Village Totem as a tool for Dominion-level gameplay
by Marc SaindonFrom the Wagadu Chronicles:
Totems are central to every player's game, since they:
- act as spawn point.
- provide healing & safety.
- bestow perks (e.g. farming bonus).
- allow to place player housing.
Groups of players can turn an unclaimed wilderness Totem into a Village Totem by giving it recurrent offerings. This allows players to place housing around it. The type of offerings the Totem asks for varies based on its personality: one might request 30 calves to be born, another Totem might just ask for money.
The Totem requests vary slightly every week and a Totem's personality affects the village's players' gameplay and goals.
Players can make offerings to additional wilderness Totems to add them to their "Totem Pantheon" and get their perks. When two different villages compete for the same Totem, a "Spiritual Challenge" ensues in which the highest bidder wins.
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We might call a Totem a "Fetish" (in the original sense, not in any leatherdaddy sort of way) to distinguish it from Atruaghin Totems. Otherwise, the idea of creating a village around a spiritual focus item, which gives the village a perk, a spell-like effect that benefits the community (harvest are more abundant, or mosquitos never bite) within a map hex. Perhaps the item is tied to the Fae, with the Spirit World or "Dreaming Land" or Good Kingdom); perhaps it's tied to the Shadowfell (the Land that Remembers), and hosts an Ancestor Spirit (a benevolent type of ghost) or an Animal Father (the spiritual force and collective memory of an animal-type that ensures its species gets properly reincarnated, and honorable treatment if hunted by the locals).
Not every village can have such an item, so they'll compete for it, as Tangoran need to deserve the Totem as part of the old spirit pacts, and can't just steal or take it by force (otherwise they'll face a curse or an angry spirit). Olympic-like competitions, dance offs, poetry recitals, duels or even bribes to the spirit (Romans would perform evocatio rituals to steal the gods of other cities). Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom also comes to mind as a possible hook for Players, who must reclaim a lost Fetish (in the movie's case, magic stones) to help a village back to prosperity.
Image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nkisi#/media/File:WLA_metmuseum_Power_Figure_Male_Nkisi.jpg
Notes:
The Wagadu Chronicles
Fetishism
evocatio
