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Tinto Maps #15 - 23rd of August 2024 - Horn of Africa

Hello, and welcome one more week to Tinto Maps! After a short break, we’re back to the duty of sharing more maps! Today the region we will look at is the Horn of Africa! So let’s take a look at it, without further ado:

Countries:
Countries.PNG

Here we have the countries around Nubia, Ethiopia, and Somalia. The first ones are organized around the ancient kingdoms of Makuria and Alodia, which control the Upper Nile region. In the second area, the Empire of Ethiopia stands as the main power, with some smaller countries around it. Finally, the two Islamic sultanates of Ifat and Ajuraan stand as the main powers in the Horn and Somalia. Finally, around the African Great Lakes, there is a country that can be considered a ‘settled’ one, Kitara.

Dynasties:
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The dynasties of the Horn. There are some historical ones, while others are randomly generated. The most famous one is probably the Ethiopian House of Solomon, from where all their Negus come. The Walshma ruler over both Ifat and Ajuraan and we have some others, such as the Medri of Medri Bahri, the Umar of Mogadishu, the Banu Kanz of Makuria, or the Baranzi of Kitara.

Societies of Pops:
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A new map has popped up! Here you can see the countries that we consider as ‘Societies of Pops’, as they were presented in the last Tinto Talks. We have the famous Oromo people in the lands between Ethiopia, Ifat and Ajuraan; the Kunama, Gumuz, and Berta in the lands between Ethiopia; and Alodia, and the Zaghwa to the north of Wadai; there are a few more to the west, but I’ll share that picture in the Western Africa thread, as it’s more appropriate there. There are more Stateless Societies of this kind that we would like to add in the future, if it is possible due to our schedule.

Locations:
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Locations! You might notice that the density is quite unequal. Unfortunately, the archaeological findings for the period are scarce, specially out of the most known areas and a lack of urbanization in most of the territory has made the finding of proper non-anachronistic settlements quite a challenge. Keep this in mind when making suggestions. ;) It has been that dramatic in some areas that we had to use names of tribes and rivers, a bit contradicting our own rules, but the areas had to be represented as they were active parts in the development of the region.
One thing: a big chunk of the Arabian peninsula can be seen in today’s Tinto Maps; but, please, reserve the feedback for its future DD, when we’ll show all of the peninsula. Apart from that, you can see more detailed maps if you click on the spoiler button, as usual.


Provinces:
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Areas:
Areas.png


Terrain:
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The terrain types of the region are quite interesting and diverse. It is marked by the Rift Valley, which creates different biomes, such as the Ethiopian Highlands and Plateau, or the African Great Lakes. That also marks a divide between Arid, Tropical, and Oceanic climates. The vegetation of the region also ranges from desertic and sparse, to jungle forests. And one more note: you may also note that 'Marshes' have been renamed into 'Wetlands', as we could put some work into that suggestion the last week.

Natural Harbors:
Natural Harbors.png


Cultures:
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Another interesting map this week… You might notice that the lands of Ethiopia have a very mixed cultural situation. While more to the west and south, we are representing ‘tribal lands’ in a more homogeneous way, with kind of fixed boundaries to represent the different groupings. This doesn’t mean that there wouldn’t be a mixing of cultures, but this was one of the first areas to receive a minority's review and the scope was limited mostly to Ethiopia.

Religion:
Religion.png

Another interesting map! Miaphysite and Sunni are the more widespread religions in the region (while not all areas have their mixed populations, such as Nubia as you might notice, they eventually will as we cover more of the map in our sprints). Animism is completely placeholder, as usual, and you might see some pockets here and there (If you have specific suggestions, please do them). You may also notice a purple minority inside Ethiopia… That is representing the Beta Israel Judaism in the provinces of Semien, of course!

Raw Materials:
Raw Materials.png

The raw materials of this week! A big chunk of the region has livestock as its main raw material, while also having some agricultural goods as Wheat or Sturdy Grains here and there. The most unique good in the region is Coffee, which is cultivated in the Ethiopian highlands. And there are also some precious resources spread here and there, such as Gold, Ivory, Gems, and Incense.

Markets:
Markets.png

The main market centers of the region are Axum and Mogadishu, with ‘Adan/Aden being the main one controlling the access to the Red Sea. There are some weird calculations ongoing on the Somalian inner lands, that are already reported, and we’ll take a look at why is that happening.

Population:
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The population of the region! There are approximately 12.3M people in the Eastern African subcontinent; although take into account that it also comprises the regions of the Southern Great Lakes and the Swahili Coast, which we haven’t shown today, so we probably have to discount around 4M people from it (Swahili Coast accounts for 1.7M, and the Great Lakes for 4M, although that region is divided between today’s and next week’s Tinto Maps), for a total of around 8M.

That’s all for today! Speaking of next week’s Tinto Maps, it will be meaty, as it will cover Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa! See you!
 
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How come the Nubian nile isn’t farmlands? (like Egypt)
 
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As already pointed out in earlier dev diaries, there is no evidence that the Banu Kanz still ruled Makuria by 1337. We have documents dating to 1331 and 1334 that were issued under king Siti, a Christian Nubian. He also appears in graffiti from Banganarti near Dongola and northern Kordofan, so he must have been quite active and presumabely had a relatively long reign. Meanwhile, the Banu Kanz were ruling Aswan, just like they did in the past and would continue to do until 1411. I would recommend "Émir à Assouan, souverain à Dongola" by Robin Seignobos for a good overview of this period.

There is also the problem that we are very ignorant about the political conditions south of Makuria. We know, however, that Soba, the capital of Alodia, was largely ruined by the 13th century. The latest obtained c14 date is from around 1220-1280. Furthermore, there are no reliable sources mentioning Alodia after the 12th century. I argue in a paper I am currently working on that Alodia had collapsed by the (early?) 13th century and that the Sudanese traditions connecting it to the rise of the Funj Sultanate are unreliable. Instead there were several successor polities like al-Abwab (which you included) or the Anaj people, who appear to have ruled south of al-Abwab. What little we know does only apply to the late 13th and early 14th century though.
 
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There's gonna be 100 youtube videos of people playing tall as Kitara doing nothing all game titled: "IS THIS THE LEAST PLAYED NATION IN [redacted]???!??!?!?!?"
Unironically, I find the Great Lakes region very interesting. It's an underrated part of Africa, but you're right lol
 
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Will animist religions be broken down into more unique faiths?

hoping were get a faith related to ancient egytian in Daju so we can reconquer the Egypt and restore the worship of Amun
 
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From the looks of the culture mapmode, the different cultural groupings of people in the Ethiopian superregion will provide the flavour for the conflicts and cultural disunity I suppose, but is there a separate mechanic for the clan system in the Somali lands? Otherwise it just looks like a big chunk of unified culture around Somalia and the horn which... definitely was not the case, as people were divided along clan lines. How will that be represented?

As for the society of pops that haven't settled, do the people of that culture have to have NO landed tags for them to be considered a society? For example, I don't see a "Tigray/Tigrinya people" SoP. Is it because they're already settled as the kingdom of Medri Bahri?
 
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@Pavía will you do a "re-run" of old tinto maps feedbacks to get feedbacks for the batural harbour map and let us check how they are going?
I think we will do this in a certain way, yes.
 
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Has there been any discussion around splitting up the Somali's along their clan lines? Also I found a pretty interesting thread suggesting changes to EU4 Somalia, though it's focused on 1444 it has a lot of information that should still be applicable.

Screenshot_381.jpg


 
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More of gameplay question.


Historically the gap of uncolonized lands west of Wadai would close mid to late gane, making it so this a contiguous line of Kingdoms across the Sahel. Can this happen during gameplay and how frequently?
 
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To let you know, this is the criterion we've been using to assign people to the different tag categories:
Thanks for the info. EU4 had several tags that were nomadic peoples. I'm not saying that nomadic peoples constitute a state, quite the opposite. But nonetheless they could be politically relevant. For example I'd want the Lakota people (just a well-known example, even if it's late in the timeline) to be represented somehow given the military threat they posed to settlers. Or the Comanche, or Apache, or Mapuche. But under your criteria, they'd just be natives, less than their status in EU4. I'm certainly fine with there being lots of "gray area" and not going overboard on tags. But I think this deserves to be reconsidered slightly.

I mean, did the Kunama really have chiefdoms? And did the Zaghawa have agriculture and permanent settlements? Did the Kikuyu not have chiefdoms? It doesn't exactly add up.

Where do (relatively) populous pastoralists fall on this scale, in general? That would include most of the Nilotic peoples.
 
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