Quote Originally Posted by sktarq View Post
One thing to remember-the part of Africa you are focused on is a hotbed of Sufi Islam. Which has some rather different takes on things like saints, what is witchcraft, and prophecy than the more classically known and D&D mined Sunni Islam. I won't go into it here but it could be a good thing to research away from these forums.

Also cavalry was a key aspect of the Sahel communities becoming the larger and powerful Mali-Songhai type. And horse took a while to arrive historically and were limited by TseTse fly lands (a major factor in limiting these nations advance.

Try figuring out who they are trading with and what they are trading for as this may offer clues to how various groups are seen within the society. In any such trade focused group who are defined by their interaction with outsiders you need to understand said outsiders.


Also the festivals of recoating major mudbrick buildings (which is a thing there even today) could well be played up.

Also with Timbuktu style learning-there were more small family libraries than a big centralized one. The teaching system was very competitive but each place of learning was rather small-major "centres" of learning were more like a mall of different small schools than anything else I could easily explain. Also these family libraries were very important to family honor and name-hell a fair number are still around-so you get a local shop owner selling prepaid cellphones who also maintains and guards a couple hundred books that are hundreds of years old and probably been hidden in secret places a few times a generation whenever there has been political upheaval. Which also means any house of significant size could have all sorts of secret vaults in your game.

Also-modern Mali is more centred around Bamako than places in the Sahel like Gao or Timbuktu. Make sure that this is what your player is aiming for. If her family is more southern then looking at the History of the Kingdoms of Ghana and Benin may well be more helpful.

I don't know very much about Sufi Islam as opposed to Sunni/Shia, isn't it a form of mysticism a bit like Kabbala with the whirling Dervishes? Obviously we can't get into a theological discussion online, because real life politics, but going to my fantasy stand in for the Islam how would a fantasy Sufi fit in. Obviously this is different from real life Islam, namely in that there isn't a Prophet.
Basically the All Father is some sort of being from beyond the multiverse itself, outside all the planes who is both Objective and Subjective at the same time. Because of this it is impossible to see or properly understand to mortals, and because mortals can alter reality itself (If they worship a god a certain way in my world, that god will change to accommodate) the All Father refuses to allow itself to be depicted in any art or glorified directly. It also apparetly cares a lot about charity requiring all pertitioners to give donations, and that they travel to a single location where they can for a fraction of a second glimpse its mind. I don't know how Sufi could fit into that

I didn't know that about Calvarly, could you tell me more about what their military doctrine was and how I could adapt it. I am imaging how that could be reflected in D&D

Could you tell me more about this mudpainting ritual I might use it

I like this secret writings style, in universe why do you think people are doing it?

I figured that we should just do the Sonhai because that is the time period I am going for and it incapsulates the region.


Grinner: Well almost all forms of education worldwide prior to the Industrial Revolution were not lectures, Socratic Dialogue is quite wide spread, I am curious what they actually were talking about/what this guy valued/how does the Spirit World work?

I do like the detail about hardness, it seems to imply you need to take a hard line with the spirits to get them to do what you want and that they try to rely on sympathy to avoid doing their job.

Could you tell me the names of the three magic, I might be able to find out more via the google

Mr.Consideration: Thanks for that link I will totally check it out. THe Sahara is a bit different than the Arthas desert, which is more of a badland. I was thinking early 14th century, so you will have some forgien travelers on the coast, but the vast majority of Europeons are traders living in Timbuktu