The Great Rift

Story idea based on the "Guns, Germs and Steel" theory. Apply a few subtle tweaks to the plants and animals of the world and we get a completely different path for civilization.

The cradle of civilization moves from the Tigris/Euphrates valley to The Great Rift valley, centered around Lake Victoria. Ukerewe Island (the largest island) is the capital, with the main city state in the peninsula to the East, the Mara Region.

Prickly Pear fruit has been cultivated into a super-food. The sugars and proteins are much higher and fat is a bit higher, it has about 400C per 100g (instead of it's 41C). It already has a high vitamin-C level, but we'll bump that up just a bit. You cannot just drink the juice of a cactus, it's too acidic due to CO2 being stored as an acid (the cactus photosynthesis during the day and breaths at night), our version will go through a phase where the "leaves" die, turn purple and the needles fall off, at this point they basically become water bottles, slightly sweet.

Entada rheedii is edible when cooked with no ill side effects (like hallucinations), maybe play around with the effects of undercooking - could be something to kill fear, or induce mild hallucinations in warriors. It's a vine, so the farms will be more vineyard like. Real version, seeds weigh around 1oz/28g, in our world they'll weigh around 75g. They fill a similar niche to a potato. You can throw a bunch of them in a sack and march for days. They can be be cracked open and boiled or roasted in coals.

Foxtail grass may be interesting for it's flammability. Parthenium as a rubber.

Egyptian Mongoose are kept like cats; not quite domesticated, but friendly towards people, allowed to roam because they kill pests.

Vervet Monkey are kept like dogs. They help with basic tasks like herding and hunting. Traditionally, they would provided a perch wherever people were camped or homed and when not with people, they would keep watch (much like dogs) from there. They form tight companion bonds with their people. Much like dogs, a number of breeds have arisen ranging in size and temperament. Shepard-monkeys are on the smarter side with longer arms and legs for running. Hound-monkeys are stockier and more aggressive, originally breed for hunting, later adapted to war.

Ostrich are kept as the primary livestock, specifically a descendant of the Somali Ostrich. The fictional version is a bit shorter in both the neck and legs and a bit meatier.

Zebras, Black-Rhinos and Elephants will be used as beasts-of-burden, which Rhinos being particularly trained for war, though their origins are as plows having been trained to dig up fields.

Cichlids will have to play a part.

The people will be descended from the Luo and Iraqw. Look at Engaruka. The divergence from reality happens in the late Mesolithic era.

Other Animals

• giraffe
• wildabeast
• crocodile

To Consider

• food preservation
• red dirt

Eras

Prehistory (Stone Age)

Domestication of plants and animals

Dawn of civilization (Bronze Age)

First city-states develop throughout the Great Lakes region, the largest being in the Mara peninsula

Republic Era (Early Iron Age)

City states join together as republics throughout the Sahara

Empire Era (Middle Iron Age)

Republics mobilize for war and consolidate power

Three Kingdoms

Follows China, the largest Empires have merged and settled for a while, then the balance is tipped and all hell breaks loose

Colonialism

Conquers the world, goes to South America first, while spreading over land into Europe and Asia

Enlightenment

Colonial entities become independent, modern thinking and philosophy arrives

I need to straighten out the influences Alexander the Great, the Greek Republics and Rome had on each other, I want to mostly mirror them. When we get to the European dark age, I want to switch over and follow the progress of China

Stories

• Alexander the Great like character
• Great Engineer (Ma Jun, Archimedes)

I love the idea of battles with warriors riding armor clad rhinos, elephants pulling war machines, zebra cavalry.

Culture

Because it's awesome, I want a very mechanical society. Linkages and gears become common early in the world, including differential gears, cams, . Early engineers and scientists work off something like a Greek construction, using just string and a stylus. A large shallow box is filled with fine sand, which is used as the writing mechanism. To clear the writing, it is roughly smoothed over, then a flat plate is placed on top, on the plate is a small bowl with a bead and dot, when the bead is on the dot, the whole thing is level. The top is tapped to achieve this. Early mass production is achieved with copy-mills. Early war machines are unpowered walkers.

Architecture is very different, focused more on escaping the heat rather than insulating it. Roofing is important, walls less so. Building tend to be slightly receded into the ground. Lots of evaporative cooling.

Signs of value and wealth are acacia wood, blue ostrich leather, black mamba leather and gold. In particular, blue is associated with wealth (water, clean) red is associated with poverty (dirt, blood). Music will be more percussive.

The religion is built around a male god of water and a female goddess of fire. The most basic prayer is dipping hands in a mixture of water and ash. Most homes make a weekly offering, a small ceremonial fire that is burned down to coals in a basin which is then filled with water a used for a week. The effect is that it works as a soap.