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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8512229" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>Were there...other posts here? This looks like a thread where only one person's replies remain.</p><p></p><p>I can't help you with the Bedine, as I know literally nothing about them. However, I can tell you what I did with Jewel of the Desert, my Arabian Nights Dungeon World game. First, I took inspiration from <em>Al Qadim</em>, which itself takes inspiration from real-world traditions in various ways. The Bond of Salt, for example, really does connect to traditions from North Africa and Arabia (e.g. the poet Rumi extensively uses "bread and salt" as the exemplar of forming the guest-host bond repeatedly in the <em>Masnavi</em> (also called the <em>Mathnawi</em>). I also very intentionally incorporated Al Qadim's principle that most races considered "monstrous" (like orcs, ogres, and minotaurs) are perfectly acceptable in polite society, and that there is a strong sense of shared regional culture even for very divergent expressions thereof. Frex, the Nomad Tribes vs the city-folk; it would be a grave insult to call a Nomad a "barbarian" and even poorly-educated city-folk would know and understand that.</p><p></p><p>From there, I asked some people I know who have expertise on the subject (one of whom is of North African descent) and got a plethora of pointers, both direct and to literature to check out. Both pre-Islamic Arabia and the Golden Age of Islam had many fascinating traditions, and from these pointers I built up quite a bit of stuff. As an example of an indirect thing, there's something of a tradition of the "gentleman rogue" in literature of the period, people who were wealthy and cultured but still got up to some Shenanigans. Other class-related stuff:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Druids (and, for my setting, Shamans) are "Kahina," those with ties to the natural spirits of the world. This has been iterated on several times, so the actual specifics of my Kahina do not conform cleanly to any particular Arabic traditions, but I tried to maintain some connection. I also made a clear distinction from more classical European conceptions of druids, that is, these folks are <em>not at all</em> a-political and are perfectly happy leading societies and fomenting social change (be it peacefully or not).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Bards are Rawuna, those who paint the sky with their tales. This hasn't been <em>as</em> key as it could be, but the party has seen at least one master of the old ways of these arts, from before mortal-kind took control of the cities.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wizards are Waziri, extremely talented scholars, but ones that must carefully navigate the space between tradition and novelty because their powers can very easily do Bad Things if used willy-nilly. This ties into elements like Islamic jurisprudence and the <em>ulama</em> (scholars), and the idea of emphasizing teacher-to-student connections rather than institution-to-student connections.</li> </ul><p></p><p>I'm absolutely certain it's far from perfect. But I've tried very hard to represent many different aspects of society: religiosity, the tension between the Old Ways and the <em>relatively</em> New Faith, class struggles and the gap between haves and have-nots, the complications that come from having a great deal of lost or misremembered history, and the convictions that arose out of a society formed specifically in opposition to the rampant slavery practiced by the ancient genie-rajahs. Their lives are not depicted as caricatures, but as real people going through a variety of circumstances. Commerce and personal wealth are a big deal, of course, but reputation also matters a ton, and magic, faith, and blood-relations tend to complicate matters greatly.</p><p></p><p>Most everyone gets names of an Arabic or North African (generally Moroccan) style; I have very <em>gently</em> implied that the Moroccan-style names tend to come from the northeast of the region, while Arabic-style names come more from the central and southern regions. And since this is Dungeon World, that means we've had a LOT of named people over time, easily over a hundred named NPCs in the years we've been playing. Even names from other cultures tend to be transliterated; the only times the party has gotten non-transliterated names are when they've directly interacted with outside cultures, such as the Celtic-influenced "elf forests" to the south (where the village elder they met was named Cadwgan) or when they hired a very experienced captain native to the Ten Thousand Isles of the Sapphire Sea (Hakina Kawhena, meant to be vaguely Polynesian-like), or their secretly-a-dragon dragonborn priest friend, Tenryu Shen (native to Yuxia, the Jade Home, far to the west across the Sapphire Sea).</p><p></p><p></p><p>No idea. Even with modern Arabic clothing, one would wear more white or light colors in summer and darker colors in winter, so there's no singular emphasis.</p><p></p><p>That was...a bit of a scattershot of random info. But I hope it's helpful to you.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 8512229, member: 6790260"] Were there...other posts here? This looks like a thread where only one person's replies remain. I can't help you with the Bedine, as I know literally nothing about them. However, I can tell you what I did with Jewel of the Desert, my Arabian Nights Dungeon World game. First, I took inspiration from [I]Al Qadim[/I], which itself takes inspiration from real-world traditions in various ways. The Bond of Salt, for example, really does connect to traditions from North Africa and Arabia (e.g. the poet Rumi extensively uses "bread and salt" as the exemplar of forming the guest-host bond repeatedly in the [I]Masnavi[/I] (also called the [I]Mathnawi[/I]). I also very intentionally incorporated Al Qadim's principle that most races considered "monstrous" (like orcs, ogres, and minotaurs) are perfectly acceptable in polite society, and that there is a strong sense of shared regional culture even for very divergent expressions thereof. Frex, the Nomad Tribes vs the city-folk; it would be a grave insult to call a Nomad a "barbarian" and even poorly-educated city-folk would know and understand that. From there, I asked some people I know who have expertise on the subject (one of whom is of North African descent) and got a plethora of pointers, both direct and to literature to check out. Both pre-Islamic Arabia and the Golden Age of Islam had many fascinating traditions, and from these pointers I built up quite a bit of stuff. As an example of an indirect thing, there's something of a tradition of the "gentleman rogue" in literature of the period, people who were wealthy and cultured but still got up to some Shenanigans. Other class-related stuff: [LIST] [*]Druids (and, for my setting, Shamans) are "Kahina," those with ties to the natural spirits of the world. This has been iterated on several times, so the actual specifics of my Kahina do not conform cleanly to any particular Arabic traditions, but I tried to maintain some connection. I also made a clear distinction from more classical European conceptions of druids, that is, these folks are [I]not at all[/I] a-political and are perfectly happy leading societies and fomenting social change (be it peacefully or not). [*]Bards are Rawuna, those who paint the sky with their tales. This hasn't been [I]as[/I] key as it could be, but the party has seen at least one master of the old ways of these arts, from before mortal-kind took control of the cities. [*]Wizards are Waziri, extremely talented scholars, but ones that must carefully navigate the space between tradition and novelty because their powers can very easily do Bad Things if used willy-nilly. This ties into elements like Islamic jurisprudence and the [I]ulama[/I] (scholars), and the idea of emphasizing teacher-to-student connections rather than institution-to-student connections. [/LIST] I'm absolutely certain it's far from perfect. But I've tried very hard to represent many different aspects of society: religiosity, the tension between the Old Ways and the [I]relatively[/I] New Faith, class struggles and the gap between haves and have-nots, the complications that come from having a great deal of lost or misremembered history, and the convictions that arose out of a society formed specifically in opposition to the rampant slavery practiced by the ancient genie-rajahs. Their lives are not depicted as caricatures, but as real people going through a variety of circumstances. Commerce and personal wealth are a big deal, of course, but reputation also matters a ton, and magic, faith, and blood-relations tend to complicate matters greatly. Most everyone gets names of an Arabic or North African (generally Moroccan) style; I have very [I]gently[/I] implied that the Moroccan-style names tend to come from the northeast of the region, while Arabic-style names come more from the central and southern regions. And since this is Dungeon World, that means we've had a LOT of named people over time, easily over a hundred named NPCs in the years we've been playing. Even names from other cultures tend to be transliterated; the only times the party has gotten non-transliterated names are when they've directly interacted with outside cultures, such as the Celtic-influenced "elf forests" to the south (where the village elder they met was named Cadwgan) or when they hired a very experienced captain native to the Ten Thousand Isles of the Sapphire Sea (Hakina Kawhena, meant to be vaguely Polynesian-like), or their secretly-a-dragon dragonborn priest friend, Tenryu Shen (native to Yuxia, the Jade Home, far to the west across the Sapphire Sea). No idea. Even with modern Arabic clothing, one would wear more white or light colors in summer and darker colors in winter, so there's no singular emphasis. That was...a bit of a scattershot of random info. But I hope it's helpful to you. [/QUOTE]
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