Africa has very rarely gotten its fair shake in fantasy settings. Some good examples stand out - Nyambe, Midgard's Southlands, Spears of the Dawn, Ki Khanga - but most of Africa is often described as dark jungle inhabited by primitive tribes, when that is patently not the case either geographically and historically.
But also I understand where some designers are coming from - as a white American male, I have little first-hand knowledge of even modern Africa and its problems, let alone a medieval Africa. I realize I am writing from a place of privilege, and I am going to try my absolute best to treat these regions of the world as more than just the mysterious jungle lands. I don't promise I'll be perfect, but I'll try to be better than my fore-bearers.
Anyway, on to the nations!
Al-Hilal is my Araby/North Africa/Arabia analogue. I initially thought it was ridiculous for Araby to be positioned as such, but after doing research into Al-Andalus and the Almohad Caliphate I realized it wasn't so far fetched. Al-Hilal is pretty standard Arabian-style fantasy, though its currently fractured with no ruling caliph. I did move some more classic Arabian locations here (aka a Mecca analogue), but I feel its a minor change.
The Barrens is my version of the Badlands, orcs and all. It was previously inhabited by the Dumari Empire, which draws some parallels with early Arabic caliphates, though the Barrens occupies the spot after the region was sacked by the Mongols. Humans still exist here to an extent, but orx and kobolds dominate. Most 'Arabic' culture has been ported over to Al-Hilal.
Habesh is new and is based on Ethiopia/E Africa. I had struggled with this one for a while, between making it 'stone dwarves' to a very religious place. I've come to the conclusion of basically making Habesh take over the Wasteland's role as a trading powerhouse. Ethiopia was extremely important to international trade due to their location on both the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. They brought goods from China and India to Europe, plus Ethiopia was never conquered by invaders until WW1 I believe. I'm pretty satisfied with where this has gone.
Khmet is my Egypt/Nehekara and basically functions in the same manner - undead hellscape, though some human outposts exist (including a Courronne crusader state). Not much new here, though I did tint it with some Mamluks.
The Ivory Kingdoms are new and they represent south and central Africa, mainly states that formed out of the Bantu migration. This is probably the closest you'll get to a 'Darkest Africa' since the Spirit Rainforest (aka the Congo) is located here, but I'm really trying to keep away from the lost world thing at least in Africa. The Zulu are a bit too advanced for the timeline, but things like Kongo, Mutapa and even the Swahili Coast are present. Also going to add a slight colonial influence, but that's not the main crutch of the area.
Mande is brand new, and takes up the role of the West African empires - mainly Ghana and Mali, though a bit of Songhai, Yoruba and Dahomey made it in too. These empires were hyper-modern and even had a governmental structure more similar to a representative government than a feudal society, plus they are exceedingly wealth. Overall a very cool place I think
So that's Ifri. I really don't have too many 'maybe' ideas about this one - the only one being maybe separate Central and South Africa into two different places, but I think that's splitting hairs.
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