Darndest thing Mikaze, when I read fierce tribe of Amazon harpies what I thought I saw was fierce tribe of Amazon Hippies :) Its been a long day...
Half serpent people from the snake (Alicante)... hmmm sounds like the start of a beautiful Yuan-Ti group :)
I am thinking Ziggurat instead of Pyramid, give a little difference to Osirion :) With some of the Ideas of Goats, Lamma/Alpaca, Spiders for Silk, I am seeing a Mix of Mayan/Sherpa/Chinese culture mixed with the Egyptian, and Amazonian and Jungle style of City... In a foggy, rainy Mountain Path City...
Great Evil Gnolish Monks of Irori dressed in Black Sneaking around ;)
For water, enslaved water elementals :) and Genies :)
Phosphorous for Bronze, dosnt that come from Bat or Bird dung ? What about Harpie dung ?
I love the Idea of the Oasis under the City :)
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Mikaze has there been any more work on your idea, inquiring minds want to know?
Yep! Mostly slow going though. Mostly cultural and power structure stuff. It's still set in Golarion for our home game, but I'm developing it along setting-neutral lines. The things I'm shooting for at the moment is to fully flesh the individual cultures out along with the amalgam culture of Atah-Ouahe that was born out of all them coming together. None of the cultures is going to be made out to be entirely good or evil,(although the native Ouahens would pretty much be a good-aligned culture before they got invaded) but I'm hoping to rock some real deliberate values dissonance for each of them.
The "Egyptian" culture sees themselves as a divine race, tasked by the gods with enlightening and ruling over the other peoples of the world. They fell into that role hard when they arrived, enslaving half of the native Ouahen people and driving out those that wouldn't kneel. They hold themselves to a rigid caste system, everyone knowing their place and purpose. The later arrival of the other cultures that held themselves on equal ground have forced some new ways of thinking.
The "Sub-Saharan African" cultures are just as varied and wildly diverse as their Golarion counterparts. It's not one culture rather than a collection of many. When they came into the city it led to an economic revolution to a city in danger of stagnation as well as bringing in an influx of new cults and gods, both benign and malign, gods new and half-forgotten.
The "Arabian" culture is probably going to be the most different from their Golarion counterparts. They're still going to keep the same analogous ethnicity and general "feel", but I'm having some fun developing them into something a bit more fantastical and alien, to go along with the stranger environs they hail from. Kind of a European comics feel to them, if that makes any sense. Moebius style fashions and such. I'm probably going to keep the more "standard" expectations of an Arabic-analogue culture present as a related culture coming in along with them, just to have my cake and eat it too, but I want it all to make sense together.
The Ouahen people are set in stone as being descended from earlier meetings of the "Egyptian" and "Sub-Saharan African" peoples in the area before the arrival of the Egyptians en masse. Their culture has been split into two very distinct cultures now. The enslaved Ouahen pretty much just try to get by, keeping their culture and the oasis effect alive under the yoke of servitude. The free Ouahen have had to make terrible sacrifices to stay free and keep their original culture alive, though even that has been twisted by their centuries of hardship. The biggest irony right now is that under the rule of the current Tyrant(a man of mixed Egyptian and African descent, though certainly not Ouahen himself) the enslaved Ouahen have it better than they've ever had since the Egypt types showed up. It was at that time that fallen angel started showing up and marking random Ouahen as freed, to be elevated to a higher station. The Tyrant also slapped down a lot of laws enforcing levels of protection for the Ouahen slave population. He sees them as a sacred people, though one made to serve the city and himself.
The underground "True Oasis" that the oasis effect on the surface comes from is a massive, somewhat egg-shaped cavern split into a number of tiers, each one a veritable jungle paradise unto itself, with an ecology that only become stranger and more vibrant as you go deeper. Inhabited by several races, such as those harpies, who see themselves as the guardians of their respective tiers and their own share of paradise. Some of them quarrel with each other, some are nearly symbiotic. None are welcoming of intruders who might endanger the source of their world's lifesblood. The Tyrant and his original party that make up the current ruling elite of the city are the only topsiders they will stand aside for. It's possible the "noble gnolls" of the surface city are their equivalent for the surface level of the oasis, though those gnolls know little about what's actually down there.
Something towards the bottom of the grand cavern is the source of the oasis effect itself, a sort of stone "Egg of Paradise"(name still not set). Strangely, it bears the visage of that fallen angel, or whatever she truly is. It's also the source of the current rulers' immortality, rather than immortality elixers from out of the country(Thuvia in Golarion).
Whatever the angel is, she's certainly linked to the "Egg of Paradise" and the traditional primary of the Ouahen natives. She might actually be their goddess, something which would deeply trouble the Free Ouahen since she seems content to let their kin merely survive as slaves than fight for their liberation. Visually, she's a thing of merged flesh and stone, like an angel and an Egyptian monument had a baby or something.
The Sentinels(the severed heads) are set in stone as a definite feature of the city. Criminals have had to adapt to survive in Atah-Ouahe. (A major benefit this has had, and my players have pointed this out, is that it forces "evil parties" to have to be able to work together and not play "Stupid Evil". Atah-Ouahe would eat those kinds of evil PCs alive.) There's still a use for thuggery here and there, but by and large criminals have to be stealthier and smarter to get by. No burglar goes out without being entirely covered up at the very least. Black bodysuits are popular at night is all I'm saying.
There are multiple lines of "snake-people", of varying types and purposes, almost all of whom have a corresponding cult. Even that benign feathered serpent cult gets one. Some are even marginally connected to that medusa upthread, though she has no official doings with them.
Primary exports are the metals from the very rich mountains surrounding the area and the exotic fruits, drugs, and fabrics born from both the unusual flora and fauna of the oasis effect and the mixture of cultures of Atah-Ouahe itself. Nothing gets harvested or mined from the True Oasis, under command of the rulers themselves, though they do continue to venture into the area for purposes all their own.
The Tyrant is a definite well-intentioned extremist type, who would see his city, and Ouahen people themselves thrive even as he kept their chains tight. He would see Paradise on earth itself, and technically it's possible by way of the Egg underneath the city. He still wants to be the god-king of it all though, of course. Thing is, he really is the best thing to happen to Atah-Ouahe in a while. They had a bad run of rulers for a bit before him. His conquest and implementation of the Sentinels has restabilized an area that going south quick.
For water, enslaved water elementals :) and Genies :)
Believe me, genies of all types are very important to both Atah-Ouahe and the True Oasis. Especially Marids and Shaitans! :D
...wound up rambling a bit. Still, this is just some of the stuff that's set in stone at the moment, along with a lot of what came out earlier upthread.
Simply Wow....
I am really enjoying the idea of various real world cultures that you are useing. Real world cultures give us some of the best ideas.
But the Egg of Paradise is a very good name for a mystical site. So what if it is actually a egg shaped cavern with different levels of flora and fana in it. The neat question will be why is it in the shape of an egg. It could be the birth site of the "angel", it could be the psionic resionace of the natives, heck it could just be a strange ocurance of natural events... Naaa that never happens.
Also love the idea of the good and evil snake cult. I like that a lot.