Mzimwi

The strange preponderance of human feet amongst the jetsam of the Salish Sea

Since August 20, 2007, several detached human feet have been discovered on the coasts of the Salish Seain British Columbia, Canada. and Washington, United States. The feet belonged to five men, one woman and three other people of unknown sex. Of the ten or 11 feet found, only two have been left feet. Both of those were matched with right feet. As of February 2012, only five feet of four people have been identified; it is not known to whom the rest of the feet belong. In addition, several hoax feet have been planted in the area.

Decomposition may separate the foot from the body because the ankle is relatively weak, and the buoyancy caused by air either inside or trapped within a shoe would allow it to float away.^[5] According to Simon Fraser University entomologist Gail Anderson, extremities such as the hands, feet, and head often detach as a body decomposes in the water, although they rarely float.^[40]

However, finding feet and not the rest of the bodies has been deemed unusual. Finding two feet has been given a "million to one odds" and has thus been described as "an anomaly".^[5] The finding of the third foot made it the first time three such discoveries had been made so close to each other.^[40] The fourth discovery caused speculation about human interference and, statistically, was called "curious".^[41]

hmm - what is the difference between learning to read a language and to speak it? you can learn to read chinese and never know how to speak it. also, this is a small set of symbols, maybe a hundred and a few that can be improvised. so it shouldn't be expensive - 1 point for basic, 2 for fluent, i guess. 

by the way, for language nerds, you must learn a bit of haitian creole. "li pale franse" which one would think means 'he speaks french" means "he's a liar". the word 'neg' from the french word for 'black' means 'person' - 'mwen neg' = 'i'm a person' whereas 'blan' means 'foreign' without regard to skin color. in face, there's huge range of words for various hair and skin combinations. it's like ghetto french - 'se gwo, sa!'

I'm working on a different kind of rune magic, one much less power than the system in Grimoire. It's what i'm used to calling syntactic magic - the runes are words, you cast a spell by making phrase out of them. This system is used exclusively for making fairly mundane magic items. Here's the flavor text:

 

The first practical magic the waKoka learned came from an Aardvark Irimu named Bibi Musso-koroni. This magic uses a burin, an engraving tool, made from an iron needle with a ball of gold at one end. The burin is twisted and must be enchanted with certain songs, then plunged while still hot into the jugular of a sacrificial goat. There after it will write in gold until the ball is used up, wherein it must be re-enchanted. Using this tool, the 'kimusso', she taught the refugees a few simple glyphs related to the elements. She made glow-crystals from quartz, heat-stones from river rocks and laid the glyphs for air and purity on pots so that they would dehydrate and sterilize their contents. Such items are important to life in Ubantu, as the spirits of the land do not tolerate clear-cutting of trees or the open cesspits that normally accompany humans cities (especially camps of 20,000 that appear overnight). Items made in this manner would function for a few uses then need to be recharged, normally from the sun. The technology of engraving glyphs is called Elimu ya Kimusso and it has much advanced., though the forms of the glyphs still resembles those petroglyphs and cave painting found around the world. In time the number of glyphs has expanded and the language greatly complexified, becoming kiGanga, the language of knowledge. . One especially powerful application is in architecture. Wards, glyphs carved in bricks, stones and walls, lend strength and resilience.  Those who specialize in engraving glyphs are called mnakishi.

 

Ukashabu is the skill of magical beadworking, which is pretty exclusively female. Magical beadwork grew from kiGanga. Beadwork expands kiGanga so thatit is not just forms, but colors, patterns and relationships - a basic understanding is no more complex than any script, but true mastery can take years of study More than a natural language, it most resembles the creation and folding of proteins.  Beadworking is used to make a variety of magical pots a which can dehydrate and preserve food, cook it, ferment milk instantly, resist breaking or impurities and other such uses. Beaded jewelry preserves health, repels black magic and even gives the illusion of beauty, though such item are easily recognizable Armor in Ubantu is magical beadwork on leather rather than metal, though it is just as effective. A properly made item will incorporate patterns that strengthen the beads so that they don't shatter at the first blow, along with redundant patterns so that the armor is still effective even if damaged. Nevertheless, wise warriors know enough Ukashabu to make minor repairs on their own, and have their armor serviced regularly. Beadmakers are experts who belong to one of the trade guilds, who then sell the beads on the open market. Beads are the small change of Imperial currency. 

 

and an example of the glyphs. more later, still noodling this.

well, i have some fluff for you - about shadow elementals/mirage djinn. setting - a group congenitally insane Savage Elves are discussing technological advances in their evilness....

 

Aa'hui is clearly pleased with himself, looking at the others expectantly. After a moment there is smattering of forced applause, after which Thuksula moves on the next order of business, indicated the Director of Technology, Ekonosoli Shadowmaster. He wears a sequined rose and blush ball gown with adamantuim  breast cones. His tattooes are electric blue lightening streaks. For most of the meeting, he busily twirls the salmon color hair at the apex of his head around his finger, stopping only when it comes his turn to speak.

 

"Project Tenebrae...." He pauses for a moment and cocks his head to the side, then growls sotto voce, "Later, bitches, I'm busy"  Returning his attention to the board, he continues "Our world is interwoven and mirrored by an assortment of elemental planes -  I'm sure this is not news to any of you, nor that our actions and those of the djinns have effects that translate with indirect consequences.  Project Tenebrae is an attempt to exploit this, to, in effect, take advantage of the side effects of our efforts.  In particular, our 'funding', let us say, of the spirittraps has an especially useful effect on the Shadow Plane. By means of techniques acquired from the Dark Elves, we have been able to communicate and coordinate with the elementals, to our mutual profit. They capitalize on the dimensional echoes of our architectural endevours, and we get mirage djinn slaves. It is my pleasure to announce that the controlling technology for the djinns has been perfected and standardized to the extent that it will be available soon for general use. Their utility is of course limited by their incorporeal natures, but they excel at stealth - they are fully intelligent and adaptable agents, even creative. Yet they are utterly enslaved, as our children are, with true name spirit tokens.

 

"The nature, the very substance of these beings, is illusion. They occupy space, but have no mass. They generate no energy of their own, but can distort existing energy into mirages with light, sound, heat components and, in some cases, auras that register as smells. Their knowledge is limitless but parasitic - their ability to draw images from the minds of observers to create believable illusions is uncanny.  They can be harmed by coherent light, concentrated sonics, and, I assume, psychic attacks, but left to their own defenses can easily dodge any of these. Yes, fellow Directors, these beings can dodge sunbolts. They are, of course, totally immune to any kind of damage from kinetic energy...-"

 

"Meaning they can't DO anything. What are you going to do, Shadowmaster, scare people to death? Haven't you tried that already?" remarks Akee'zha Truthmaster. The rest of the Directors giggle and titter, excepting Thuksula, who has the air of an indulgent grandparent.

 

"Since you mention it, dear Akee'zha, yes, that has been known to happen. Unconsciousness it more common - in cases of attacks with  illusionary weapons people feint." He waits for a moment, but the only reaction is a few impatient glares. "In any case, I think a demonstration is in order . . . " He is interrupted with chuckles, amused grins and nose-tapping, but just looks back at the other Directors, perplexed.

 

"Whatever," he conceeds, "watch and learn." He removes a small black iron box from his bustierre and places it on the table, flicking open the lid as he does.  Nothing of significance seems to happen. "Normally, the names of elementals are keep secret, but this is irrelevant to Shadow Elementals. Thnmbthk (?), come out - full coverage" The sound he makes, apparently the creature's name, is utterly incoherent. In any case, nothing continues to happen.

 

"As you can see, we are now totally immersed in the shadow deamon, in a sense, we are inside it," he begins.

 

"No I don't. See, see what? Why did you make that noise, that razzberry sound? Did you spit something at me!?!," they all interrupt at once. Ekonsoli purses his lips and waits to let them finish.

 

"First Executive, if I may petition for silence? All questions will be answered in time"

 

"Very well, point of order" agrees Thuksula, who gestures to the juju. The little creature strikes the gong again, making no sound at all. All of the seated Directors reach up and finger-zip their lips together in unison.

 

"Where was I?," he says and cocks his ear. "Ah, so, thank you, Phthlmnp (?) As I was saying, we are now inside a completely interactive illusionary environment. Witness, exhibit delta!" Suddenly all of the Directors are looking at each other instead of Ekonosoli, twisting their heads right and left like agitated birds, while Thuksula looks on in bemusement. "End delta. " The confusion lasts only a few seconds, then attention is returned to the speaker. "Each of you experienced a completely separate illusion, a layer of distorted light just above your eyes, moving with you, while the Executive saw, well, nothing more unusual than could be expected. " He gives them a moment to digest this. "While the last exhibit was prearranged, it need not be. Mirage Djinns have a multifocus consciousness, which can create many separate illusions totally impromptu. What was that, Hhlrrpmh(?) Ah, yes, a volunteer from the audience, that should be educational. Any suggestions?" He looks around expectantly. There is a round of silent eye rolling and teeth clenching before Thuksula gets his cue and gestures to the gong, which emits a spontaneous deep bass ring.

 

"Well, a request, anyone?" he asks. Most of the Directors put on a play of studied disinterest, except Aganti Ticklemaster, the Director of Acquisitions, whose eyes are wide with childish delight. He wears a black top hat and coat with tails, no shirt, and puffy translucent gray pantaloons. Aganti's tattoes are varicolored handprints, the one centered on his left cheek most noticeable. "Can you do . . . butterflies? PLEEEZE!" He raises his hands before him in prayer position and claps in anticipation.

 

Ekonosoli smiles indulgently and winks. "Very well. Llhmnph (?), proceed." Suddenly the room is awash in vivid technicolor butterflies of all sizes. Rather than flitting aimlessly, as is normally the wont of such, these insects are engaged in vicious aerial combat. Apparently their wings are made of ultrafine glass panes - sharp and brittle.  Damaged butterflies crash into the table, collapsing into piles of shards with a musical tinkling. The Directors seem interested in this, at least aesthetically. Aganti himself is wonderstruck, mouth agape. "This particular format is purely from the imagination of the elemental, and, to a degree, from the mind of Director Aganti. As I was saying, the creatures have a positive talent for design - it is part of their nature. Okay, enough, Phfmlphm (?), back in the box." The display vanishes, and Ekonosoli closes the box.

 

"To answer an obvious questions first, the names. If you do not know the true name of the djinn, you cannot hear it correctly. In a sense, the name itself is a distortion. This is also a part of the nature of this particular variety of elemental, and very convienent - it is autoencrypting. Given the information economy of the Dark Elves, this is to be expected with much of their technology.  It is one of the few bits of knowledge they will allow us until the completion of our Humourous Grimoire, a subject I shall leave to our Director of Commerce (bow to Umsa'an). The second concern is range.  Shadow elementals do not function well independently. It is best that they stay in a locale that is familiar, or that they accompany their keeper. This largely a problem of focus - they are very distractable and can in fact become lost. "

 

"Initially, our primary use of mirage djinn technology should be military, I'd suppose. Once our enemies become familiar with such tactics, they will be of less use, and thus can be phased out and used as high value trade items. Though we do not have a sufficient supply yet of these beings for casual use, yet, I would say, we have reached at point at which further in house testing would be redundant. On that note I will close, unless you have questions?"

 

you do understand that you have an obligation to the public.....gifts of mythopoeitic genus carry a burden, ndugu wangu.

Is your work on spirits online? Love to see....

What brought this on? I just started working on this project again! Thanks.

I briefly worked on a world that was centered around the endless war between Faerie and Goblins. The Fey had magic, the Goblins psionics. The third clade was hybrids (humans, chimps, ogres, cherubs) - they had magnetism, because iron poisoned fey and blocked magic, while magnetic fields scrambled psi.

I experimented with making it more mechanistic (stats are GURPS, I abandoned this before switching to HERO)

 

Injuries and First Aid

In the Wajabu setting, first aid and the treatment of injuries is very reductionist, rather than the simplist Cure Wounds found in most fantasy settings. In part this is just the atmosphere of Wajabu, but it also allows players to have characters that are healers but not priests. If the GM or players find this system too cumbersome, it can be replaced with the simplified system.
There are many ushombwe (potions) to treat specific injuries. A typical first aid kit will have lots of munyu, emetics and purification incense, Woundbind, Boneknit, Burnsalve, Analgesic, Cure Disease, Poison Antidote, Snakebite and Slow Death. The Slow Death potion puts the subject into suspended animation. Provided open wounds are bound, the subject can survive without food or water for up to 30 days while the effects of diseases and poisons are suspended. It takes an expert to revive someone from this, so it is only used as a last resort.

Magical Healing

Healers often first use a fetish that casts the Body Read spell, which is similar to a CAT scan. The healer takes up several pendents in his hand and slowly moves them over the patient's body. Which pendent moves and how suddenly gives him a good general idea of what is going on inside a patient's body.

Injuries first receive treatment with Woundbind. This can either be a salve or a fetish in the form of a needle. The fetish takes a bit of skill to use, but is never used up. In game terms, this heals about half the damage from a single serious injury and must be applied to every wound. The salve is sufficient to heal minor injuries completely and also in a perfect antiseptic, which is very important if further healing is needed.

The next step is a Heal potion or fetish. General Healing Spells do not eliminate disease or poison, and can cause great harm if used on a subject suffering from these maladies or if the wound has not been sterilized. Though the physical damage caused by a disease or poison will be healed, the disease organisms themselves receive some of the benefit. Henceforth, magical attempts at curing the disease will be at -5. Likewise, the metabolic acceleration may be harmful with poisons - after the healing, the poison will act twice as quickly, though it does not become resistant to magic. This *cannot* be used to create magically resistant diseases or super poisons - the effect is specifically limited to the subject's body.

Regular magical Healing (vs instant) takes 30mins per point of damage healed, and the subject should not be moved during this time. Any strenuous action cancels the progression of the spell. Although the spell is painless, the subject will experience intense itching, requiring a Will roll not to scratch. Scratching the area results in serious pain - Will roll to avoid crying out, but has no other effect.

These spells are dangerous for use with internal injuries if not preceded by a Body Reading spell, a Physician skill check or other form of competent inspection. Apply -3 to skill roll. Critical failures in these cases indicates unnoticed internal bleeding.

They are equally dangerous with broken bones. If the bone has not been set properly, it will heal incorrectly resulting in permanent disability. The Bone Knit spell is much safer and painless. Fixing a broken bone with Instant Healing results in a -5 to the Will roll to keep from crying out. On a modified roll of 3 or 4, the subject passes out for 10 minutes per point healed.

This spell is risky if used more than once per day  on the same subject. If you try, roll at -2 for the first repetition, -4 for the second, and so on.

Magical Healing does not prevent scarring, though use of Woundbind before general Healing with greatly reduce scars. This is actually by design, as scars from battle are very attractive in men. In the case of burns, these scars can be permanently debilitating and thus Heal Burns is the prefered solution. Heal Wounds specifically will not heal blindness or other sensory loss, brain or spinal damage.

The subject will crave protein for the next few days, but this has no game effect.

Though possible, instantaneous healing is VERY painful. The subject must make a Will roll to avoid crying out. If he is in a precarious position (climbing, for instance), he must make a DX roll to avoid catastrophe! His DX and all DX-based skills are at -3 for the next second per point healed. If the subject is in the middle of a spell requiring gestures, he must roll vs.Will or start over. High Pain Threshold gives +3 to the Will and DX rolls above; Low Pain Threshold gives -4. (taken from Pain, M36). Fixing a broken bone with Instant Healing results in a -5 to the Will roll to keep from crying out. On a modified roll of 3 or 4, the subject passes out for 10 minutes per point healed.     Caveats regarding disease, poison, internal injuries, broken bones and scarring apply as per generalized magical healing.

These spells are risky if used more than once per day  on the same subject. If you try, roll at -3 for the first repetition, -6 for the second, and so on.
If you have the Physician skill at level 15 or higher, a critical failure with this spell counts only as an ordinary failure – unless you are trying the spell more than once per day on the same subject.

Surgery

Most internal injury can be healed without surgery, but there are always emergencies. In Milikyunjovu surgery has greatly advanced due to the use of jbobafi venom, a magical poison that utterly stalls the life process. Once administered, the body enter statis - the heart doesn't beat, there is no breath, blood does not flow, but due to the magic, the patient does not die. Thus it is possible to open a patient and remove a tumor or perform a cesarean, and the blood with barely seep. The patient is sewn up and has Woundbind applied by the time the venom wears off.

Unforetunately, jbabofi venom comes only from those man sized pseudo-spiders, and they have proven impossible to domesticate. Worse, even if one is captured, it's venom looses potency after being milked only a few times.  One average sized jbobafi yields five doses, worth 10 kingombe.

 

Spelllist:

Stabilize
Stop Bleeding
Heal Wound 1-3 on one injury, 10min to completion
Hydrate
Restore Blood
Resist Pain
Minor Healings - up to 3hp
Set Bone (to do)
Bone Mend up to 3hp in a single bone, takes 30min/pt
Heal Scars
Heal Burns
Instant Minor Healing
Instant Bone Mend - same but  1sec/pt
Resuscitate
 

I have lots of material on how spirts are viewed in real world Africa - mostly scientific articles from JSTOR. If you nix the Bantu words, most of it is generally applicable.  Here are a few samples, each from a different article:

 

A ghost {muzimu, plural mizimu) is the disembodied spirit of
someone who has died. When a man is alive this vital principle is
called mwoyo (plural myoyo), which may be rather loosely translated
as "soul," and it is believed to dwell in the breast or diaphragm.
But a ghost is not just a person who has died; it is a being of quite a
different order from the living. Though it possesses human attributes
it is not human. A Nyoro who wishes to threaten another with
posthumous vengeance for some injury does not say, "I shall haunt
you when I die"; he says, "I shall leave you a ghost" (ndikulekera
muzimu). Ghosts are left by people, but they are not people. This
is implied also by the fact that the noun class to which the word
muzimu belongs is not that of "people" {muntu, plural bantu) but
that of a certain class of things, a class which includes in particular
most kinds of trees and other plants.

 

The Ghost Cult in Bunyoro
J. H. M. Beattie

 

F OR Kalanga of Southern Rhodesia hereditary guardian spirits known as mazenge2
are a sanction on correct relations among kinsmen and affines. Only women are
possessed by these captious guardian spirits; and I shall refer to such spirit-possessed
women as mazenge hosts. Kalanga perform a ritual of atonement3 seasonally and
whenever the illness of the host or of any of her kinsfolk, particularly children, is
attributed to the affliction of a guardian spirit. Ritual obligations then draw together
a congregation typically not of agnates and other cognates alone, but also of affines.

 

ATONEMENT RITUAL AND GUARDIAN-SPIRIT
POSSESSION AMONG KALANGA

 

Different spirits may compete to possess one medium, and each such spirit may have its own pantheon of mashave spirits. Many spirits may end up possessing one medium for a variety of reasons. Some spirits possess a medium because they are attracted to the medium, while some possess a medium because they have nowhere else to go to, and others possess a medium as payback for services rendered. The different spirits will come in with their entourage of mashave spirits to possess a medium who has become attractive as a result of cleansing that removes unwanted spirits. Spirits cause people to gather, exchange views, and enjoy themselves in the name of the spirits and God. God and spirits are believed to enjoy such gatherings, which demonstrate the oneness of people, spirits, and God.

 

 

The Relationship between God and People in Shona Traditional Religion

I use something similar to this idea in my Wajabu world. Beadwork is one of the fundamental ways of enchanting an item, thus beadwork leather shirts take the place of metal armor, which was never invented and would probably cause a heatstroke in an equatorial climate.

Update:  First, I'm changing the name of the setting as a whole. 'Ubantu' is still used to mean 'civilized lands' but the setting as a whole is now 'Wajabu' from 'U'=land of and '-aajabu'=miracles and wonder. 'Alice in Wonderland' is 'Elisi katika Ncha ya Ajabu'.

For a while it looked like Indie Press Revolution was going to help me find a co-author and walk this through Kickstarter, but that has fallen through. Back to looking for a co-author who knows HERO well, we can Kickstart it ourselves after that.

Steve Long liked it - these are his comments and those of Jason Walters (in italics). I don't think I'm revealing anything private here, I certainly don't mean to.

 

   I spent a little time this afternoon briefly looking over Ubantu. General thoughts in no particular order:

 

--by my count it's a bit shy of 100,000 words, or roughly half the length of the Champions Beyond manuscript. So by itself it'd probably be an approx. 160 page book. However, besides reorganizing what exists there's a lot left to cover (just based on the author's notes, never mind my own thoughts about what needs to be added). For example, there are no NPCs, villains, or monsters (well, there are some monster descriptions, but not character sheets).

 

--he writes reasonably well, so it would require less textual editing than many books Hero published under my editorship -- but by no means no editing.

 

--the name's got to be changed. Ubantu is too close to Ubuntu, the well-known open-source operating system. Even adding a single syllable -- for example, Urubantu -- would probably do it.

 

I agree. Linux Ubuntu is something like the fifth most popular operating system in the world. 

 

--preparing the art list for this will probably be several days' work in and of itself. If the author can't provide extensive art references and notes to work from, it will take even longer. The enormity of this task alone makes me disinclined to want to get involved with the project.

 

So the art list will be your responsibility Byron. I'll walk you through it when the time comes.

 

--the author definitely seems to know his stuff and to put in a lot of research time -- unless he's really good at making stuff up. The book needs an extensive bibliography, and the editor/developer needs to get it from the author before any work on the project is done so the author's work can be checked. Another tedious, thankless task -- at least until enough checking's been done to convince us that this guy's not full of BS.

 

It's a fair observation Byron. We'll have to selectively double check a bit of your work. 

 

--I definitely find this to be an intriguing setting unlike any other I've seen for gaming. That's not necessarily a strong point, though -- there's a reason the gaming store shelves aren't filled with clones of Tekumel and Jorune. I suspect this is too far off the beaten path to interest most gamers unless it's priced mighty cheaply.

 

--I'd guess you're looking at a minimum of 2 months' work for an editor, more if it turns out that a lot of additional writing is necessary, the author's hard to work with, the editor's not adept at using the HERO System, or the elephant spirits take offense at the endeavor.

This is VERY sensitive to relate, but I barely escaped being raped. I'd had a fifth of vodka and some benzo and went outside to pee, Guy followed me and threw me down and very nearly got there before my friends rescued me. Years later I met him and he apologized. We talked and eventually I went home with him - hell, he was cute. I've been cavity searched, too. It's just medical - hell, when I was a kid, a doctor held me down and did a spinal tap. I don't get the personality damage part of that.

The worst thing you could do to me is a lobotomy - knowing you're going to cut my brain and take part of me away. Or waiting to be executed. Lots of nightmares about that.

oxen don't run right - there aren't different gaits like with a horse, a cow just panics and bolts. pre colonial africans rode oxen a fair amount. also, i think cows spent a lot more time eating low cal foods. then again, people ride elephants. there are two pages on the GURPS forum, one mine, about domestic dinosaurs and riding birds.

Has anyone ever seriously studied if ratites would be useful as mounts, were they a bit bigger? There's more to it than size - a place to sit, a means of guiding the animal, a gait that doesn't crush your pelvis, etc. What makes a mount?

I have an old handout...SaurMounts.pdf

This is my take on the Herbalist, which is actually more of a Pharmacopeist, as they use plenty of animal parts. You might find useful the idea of a trigger ingredient - :

 

Magic Herbalism Ungaka

Herbal magic uses the powers of the natural world to make potions, medicine and fetishes. This extends beyond curing disease to treating all kinds of problems - there are herbal cures for those who suffer from thieves. In the modern world of Ubantu, there is a tendency towards specialization, and herbalists are seen as having more power in the area of diseases and ailments than other magics, but this doesn't stop them from trying. The one ailment they do not treat is spirit possession, which is known to require an Ngoma mganga, those they do over several diagnostics that will determine whether such a course will be necessary.

Herbalism is more than just compounding various plant products. For one, there are specific rituals for harvesting the products.  The plants themselves must be appeased with praise songs and tended with certain sacrifices (specifically, certain trees must be watered with specially brewed beers). When the medicines are compounded, they must be introduced to each other in a certain way. Also, 'herbalism' is a misnomer as it includes many animal products. Glands and organs from certain animals, bird eggs and special insects are very important.

Dawa/madawa are magical remedies. In Ubantu, the word has come to refer to treatments for illness, whereas in kiSwahili the word can refer to a remedy for thieves, a love potion or any number of things (kiKoka uses 'ushombwe' to refer to a magic potion for nonmedical use). There are several Madawa Societies that make both standard and custom medicines. Madawa can be oral, topical (which can be incised) or smoke-based, but they are always consumable (as opposed to various charms and amulets that ward off disease, but don't cure it). Madawa typically have a secret ingredient, a kizimba, that is the activating agent. The rest of the dawa can be prepared and even bottled, but the kizimba must be added near the time of administration and typically requires certain words or ritual actions to empower it.

In the modern Empire, all herbalists are human/!Tsharg partnerships. !Tshargs' elevated senses and attention to the natural world make them apothecarists bar none. In particular, they can smell diseases and know insect medicine far beyond what humans do. !Tsharg taste bugs to determine their properties and are famous for discovering the bee-sting treatment for joint-pain.

Although herbalists concoct various standard remedies, to make them truly efficacious they must be specific to a certain person which involves adding ingredients that either come from the person (spit or blood) or that relate to the person's totem. This is the trigger, the secret ingredient, a kizimba, that is the activating agent. The rest of the dawa can be prepared and even bottled, but the kizimba must be added near the time of administration and typically requires certain words or ritual actions to empower it. One must also be careful with these remedies that they don't contain taboo ingredients. In general, taking a medicine from anyone other than the person who mixed it is very dangerous. [rules - some generic potions are possible, but they work better is compounded specifically for one person. advanced potions require this]

 

Madawa can be oral, topical (which can be incised) or smoke-based, but they are always consumable (as opposed to various charms and amulets that ward off disease, but don't cure it).

Mngaka function in many ways like alchemists, with serious greenthumbs. Rather than a formulary, they have Plant Teachers, allies in the plant world. He knows how to speak to the plant spirits and how to honor them, and they teach him the spells to empower their herbs. The herbalist finds the kizimba from his own knowledge. He combines the herbs and the kizimba and uses the spell the plant teachers taught him. To make a medicine truly powerful, it must be bonded to the user in particular.

Oh, and just in case you're still with me, I do have the outline of a series of books for Ubantu...

 

Novel storyline....follow the history in the Gazetteer, with Ditaolane killing the swallowing monster and saving the people and building the city of Siyathemba. In this world, magic works VERY well...too well. Not only can oracles and diviners contact the Ancestors, but very soon the Ancestors are controlling every facet of life, setting up an Orwellian police state, a Tyranny of the Dead. Progress comes to a halt and the people start to worship tradition for its own sake.

Then comes Ditaolane XI, king of Siyathema. He wants to free his people, but he believes that the ends justify the means. He turns to witchcraft, after being tempted by a were-leopardess. He casts a terrible ritual that pulls all of the ancestors out of the Land of the Dead and binds them back in their rotten bodies. He meant to break the power of the Tyranny of the Dead, but was corrupted by the evil of black magic. Now he is its slave and sends his monstrous army out against his own people.

The people fight back, and now they are fighting on their own without their ancestors to guide them. They have to learn to think for themselves, but they do it and beat the zombie army (because everyone loves zombies) back. When it looks like a stalemate, the Queen of the Ogres comes to the human rebels and offers a deal:  her people will turn on the WitchKing, but they must be treated as citizens in whatever kingdom replaces him. At the appointed hour, the Ogre Queen overturns her massive iron cauldron and hammers it with a stone so it can be heard for mile. The ogres soldiers in the WitchKing's army turn on him and destroy his other creatures, forcing him to retreat to the walls of Siyathemba.

The wall of the city that was once Siyathemba were impenetrable before the WitchKing's magics. Now it looks like the city will sit on the plains like a suppurating wound  forever. Then, deus ex machina, (which is very common in Bantu stories), a line of elephants with men on their backs comes over the horizon. They are the Elephant Clan, the baNjovu, a group of mystics who have learned to commune with the elephants - which are not at all like African elephants.  These waJovu are a race of powerful psychic with an ancient non-verbal culture. They offer to use their powers to banish the city of the WitchKing to the underworld, just as they do their own dead, but the people must agree to be ruled by the humans of the baNjovu clan. In return the baNjovu and waJovu will make sure the Empire is forever free of witchcraft. The elder talk, and agree. The elephants march in a circle around the city, raising a huge cloud of dust, and it sinks into the underworld.

After the dust settles, the Ancestors hold an Indaba. They agree that they will guide the people, but not lead them. They will help, but in the way of a parent who wishes his child to grow up and learn for himself. And a new age is born,  The End.

Okay, yeah, a bit much. It's all part of the history of this setting, it's just the most story like part of the history. The symbology concerns Africa's struggle with tradition and progress. The Tyranny of the Dead represents the old Africa, while the WitchKing is one of the post-colonial dictators, bloodyminded progressives who turn on tradition mindlessly. The ogres cause I like ogres (or Western mercenaries). The elephants represent the wisdom of the land itself, Mother Africa, showing the people a new way forward. Instead of destroying the past, they learn from Mother Africa herself, and find a new way to live with traditions while moving forward.

 

Well, maybe I'll take a stab at explaining one aspect of the difference.

 

What Diamond Spear is talking about is Alternate History. The world of the kind of game he envisions is "like our world, but..." so he refers to it as "a fictionalized version of our world."

 

Your world is a completely different world altogether even though it is populated with people descended of refugees from our world's past. It isn't Earth as we know it and never was. Do you understand now the distinction being drawn?

Hmm - interesting. Here a link to my fiction about the first days of Ubantu posted on the Alternate History forum. I'm not throwing that up at you, I just thought it was funny that that is exactly what I was trying and where I was trying it. OTOH, if Diamond Spear's (great name, BTW) world has magic, it's not alternate history - or, at least as the AH folks say, it's alien space bats. Still, I get the point - he wants something more Earth like.

About me and fiction. See, when I first dropped out of grad school, I decided to try my hand at fiction. Being that my favorite book is Naked Lunch and that I know from experience that I'm a much better writer while under the influence of opiates (Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment. ) I decided very purposefully to become addicted to morphine. I found my sister's old dealer, bought a huge amount of pills and got him to teach me to shoot up. I even bought an Interzone t-shirt, then began writing first book of my psychedelic fantasy series, "Welcome to the Occupation, Lotus Position Book One" . And it was brilliant. I can't explain how the prose just flows as fast as I can type, from by dreaming mind to the page, guided by Morpheus, my muse. Too bad I'm an insulin dependent diabetic and *really* bad at shooting up - after three months I had cellulitus so bad I couldn't move my arm, much less type and was having seriously dangerous blood sugar spikes. I quit. I wish I could go that way, but I can't. And without it, infotainment writing is all I'm really good for. And maybe my fiction wasn't that great - if you're not a fan of China Mievilla and the New Weird, it'll probably be unreadable. Hell, you be the judge - here's a sample chapter..."The Meeting of the Bored".

 

But even I am a little confused by "HELP ME PLAY TEST IT." I dare say I've probably been reading your offerings with more care and attention than most, but I don't always understand you. Join the club; I'm not always well understood either.

Perhaps playtest isn't the right word - I'd like his, or anyone's input. Just a review. Though I know I'm lucky in getting the HERO himself Mr Long to look it over, and I'm desperately trying to live up to his critiques and advice. I've put SO MUCH work into this, and I have no idea whether or not I've written myself into corner....it's a scary. I did have a bit of a brain bloom thinking about pirates and swashbucklers, that aspect of Ubantu is not well done. Thanks, though. Right now I'm reading about Bantu jurisprudence, so I'm going to give you a praise name, "Induna Mngariza" or "Sharpeyed Mediator".

Sorry guys, I think that I may have given the wrong impression. I was more making a post to see what people would think about a game run in such a setting not about me sitting down and writing up a full setting. I guess my "defense" of my first post did a poor job of making that clear. Sorry.

Cool, but then please, by the Ancestors, HELP ME PLAY TEST IT. Tell me what you want to see, and I'll fix it...

Mzimwi the way I read your post it seams like you are inferring having permission for Diamond Spear to develop his ideas would come from you. Is that your intent?

 

Diamond Spear I like your idea and have tried it in casual games before.

I am not sure for me it would be worth the effort to create a setting book of my own. But perhaps buying our using someone else's work would be awesome. My personal experience however has always been that games with rally high detail like the ones mentioned above lose something as many player just do not give a crapand will not read 200 pages to save their own lives. Leaving me as a frustrated GM with players who do not get the world around them.

Huh? I've been working on Refugium and Ubantu for over a decade - it's 150pgs of PDF and a hundred more of notes. I taught myself to read Swahili with Alice in Wonderland/Elisi katika Nchi ya Ajabu. I honestly have no idea what you're asking. Am I giving him permission to work with my ideas? I invited him to join me, hell, I'd LOVE for him to work with me - but for some reason I seem to have offended him, even though I can't make heads or tails of his objections.

As for your other point about detail - yes, fine. Some people like that. I once tried to play a Savage Worlds game about SF priests fighting zombies - but the GM couldn't tell me what the Church believed in. I couldn't play it. I *love* reading good source material. Tekumel is recreational, and I'm a long term GURPS fan. BUT I've also gone out of my way to make it easy for people who don't like that, by including some fairly familiar roles and simple essays like "Being Mbantu". You can play an Ogre Thug, if you like. OTOH, Ubantu has another purpose - I'm trying to pump life into a rapidly disappearing mythohistory. Kids in East Africa know more about Harry Potter than the legends of their own cultures. I'm trying to put those together and make them *vivid* - a bright, shining powerful Africa, what Africa should have been. I can't just siphon off another people's history and turn it into a Tarzan movie. Refugium is about more than a weird place to kill weird things and take their weird stuff - it's a dream, a world of mind. And if it kills me, I'm going to see it distributed in Africa. Just sayin'.

Uh - humor much? "that ship has sailed" was a humorous reference to the "age of sail'. Your response was rather tetchy, but I'm going to assume that I accidentally offended you and apologize for that, so perhaps we can start again.

 

Thirdly, the cultures, empires, etc. are based much more on our popular perception of those cultures rather than the reality of those cultures. For instance, historical pirates were really not nice people but our modern perception of them in fiction is much less objectionable. Another example would be the fact that most people, not being history majors, have only a vague idea of what the great native empires (Aztec, Inca, etc.) of the Americas were like and for my idea that works just fine as such cultures can be expanded on and described in each individual game.

The above is not at all clear as to whether you are talking about what you want to do or what I've been doing. If you're saying that Ubantu is based on the popular perception of Africa, you honestly couldn't be more wrong. That's Nyambe and Spears of Dawn, what I call "Guinea Perdu" - the bizarre romanticized notion of Africa held by many African-Americans who couldn't tell Nubia from Lesotho with both hands and a flashlight. I find that, well, offensive. Throwing together orishas and Pharaohs and Shaka Zulu all willy-nilly...As for grim reality, Ubantu features a slave race of sentient baboons that work on cotton and corn plantations, I discuss female genital mutilation and the customary practice of infanticide in the cases of twins and turn the typical Bantu oppression of witches into a eugenics pogrom aimed at the obliteration of human psychic potential.

 

First I'm looking at much more of a “kitchen-sink” setting especially considering the inclusion of Vikings. Secondly I'm looking at a much less, I guess “structured” would be the word, setting. I'm going for more of a floating concept to be customized by how any individual game progresses rather than a completely mapped out and stated out setting.

Refugium is meant to be modular. It began as an expansion for the GURPS Banestorm setting, which is a kind of alternate Europe. You should be able to add in what areas you like, to your taste. I don't really understand what you mean by "floating concept" - what exactly do you want to present? Also, again, I can't tell if you like or dislike the Vikings. Do you mean that you want a 'kitchen sink' that includes more stuff?

 

I think the major difference between our ideas is that what I'm talking about is a general type of game and what you're working on is an actual setting for a game. Neither idea is superior they're just different ways of approaching things. Does that make sense?

 To a degree. Suppose perhaps that I had several books done. Would you then like to add in the meta-culture of world travelling explorers? I want, at some point, to have this - perhaps and empty continent filled with riches and ruins and mystery, where everyone meets and mixes. I've seriously thought about adding zeppelins . But still - you want to write something about a type of game? I'm working on the campaigns and adventures section of my book. I just don't get it - it's an idea, but what are you going to *make*? I'm being serious, not snotty, I really don't understand what you want.

 

EDIT: Skimming over your map and Gazetteer you seem to be developing a setting that is not the "real world" while what I'm proposing is setting adventures in a fictionalized version of our actual, real world.

 

EDIT THE SECOND: Your work is strictly a different version of Africa while I'm talking about the Caribbean and the Americas so a completely different thing. Going back to your first sentence I'm thinking our ships are sailing in completely different directions.

??? No, not the real world. Magic works. There are real ogres and ghosts and the Ancestors can send you mail. What on earth (or off) do you mean by a 'fictionalized version of our real, actual world' and how is that different from a setting that is 'not the real world'? Ubantu is a version of Africa. Nèf Guinée, the next book, is a version of the Caribbean and South America. They are not connected - you can use them completely separately, or if you so desire, have the intrepid waChomba sailors from Ubantu cross the ocean and call upon Nèf Guinée or Tawatinsuyu (Inca). Ubantu departs from our world a 1000 years ago, NG less than three hundred. Originally, I designed Milikyunjovu, the Empire in Ubantu, as a challenge for the pseudo-Catholic and Islamic nations in GURPS Banestorm, but to integrate the two I'd have to have elves and dwarves and I just hate all that 'halflings in the jungle' crap. Hasn't D&D butchered enough cultures?

Sigh - okay - so, please, please, take a bit to explain what you're interested in. I have a feel for you're your going for, and I like it - it's a part of something I can see in the dim future of what I'm working on, but you seem to have a much better feel for the whole postmodern swashbuckler pirates bit. Talk to me....

Asante sana, ndugu

That ship has sailed...I'm finishing up the first book now, based on Bantu Africa. The meta-setting is called 'Refugium' or perhaps 'Refugia' - a world where cultures that lost out on our world get another chance, with magic and without colonialism. All of them reach the Age of Sail at the present time for the setting. I'm almost certain the first book will go on into layout this summer and be on kickstarter asap. There's a link to the current version of the PDF in my sig. If you're really interested, I'd LOVE a partner/co-author.

The name problem - I started out calling it Ubantu, which is protoBantu for 'Land of the People' but that's too close to Ubuntu, the Linux distro, so I need a new name. Alternatives:  Ulimwengu - Swahili for universe; Umphasi - Zulu for Earth; some contraction of 'Mdala wa Uhai' - the Cloth of Being, as the cosmos is called; Afrikajabu - a contraction of Afrika ya Ajabu, Africa of Marvels; or Ekong - Duala/Cameroonian for 'they have transported us to another world'. Any input here would be very helpful.

I've got a bit done on the next one, Nèf Guinée:

 

Akeyi a Paría ak Nèf Guinée

Welcome to Paría and Nèf Guinée

Paría is a fantastic setting with two themes:  pre-Columbian South America and Afro-Caribbean cultures, In our world, many native South American cultures are extinct or seriously threatened, in Paría some of them have become world powers. Likewise with the Caribbean states - rather than Haiti being a failed state, the descendents of the rebellion control an empire where slavery is verboten, Voudu is a world religion and magic is technology.

The land is an equatorial continent like South American minus the horn, with a large chain of islands to the north-east that resemble the Caribbean Islands, called the Ouakaéra Islands. This area was occupied by cultures very similar to those found in the pre-Columbian Americas, from the 'Incas' to the Taíno on the islands.  On our Earth on the island of Hispaniola, in August of 1792, Dutty Boukman, an escaped slave, enacted an incredibly powerful ritual, meaning to free his people from the French forever - and did he succeed.  His last name was based on his possession of several grimoires, including the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses, a secret grimoire of Kabalistic rituals. Using his powers as a Voudu priest, he and Cécile Fatiman reworked the ritual Moses used to part the Red Sea. The entire island of Hispaniola was copied to Refugium. The storm his ritual created  left a wandering dimension gateway that meandered through the regions for decades, picking up people, ships and whole towns and moving them to Refugium. Now, 200 years later, almost all of the islands are in the hands of Africans or Europeans, as is parts of the eastern coast of Paría.

The cultures of Paría are mainly based on the Inca/Quechua, the Muísca, the Machupe, the Arawak, the Tupi-Guarini, the Taíno and the Kalina. South America of our world has dozens more cultures, but in Paría the empowerment of some groups, mostly due to magic, has lead to a decline in cultural diversity. Because magic works here, the civilizations of the mainland are were advanced in 1792 than in our world. In the Tawatinsuyu Empire (aka Incan), have a fully recorded language, though using knotted strings rather than paper, and have begun using llama-drawn carts on their elaborate road system. The other major civilization, that of the Muísca, has recently invented a very strong version of bronze, The Machupe, to the south, have brought back horses from a perilous island to the south of Paría, and have begun taming them.

The last two centuries have been a time of great change in Paría. Smallpox and other European diseases wiped out the population of the Ouakaéra Islands and some of the coast before self-propagating magical cures could be found. Of the islands, only Nèf Guinée (formerly Hispaniola) came through reasonably intact, including a few ships and shipsyards, leading them to become the dominant power in the Bague Sea, making the Empire of Nèf Guinée a reality which control over Nobo Knen, Ile Mawon, Mbazakibala and Yurumaï, along with numerous smaller islands. Puerto Refugio, a primarily European island, resists them, first with canons and now with the help of Novo Lusitânia, as does Jaguacayno, a magically powerful Taíno island.

The Tawatinsuyu Empire is the largest and most powerful polity on Paría. The long planning Incas have used magical food preservation to end the cycles of famine keyed to ENSO-like climatic patterns, then gone beyond that to create a working socialist state. It's been a century since the Tawatinsuyu tried to expand militarily, after being beated by the horse-mounted Machupe in the south and the bronze-equipped Muísca in the north, but as soon as these two innovations have been assimilated, it's a sure beat the armies will march again.
 

The other potential worlds are

 

Shambhala - central plateau with Tibetans surrounded by Mongolians, Inuits, Sami and Siberians. Buddhism is mostly lost, though Atisha Dipankara Shrijnana, who renewed the Dharma in Tibet in our world was transported. Psychic lamaism, whaledreaming and dharmic shamanism are the dominant religions.

FourCorners - Native american continent. The five nations are Suanee (Cherokee/Iroquois), Teton Oyate (Lakota and other plains), Na'mima (pacific NW, especially Kwakiutl) and Cahokia (muscogee and moundbuilder culture). Nope, no aztecs. There are also Inuit tribes on the far north coast that trade with the Shambhala Inuit.

Bundahishn is a continent where the Zoroastrian religion survived and flourished. Bundahisn is the Land of Prophets and is regularly swept by waves of fairly peaceful religious fevor. The underlying culture is Persian mysticism, but there are sects that resemble Yazidis, Zurvanism, Madaeism, Manichaeism and Mazkadism.

Wainga Roa is a group of large islands with polynesian and oceanic cultures. There are five large islands Papua (Dani) Paliuli (Hawaiian), Hawaiki (Maori), Uluru (Aboriginal, mostly rainforest groups despite the name) and Tikopia (read J. Diamond's 'Collapse'). In Wainga Roa, the Dreamtime is alive and well. Dreamwalkers can walk from island to island and there are even bridges between sacred sites throughout WaingaRoa - the Dreamtime is become very important to that culture's developing magical technology.

Suvarnabhumi is the Indochinese continent. It is a blend of the Khmer Empire, ancient Indomalaysian mythology and Malagasy culture. There is some Hindu influence (Shaivism aided by hashish is the nominal religion) and lots of ancestor worship.

Between the  continents are smaller less technologically advanced islands, also from marginalized cultures. They are: Croatoa (English pilgrims), Euskadi (Basque), Eldrlend (old Norse Vinland), Mamihlapinatapai (Tierra del Fuego), Tenerife (Gaunchos of Canary Islands w/scientology) and  Mosirihi (Ainu).

I'm currently thinking of skipping to Bundahishn out of sympathy for the Kurds.

Neither. I don't get the confusion. Originally, there was a discount in the cost of the magic because it was linked to a Pact, meaning that if you break the pact, you can't use the magic. This is part of the anthropology of the magic system, if you will. D&D uses literate magic - spells are written in books, *language* is the power. This is pre-literate magic, where knowledge is the power. Classically, shamans and medicine men are always paranoid. In RW, this is probably because they are mostly charlatans, but also, their magic is in the physical items and how they are manipulated to access the power. If anyone learns this, the shaman's knowledge is no longer exclusive and he loses his power. Does that make sense?

Thus fetish-sorcerers, being this kind of pre-literate tradition, work on secrets. The methods of building their fetishes is 100% classified, from teacher to apprentice only. Naturally, these secrets are protected with curses, and as this is a magical world, the curses work. In Ubantu the medium (haha) for these curses is your personal guardian spirit/namesake angel. Likely a fetish sorcerer also has a tutelary spirit associated with his particular tradition - I'd translate the original GURPS need for levels of magery into ... dammit, what does HERO it?, but say that in the campaign world, this is the magical boost from your tutelary spirit, to whom you've sworn your oaths of secrecy. That give the spirit/GM discretion - say the character is spied upon while repairing his fetish, but by a child who doesn't know better. Then the fetish just doesn't work, maybe he has to talk to the kid and make up a story first to get it going. On the other hand, if he is tortured into giving out details, which are then written down, all his power is lost.

What exactly is meant by "enhancing the fetish?"

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary thinks the Arogo lineage is for the birds

The idea, which may not be of much use in HERO, is that you could customize your spells. Say you know telekinesis stuff. You might have a fetish/staff/fly swatter that is customized for short range delicate work and another for long range basic stuff.  This is the GURPS text:

 

    Enhancements may be built into fetishes. For each 5% of modifier, the skill level of the spell is adjusted by 1, as is the energy cost. Thus for the Kwinuliwa Staff, having Increased Range x2 is a 10% enhancement. It is decided to apply this to all of the fetish's spells. The *final* skill level of each spell is reduced by 2, and each spell costs 2 more FP. Applying the enhancement is optional.

    Likewise, if the nganga were in need of points, he could accept the Limited Range x1/2 -10% limitation on his spells. Each spell would cost 2 FP less to cast and add +2 to his final skill roll. The downside of this is that these modifiers must be built into the fetish when the ritual is conducted and that for each 5% of modification (having 10% enhanced range and -10% limited range is 20 percentage points worth, not zero), there is a -2 penalty to the Craft roll. Unlike Enhancements, Limitations are not optional - they are treated as Always On. Making them switchable reduces the gain to skill and cost to cast by half.

About the taboo:  yes. The fetish sorcerer has a guardian spirit who is also a bit of a narc. If he breaks the rules, his ancestors and other allied spirits can cut him off or even curse him.

Sorry, I got tied up in base material. I'm writing the Kikuyu kingdoms, done as a low magic area where they get into castles and siege engines. Thanks