Shaba: High Fantasy in Bronze Age Africa

[Ashtagon]

Shaba: High Fantasy in Bronze Age Africa

Tech level

Generally Bronze Age. Some exceptions.

Monsters

Wildlife is essentially whatever was alive in Africa circa. 35 million years ago. Plus dragons. No fantasy game is complete without dragons.

Geography

Outline is generally of Africa circa. 35 million years ago (Red Sea is a mountain range, Arabian peninsula is merged with African mainland, no land bridge to Europe or Asia). Fertility levels are high, based on Africa circa 8000 BC (Lake Chad is huge, "green" Sahara).

Races

Orcs live mostly near the northern coast, but also exist inland across most of north Africa.

Goblins are an island race living off small islands north of the mainland. They ride dwarf elephants, and are decent sailors.

Jungle Elves mostly live in the jungles near the equator. Their technology is stone age, but heavily enhanced by wood-shaping magic and special materials involving wood.

To the far south, tribes of Desert Elves live. They have special materials relating to stone, in addition to a generally stone age tech level.

Dwarves live mostly along the Nile valley and points south as far as Lake Victoria. They are mostly at an Iron Age level of technology, thanks to deposits of meteoric iron.

Halflings exist on Zanzibar and related islands. They are expert sailors, and have tamed the dolphins of the area. Sharks remain a constant threat to their fishing.

Humans are pretty much everywhere, including overlapping the above-mentioned areas.

Notable Nations

Lower Kemet (Egypt) is ruled by an Orcish pharaoh. Upper Kemet is ruled by a dwarven pharaoh. Both are pyramid-building nations which regard the river as all-important.

Mandalan Karafay (Mali) is a fairly wealthy urbanising nation thriving along the rivers in west Africa. East of this nation is Sienna Halan (Songhay); the two are fierce competitors in every sense.

----

Worth developing further?

[sktarq]

Well I think so. A few things about this post. Firstly don't take anything personally. If I disagree with something you have said I may have misinterpreted what you were getting at or just hold a differing opinion about what would help game play. Secondly from a history of colonialism, the most recent and possibly largest mass slave disruption event, and having outsider readings of native cultures still modern enough and culturally available to influnces non scholars Africa can be a touchy subject. If you play with people who trace their roots there accusations of racism could be an issue (and showing stereotyped Romans, Asians etc won't get you off the hook)-So if you do want to develop this idea tred carefully about this issue. Changing names and such to sound very un-African may be a possibility but you may loose a lot of the flavor to make the setting unique. Thirdly I'm going to be going in rounds about ideas when I can taking a tour of the continent multiple times. I hope this doesn't come off as repetitive. And spoilers for wall of text issues.

Firstly Looking at various civilizations in Africa in the RW from ancient times to colonization by Europeans that can be drawn from.
Starting with Egypt I'd ask for a bit of clarification. When you say Lower Egypt is Orcish do you mean lower Egypt as in the Nile Delta or everything north of the 1st cataract? And if the dwarven pharaoh rules from the delta to the first cataract I'd point to ideas for Nubia and Kush and ask who lives there. With their gold fields and Meroe's rich Iron ores being valued by the dwarves Lots of fun things could happen.

Tacking west there are the Berber and Carthage influenced regions of the Atlas mountains. Climate wise this region would be very different to those around it. An outsider culture may fit. Child sacrificing to their gods like Baal has lots of hooks, Hell a Roman style nation either as colony or homegrown could work here. Baths, Aqueducts, etc. Lots of amazing ruins in RW for inspiration. Other "outsider" type cultural reasons could be a different race-say Hobgoblins. Like the Phoneticians never held such a powerful homeland as their colony the goblins settled and grew into something their island hopping ancestors could only dream about.

Moving south there is the Sahel complex. the Mali/Songhai thing you have going looks good but there are a couple questions. - Firstly with no equines (no donkeys, zebra, quagga, or horses) things would change in the sahel history allot. It really was the rise of cavalry that was key to building of more than city states here. Also since the Sahara is green here why would the trade routes do so well here? When the jungle meets the sahel and gives access to the desert and beyond a trade hub makes total sense-but with less climate variation it may be harder to explain. Perhaps move the Ghanan gold field to the north?

Speaking of Ghana - Ghana, Benin, and parts of Nigeria seem ripe for adaptation. Large Yorba influence gives many of the same influences that vodoun has. Benin could probably switch iron for bronze and be used as was. Complete with amazing masks, spiky furniture, and royal chalices made from the skulls of their enemy commanders (which they did to a British General).

Congo/Pygmies-Very little written about them that I know-and even less known from pre-Bantu expansion days. That said what we do know about them seems rich pickings for the jungle elves.

Congo/Bantu - I hate to say it but canibalism and later headhunting (for the export market) have been noted here for a very long time and dominate many people's idea of the place. Could be used as a stereotype, as the basis for a semi monstrous race (Orcs perhaps) or be alluded to in reputation but be untrue.

Hottentot/Bushmen. Except for the fact that quite good cultural data exists for them I'd say that they are in much the same position as the pygmies above and could be used for help in building the desert elves.

Sans-An odd issue. Mostly I'll deal with the San's lands in the cape notes later but it brings up a real point. 8K years ago southern and eastern Africa wouldn't have had any "Black" people-They would have all been Khoisan (who are made up of the Hottentots and Sans but most of the rest of Africa's Khoisan seem more Sans like so I'll talk about it here) . The Bantu expansion came out of Cameroon/Nigeria anywhere from 500 BCE to 500CE and nearly killed off all other populations to the South and East. Glottal and DNA evidence is good for this. It's an issue that can be touchy to say the least.

Zulu-This could be pretty fun really. Plenty to work from. Language dictionaries are out there, I know in one of my test-homebrews I used them as the basis for a catfolk nation.

Great Zimbabwe/Shona - Very nifty stonework around here. They still export it and the dancing family motif and their more abstract work calls out for magic to be worked in somehow. As much as I could recommend a dwarven outpost or something different I'd really encourage it to be native human-mostly for personal readings of history. When the ruins of Zimbabwe were found the Europeans didn't believe the natives could have done such good stonework and frankly similar traits could be fun in the game and nod to those people who beat expectations and stupid prejudice .

Masai - They are iconic. Give them bronze (or bronzewood) spears instead of Iron and a way to make their own red blankets and you are away. Personally if you want a different race in the mix. I'd say this could another or alternate point for catfolk. I mean really-almost their entire diet is milk and blood.

I must admit I know little of the Interlacustine (basically Modern Uganda (originally 4 kingdoms), Rwanda and Burundi) and almost nothing of Upemba Depression peoples but I'd recommend you look them up for ideas.

Moving Northward we come to Ethiopia. . . A treasure trove. I very much recomend you do SOMETHING with Ethiopia on a detailed level. It is basically a subcontinent itself in the middle of Africa (even more so if Arabia hasn't broken off yet in your setting). It has giant pillars carved a huge 6 story buildings, Rock carved churches, home of wild coffee, animals found nowhere else. It probably was the Sheba of the famous queen) It has it's own types of food found amost nowhere else even today, terrain so highly defensible it took until WWII for any Europeans to do anything to them. You have lots of options here. An isolationist race, human or otherwise (Goatfolk perhaps?). Have fun with this region.

Somaliland/Punt/Yemen. Even if the Red sea is still a mountain range this region could still be very interesting. As long as the gulf of Aden still exists it could be an interesting boarder-land zone. Incense, Rhino horn, and access to Monsoon winds made the area a trade destination for a VERY long time. It was a hodgepodge of small kingdoms from the time Egypt's Middle Kingdom through the rise of Islam and could be argued it still is or is trying to be today. Also both the leopards and antelope in the region are almost white. Also it would be pretty easy to move this down the coast a bit to (on a 30MYA map of Africa I found) what looks like a bunch of inlets around the Kenya region.

"Arabia" As you are still having the Arabian region attached. And cutting off the land bridge suddenly this area has little to no connection to any modern or past African civilization I can think off. However Id actually push for Sumerian or even better Persian roots for building out on the NE coast of your continent. Not just because a bunch of Fire worshiping Zoroastrians doesn't give a DM lots of good material to build a culture with it is because of game-play and my second issue.


Flora and Fauna. . .
You are starting from a position of no land bridges for Asian, European, and via them North American animals or plants. Now overall I'd have little problem with this but it will be A LOT of extra work and could also cause problems with various highly "African" images you may wish to use at some point.
For example Horses. There are north American in origin (and not around 30 MYA) but getting rid of them would also give you no Egyptian chariots, the Sahel nations were built on cavalry, No donkeys even though they are native the the African/Arabian region (Somali, Nubian, and the extinct Arabian and Egyptian Asses are all possible ancestors plus are very pretty to boot). No Zebras either.
Also No goats-No Ibex which are pretty amazing symbols of the region, No barbary sheep, Blue sheep,
No Ethiopian Wolves, Or Arabian Wolves for that matter.
No Bears- Not the Atlas brown bear or even the short face "native" african bears
No Mammoths-Yep there was a kind of mammoth native to africa not very long ago.
No Camels - they came from North America too
No Cattle-while the Egyptians may well have be one of three groups to domesticate wild cattle-the cattle themselves came from Eurasia. and frankly missing out on springing the native cattle of Africa on your players would be a shame. Look up the Ankole Watusi breed to see what I mean. Plus they have been hugely important in Africa since Petroglyphs where being put up all over the Sahara. Plus in Egypt, and the Masai, and the - oh you get my point.
Oh and wheat, and peas and....
Now you could find replacements for most of these creatures-who hadn't evolved either 35 MYA or 2 MYA (which in terms of fossils is better represented). Your players would have to get used to them, and it would be a lot of work. Or you splice them in-which is what I'd recommend. You could just make all such Euro/Asian/American creatures native to outer parts of what would one day be the Arabian peninsula and be done with it.
Also lots of background animals - antelope to hunt, Big cats, dogs to be domesticated etc wouldn't be available since they didn't exist 35 MYA. The fossil record isn't complete enough at any one time really for you get more than a few nifty headliner animals. I think you'd find it easier to take the modern fauna and switch out for or add extinct beasts up to that 35MYA for ease of play and filling in gaps. Also if you are not going for an African feel then use any ancient beast you want but if you are then keep some iconic beast around to get you players to "think African' like Lions, Elephants, Rhinos, Cheetahs etc. Perhaps modify them or have near relatives that are more worthy of mid to high level play floating about. -Just some thoughts
As for geographic bits that may have uses for you not covered above.

Starting with the north coast - the Mediterranean Sea 30MYA seems to also cover much of central Asia, the Hungarian plain, etc. If your world is analogous then Carthage and Alexandria like northern cities would have a huge coastline available to them for major trade benefits.

Cutting south the west coast of Africa would look very different in your Alt world. Scientists recently tracked the route of three major rivers that would have drained most of the sahara (and all west of the Ahgar mountains) into this region. I think one joined up to what is today The Gambia. Lots of options here

The cape. Not the Cape of good hope itself but the region near it which is today called East and West Cape states in South Africa-basically west of the Fly river. This little chunk of land has a climate rather similar to California or Italy. Accordingly crops like wine and wheat grow well there. However classically African crops don't. and switching climate cycles (the number of seasons are different even) is a real pain for crop development. That is why native afican crops never made it to here. Also why this region was the last to hold the Hunter gather Khosian peoples. But here is real kicker. It has been more of less this way since before your geologic start date. A small region of coastal southern Africa has had roughly the same climate - and a different one to everything near it since near enough to the KT boundary. Thusly the plants here are almost all unique to the region (or at least were until the Europeans brought samples with their caravels) and bizarre. All kinds of strange stuff. What does this mean for a DM? That this a great place to stick some unique civ that sticks out like sore thumb. Possibly constrained by crops that wont grow anywhere else it could be massivly overpowered but can't expand. Or it could be a last holdout an ancient and otherwise forgotten race. Advanced lizardfolk or psionic dinosaurs or ancient high elves with advanced tech compared to other elves. Again it is a DM's playground

The great rift valley....Um really as a wonderful source of big lakes, high fertility, etc I'd recommend you splice in the modern version for ease of translating modern ideas and hooks that wouldn't work without it.

There is a saddle in central Kenya between two mountains. For unknown reasons various plant species that don't normally grow more than a few Cm high suddenly grow massive here. many of them. It is an environmental effect-their seed will produce a normal sized plant if taken elsewhere.

Also the Volcanoes of Tanganyika. Yeah Mount Kilimanjaro may get the headlines but there are some wonderful ones that are heaven for a creative DM. There are some that the lava is so cool that you can pick it up with a normal teaspoon. It has very high gas content and will form splatter ash domes and pillars that are bizarre looking. - I think National geographic did some shooting there about 10 years ago if you are trying to find pics

So do I recommend you develop this further-Yes but if you are going for high fantasy you may as well grab any African fossil from 35 MYA to present and be ready to splice in modern geology and game speeding flora/fauna to give you the imagery and gameplay you want.

[Ashtagon]

fwiw, here is the map I plan on using for continental outlines:

http://cpgeosystems.com/035Marect.jpg
(source: http://cpgeosystems.com/rect_globe.html)

East of the Nile, I plan on having a mountain range where the Red Sea is, then a brief area of desert. It's generally uninhabited and uninhabitable.

[Ashtagon]

So the only native mammals as of 35 mya are the afrotheria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrotheria), of which the only "interesting" ones are elephants and generic herd animals, plus some poorly understood fossil carnivores (ptolomeids).

So let's play with an animal mix of approximately 5 mya instead. As for the lack of land bridges to import other mammals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreoeutheria), well, a wizard did it.

Amusingly, the ancestors of humanity (a shrew-like mammal) was somewhere in what would become Eurasia around that time.

[DedWards]

I agree with sktarq that you should be careful, but I also think that those that get offended by something like this shouldn't read this in the first place. That said, I really like the idea of what you're doing here. I do have a suggestion for the monsters though; why not include mythological creatures based on the mythology from the different reagions. Egypt is known for Sphinxes, etc. but there are other interesting ones like the Zulu dwarf-like water sprite, the Tokoloshe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikoloshe).

[sktarq]

Actually if you going to be using more modern flora/fauna why not just say there were land bridges and they are gone now. And have been gone for longer than written history. Much simpler than asking how a wizard's escaped horse got stripes, Worrying about where leopards evolved etc. If you want to NOT have an animal just fiat that it never crossed those land bridges in your world.

as for the map-thanx it helps with the clarification. I only had a 30 MYA map on hand-Which had a much larger Arabian section-basically filled out to the first line of islands.

Also are you trying to make it "feel" like an African setting or just it just provide a good map to start playing on?

[Orrmundur]

why not include mythological creatures based on the mythology from the different reagions. Egypt is known for Sphinxes, etc. but there are other interesting ones like the Zulu dwarf-like water sprite, the Tokoloshe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tikoloshe).
I gotta say I agree with this. An African-based fantasy setting sounds like a nice change of pace so filling it with the standard European fantasy races seems like a waste. Especially since you could have interesting creatures like the aforementioned Tokoloshe or Bultungin/Werehyenas.

EDIT: Admittedly, I am very, very tired of the standard fantasy setting so I'm a bit biased here.

[Alexkubel]

I would not be surprised if you could find dragons in African mythology.
I would suggest going as far as to suggest that regionally creatures differ with mythology. more effort, but more intresting.

[DedWards]

I would not be surprised if you could find dragons in African mythology.
I would suggest going as far as to suggest that regionally creatures differ with mythology. more effort, but more intresting.

The mythology mite be too diverse to cover each individually, but this (http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/african-mythology.php) website mentions that there's enough simularities to bunch them together. Because you'd just be basing it off of African mythology instead of trying to convert it to fit the system, you could come up with Gods and monsters that feel like the African ones. I'm willing to help with this

[Ninjadeadbeard]

I was just thinking about this kind of setting a few months ago, so I'm happy to see someone using the concept!

I always thought Gorillas, Chimpanzee and Meerkats were dead ringers for Orcs, Goblins and Kobolds myself. Then again I had the Mediterranean Sea as a landlocked super-lake, Germanic Europeans and Romans up in the desolate North falling under the glaciers and Undead. I also used Carthage, Mali and Aksum as the bases for the major cultures, with a heavy dose of Vodun and other Shamanism thrown in.

Best part about doing an African themed fantasy setting are the monsters. Africa has so many awesome examples of wildlife that it's trivial to morph a few into terrifying player-devouring beasts.

Hope this helped slightly!

[Ashtagon]

In terms of equating the various game races to real life, the approximate model I am using ius:


halflings: homo floriensis, but relocated
orcs, dwarves: homo neanderthalensis
goblins: neanderthals subjected to the same evolutionary pressures that made H. floriensis.
elves: hypothetical gracile variant of H. sapiens that migrated southwards. Certain Namibian tribes have unusually gracile features, which inspired this idea.
gnomes: nothing. Intentionally otherworldly.


I'm contemplating lizardfolk and birdfolk (of a sort) based in South America.

nb. no "pygmies". It's a bit of an overdone trope, and has unfortunate connotations to boot.

I want to avoid using RL cultures too heavily. I don't want players to think "oh, this is fantasy $culture". Rather, it is geography that should dictate culture. Only the fact that the geography is broadly the same will create similarities with RL in that sense. So culturally, the watchword is "convergent evolution" rather than "file off the serial numbers".

I think I'll probably have to go with a land bridge version of the map, because otherwise the evolutionary processes won't make much sense (humans evolved from an ancestor that was in Asia before it was in Africa).

Overall, I'm aiming for a wildlife mix based on about 5 mya. That's far enough to get the classic "prehistoric" beasts, without getting the really modern forms. It still means no usable horses though. Rhino and elephant cavalry seem far more epic though. In some cases, there will be fantasy-trope "upgraded" versions of these beasts in addition to the regular versions. Plus dragons. Gotta have dragons.

[Logic]

In the last Africa based setting I really liked, Paladins (my favorite class) were spear wielders, despite the technology level. It worked withing the setting because their deities were partial to the old hunting ways despite the swords available to nearly every would-be adventurer.

This works pretty well in a mostly bronze age tech level, because few weapons will be more developed than a spear anyway.

[sktarq]

Right, The age old issues of dropping a RW culture into game versus re-skinned or inspired by cultures.
There is an art to it but I find re-skinning/inspired by is VERY useful. The real kicker is to get beyond the stereotypes and famous images of a culture. Use the original social structures, crops, building design and clothes patterns, these parts of a culture work well in translation. Take cultural cues that are not part of the main iconography of a culture and expand them.
Example
If a culture (like the Maya say) thinks that newer palaces and temples are more impressive than old ones - push that - have the rich familes be putting up large new houses every couple generations leaving the previous ones to be subdivided by the poorer-social class would be seen not by how big ones house is but by how old it is and how much square footage per person your family has. And from the outside a visiting adventurer has lines and lines huge mansions to see and while the new ones hold a few people and are richly decorated the slums are turned into a warren of tightly packed hovels and are crumbling under their age.
Finding images to replace the famous ones of the culture you are ripping from that are thematically similar. It is hard to get a feel of a place you want like that of a given culture if you don’t use that culture as a model. For an example of major image substitution I did an Egypt re-skinning.


When people think of Egypt they think of Pyramids, Mummies, and Deserts. Really Egypt was about the Flood of the Nile and the Humid, Swampy valley floor and delta as much as the desert so I got to thinking about floods. That got me thinking of the Amazon rainforest and how large parts of it flood in a similar cycle to the Nile. Mummification is about preservation – deserts help that but swamps go exactly the opposite-so a cultural obsession with preservation still works well. So I dropped Egypt into Flooding forest/swamp type environment. Put in some ridgeline systems for a good source of stone and dry cities. Then added New Orleans style graveyards for more Necropolis adventuring. I pulled most of my imagery and ideas from Lower Egypt delta works and a bit from the Iraqi swamp Arabs of the 1920’s (who have some decent cultural write ups and a very ancient lifestyle). I also replaced the pyramids with spirals spires-Tower of Babylon or Spiral Minaret style. Done few people spotted the Egyptian flavor but loved the detail in everything from food to tools to monsters. The only person you spotted it unaided has a BA in archeology.

I’m not saying you should use the above but I’m pointing it out as an example of how such a thing can work. In a less popularly known culture less extreme methods than a climatic shift work just fine. But Egypt is very iconic.

Also names-don’t use the real names of things.

A couple examples from the stuff I mentioned earlier- a list of cultural traits and whatnot that will avoid the – oh we are in “blank” culture now

For example Jungle elves rooted in Pygmies since you see it as a trope – Note Pygmy culture not genetics

Three main groups (A,B, & M for now)-traits specific to one major trial complex marked with that letter
Very musical – group singing common and very few instruments used but accapella like voice patterns common and very advanced (I hear a beatboxing bard)
Primary hunting tools are nets, spear and bow
M-See the forest as Mother or Father figure-individual animals and plants as extensions of a larger whole. In times of distress (death in the village, war, etc) the Jungle must be woken to protect its children the elves. To wake the jungle song, dance and ritual are used
A-Very animist in its traditions with all the various animals and plants having spirits
Linguistically “Dead” just means very sick which is confusing for outsiders who see the local tern “Dead-for-ever” as death outside the jungle. (technically this is obsolete but has fun connotations and could be built on in magic ideas)
Cultural norm of placing bare feet together to speak to each other-or in a circle for group discussions.
Cultural Norm of if one notices elves sneaking around or approaching stealthily it is rude to let anyone know you have spotted one and it is proper to act surprised when they reveal themselves-only true out in the jungle.
Honey Collection important part of culture-both for food, ritual, and a mainstay of elven stories and songs
Very strong Oral history (All but A in particular)
Sister trading common (where a brother/ sister pair from one family will marry a 2nd brother/sister pair from another)
M-only hunts smaller creatures and largely eats Crabs, snails, insect larva, ants, hibiscus, amaranth root , wild yams, berries, a few leaves, honey,. That said this diet is very rich in protein (twice normal beefsteak per ounce) and they healthy from it
B- Hunts more than the others-including the Giant Forest Hog-But refuses to eat said hog as it is taboo to eat either pigs or rats in the culture. It is however valued for trade purposes.
B-Uses crushed poisonous plants for fishing purposes
A-extremely tight marriage and family bonds. The couple does almost everything together for the rest of their lives with almost no gender division of labor. This leads fathers being closer to children than in almost any other culture. Also means that adventurers who think they are fighting one almost always are surprised by the second one.
M-each family has a traditional hunting/foraging ground which are loosely enforced and amount to an entrance to the jungle as much as anything-and in the dry season spread out radially from their main camps toward their own hunting grounds.

Btb M is Mbuti, A is Aka, & B is Baka in the pygmy world.

The Dangerously iconic Maasai Tribes – very vulnerable to fantasy Maasi cultural norm.

Warrior/Pastorialists.
Thornbrush walls to semi-permanent camps
Herd cattle and goats.
Animals as wealth
Seiries of cultural roles over the coarse of life within the community based on age
Age set based culture (in which people are born to a block of people around the same age-that block or generation goes through various rite of passage and age based roles togther as group. Very tight socialization as well)
Not allowed to marry until quite late (men) marry very early (women)
Use body modification for rite of passage rituals
Monotheistic (or at least only worships one divinity) who granted the people the rite to all livestock-thus the priest drive cattle rustling
Have a strong tradition of all males being warriors,
Diet of meat, milk and blood all raw. Use a few plants for soups as medicine or flavoring
Let hair grow long between rights of passage or renewal times and shave it off at times of births, marriage, inheritance, granting of leadership, or rites of passage
Intricate jewelry
Use body modification for beauty as well as
Young men socialy exiled to edge of community except for meals and rituals-where they are encouraged to raid surrounding peoples.

What to change
Change red tartans for other bright colour – like sky/electric blue.
Change traditional spear and throwing club to javelin and mace for example.
Change iconic bouncing dance to something else-like leaping backwards and forwards even-just that will throw your budding Anthropologists with a name change or two. Or to moonwalking and sliding for a different feel.
How about have weapons made from the cattle’s giant horns? Or from some beast who an age set is supposed to take down before graduating to full adulthood
Change them to a non-human race if still too recognizable


The easy to overplay Hobgoblin “Carthage”

Former Colony of the Goblin tribes of the islands that match up to what would one day be Europe on your map
Still dominates trade with such goblin islands which gives it access to the by far largest sources of tin in the world for bronze.
Other island goods like Amber (sub any rare semiprecious stone) and many Furs unique to its ports
Has formal auctions for market goods-invented the practice actually
Drinks wine when grapes otherwise don’t grow on the continent (sub other unique drink like plum wine or cider if you want)
Will make harbours for ships by adding seawalls or flooding depressions-thus keeping ships safe in storms that wreck other nations ships.
Founded by exiled queen
Is basically and Oligarcal republic (post 483 BC in RW)
Have constitution to oversee the ruling generals by a council of elders
Use cigar shaped ceramic jars for trading liquids
Special priest caste with different facial hair than most of the population (were clean shaven but could easily reverse this here)
While in reality child sacrifice is questionable it was highly popular to say it was popular by Carthagean rivals – in a fantasy world it could have been part of their way of life.
keep them kind of dirty-the Carthageans had a reputation around the med as semi barbarians and that they would trade with anyone. In reality mostly a non Greek prejudice but if they are Non-Human here it plays well.

what to not do
no togas
keep them part of the goblinoid world-just far more refined
no "legions" with banded armor and square shields


But the real thing about all the above is that they are not done yet. - Now you take the bones from the RW like above and brainstorm. How do they deal with dragons? How does a non literate society deal with wizards? What about Druids? Bards? or even when the Gods are real would Shakea Zulu react when the wise told him it was him who had spread blood all over the inside of his hut? The slow acting poisons the Bushmen use to take down Elands (the largest antelope in Africa) could it be adapted for even larger beast alive 5mya? and would they still sing songs and chant for hours it takes their prey to die? So it is a start-because working from whole cloth it is easier to fall into tropes actually), and inspiration, and polish.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

*solid awesome*

Your name may sound like a hand pushing through jello, but your ideas rock hard!

[Scootaloo]

A few things.

1) If you're going with a green sahara, then it's important to remember that the sahara back then had two large watersheds - the Nile and the ***** river both had much larger drainages than today (obviously) and there were also many smaller rivers that drained into the Mediterranean and north Atlantic. Also, the Nile used to drain into the Gulf of Sidra, rather than its current location. Lake Chad was practically an inland sea.

2) There are two easy ways to avoid the "this race is this culture," and the hairy issues that can raise ("So you're saying the tuareg are orcs, huh?")

First option, dispense with "real world" cultures altogether. There's absolutely no reason to believe that human cultures in your game would mirror the oens that actually developed, especially considering the geographical and environmental differences - certainly elves and dwarves and orcs aren't going to follow a cultural template! What you want in this one is African flavor, while still letting the race be its own unique take. Take inspiration from somewhere, apply the game race in question, and evolve it from there until it's still got that "flavor," but can't be pinpointed.

Your Egyptian Orcs, for instance. You want to go with Pyramids. Okay, now the question is why? What if their pyramids aren't tombs, but rather temples, akin to Mesoamerica? What if these temples are central to a highly-evolved druidic faith that reveres the river their civilization is built upon, and in particular the Wolf-Star that heralds its floods, and the pyramids are pinnacles the priesthood climbs to be near the wolf-star? They mummify their dead, but entomb them in special grottoes where the dead advise the living. One of their highest gods is a lion-goddess, who is known for her rage and independence, leading to females being the dominant factor in the orc military here. So we've just taken "orcs in Egypt" and created something very different from Egypt, but recognizable enough to ring bells in the players' heads.

Second option, is to dispense with the "different races are culturally divided." Instead you get something more like the situation of Khorvaire in the Eberron setting, where multiple races are integrated into each nation. Take your Mali nation. Perhaps Malian elves share more in common culturally with Malian humans or half-orcs, than they do with elves from a hundred miles beyond the border. You'll still need to come up with independent cultures, but it's actually a little more realistic than "Human nation, dwarf nation, kobold nation," etc. In this case, you're evolving the nation - what would Great Zimbabwe be like, with hte addition of elvish master craftsmen in addition to the human traders and farmers that existed there? How might hte Zulu nation have developed, if their tribes were big clans families of humans, halflings, and catfolk, and Shaka ha been a halfling?

[Corneel]

One class that could benefit from an African themed setting is the bard.
African culture is more oral than literary and storytellers play an important role, for instance griots (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griot) in West Africa. Bards in your setting could be modeled on griots.

Secondly Africa is a patchwork of languages, cultures and ethnic groups, living in close proximity and often sharing the same living space. Monoethnic political entities larger than an English county should be rare. A rather recurrent theme is one predominantely agricultural group sharing the same geographical space with a predominantely pastoral group (with possibly some smaller groups being a hunter/gatherers or fishermen). These groups might share a language (and culture) though still be mostly separate (eg. Hutu & Tutsi in Rwanda and Burundi and Twa the hunter/gatherers) or be mostly separate cultures with separate languages (eg. Hausa & Fulani in northern Nigeria).