- First note: I focused upon sub saharan Africa, because it's less known. The Egypt is also part of the african continent, mas even in fantasy seems to get more attention than the remaining continent combined.
- Second note: don't think of this as an unified mythology. These are just assorted bits I found particularly interesting. There are more than two thousand african languages, and their beliefs, mythologies and cultures are just as diverse.
1. CENTRAL THEMES
People are the focus in many myths, instead of gods, animals or the land. "Good" is what contributes for the well-being and happiness of the many, ensuring good relations between people and the community's prosperity. The "Evil" is what threatens social harmony, sociopath behavior and inhuman things.
The village (city, kingdom etc) is safe because it is a human and communal space. The "Bush" outside isn't something good: unexplored and dangerous wastelands, housing inhuman things and Wild things like snakes, disease, madness, chaos and witches. The idea is similar to D&D's "Points of Light". The death of a chief or king might be catastrophic not due to intrigue, but because a leaderless community is like a wounded animal which the Bush can sense and prey upon. This concept of "Bush" isn't exclusive to a single biome: deserts, savannas, jungles and oceans may be part of the Bush.
1A. TOTEMISM
Many african clans had an animal totem.
That was because: it was their ancestral; helped one of their
ancestors; or one of their ancestors helped the animal. This created an affinity with the creature.
People would have a second soul, the "Bush Soul".
Very often it was a stronger and bigger version of the true animal,
many having a feature such as albinism. One could project the Bush Soul
into the clan's totem to talk with it or to create a link. Somehow
killing this Bush Soul also killed the person it was part of. But if one
kills the person while the he or she projects the Bush Soul, it becomes
an evil spirit. Witches can steal, enslave and even sell the Bush Souls
of others.
There were assassin cults based on wild animals, predators like leopards, snakes or crocodiles. They differ from the hunter or warrior and their respective totems because act against people instead of in their favor. Traitors of humanity which serve the Bush, assuming the behavior (killing and eating people) or even the shape of animals (licanthropy). They may also be servants of a witch, acquiring human flesh which the latter uses to torment and dominate the community.
1B. SACRED CHIEFS AND KINGS
This idea was common, although every culture had different rituals and notions of what made a leader sacred. For example, he may be unable to touch the ground. Doing so, will discharge his power into it, stopping plants from growing. Or perhaps the health of the land and the king's are one and the same. He must be robust and without marks, for any scar or disease might affect his domains. If that happens, he must be killed so another king might be crowned, saving the region.
2. PCs and NPCs
Remember how the Bush is dangerous? That makes the hunter a hero willing to seek what others need, like food or help in another village. African heroes usually have supernatural powers and deal with the Bush. Some, like Bantu Huveane, grow very fast and are full of tricks. Others, like Itonde, are dedicated to conquer the Bush, fighting the "Fiery Serpent" which controls the land and rivers.
N'golo (or Engolo) is the african Martial art from which mapoeira might derive of. They're very similar. Its practicers say it was based on how zebras fight each other. Instead of learning the Mantis or Monkey styles, how about the Zebra's? Imagine a tribe with this animal as totem, using a mixture of dance and fighting to celebrate the ancestors around the fire.
Scarification is when one makes scars in certain patterns and images, similar to tattoos. It had many purposes: to beautify, to show the group(s) someone belongs to; social status. Another example is that if someone has a scale-like scar pattern, his or her totem or Bush soul might be a reptile.
Want to make a swashbuckler? He might use a shotel and a buckler made of rhino hide which works as a hat outside a fight. Go find the secrets of the Indic Ocean, trading gold and ivory for wootz steel and pepper.
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| Shotel is a sword made to wound shield users, with the curved blade going around it. |
About NPCs…
Shamans might also be judges. Any oral judicial tradition becomes easier when one can invoke the ancestors to ask them about precedents, the victim might be called from beyond to testify and maybe even the spirits around the crime scene as well.
Interested in a harem of virgin amazons? "Dahomey is renowned as a 'Black Sparta'... The sound told every male to get out of their path, retire a certain distance, and look the other way... The scaling of vicious thorn hedges was intended to foster the stoical acceptance of pain... She then squeezed the blood off her weapon and swallowed it."
From one to ten, Mansa Musa's fortune
reaches eleven: "...Passed through the city two years earlier making
his pilgrimage to Mecca
with thousands of slaves and soldiers, wives and officials. One hundred
camels each carried one hundred pounds of gold. Mansa Musa performed
many acts of charity... So much gold spent in the markets of Cairo
actually upset the gold market well into the next century... In the
later Medieval period, West Africa may have been producing almost
two-thirds of the world's supply of gold! Mali also supplied other
trade items - ivory, ostrich feathers, kola nuts, hides, and slaves. No
wonder there was talk about the Kingdom of Mali and its riches!" Even the cannibal tribe's cliche is valid: "Sultan Mansa Sulayman was visited by a party of these negro cannibals, including one of their amirs... They wrap themselves in silk mantles, and in their country there is a gold mine. The sultan received them with honour, and gave them as his hospitality-gift a servant, a negress. They killed and ate her, and having smeared their faces and hands with her blood came to the sultan to thank him."
Savannah druids like wildfires. They understand that they are fundamental in the life cycle of their biomes. And just like it's done in real modern life, they create small wildfires to avoid a big accidental one. The druids might or might not care if the natives survive this. The latter might or might understand why, when the druid does it, it's "right", but when they make burnings to increase their farms or pastures, it's "wrong".
Despite not having anything in common, jungle and desert druids are eternal allies. Both know that the desert storms keep the jungle alive and strong.
Nzinga Mbande lost her kingdom, founded a new one southwards and conquered the infamous cannibal tribe called Jaga. She offered sanctuary for runaway slaves and deserting soldiers, then fought the portuguese during thirty five years. Oh, also had a harem of sixty men dressed in woman's clothing. This all seems like things player characters would do.
Many adventurers would sympathize with Ibn Battuta: he traveled for twenty nine years, met Khans and emperors, learned about countless cultures and wrote diaries equal to Marco Polo's writings.
3. PLACES
The already mentioned Mali Kingdom gives off an idea of having so much gold it isn't worth to be a rogue or bandit: "they are seldom unjust, and have a greater abhorrence of injustice than any other people. Their sultan shows no mercy to anyone who is guilty of the least act of it. There is complete security in their country. Neither traveller nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence." It also avoided the usual burqa: "The women servants, slave-girls, and young girls go about in front of everyone naked, without a stitch of clothing on them. Women go into the sultan's presence naked and without coverings, and his daughters also go about naked."
There are also places which look like another planet: Dallol has ponds of green acid which change places; yellow and red accumulations of sulphur; hundred-strong camel caravans travel through salt flats; all this below the sea level, during an average temperature of 35º C, besides being very arid and dry. Let's agree this place is asking to set an adventure.
4. AFRICAN DWARFS
No, not talking about pygmies. Mmoatia are dwarfs with faeric qualities in the folklore of Western Africa: they like caves and mountains in Mali, but prefer the woods in Ghana. The dark dwarfs kidnap people to teach them magic. Game master: "And why did your character learned magic?" You: "Good question. he wants to find the Mmoatia to find out why he was chosen against his will."
Now, the red and white dwarfs are bastards which love to steal and kidnap people. You may acquire power if you follow their very specific rules. Otherwise, becomes the next meal.
Besides that, blacksmiths had a mystical status like mages, knowing how to make shovels and swords out of rock with hidden techniques. One of them was to use the mud from termite mounds, creating carbon steel before the rest of the world. In a world of african fantasy, one might consider that the most valued arcane users are artificers. Or perhaps some dwarfs should have a darker skin tone.
5. EQUIPMENT
5A. MASKS
Hard to see images of Africa without masks, so let's see the ways it could matter in fantasy.The shaman's mask is a symbol of authority like the black toga of the judge. Other masks allow him to not be himself and become the host of the spirit invoked to testify.
Tribal masks can also be equivalent to magical wands or symbols of pacts with the sinister, nature or the divine: ways of channeling and using greater powers. The mage is no more invisible to magic as mundane people are; while the warlock, barbarian or cleric become avatars or extensions of the entity represented by the mask, be it a spirit, totem, demon or deity. It's even possible that a cleric have powers without believing the respective god, for he's serving it as a punishment. Ever imagined creating a character condemned to being a masked priest due to a crime or taboo committed by a relative?
5B. FETISHES
Magical african objects are called “fetiches”, a word originating from "feitiço”, used by the portuguese when exploring Africa. Masks and other fetishes might house spirits. The benefits and powers the item possess depend on the kind of spirit within. That may be the spirit of an antelope gifting great speed, perhaps a shaman's soul make the villagers wiser instead. In an african fantasy setting, the origin of people like elves or dwarfs may have been through a well cared spirit influencing a place during centuries. It's not for nothing that the elves protect a giant baobab whose grooves form a face, or that the dwarfs painstakingly guard their mountain. If such fetishes were damaged, these races might not be themselves anymore!
If the conjurer or fighter wield an antelope's horn as wand or an all-wood spear, it doesn't mean they're druids or barbarians. Their equipment is made with materials from the Bush, making them magical and therefore fetishes.
The blacksmith and the shaman might create such items: hyena skulls which allow you to eat undead without becoming sick; bags full of healing baobab seeds; drums which calm even hippos; masks which trick magics or curses into hitting another target; quivers made of small stuffed crocodiles whose arrows bite upon hitting someone.
6. BESTIARY
The Grootslang is to be a creature as old as the world. The gods made a mistake by giving too much strength, cunning and intelligence to the first creatures. They then divided said creatures, creating the first elephants and the first snakes in the process. But one of the originals escaped and spawned beasts which haunt the world up to today. The Grootslang lives in a cave called the "Bottomless Pit" which would be linked to the sea. It attracts elephants into its lair to devour them. The monster is supposed to have a great treasure of diamonds, but even so he covets gemstones so much that one may escape by offering some. Its shape depends on who's telling, but it's always a mix of elephant and serpent.
Africa has many people-swallowing monsters, like the Ugungqu-kubantwana, basically a living island walking on land. There's a list here.
Like vampires? The african ones have metallic teeth and hooks instead of feet.
Even a mundane animal like the hyena can result into a memorable encounter. Imagine a group of adventurers walking then seeing a dead elephant. The perspective of ivory worth their weight in gold makes them approach the corpse. They argue who's going to go near the fetid corpse when a pair of hyenas leave the hole in the belly. Both stare the adventurers for a couple of moments while chewing on broken ribs with brown teeth, like if asking: "are you fellas going to fight an animal whose bacteria-ridden jaws can break bones with a bite?" Change the hyenas for gnolls or lycanthropes if you wish. But keep the bite.
By the way, beware the hippopotamus. Zulus fear it more than lions. Despite being almost herbivorous, they're very aggressive and territorial, pursuing people and boats just because they came too close. It also runs faster than humans. This strong video shows the fury of one of them.
But the greatest danger are the witches, as terrible and mighty as european dragons and devils. The countless legends tell of powers such as: causing storms, diseases and curses; create and control zombies and monsters; that a dead witch becomes an evil spirit; that witches can be identified by the small mouths full of sharp teeth in their backs; they may transform into or ride nocturnal creatures; are cannibals; use talking owls, hyenas and baboons as messengers; cause sleeping people to suffer nightmares full of demons that kill out of sheer terror. But the worst part may be that witches sell their services to whoever may pay for them.
Originally published at RedeRPG. All images were acquired at the wikimedia commons.
Bibliography and reading suggestions:
https://ertribal.com/
http://www.africanbelief.com/
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/collections/21
http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/african-mythology
http://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/african-religions-mythic-themes
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pwmn_3/hd_pwmn_3.htm
https://www.amazon.com/African-Mythology-Patricia-Ann-Lynch/dp/0816048924
Great ideas! Thanks so much!
ResponderExcluirTHanks for the compliment and you're welcome!
Excluir