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Temperate Africa?

D. Gray Warrior

Troubadour
I decided I want to write a magical realism/slice of life fantasy. There is no epic struggle between good and evil, instead it focuses on the lives of individual characters such as a mage, a warrior, a noble, etc.

The setting is a temperate nation that is densely forested. The native people are similar to the Africans in skin color and physical features.Their nation was conquered by Vikings who interbred with the native people, so the dominant ethnicity is mixed (they are half black half white.)

I looked into the geographies of various African countries and most of them tend to be tropical or arid. How believable would a setting be where an African-esque people live in the temperate zone?
 

Jabrosky

Banned
I decided I want to write a magical realism/slice of life fantasy. There is no epic struggle between good and evil, instead it focuses on the lives of individual characters such as a mage, a warrior, a noble, etc.

The setting is a temperate nation that is densely forested. The native people are similar to the Africans in skin color and physical features.Their nation was conquered by Vikings who interbred with the native people, so the dominant ethnicity is mixed (they are half black half white.)

I looked into the geographies of various African countries and most of them tend to be tropical or arid. How believable would a setting be where an African-esque people live in the temperate zone?
You could drop them onto a high plateau so that the climate is cooler. Keep in mind that dark skin is correlated more with latitude (specifically proximity to the Equator, which receives more intense ultraviolet light) than climate as such.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Southern Africa counts as temperate. Dominant populace is black.

Work this into your back story:

1) land was originally inhabited by a 'brown race' - or maybe dwarves.

2) several thousand years ago, a large influx of blacks showed up; some fleeing from a civil war in the equatorial region, others fleeing a famine or massive supernatural event. They build a new civilization, pushing out or enslaving the locals. The leaders of the migration become the heroes and demigods of legend.

3) Then some hundreds of years ago, your 'Viking' people show up, maybe fleeing the onset of an ice age, or the sinking of their homeland. Or maybe they were the denizens of an island nation that 'ran out of room' for their ever growing numbers.
 

Gurkhal

Auror
I don't see why it wouldn't work on any level to be honest. If you really, really want to go into details these colored people could be affected by some vitamine shortages if I've got this right, but otherwise they should be fine.
 
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