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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:
Dynasties.PNG

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:
Pop-Based.PNG

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:
Locations.PNG

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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:
Provinces.png


Areas:
Areas.png


Terrain:
Climate.png

Vegetation.png

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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:
Cultures.png

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:
Population.png

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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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So not all stateless peoples are covered by "Societies of Pops"? Interesting choice.
I don't know if the Beta ʾƏsrāʾel are their own separate culture and you just forgot the mention them in the culture map, but if they are not, they really should be, as even converted Beta ʾƏsrāʾel were not really accepted into mainstream Ethiopian society, similar to the conversos of Iberia. I'm glad you guys made Jews their own cultures because it allows for the representation of crypto-Jewish communities like this, rather than having a separate religion like in CK3.
Speaking of Beta ʾƏsrāʾel and Societies of Pops, I see you guys decided to not include the (admitedly probably mythical) Kingdom of Simien, which would be the closest thing to a playable Jewish country at game start (well, probably not since we now know banking dynasties are playable hehe) but given that Ethiopia's Jews lived in relative isolation from the crown, they (and perhaps other tribal groups under nominal Ethiopian sovereignty now that I think about it) could be Societies of Pops? Or do you guys have a policy of not having Societies of Pops representing nations whose homelands fall squarely under the control of settled countries?
Also, "Ethiopia" as a geographic region at this time actually refers to Subsaharan Africa in general, and Nubia more narrowly, at least in the West, so I'd suggest Northern/Central/Southern Ethiopia areas be renamed to "Abyssinia". The country of Ethiopia should still be called Ethiopia though, as that was their self-designation.
Finally is there a reason why you went with "Sudanese Arab" and not just "Sudanese"?

btw did you guys get rid of the "jungle" vegetation type? The Congo Basin is just "Forest".
 
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Wtf is this location sizes lol it seems granularity approach of PC only meant for Europe
Who the hell needs Sudanese locations to be as small and detailed as locations in the HRE? As stated in the OP, it can be hard to even just find names that would be appropriate for these locations in the time period.
 
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Wtf is this location sizes lol it seems granularity approach of PC only meant for Europe
To be fair it's a region that's very hard to find sources on. If you want more granular locations, feel free to try finding sources on them. I expect a decent degree of granularity for much of Latin America, because we have Spanish sources and sources on the Mesoamerican + Andean civilizations that can tell us what settlements existed and were relevant.
 
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The Dynasty map shows a lot of empty land which is not covered by any Societies in the respective mapmode. Does it mean that land has zero pops, or that they're so unorganized they couldn't even form a Society of Pops?
 
Would it be possible for the Maasai to become a Society of Pops? After all there is a location named after them there. They do fulfill some of the criteria, like being mostly sedentary or having chiefs, but I assume they're too pastoral/not agrarian enough to be considered one?
 
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I really don't like all Stateless Societies' ("Society of POPs" is kind of a lame name imo) having the word "people" in the end of their name - too much text on the map with little useful information conveyed. Why can't they just be one word - "Oromo", "Gumuz", "Zaghawa" etc.?
Also, I thought there would be much more of them, so that begs the question - what counts and doesn't count as a "Society of POPs"?
 
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The natural ports feature doesn't mean you can't build large ports anywhere else, it just might be more expensive to build ports without natural harbors.
If you look at satellite imagery of Mogadishu or Zanzibar, they do not have natural harbors.

Mombasa is a different story--Kilindini port is actually quite a good harbor and should probably be labeled as such, though it was also quite tidal


EDIT: I got curious and took a look at historical maps of Zanzibar. Surprisingly, Zanzibar indeed lacks any significant natural harbor features. There's a tidal creek that used to flow behind Stone Town, which gave it the appearance of having a natural harbor, but this was a tidal creek that would entirely dry up at low tide, allowing people to cross to and from Stone Town on foot
Interesting - I thought as an island Zanzibar was quite well placed. Given it’s on the west side of the island, isn’t it at least quite protected from storms, an important part of being a good harbor?

I don’t think any of those cities need to be amazing natural harbors, but they should be at least okay: Mogadishu has a small harbor, Mombasa has an excellent harbor, and Dar-es-Salaam has an okay harbor.

on further inspection of the map it actually looks like Kenya/Tanzania aren’t really included - so maybe these complaints are unfair. Still, I think we should see those East African trading cities represented.
 
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btw did you guys get rid of the "jungle" vegetation type? The Congo Basin is just "Forest".
That's just the northern section, note how the color of the forest and the color beneath it is different, also you can see some costal jungle at the southern edge of the map

Anyways I'm eagerly looking forward to the Sahara extra map!
 
I really don't like all Stateless Societies' ("Society of POPs" is kind of a lame name imo) having the word "people" in the end of their name - too much text on the map with little useful information conveyed. Why can't they just be one word - "Oromo", "Gumuz", "Zaghawa" etc.?
Also, I thought there would be much more of them, so that begs the question - what counts and doesn't count as a "Society of POPs"?
It's probably because the societies are actual in-game entities with their own AI, which is different from the culture, so having both a culture and a country with the same name might be confusing.
 
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I had hoped the society of pops would allow more peoples to be interactable, but it seems that it will make even less playables than EU4. Very sad.
 
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As for breaking up animism in this region, I suppose I'd recommend mainly a 3-way split between Cushitic (Waaqefanna), Nilotic and (Lacustrine) Bantu groups. Not sure what to do with Omotic groups or the Daju, Nuba or Tunjur.
 
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To be fair it's a region that's very hard to find sources on. If you want more granular locations, feel free to try finding sources on them. I expect a decent degree of granularity for much of Latin America, because we have Spanish sources and sources on the Mesoamerican + Andean civilizations that can tell us what settlements existed and were relevant.
In Scandinavia it is given a random number of around 100 people and make it granular even though north part is cold freezing, I didnt get the part of why we need sources since there will be only society of pops which doesnt require much work and also climate/ landshape can also be determined by them.
For location names it doesnt need to be super spesific one since nothing important there


Considering also map projection those big locations in east africa are about 1000x the size of 100 people living north of Scandinavia location LMAO
 
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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?
This can happen, although I can't say yet how often.
 
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Looks really great, however a few changes:
  • Afar should be renamed Dankali/Dankalia no?
  • Welayta should probably be there 1
  • Is Dahlak there?
  • Ennarea should be there, they split from Damot when it was conquered by Amda Seyon c. 1316 (had a really good source for that, can't find it now) (Damot should be a vassal)
  • I’m unsure on Ifat being a united country. Along with the other Muslim states of the Horn, they were made tributaries of Ethiopia and then when the rebellion in 1332 was put down, Ifat, Hadiya, Dawaro, Fatagar, and Shewa were combined into one vassal headed by the Walasma. 1
  • Thrilled to see Kitara there, but I think it could be bigger, if you look at the map here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Kitara the size indicated by archaeology is quite a bit bigger, I expect you won't want to use the oral tradition account due to the source being Banyoro (it controversially includes Buganda). Also the dynasty should be Chwezi. Carole Buchanans#'s The Kitara Complex is great btw, although I haven't read it yet
  • You could have Wanga and Ugweno
  • You could have the Rwanda clans there, the main ones being Singa, Gesera and Zigaba. I just really don’t think SoPs can simulate state formation that well without having a central clan/tribe that gradually amalgamates others. Regardless there should be lots more Luo societies in the Great Lakes that go onto form Buganda, Busoga, Nkore etc.
  • There’s just soooo many societies that can be added, I recommend tracing history back from 1836 and adding societies that form those states, any other method might be very patchy. There’s so much potential here
Edit: there’s lots of good sources on the Kitara Wikipedia page
Edit: Ugweno and Wanga can be crossed off
 
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A quick glance at Wikipedia suggests the Rasulid control of Yemen shouldn't be that complete.

According to the sources used (Encyclopedia of Islam and others), there should at least be a fledgling Zayidi Imamate having control of San'a. Its possible there would be more Imam claimants, revolters and tribes outside central control in Nothern Yemen, but I dont have access to sources regarding this. Hopefully someone either with fluency in Arabic or better source access picks this up.


 
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