture by daring to include another race in your work?
Literally a damned if you do/damned if you don't scenario.
>>44199116
Literally retarded
>>44198940
Yeah but the mongol-arab fucked a white girl so I guess its alright.
>>44200677
>"WE WUZ KINGZ N SHEIT!" The tear stained post.
>>44205203
>>44198940
>>44205040
>>44201179
>>44197144
>>44198926
Pretty sure he means like him as an interesting character rather than thinking he's a commendable person. And I suspect it must be a sentiment stemming mostly from showfags.
>>44196399
I agree that African settings can be good.
I'm willing to read that shit, I have no problem with it.
It's not my fucking fault nobody writes about those settings. I really hate when crybaby faggots bitch about that "WAAH, OUR HISTORY IS GOOD TOO, why won't whitey write about us?!"
It's because people write about what they know and what they want to talk about, pick up a pen, nigger.
Instead of complaining about white people keeping you down, why don't you just fucking do what it is you want to do? Nobody is stopping you.
>>44196801
Eat shit and die of cancer, racist.
>>44205252
> random white boy calls Man-Booker prize winning novelist a lazy nigger for not writing a book he just announced plans to write
>>44205515
>a lazy nigger
You're right, that does seem a bit redundant...
>>44205247
Can't speak for the author in question, but, being interesting is all the redeeming qualities some people need to overlook a whole lot of awful shit.
A lot of people conflate appeal with morality, in both directions.
>>44196399
>Africa in the middle ages
Sounds more like a scifi setting to me
>>44205575
I think fantasy Africa, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa in the West and East, could be really cool. I'd love to write up a setting but really I don't know enough about the times and places involved that I'd really have a good impression of it. Fantasy doesn't need to be historically accurate but it does need to care about history to draw proper inspiration from it.
It's not that obvious where you might go to learn more either since we've pretty decidedly ignored African history since forever.
There's a lot of potential for fantasy settings based elsewhere than Europe. Nothing wrong with European fantasy, it just doesn't need to be the only thing out there.
also lol at the obligatory 4chan racist brigade that's too close-minded to consider 80% of the world for interesting setting fodder
![who_fears_death[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/wKddVwi.jpg "who_fears_death[1].jpg")
I remember this being pretty good science fiction set in Nigeria in the future.
>>44205633
>too close-minded to consider 80% of the world
Who said that? Who in this thread said Africa would make a shit setting? the majority of the responses have been people saying they would read/game an African setting if it were more readily available.
>>44205633
>80% of the world is Africa
Well shit son you sure showed me and my geography teacher.
>>44205660
>>44205669
>falling for the bait
>>44205750
Oh you scamp.
Anyone know the name of that African comic/rpg? I can't remember much about it, the art was top notch and it seemed a young woman was the MC...maybe.
The Black Company basically moves to fantasy Africa after the original trilogy.
You know I just had a quick look, and even GURPS doesn't seem to have an Africa sourcebook. Fucking gurps, which covers every other aspect of everything, and no Africa book.
The Palladium Africa book is a campaign, not a sourcebook.
So how is it gamers fault they don't untilize Africa as a setting when the content and resources aren't even out there?
Personal research will only get you so far and without some sort of authority on the subject you'll get caught up in stereotypes anyway.
>>44205869
Doesent world of darkness have some obsecure splat books about Africa?
>>44205880
Could do. Drivethrurpg only has books related to Africa as it existed under colonial rule or during the world wars. I can't find any sourcebooks dealing with ancient Africa, African nations in a general sense, or fantasy worlds based on Africa.
What's a nigga supposed to do?
>>44205894
>What's a nigga supposed to do?
Apply to Onyx Path or White Wolf (who will be doing the 4th editions of everything)?
So my setting starts out with 5 original "tribes" based on the khoisan, pygmies, horners, bantu, and west africans. And by the end of the primordial era they'll diversify into various ethnic groups.
African mythology has a consistent pattern.
God creates the universe, crafts the earth, and creates life. Twin forces of Order and Chaos struggle for dominance.
Rather than nature myths about the origin of stars, earth, wind, etc the African is concerned mostly with human beings. Squabbling pantheons of gods are NOT the main focus. But rather the first man, and how he spent his life.
Humans had a big hand in the development of the world compared to other mythologies. Originally they had direct contact with the almighty God.
Then something breaks the connection between heaven and earth. Disobedience, a struggle, or some error caused people to become subject to fate and death. The most common myth is that God sent two messengers with one of life and the other of death. The first messenger is usually a dog or sheep who gets distracted by food (dogs represent gluttony in african cultures, like pigs). The second messenger is 80% of the time a chameleon who brings the message of death.
After God abandons mankind, good and evil struggle. Evil witches and dark spirits plague the world, but noble heroes most often young boys (toddlers even) overcome them along with witch doctors, hunters, and warriors. Humans try hard to bring back their link to the heavens (Nilotic tribes imagined a rope).
Humans begin to obey certain rules and rituals to obtain favor with the divine again. But death is always the victor, with hope for a good afterlife.
The legend of a monster which swallows the population of a village-or, indeed, of the whole country and is subsequently slain by a boy hero seems to be current all over Africa.
I see this general pattern, but I'm wondering how to make it...fresh without looking dumb or awkward. Of course western players maybe wouldn't recognize it.
>>44205982
Nigga, make this shit happen. Ever since GW: Nightfall I've wanted a quality African RPG setting.
What classes are you thinking of making?
>>44205497
>>44205996
Rangers?
>>44200677
>this is was buttblasted nigger lovers actually believe
>>44205996
Classes I'm going for will be hunters, griots, witchdoctors, smiths, and warriors.
Looking at historic Africa they seem valid and distinct enough. Admittedly with a heavy Mandinka bias.
>>44196399
Because I don't really care much about Africa, sorry. There are cool things there but there are cool things everywhere, don't see why I have to value Africa over Siberia, which I have a much greater emotional attachment to. Besides, the Chukchi would make the Zulus shit all their melanin out from sheer fear. The Tutsi wouldn't stand a chance against a handful of good Yukaghirs (and there are no other types of Yukaghirs). And if we're talking mythology, Siberia has all-destroying death energy radiating from mammoth bones. Africa doesn't. Game over.
I do have some black people in a solo setting exploration game I'm running but other than names and appearance they have very little to do with actual Africans.
>>44205982
I too am working on an Africa setting, though mine is a lot less mystical than yours.
>>44196824
Seconding this being a prime example of Western cultural indoctrination.
>>44196965
>To most of Africa, if your skin is a color lighter than dark chocolate you aren't even black let alone kin in any sense of the word.
You do realise people in Africa have all kinds of different skin tones, and even, gasp, miscegenation in border areas. I do agree that they lack the American concept of race, or lacked it until recently anyway.
>>44206060
Cool. My last project was a blend of central asia and siberia.
>>44202851
Illiteracy.
And that most people that complain are usually western long time black westerners, shit they not even considered black by real africans, mullatos are mostly shunned and considdered white.
>>44206057
>>44206064
What sort of ETA we looking at here guys?
>>44196925
Nothing much. The same tribes that made those kingdoms are still around and kicking, and even have kings and the like in many cases. They just coexist with modern states in a similar way to how they coexisted with the colonial empires, since modern African nations are basically black people running European political institutions (usually pretty ineptly, but European colonial administrators weren't all that much to be proud of in many cases either).
>>44206086
Mine's just a setting, not a game like the other guy. I have no idea when I can get it done. There's still a lot to do. I'd like to also get art work for it before I can call it finished, but don't have the funds.
>>44206064
African folklore is very high magic. Hell, modern africa is "high magic". Everyone walked around with fetishes, when I was in Nigeria there was this cab driver who drove like a lunatic and we almost got wrecked multiple times. He had a monkey skull fetish which he insisted had a spirit who prevented car crashes.
In african fairytales the heroes usually have to prepare themselves magically to defeat a foe, not just poke the pointy end into them.
Fetishes are inanimate objects with a spirit residing inside. Owning a fetish allows one to have certain protections or perform superhuman feats depending on the spirit within. Most fetishes are friendly, others are evil cunts.
>>44206086
A few months or so.
I'm heavy into worldbuilding and backstory.
My map still needs work after 100 billion revisions.
>>44196399
Phrased sort of SJW-y but true, African mythology is pretty crazy and deserves attention. I don't really know enough about it to explore it in fiction though, I imagine the research would be exhausting.
>>44204883
And then they killed them. All is well
>>44206118
I know, but I'm drawing more from African history than African mythology with very little active magic. All the weirdness exists on the far fringes of society, or in the secret chambers of dark cults.
To put it in Western terms, I'm going for the Chanson de Roland rather than the Greek Myths. Or Robert Howard rather than Michael Moorcock.
>>44206102
>drawthread
Also lots of drawfags on DA charge as little as $11-20 per picture.
>>44206186
>Also lots of drawfags on DA charge as little as $11-20 per picture.
They usually aren't very good if they're charging those prices though.
>>44206157
Fun fact, Mirage Block, the first 3-set block of M:tG was based on Africa.
Wizards of the Coast has been more aggressive about having different ethnicities in settings. The Greek setting, Theros, had a lot of brown/black people Heck, they even designed black part-metal people when they revisited mirrodin.
>Not having a setting in Not!Morocco with africans, islam, and spaniards
>>44206160
Intredasting
Well, west africa WAS frequently run by secret societies from behind the scenes
Often kings were just figureheads
>>44206222
>letting those scum anywhere near my fantasy world
>>44204265
That would be Musa the first or Mali, aka. Mansa Musa (mansa being the Mali word for emperor), one of richest people to have ever lived. Mali used to be absurdly wealthy, and was a powerful and advanced nation at the time, with large cities built of clay bricks and schools dedicated to studying the Quran. They also had a long line of kings and emperors, some of who were rather eccentric. Musa I got his position afer his predecessor decided to go discover America and sailed to the west on a ship full of gold, never to be seen again (building ocean-faring vessels was not something the Malians had any experience on, so his ship likely sunk in the middle of the Atlantic; there's some tales of golden items similar to the ones crafted by Malian artisans foudn in South America, though, although I wouldn't put much weight to such claims).
Unfortuntaely for them the gold mines that were the source of their wealth eventually ran out, causing trade to dry out and the nation to fall into decline. By the time the first Europeans arrived in Timbuktu, fabled in legends as an unimaginable rich city of gold, the city was in disrepair, with a population a fraction of what it was during its heyday.
>>44206245
>Having anything against spaniards
>WE WUZ ELFS N SHEEEEEEEEEIT
>>44206258
The Spaniards were pathetic fuckups. Remember the spanish armada?
>>44206275
Mostly got fucked by the weather, didn't it?
Admittedly the whole Habsburgs thing was pretty fucked as well.
>>44206190
I suppose 'good' is objective, but I charge $20 a pic for a full figure greyscale image like pic related.
>>44196399
I'm not sure how/if a fantasy campaign themed around AIDS could be done.
>>44206294
No the weather fucked them up after they tried to retreat back to Spain. By that point England and their Dutch allies had won
>>44206297
That's pretty good. A bit more cartoony then where my tastes usually take me but that's purely a taste thing.
$20 isn't a bad rate for quick b&w stuff but I was thinking more from the perspective of full colour professional illustration like pic related.
Of course its all pipe dreams right now. I can't afford any kind of rate, twenty dollars or two hundred.
>>44196399
Then why the fuck aren't they making their own Tolkien or Ice and Fire series?
Are you too incompetent to string words together? Clearly you can write. Just look at your article. White people shouldn't have to give a valuable work of literature too if you guys are so independent and not needing of the evil whites.
>tfw shitskin
>tfw white people are slippin' and everyone else will pay with blood for it
t-thank guys
>>44206379
>>Then why the fuck aren't they making their own Tolkien or Ice and Fire series?
They are, read the link instead of bitching.
Fucking hell, learning about African mythology would be worth it if I didn't have to deal with the crying.
Shitty death, and all the caring... How the fuck could anyone bring themselves to care so much about not offending someone?
Just make African mythology content, less crying more actually making content. There's sure to be some good shit for muh ttrpg.
I have a current setting I'm working on that has almost no cultural analogs (just flavourings here and there) by nation or continent because hey, its fucking fantasy.
MAKE SHIT UP
Don't fucking worry about accurately and fairly and sensitively representing every fucking group of people that actually fucking exist in the REAL WORLD.
Who gives a fuck about them? They aren't fantasy.
If you're going for existing mythology bents fair fucking enough, do your research but less pandering, less crying more roleplay and fun.
>>44199496
People don't know about Archive.Today
>>44205247
No, I'm pretty sure it's because the writer gets a ladyboner from the thought of being raped by a strong Mongolian man.
>>44196399
>Niggers don't invent anything anyone ever hears of
>Complains when nobody cares about their shitty backwards culture
>>44205982
> khoisan, pygmies, horners, bantu, and west africans
Already racist.
>most often young boys (toddlers even)
And now it's pandering to shotacons.I think it'd be interesting, but there'd be a lot of backlash over the heroes not being adults, the "tribes" picked representing 3 of the most privileged under colonialism and 2 of the worst off, portraying the whole African setting as less advanced than Western fantasy, etc. These people just want D&D and LoTR to be blackfaced.
ITT: Serious discussion and also /pol/ screaming and waving signs in the background
Africa is metal as fuck, their myths are metal as fuck, and if you dig down they're varied enough Africa could be a setting unto itself.
>>44206451
>Everything that does not agree with me is /pol/
>and if you dig down they're varied enough Africa could be a setting unto itself.
No shit, nigger. It's an entire continent with hundreds of cultures. Exactly how stupid are you?
>>44206451
>An entire continent managed to have enough mythology and culture spread among it to have a setting
Is this supposed to be some kind of accomplishment or something
I mean I know we set the bar pretty low for niggers but literally every continent has that much material so it's not exactly anything special to the point where I genuinely don't understand why you'd bring it up
>>44206463
Everything that outright disregards Afro indigenous culture with le lip smacking we euz kanngs meme is pol
Because yes, as a matter of fact, they wuz kangs. Their empires never stretched the vast distances of Eurasian ones or even reached outside of Africa (except maybe the moors), but they did exist and they were as wealthy and cultured as many classical and Roman era states. It's after the fall of Rome that things go to shit with the African middle ages being dominated by tribal war and genocide that plagues it to this day. The same kind that plagued Europe until less than a century ago when two world wars finally blew that urge the fuck out of them.
>>44206451
>Africa is metal as fuck, their myths are metal as fuck, and if you dig down they're varied enough Africa could be a setting unto itself.
This.
http://www.fractal-cortex.net/rpg/RIFTS/Rifts%20BOOKS/World%20Books/Rifts%20-%20World%20Book%2004%20-%20Africa.pdf
>>44205118
This.
Remember "racefail"? If was black SJW's and their beta orbiters getting upset over Elizabeth Bear having the audacity to give aspiring writers advice on writing non-white (sorry, PoC) characters.
You just can't win. If you don't write black characters as a white person, you're doing it wrong. If you do write them, you're doing it wrong. Base your setting on Africa, and some overly concerned SJW will tell you you're being racist by representing them as savages or something.
O hey, relevant link!
http://pastebin.com/50SpNpVZ
Resources on the cultures of Africa.
>>44206496
So the lesson to be learned from adversity is to not try?
>>44206517
No, it's not to care what other people think about your work as a GM.
