African Core

[Quinntonia]

So I think what fascinates me most about the Ethiopia idea is that Ethiopia was pretty unique in our African context in that it was basically both an ardently Christian nation and that it was able to stave off colonization until nearly WW2 including defeating several European powers' armies, in a few cases, in pitched battles.

I see them as possibly Chivalriac in technology level, with possible Middle Ages, with a heavy reliance on a centralized power structure through their King/Emperor and a fairly peaceful and relatively homogeneous population of that, while some ethnic divisions might be present, all is bound together by the common faith. It is difficult to separate where the state ends and the Church begins, with bishops of the Church and her clergy taking up almost all of the non-military positions in court and serving as His Majesty's Ministers. Of course, their clerics are also well-embedded in the military, ostensibly as "Chaplains" but possibly an attempt by the Church to further blur the lines between the twin pillars of power.

To the north of their Kingdom is part of the another, more stone-age people group that has never accepted their religion nor their rule, and constantly is a thorn in the side of the Church, but for whom the King has a soft spot for, possibly because they cause problems with his ecclesiastical rivals.

That other people group finds it homeland in another, connected, domain, wherein their people have been completely subjugated by a foreign, Renaissance level, culturally European analog. This would help to explain why the more advanced Kingdom doesn't come to the aid of its neighbours against the aggressors, maybe they see it from a political point of view as the foreign power actually pacifying dangerous raiders, and at least initially saw it as a boon. The invaders, can't move on the less advanced nation because they are numerically disadvantaged and busy subjugating their own population of locals, and so an uneasy power balance has occurred.

I don't know, sorry for being kind of ramble-y, but I was thinking out loud.

[vyshan]

I would say not stone age please... Bronze or better Iron age. So they have some big towns and weapons of some quality to be of threat.

Nah, I don't plan to do any stone age domains. The bronze, iron and classical age is probaly what I would use for the natives of the natives in the colonial land.

I am wondering how many would be interested in reading a gazetter on these domains, as well as providing feed-back?

I would love to provide feedback.
Reading a gazetteer... I'm afraid that would be too large for my time
I would love to read 3-4 pages on each domain's culture so I can run it with some believability, and I would love a "suggestions for the DM on African themed adventures" of a few pages. But 120 pages? That would require many hours for me.
To be clear: I'm not against a Gazetteer, I'm all for it. There are people that can take the time to appreciate it and there's a lot of stuff that can be explained there.
But personally, I'm looking for something quick to read and implement (while I wait for the Gaz ).

that actually is a good idea, to put at the back of the gazetter in the DM's section some plot seeds, as well as advice for running stories in this domain.

Check out this map:
https://developmentdaily.files.wordpres ... n-1260.jpg

From this presentation:
http://www.cyon.se/#!alkebu-lan/ck0q

That is really cool. thanks

snip.

All rather good, and baring the smaller iron age/bronze age people, that is how I was viewing my ethiopian analogue. It is for the most part a medieval domain though Chivalriac and even renaissance ideas are starting to trickle in, due to a recently discovered mistway that links them to the western core. Such as the royal body guard, now having muskets in addition to swords; this allows the domain to have things like guns, without making them common place as they are still rather rare.

the one thing I do need for my ethiopian domain is a curse for the darklord, whom would be the Grand-Chancellor, as well as head of the Regency council and voice of the king.

[Manofevil]

good stuff there, Manofevil, though a number of it is modern, and Ravenloft does not really use modern locations.

In what way exactly? I mean guns exist in RL and I could see a group of rogue tribesmen using them to do the chibok kidnapping or the child soldiers. Heck, all they needed was machetes in the real world. Those were brand new in some parts of Africa in the '90s. I'd say the commanders of those actions would be DarkLords inside of 5 or 6 raids. The Aparteid angle would take maybe a couple of generations to do properly. Definitely the long game there. I don't see any of these as fatal problems though.

[vyshan]

good stuff there, Manofevil, though a number of it is modern, and Ravenloft does not really use modern locations.

In what way exactly? I mean guns exist in RL and I could see a group of rogue tribesmen using them to do the chibok kidnapping or the child soldiers. Heck, all they needed was machetes in the real world. Those were brand new in some parts of Africa in the '90s. I'd say the commanders of those actions would be DarkLords inside of 5 or 6 raids. The Aparteid angle would take maybe a couple of generations to do properly. Definitely the long game there. I don't see any of these as fatal problems though.

Because for the most part I am focusing on Pre-Colonial African regions, which are interesting in their own right. Sure I have a colonial domain, but I am focusing for the most part on pre-colonial africa.

Question though: where can I find infromation upon the Holy Empire and their religion of Matherion

[The Lesser Evil]

Matherion and the Holy Empire are mentioned in bits and pieces of the Mictlan article in the Book of Shadows and Igid Ra-bi and Cumbre de Oro in the Book of Sacrifices. (Both available on the Kargatane website).

The Mistipedia now has summary articles on the Church of Matherion and the Holy Empire
http://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Cat ... _Matherion
http://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Holy_Empire

Note that the feel I get from the Holy Empire is that of colonialist Spain, so you may need to alter it a bit to be more Portuguese.

[The Lesser Evil]

Oh, one thing that could possibly be of use is an article from Dragon Magazine "Villains of Gothic Earth" Dragon Magazine Annual vol 2. It had an article on a beholder pretending to be an African god.
http://fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Ndr ... eholder%29

[vyshan]

Currently working on my first draft of the first major domain of the Cluster*, the Empire of Wolyata. I will post the draft here for feedback here, asuming any is interested.

I am curious how people do make the pdf gazetteers as I have not worked that much with making pdfs.


*I am also not sure what to call the cluster, so far I have been going with the Sahelan lands but not sure.

[alhoon]

Sahel lands seems fine. Eagerly awaiting the draft.

[Manofevil]

I have another suggestion. I think it would be best done if the DarkLord were NEITHER colonial nor tribal.

Base it on the setting (not the characters) of the movie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_and_the_Darkness The narrative goes like this: Long ago in a dark corner of (your creation) a terrible battle took place between two forgotten tribes in which many warriors were killed. Those killed were buried where they fell but, in the jungle, things rarely remain buried. A pride of lions took up residence and began to unearth the buried corpses and feed on them, gaining an insatiable taste for human flesh. As other people wondered into the valley, the lions would attack and devour them. Survivors would wander out of the jungle with stories of huge lions that could not be killed. No one knows when the mists rose to claim the realm but the first written account comes from a roadbuilder/explorer from (the colonial domain) who tried to build a road through the mists and across the lions domain. A huge lion (at first it was believed only one) would walk right into the workers tents and drag workers from their beds to devour them as soon as they were past the treeline. Workers fled in terror with the exception of the explorer and a few of his compatriots. It was they who discovered that there were in fact TWO huge lions and also they who gave them the names by which they would come to be known: The Fiend and The Demon. A single one of these compatriots staggered from the mists into (the colonial domain) some time later with a bloodstained book containing this account and a huge lions tooth.

Forbidden Lore:The two lions are actually two lionweres who are brothers that have yet to take human(oid) form. Core designer may expand on or remove any part of this.

Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man-eaters_of_Tsavo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsavo_Man-Eaters

[alhoon]

Well, if we go by darklords the jealous of humanity brothers will never take human form...

Personally, I would prefer these to not be darklords though. I would prefer that story to be a campfire story about the dangers of the jungles. As a dread possibility, it could be put there that these two are lionweres.
For a darklord I would prefer something more... gothic. Something that includes a few of the themes of Romance, forbidden, choices made and sins of the father.

Now if the two lions were actually a human couple chased away from their tribes for some reason, that were starving and in desperation followed the lions didn't get killed and started eating human flesh out of need at first, for revenge and out of spite later, dressing as lions to attack the tribes that erred them and denied them their love till they killed their parents\siblings and were cursed to be lions...
that's more Ravenlofty IMO.

But I would still prefer that to be a campfire story about the cursed lovers with a dread possibility.

[Manofevil]

Gothic perhaps but NOT very AFRICAN. African tales and legends tend to be much more savage and primal than European Gothic tales. Horror stories in Africa are rife with maneating beasts rather than ghosts and vampires. If this core is to have a true flavor of the dark continent, I'm afraid some of the Gothic may have to be sacrificed for the sake of atmosphere. The giant spooky stone buildings Gothic literature is so famous for tend to get swallowed up by the jungle in Africa. I really can't see this finished product looking to Gothic if it's to be African in flavor.

[alhoon]

Well, Gothic doesn't mean vampires and ghosts.
You can have man-eating beasts and have romance, an essence of the forbidden, fall-from-grace, Evil-is-evil-no-exceptions.

[The Lesser Evil]

I think that some darklords should be included that are neither inhuman monsters nor foreign colonialist powers. A lot of domains outside Western cultures have had inhuman monsters or colonialist dictator darklords; it would be nice to tap into some of the native ills of the time for inspiration (albeit portraying them through a gothic lens.)

[DarkCrusader]

One movie I can strongly recommend for this kind of thing. Cobra Verde. It's a Werner Herzog film starring Klaus Kinski. It's about a outlaw who becomes a colonial administrator/slaver. It's got a lot of good stuff and would be easily inserted into Ravenloft. For example, the main character loves his freedom, and is fully aware of the irony of getting rich robbing the freedom of others.

[IrvyneWolfe]

I think that foreign invader Darklords should be avoided. There's already one (even though he's not 150% canon), and an Africian Cluster (it doesn't even need to be a full on core, it's easier to create two or three well fleshed out domains than a dozen broadly sketched ones) should represent the lands themselves and not necessarily an outsider's perspective on them.

That being said the only foreign Darklord I feel should be there is a possible Heart of Darkness/Apocolypse now type. Who's actually tried to actively integrate himself into the culture of the people he's found himself with, but his own emotional baggage and violent nature colours his perception of that culture leading to him becoming a violently unhinged leader of indigenous people who see him as a god (a view he is outwardly ambivalent about in his fog of madness, but he does nothing to discourage). A character who's failed plenty of powers checks for brutality and blasphemy.

Another idea. I watched Amistad with my wife a few weeks ago. Do you know what happened to the main character when he finally got back to Africa? His wife and daughter were both lost in the midst of a tribal war, and presumed to have been sold as slaves themselves. This guy literately goes halfway around the world and back, legally untangling himself from slavery, only to find his family shattered by that same institution.

Now imagine a character with a similar background, captured by Nova Vassan slavers (because that seems about their speed), taken to Falkovnia and forced to escape in some way. He makes his way back home to find his tribe nearly wiped out and uses what he learned in foreign lands to get revenge against rival tribes, and drive out the slavers. In doing though he draws on black magic and commits brutal acts of genocide.

He unites his land, but under a bloody banner, but when he hears tales of a foreigner living like a god among one of the forest tribes to the South he's filled with murderous rage and orders his people to war. Both darklords are stuck with one another, the foreigner can't forget his violent past because his neighbour to the north won't leave his tribe alone, and the native darklord won't ever be able to get close enough to finish off the foreigner and remove the last invader from "his" land.

Other ideas?

Move the Wildlands to this cluster, it is more deeply rooted in African legend than Indian anyhow. The same with a drastically reworked Farelle, perhaps any animal from the wildlands who enters becomes human (or a trickster beast) that way you can have some fun Gaimen-esque Anansi Boys moments.