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zerosix posted:Some history needs to be rewritten Seconding this. I can't believe this is happening.
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Oct 5, 2013 10:26
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Start in Wales!
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Ok, I'll channel the spirit of my welsh ancestors and call upon Owain Glyndwr! (By the way, I think "llwyd helwyr" is Grey Hunter in Welsh) I think we should be: Ffwyld Ap Owyn, King of the Brythons (Thwelled, Son of Owen) The position of King of the Brythons is a title given to the most powerful British ruler pre-Norman conquest. At every stage of history, the Kings, Jarls and Earls of Angle-land have been powerful forces, but the most powerful true Brtion retains his kingship in the hills and valleys of Cymru. With the sons of Ragnar attacking the land of the Angles, the eisteddfod of wise-men and song-tellers have met in the ancient groves of Ynys Mon (Anglesey) to choose a worthy son of the Harp to forge the new age of the Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau! Ffwyld won the title after reciting a mighty verse: Ae vn hynt gwynt ae vn dwfyr mor. Ae vn vfel tan twrwf diachor. He is a poet and a man of war, a man of great passion and great deeds. No master scholar, no master scribe or spy, but a man born with song in heart and bow in fist. Will he regain the land of the Brythons? Will he overturn the harsh rule of the Angle and the Saxon, the barbarism of the sons of Ragnar, returning Britain to a country of song and sword, of noble men and strong women? A land where the poet and minstrel rejoice, of stern warriors, true to the core, fighting for freedoms of yore? King Arthur stirs under Snowden, Dragons have been seen again over the Beacons, the druids of the Eisteddfod have awoken from their death-sleep laid cruelly on them by the Romans - the time of the Welsh has begun anew! In game this would be represented by: Ffwyld Ap Owyn, Country of Gwynedd Culture: Obvious really! Traits: Charismatic Negotiator Poet Lustful Gregarious (I'd also love to chuck in Rough terrain defender/Mountain defender in here as I'm not too sure this is the safest start!) Stats: Stick one or two into Martial, one extra into Diplo no more, or he'll get too old. Edit: "I was a sword in fist I was a shield in battle I was a string on a harp." Also, please feel free to choose a more pronouncable name - I am also biased on the dynasty name as it's an Old British spelling of my family name, so go for something other than Ap Owyn, if anyone likes this plan! lenoon fucked around with this message at 13:34 on Oct 5, 2013 |
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Oct 5, 2013 12:17
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Day 2840: The armies have disembarked with camp-followers first, itinerant peddlers, tinkers and blacksmiths along with prostitutes and children make up the first wave, they are slaughtered.
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Oct 5, 2013 12:25
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Ilanin posted:Cool stuff Edit: Checked, Yep, it is - editing post. Gwynedd fits in much much better with the tone of the idea as well, King of the Brythons and all that. edit 2: My god, I've gone SteppeWolf style nationalist over this, haven't I? lenoon fucked around with this message at 12:46 on Oct 5, 2013 |
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Oct 5, 2013 12:42
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Grey Hunter posted:
Just to say - vote on the spreadsheet, especially if you really want Ghana as it's looking undervoted!
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Oct 5, 2013 15:35
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Getting close! Everyone get your votes on the spreadsheet. I would certainly say whichever happens, lets try to arrive at some kind of compromise where we'll all be happy. Edit: like a black king of Wales. lenoon fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Oct 5, 2013 |
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Oct 5, 2013 23:32
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Sammy daffyfs junior?
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Oct 6, 2013 00:57
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You know, seeing Ghana overtake wales would make me sad, if it wasn't for the excellent spreadsheet. I can clearly see that we all had nothing better to do on saturday night.
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Oct 6, 2013 11:53
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Man is that CK2+? Africa always looks so terribly terribly boring in vanilla.
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Oct 6, 2013 15:06
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Paradox game = emergence of suppressed nationalism
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Oct 6, 2013 18:02
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It's also that in vanilla, Ghana is incredibly boring. It looks like it'll be much more fun to play in CK+, so I'm happy with the decision. We should, before a huge 'japs and nips' conversation kicks off, put the kibosh on 'I consider this or that racist'. Lets all be considerate and nice as the Ghanaian empire spreads across the face of the known world.
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Oct 6, 2013 18:30
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1stGear posted:
Happily! Is that alright Grey?
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Oct 6, 2013 20:56
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Still doing phd then off for a new job so an a/t would be too much. But I'll maybe do a post or two? Only know the early stuff.
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Oct 6, 2013 21:36
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A Tartan Tory posted:My favourite story about Africa was that of Mansu Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca and the subsiquent effects of gold inflation in Europe, if anything about Africa is going to be told, please let it be that hilarious one! We'll get to him I'm sure - right now the big issue is "where the rulers of the Ghana Empire sub saharan african, berber or ...?"
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Oct 7, 2013 13:38
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Neruz posted:Yep Totally - there's an interesting bit of historiography coming from later Islamic scholars where it was held that the rulers of Ghana (and later Mali) couldn't possibly, at all, really, be Africans. But, rather obviously, they were. Just putting the finishing touches to a post about the origins of the Ghana empire (well, the pre-pre-origins) now.
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Oct 7, 2013 14:17
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History post one: Origins (note: this is a whistle stop tour of the Ghana Empire from about 40,000 BC to 800 AD. Everything after this is all on Grey edit: another note; this is not accurate and certainly not comprehensive. It's not my field and is based on a lot of idle reading, not a deep knowledge of the subject) The fringes of the Sahara are very possibly the last place in Africa to be colonized by members of our species and the when and where of humans arriving there is uncertain. In this respect, the area that would one day become the Ghana Empire, then the Empire of Mali and eventually Mauritania and Mali, is even more uncertain, a "missing spot" in Palaeolithic archaeology. Because of that, while I'd love to talk about the really really interesting bit of history (ie 7-1 million years ago), I'll start a bit later than I ordinarily would. Separating out the history and myth of origin stories is difficult at the best of times, and 500-900AD in the Sahel is neither the best of times or places. We can start with what we're fairly certain of - the Soninke people. The Soninke are currently a group of sedentary traders and marginal farmers living in Senegal, Mali and Mauritania, with an increasingly large migrant population in Paris. Back in the early 9th century AD, they were the founding tribe of a powerful African trading empire. But, that's where Grey's starting - so we can move back a little further. Myth The founding of the Ghana Empire (Wagadu, from Town of the Wagu) has an oral history tradition known alternately as the Legend of Wagadu or the Legend of Djabe Cisse. My rather shoddy understanding of it comes from translating old french ethnographies for fun a few years ago (thank God I found my fiancee, that's all I'm going to say about that). It's a pretty wonderful origin myth that's both similar to common pan-Eurasian themes and has a special north african flavour of its own. As far as my old surviving notes say, it goes something like this: Dinga Kore was dying. He had traveled from India to Mecca and from Mecca to Ethiopia looking for a place for his sons and people to make their own. He worshipped his God, Allah, well, but his people would not. On his death bed he called a vulture and a hyena to him saying "carry the word to my son, guide him to a place for my people to find water and gold". The vulture waited until Dinga had died, and flew to find his son, Djabe. "Oh mighty Djabe warrior! I bring your father's wish - travel west to the well at Kumbi, it will bring you water and much gold to rain down on the Sonnike. But first you must sacrifice 50 cows, one a day until we have eaten and rested and we will guide you" So Djabe led his people further to the west after days of sacrifice. They arrive at Kumbi to find a dread monster inside the well. It has a long black snake body and the crest of a chicken on it's head (Lenoon: why does every monster always have a chicken crest? I swear it's in everything, from Arthur to the Turkana). The snake shouted: "I will let you use this well for sacrifice: 100 cows, 100 horses and 100 girls a year" Djabe, being shrewd, said "but that will be the ruin of our people, and then how will you get such a sacrifice?" the Snake disagreed, but after much bargaining said "I will agree to one snake and one cow a year provided they are the highest quality". So it was done. For many years the most beautiful girl and the fattest cow were sent to the snake, who would wrap around them and take them down into his well. The land was good to Wagadu and the earth was bountiful with gold and with rain. But then one year Mahamadu the (Lenoon: i think it's supposed to be "the intractable"? but I'm not sure) cut the head from the snake, who made a dying prophecy: Seven stars, fire stars, seven famines, terrible famines seven rainy seasons, great rainy seasons and no rain will fall in Wagadu, and no gold will be found" The History The story above is interesting in a couple of ways - were the kings of Wagadu from India and Mecca? Were they muslim first and then went back to tribal religions? Why was this guy supposedly in Mecca and a Muslim when the kingdom was possibly founded in about 400AD? According to many scholars, the oral histories of Western Africa have become inextricably linked to a couple of great migration events - the Tuareg/Berber expansion and, later, the Islamic conquests. Both of these have a strong East-West component and both have likely been incorporated into preceding oral traditions either deliberately or simply over time. The above story was recorded in the 19th century, after a good 1200 years of contact with arabic traders, slavers and rulers and about 200 years of straight-up conquest by north african arabic nations. The traditional religions of the people of the area were slowly replaced by North African Islam and the "actual" history (what is "Actual" history anyway?) of the area has virtually been lost. We can see this strong mix of themes in the story above - an expansion of a group from Eastern Africa and Arabia, a loss of Islam and a replacement of it by a more animistic religion involving human sacrifice and, to top it off, a man literally killing the old religion who just so happens to be called "Mahamad". Watch out for the Almoravid, Grey! So who did found the Ghana Empire? Oral tradition says the Soninke, the archaeology says "someone", the Arab historians say "the Arabs, of course" and the genetic evidence says "sorry guys, there's too much migration to get a good handle on it". So let's go with the Soninke. It's somewhat difficult to support a hypothesis that puts their origin even as far east as the Sudan, and nigh-on-impossible to put that further into what is now Saudi Arabia and even into India. Going by the linguisitc evidence, Soninke is related to Bozo and probably (not a linguist) part of the Mande group of Sub-saharan african languages. Mande is part of the wider Bantu group of languages, but is not particuarly similar, so it is likely to have a complex liguistic history involving multiple replacement events and dispersal both pre- and post-bantu expansion. On my limited knowledge, I'll try to construct a rough linguistic history, though this is only a working hypothesis before I can go talk to some people in the office: niger-Congo languages expand from the Niger-Congo delta. Bantu expansion sweeps east - around 1,000 BC Sub-set of Niger-Congo drifts north, forming Mande clade ~800BC ish This Mande group would have both genetically and linguistically merged with the pre-existing Nilo-Saharan people (dating from the Upper Palaeolithic expansion), probably forming the Bozo and ultimately, Soninke ethno-linguistic group. Some of the ethnic tension that must have existed as far back as then is manifest in the early oral history accounts - warfare with the Fulani and the Tuareg, the notion of "coming from the east" (possibly an oral tradition spanning hundreds of thousands of years?). Nevertheless, despite the myth, we must look south, not east, for the origins of the Soninke. The Archaeology Archaeology in this time and this area often seems easier than the pre-human stuff that I study, but it's not - it's much, much harder. Archaeologists have to tread the fine line between "reality" (which we construct as much as anyone does) and the ethno-historical accounts that dominate local discourse. What we may see in Wagadu is a fairly common transition-to-statehood process. This is a little early for us, so I'll just summarize it briefly. Much of our evidence comes from small agricultural communities in 4500BC, a period of increasing desertification that pushed communities into closer and closer contact with both each other and nomadic tribes. Out of this increasing accumulation came friction over the resources used by the communities - mainly water and arable land. Over time, communities merge and grow larger, fight between each other and subjugate each other, forming towns and cities and all the rest. Eventually, there's a fairly large number of varying sized towns with a complex trade relationship between them. This is pretty much the standard hypothesis unimaginative archaeologists put forward. More interesting is the rise from loose accumulation of related towns to country and empire. Noone knows the boundaries of the Ghana Empire and, to be honest, we will never know. What we do know is how the system was organised. At the head was the "Manga" or Monarch, who was also the chief priest of the local religion (snake religion, I think). The Manga ruled over an empire made of thin threads of land over desert trade routes, initially with the Garamantes in the North East and the Niger delta area in the south. When we think of "Empire" we think of vast armies and vast amounts of land (both of which Ghana did have), but this is not the right way to think of Ghana. We also think of bottomless mines and trans-saharan trade of an incredible value, but these things came later than our start date (though were certainly beginning). Instead, think of trade centers strung out on shifting lines spanning weeks journeys both north and south through the Sahara desert. Overseen by "Tunka" governors, these centers live in a delicate balance between settled communities and nomadic traders who could one day be your best friends, and the next raid your livestock. This presents a difficult balance - Do you attempt to govern the raiders, who will then demand support against others (probably their brother's tribe over the next hill), or do you try to bargain with them to do more trade and less raid(ing)? One of the solutions to that, and one that seems to have led to the initial founding of the Manga, is to expand the territory under your control to the next village, the next trade route and the next valley. Then you have an issue with the next set of guys over the next hill - how far do you go? For the Ghana empire, the answer seems to have been to the Senegal river system in the West to the Niger river in the East. Always expanding, dealing with raiders and nomads and the encroaching desert, acting as middlemen in an increasingly lucrative trans-saharan trade in millet seeds, salt and wheat going south, slaves going north, they expanded. Until they stopped in around 700 AD and "consolidated" (for want of a better word) their boundaries to the south. Why? Gold. The Bambuk, Boure and Lobi Gold fields. At the time, the richest source of Gold on earth. The Ghana Empire was about to get big. Real big. lenoon fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Oct 7, 2013 |
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Oct 7, 2013 16:15
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Hogge Wild posted:The caravans must have been quite efficient bulk cargo transporting system They were pretty inefficient at mass cargo, so the majority was low bulk, high yield. Seeds though, seeds do the same thing - crazy high yield, when planted.... On the genetic diversity front, not only is the majority of genetic diversity within Africa, but Africa is also incredibly vast. Our projections usually show it much much smaller than it is. There's a great 'true size of Africa' image floating around somewhere, and it's insane how large the continent is. The Ghana empire was immense, really. Absolutely vast, even by CK2 blob standards. (Also, note that the Ghana we're playing has virtually no relation to Ghana the modern country!)
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Oct 7, 2013 19:29
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Oh I found a true size of Africa picture - imagine the historical max of the empire of Mali as the majority of the USA: Edit: yeah it's fairly selective for obvious reasons, but it's not supposed to be 'Africa is the biggest place in the whole world' just that Africa is insanely huge, and African empires are pretty mind blowing despite usually vanishing from the historic radar. lenoon fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Oct 7, 2013 |
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Oct 7, 2013 20:23
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Head on over to the anthropology thread - we had a big discussion about it not so long ago.
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Oct 7, 2013 21:30
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Oh sorry I was posting from my phone, is that better?
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Oct 7, 2013 23:32
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Xenocides posted:Voting to legitimize every bastard through the whole LP. This would be very in keeping with my shoddy knowledge of the history of the Ghana empire. Bastards for all!
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Oct 9, 2013 02:16
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It'd be kicking rad to be able to take our animistic faith in the great well serpent all the way through - remember also that Islamic conversion is cited as a reason for the dissolution of the original Ghana empire in OTL. Lets keep the serpent belief going! Edit: wow, the Ghana Empire Wikipedia page is way way bigger than it was earlier on last week lenoon fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Oct 10, 2013 |
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Oct 10, 2013 20:08
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Grey has very kindly let me write some historical retrospectives as we go along, so look out for that (I'll start at update one when we get to update 5 or so, got to let a little bit of historical forgetfulness work it's way into the proceedings). Additionally, as we're dealing with the Soninke people and we have weddings to celebrate, let's adopt an official celebration song when something cool happens: Soninke Pop Music! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RlZIJv7w8A
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Oct 11, 2013 12:57
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It helps to leave a lot of single-state minors around until you have 3-4 of the holy sites as well, then you can declare on all of them at once, raise your army and systematically siege provinces until you get 50%. Last time I reformed Norse, I had all of England as petty dukes - 8 wars later, one very successful blot and I'd reformed the faith. Managed to use my vassal levies without racking up more than a +5 malus too.
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Oct 14, 2013 16:32
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We might have to if we get holy warred by a united north african emirate - may as well keep the options open.
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Oct 14, 2013 17:12
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Clash of Islam and the faith of the well-snake is coming ever closer... Better save up a massive fund for mercenaries to put down in those connected provinces!
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Oct 15, 2013 19:31
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We look big and scary, but (unless ck+ is wildly different) most of our holdings are enormous, mostly empty spaces of sand and sandy grass, with one or two actual towns/castles/temples per territory. Our laws permit only a few troops to be raised per vassal. In contrast, our soon to be enemies above the Sahara are sitting pretty on territories with multiple holdings that are richer, better organised and much more upgraded. They're technologically advanced and their laws probably allow a much greater number of troops raised per vassal. They also have a holy war CB that, at any moment, they could use to force us to convert to Islam - a state which could then parallel OTL and last for a thousand years. In more fluffy terms, we're desert bad asses who've clawed their way up from nothing in two generations. They have three hundred years of martial tradition which saw their ancestors construct the biggest empire since Alexander, and they show no signs of slowing down. They've got money, technology, numbers and Allah on their side. And us? We have Grey.
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Oct 15, 2013 22:05
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I think certain traits let you solve it in other ways - I've had kings come out as possessed due to it
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Oct 15, 2013 22:07
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SIGSEGV posted:Pagan Omnipatriarch sitting in Moscow. Belgrade as the seat of the Oracle of the Snake
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Oct 16, 2013 15:17
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Readingaccount posted:The well-snake actually wanted like a 100 girls a year right? If it'll take council members advocating conversion we can up that by a lot. He was bartered down to one cow and one beautiful woman a year from the initial asking price of 100 mares, 100 cows and 100 women. Clearly a very high diplomacy score, probably a Grey Eminence. edit: Grey Eminence 
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Oct 17, 2013 15:57
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YF-23 posted:Oh how true this is. Surely it should be 'not being able to spell has ever precluded someone from greatness'? As said above, it implies that being able to spell could be some impediment to greatness? But then again I still can't spell entiewetok
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Oct 18, 2013 21:12
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History post 1 Looking through a couple of Histories of Africa, I've noticed the early periods tend to be very dryly discussed in academic terms and are utterly boring and only coincidentally accurate. Myths and legends seem to be the way to go - lacking a written history for much of the period we're in tends to mean that historical sources were compiled much later, which is a shame - we lose any grasp of what life was really like. Reading up on Ghana Empire mythology is interesting, but tough to get good sources. That's why I was really surprised to see this crop up in an old travel text by Lindqvist that I hadn't come across before. he attributes it to a Tuareg-Soninke man he met in the deep Sahara, called "Sita Mchana" or "منتصف النهار". When asked about the origins of his people, he gave Lindqvist a song in exchange for tobacco. I think it's related to Dongu the First - I mean, all the signs seem to be there, right? It worries me that OTL and Greyverse are getting more and more similar. الأبله مرثاة Four times Dongu stood there in all his cunning. Four times Dongu warred and spread the land of Wagadu; first on the sand, second in the forest, then to the waters, and once to his wife. (laughter) Four times Dongu changed his name. First he was cunning, then Mansa, then coward, then father. Four times he turned his face. Once to the south, once to the east, once to the west and again to the east. For Dongu had always four faces: one to Kabayo, one to the Gao, one to Djenly and one to Soglon. Those are the faces whence the birth of Ghana comes, The spread of his sons The name of Ogoona The father of Wagadu Not the father of all! (laughter) For really, Dongu was of man, not of earth. Dongu is the serpent which lives in the minds of men and visible because eyes see the bed, The ear hears the cry, and is sometimes invisible because the wiles of woman Dongu sleeps. Sleep came to Dongu for the first time through vanity, for the second time through fear, for the third time through women, for the last time through battle. Hoooh! Dierra, Agada, Ganna, Silla! Hoooh! Fasa! lenoon fucked around with this message at 13:32 on Oct 21, 2013 |
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Oct 20, 2013 14:37
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Don't read the spoilers if you want this to remain a little mysterious! History post 2 So I've decided that while I enjoyed doing my history recaps for PACCOM, the title "One Thousand Years of Misrule" got me thinking I should make these a little more.... mysterious. A little less authoritative, a a bit more speculative. We're dealing with the history of a people who are likely 90% illiterate, if not much more, at this point in history, so poems, songs, recollections, art.... all more appropriate than a dry historical discussion. Consequently, I'll be using a couple of unreliable narrators with suspiciously similar-sounding names to yours truly for this early period, and blaming it all on the OTL/Greyverse blurring effect that I'm sure a lot of us suffered through with WITP. Consequently, this post is about a minor incident in the history of Ghana, but written from the perspective of a man cast from the court of a decaying empire, and one familiar with the military conquests of the Ghana empire. It's based around classical arabic poetry and stolen from a million sources, as usual. Man the University Library is really helping my research here, digging through dusty tomes of translated arabic, third-hand tales of trans-saharan traders, victorian travelogues talking to well-divers and gold merchants. Even some material straight from the Ghana Empire itself. The most useful source of information on the early years of the Ghana empire seems to be the fragmented songs that have survived from the early pre-reformation Sahelian religious tradition. However, one useful source seems to be the writings of Abd Mi'day ibn el Oon, colloquially known by the simple epithet "ال بنظهيرة", a chancellor in the fading days of the Umayyad dynasty. ال بنظهيرة, wrote in the late 12th century. He seems to have been an educated man, likely raised in the bustling metropolis of Qurtuba. After some (unspecified, but likely alcohol related) scandal, he spent some years living incognito travelling between Ghana and Al-Andalus, talking to all he met and forming a uniquely poetic view of some of this history of the area. The relevant passages from his remembrances come to us first hand, escaping the great burning of Iberia and passing through the tumultuous centuries in a rapidly fading tome I had to wear gloves to access and get special permission from the university to have a look at. They speak of a single incident in the history of the Ghana Empire, but one of the first and earliest: Matam and Kabayo I The abodes we passed were deserted, the places where we camped and those where we halted, in Kanel, in Dabia and most of all, in Matam. In the flood-courses of Matam, the riverbeds are naked and worn smooth, as writing is preserved on stone. The blackened dung lies undisturbed since those who lived here departed this life, long ago. Long years have passed over it, years of holy and ordinary months. Springs which the stars have caused to flow have not nourished them, they have been passed over by the gifts of the thunder cloud, the clouds of night, those which pass over the bleaching bones, and the clouds of evening, call to each other. But there is no rain, since Kabayo came to Matam. The Takur people have vanished into the sand which has taken their towns, those who built a tall house for themselves, where children and women reached for the high walls, where warriors made the spring of the tribes life come forth, where no envy could harm them, where none of their people would reach for the enemy, until Kabayo came to Matam. Say no more of the driver on his night journey with his wide running camels, give up the song of the morning dew. The ruins of Matam drink the dew from the ground and cause the camel to miss his stride. O land of Takur where lives were spent Like dreams in the shade of the boabab, Among the green of the valleys Remember me now moving through the rock and bone of your desert, Wandering in rocky mountains; Remember me now When I return to the tumult of cities beyond seas; Remember me With our eyes full of dust That tears when I think of Kabayo The flourish of Matam! The warriors who ran to battle, to find a thousand against them, arrows swimming through night - what brave men to have gone, the flower of man lost, your future a desert, your blood it's mirage of sand. Their hearts to find an army waiting, ready to cast down the high walls, to steal daughters and trample flowers, to sell back the prized possessions of men from hot iron cages to the heart of the home! It lies beyond my power that I should have seen you, see what you have seen and tell you of my city. The arrows of the tribe of Kabayo pierced you and the men of the war cast down those who did not wish war I feared that I should die, as you died in war for the land of the sons of Dongu; There is no wonder in my heart, for I would cast their father a prey for the wild beasts and vultures of the night. I no longer have any stomach for love songs on dwellings which already died of fire. I'll carry on doing research as I can, but I have a new job starting next week
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Oct 21, 2013 13:26
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Well done poaching that Umayyad territory. The hilarious thing with those north-south trade lines is using the chokepoint provinces as a kind of ultra-fortress, building the highest possible levels of fortification and nothing else. edit: WAIT! How the hell did you get Mecca?
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Oct 24, 2013 16:42
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Well done grey! Keep it up. Ill do another history post (or two, or three) on the weekend.
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Nov 6, 2013 18:43
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Well of course you'd know.
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Nov 7, 2013 18:36
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[url=]An excerpt from Professor Ijambe Ogoona's keynote speech 'Music of our fathers; the traditional roots of Ghanaian rap', Morokwa University, 994 A.S The roots of the reformation are well known. The story of the warrior who made it possible is one told in every crèche, school and university of the Ogoona people. What is less known is the music of the time. Recent centuries have seen the gradual abandonment of the traditional musical forms in favour of the 'classical' school developed in the 6th and 7th centuries south of the Great Trade Desert. Recent decades have seen a reemergence, but under the aegis of the Serpent peninsula, far to the north of the traditional homelands of the Ogoona. Artists such as Dr Ogoona, Snake Goona Ogoon and M F Goooon have all recently produced albums of work that draw ancient influence in both beat and lyrics. As you will remember from your mothers bedtime singing (laughter) traditional music does not follow the languorous 2/1 beat of classical opera, which takes for its inspiration the alternating hibernation and quick action of the Well God himself. Traditional 'Ghana' - remember, this was before the emergence of Ogoona as an ethnicity - music comprised of pulses in groups of three to twelve. It would e played alongside celebrations after battle, or to commemorate good deeds, or, perhaps most importantly, After the birth of the unexpected child! At this point, I feel including a song would illustrate this point best. A warning though - the lecture will continue afterwards, so don't try to slip out when we lower the lights. And that means you, ogoonu! (Me sir?) No, that one there - sometimes I do wish we had more surnames.... Anyway - Madako, could you play the tape? Leader: My song becomes an axe to chop the lago tree Group: sharp axe fells the tree L: zenku becomes the axe to chop the lago tree G: sharp axe fells the tree Zenku's arm fells the tree The song takes root in the people who fell the tree for me Sharp axe fells the tree L: my song becomes a man to charge the risen moon G: strong charge touches the moon L: zenku's army scars the moon G: the charge of men scars the moon Zenku's army scatters the moon My song arms the people stronger still soon Sharp axe breaks the moon L: the snake becomes a word to lead Ogoona G: clever words lead Ogoona L: the snake becomes a sword to lead the mistress... the lecture hall dissolves in laughter
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Nov 11, 2013 18:50
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We'll find out as grey plays - we're kind of in the process of establishing our national legends and the creation myth (which is basically fertility, right?). Now the religion is reformed, we're moving into the 'medieval' equivalent rather than the dark ages. So the focus of culture may become something analogous to ours was - away from creation myth and saga. Maybe we'll get a Wagadu Tales from a Ghana empire Chaucer. Moving in to EU4 an beyond, what our culture is is shaped by ideas and later policies and governments. Then, the foundation stones of our culture will be adaptations of the stories that have been handed down in the history books. We're in a pretty unique situation as far as alt history goes. Anyone can check greys early posts and get the facts before adapting them to a Vicky, or HoI perspective. If we end up a communist paradise in HoI, we can write Ogoonu history again to produce a party appropriate perspective. If we're a colonising merchant republic in Eu4, the same thing applies but with a focus on the cosmopolitan nature of early Ghana. Man I love doing these posts!
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Nov 11, 2013 21:38
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Valiantman posted:I wonder, what would movies be like in that universe, not to mention moral codes. Write a trailer for one! Edit: drat double post!
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Nov 11, 2013 21:40
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 09:54 |
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Wait, the next king is currently attractive and will no doubt be lustful?
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Nov 15, 2013 09:55
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