11.23.09

[Anima Prime] The Northern Tribes

Posted in Anima Prime, Game Design at 11:19 pm by Christian

I am sooo close to finishing up the text for Anima Prime, finally.  The part that’s taken me the longest is the setting.  I’ve decided to flesh out Ghostfield to a degree that players will actually have enough variety from which to create their unique characters and stories.

If you know me and my games, you know that I have an affinity for tribal groups.  I think tribes get a raw deal in many fantasy settings.  Most often,  the humans are civilized and urban and the evil monsters — orcs, goblins, and so on — get to be tribal.  That’s sucky.  On the other hand, I know that “tribes as benevolent keepers of nature” is just as much of a stereotype.  So I try to make tribal society an equal alternative to, say, mercantile or feudal society: different, but not inherently better or worse.

One thing you may not know is that I actually base the tribes in my games on Germanic tribes.  I think many people see Beast Hunters and think of Native American or maybe African tribes.  But my inspiration lies in my own culture’s ancestry (and Angga’s illustration of the riding warrior that I posted before).  So here’s the section I wrote for Anima Prime, not yet edited, but good enough to give you an idea of where I’m going with this part of the setting.  I’m going for “short but evocative” here.

The Northern Tribes

The northern part of Enendia, spanning about one third of the land that’s free from Kanissian occupation, is ruled by three major tribes.  These tribes have a long history of conflict with each other as well as the surrounding areas, and tales of their raiding parties are told to scare small children around Enendia and beyond.

The tribes believe that the Gods live in the clouds, and that we can feel their presence when the wind blows.  Thus, when the air is still, the Gods are assumed to be casting their glance elsewhere.  This leads the tribes to stop all of their activities when there is no wind, for fear that their Gods would not be able to bless and aid them.  They also conduct all important matters out in the open and have a strong distrust of closed buildings, which keep the Gods shut out.  Anyone who wants to make dealings with the tribes (and survive) needs to remember never to invite them into any kind of enclosed area, or the tribes will feel that they are being tricked or corrupted.

The tribes have no name for themselves; they simply use “we” when they talk about tribe members, their clan, or whole tribes.  Most of them are born into their tribe, but outsiders willing enough to dedicate themselves to a clan or tribe can be accepted through the assent of the community.  When tribe members die, they are burned, and their essence rises up with the smoke to join the Gods among the clouds.

Two of the tribes are still nomadic, and both of them tame horses for their warriors, hunters, and scouts.  They are the ones who adhere to the old ways, while the third tribe has settled down at the southwestern edge of their territory and established more permanent trade relations with the remainder of Enendia (though all of their tents and buildings are always open in respect of the Gods).

The nomadic tribes have a custom that makes their members—all of them considered warriors—recognizable to anyone who’s heard of them.  When a tribal child is ready, which it determines on its own, it undergoes this ritual.  The child (or young adult) holds an overripe sunfruit in its hand.  The left hand is customary for one of the tribes, while the other tribe uses the right hand.  A tribal elder now presses the glowing-hot tip of a knife upon the child’s shoulder and very slowly runs it down the arm while the remainder of the gathered tribe members chant praises to the Gods.  The ritual ends when the child either drops or squishes the extremely soft sunfruit, and the length of the scar forever indicates the Gods’ blessing upon the scarred.  Only very few tribe members can proudly display a scar that reaches all the way down to the back of their hand, and they are often chosen as leaders of clans within the tribe.

There is a legend among the tribes of The Twice Scarred, a warrior who bore full-length scars of both tribes and who led them to victory in times when all of the tribes were in dire peril.  The elders say that one day, The Twice Scarred will return to once again unite the tribes in their darkest days.

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