'tribal' inspired nation

[HoneyBadger]

By the way, I understand that Machaka is supposedly based on the Zulu, but I'd like to contest that a bit: First of all, the Ashanti (from Ghana--the word "Ghana" means "Warrior-King", by the way--bordering the Ivory Coast, in West Africa, as opposed to KwaZulu-Natal, the home of the Zulu, in South Africa) are the people from whom stories of Anansi (the trickster spider-god) comes from. His father, Nyame, is their chief god. Other stories come from the Gold Coast, and Surinam; where Anansi-Tori (spider stories) are involved in burial rites (the stories are understood to be told *to the Dead*), which seem to tie in to the idea of a spider "death-god".

Zulu mythology, conversely, seems to involve a good deal of sky and nature. They have their own interesting myths and archetypes, including the tiny, fairy-like Abatwa who are very sensitive about their size. Insulting them or stepping on them evokes a death-sentence via poison arrow.

Another being is the draconic Inkanyamba, a terrifying water-serpent-who can also fly on the backs of storm-clouds. Both of these beings seem to have originated with the Bushman culture (The Bushmen worshipped and drew cave-paintings of a water-serpent who was their protector), which has mostly been displaced by the Zulu.

Zulu myth also contains the Intulo, a lizard-man, and omen of death/doom that some people have connected (a bit dubiously, in my opinion) with the "Reptilian Alien" UFO meme.

[Gregstrom]

I thought Machaka was more H. Rider Haggard than specifically Zulu.

[HoneyBadger]

If you mean the books about Alan Quartermain, I honestly don't see how. I've read both books (King Solomon's Mines and The Lost City of Gold), and neither one strikes me as especially Machakan in nature, and She is set underground. Could, ofcourse, be a story I'm unfamiliar with. I've got all of Haggard's works, and they're wonderful, but I haven't read them all yet.

[Omnirizon]

I wonder if Machaka isn't kind of a hybrid grind-up of 'African tribes'. It isn't uncommon for this to happen to animistic cultures.

Take American Indians. We rarely bother to differentiate between Onieda, Cherokee, Souix, or Seminole; rather we just clump them together and grind their separate cultures into 'Indian' or 'Native Americans'.

[Gregstrom]

Well, the manual mentions King Solomon's Mines when talking about them. A hybrid grind-up of pulp fiction about the 'lost tribes of Darkest Africa', perhaps? The evil sorcerers ruling from an extinct volcano and the giant spiders with associated cult fit right in.

Omnirizon: I agree about the grind-up. The various Eskimo tribes probably get fed up that they're all called Inuit, too. And all those Celts, Angles, Saxons, Normans (and Vikings, Romans etc...) probably get annoyed at being lumped together as English these days.

[HoneyBadger]

I think it all started with the English, Germans, and French calling themselves "white".

[Agema]

It's not really a lack of animist cultures. The early Ulm, Marverni and so on are based on European nations at the point where ancestor- or animal-worship was transmuting into the idea of Gods.

It's more that most of the nations are based on European cultures. Maybe not a surprise considering what I assume (maybe unsafely!) the cultural upbringing of the creators and most players. There aren't really any nations covering the Arabs and Persia, south-east Asia, and so on, either.

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LA Atlantis are basically Eskimos, aren't they?