Help design A Songhai/African setting

[sktarq]

I don't know .... I don't know how Sufi could fit into that

Somewhat. . . the Sufi are often of the edge of being their own creed. . various traditions are often influenced more or less by their Sufi involvement so that some varieties are basically dominated by their Sufi leanings-The Malikite Sunni variety present in Mali is very heavily influenced. . . . This variant has different takes on things like magic, holy men, prophecy etc than you may find in the most prominent Twevelist/Salafi form of Islam that most are familiar with. These takes are probably easier to work with for a fantasy RPG setting than most other variants and I would suggest you look them up as direct religious discussion doesn't belong here. Overall the Sufi would fit in very well to what you are saying. . . though adapting their experiential attempts to connect with the divine may be another way to have people glimpse its mind in another way.

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

Basically there we no horses in Subsaharan Africa until well after 500 AD - Basically the Mali and Songhai Empires were the first to build up substantial units of in the DnD term light cavalry (Medium Elites max). This allowed for both communication and raiding in much greater strength which is what gave them such an advantage on the battlefield (though they were never more than a small minority of their overall force). This advantage would disappear if they expanded too far because the horses tended to die whenever there was an area with tsetse flies.

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_...of_Djenn%C3%A9
Cultural significance section for a start
Basically a party and community get together to repair damage to the mud based building.

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

Just warning you and I suggest you run it by the player who brought it up so he/she doesn't feel put out that his/her Mali has been left out.

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

Te Sahara is a BIG place with many types of desert in it. The Aghar is totally different than the erg. various types of desert are going to hold different adventure hooks so I recommend that you bone up>