Zulu

The Zulu are part of the Nguni peoples, who were pastoralist groups, ethnically part of the greater Bantu group occupying much of the East and Southern parts of Africa. Originally coming from the Horn of Africa, they migrated southwards over many centuries, with large herds of Nguni cattle, entering what is now South Africa many thousands of years ago in sporadic settlement, followed by larger waves of migration around 1400 AD, driving away the native Khoisan peoples. About 10,000 years ago, one of these Nguni people closely related to modern Zulu called the Wakandans witnessed the crash of a massive meteorite comprised of the sound-absorbing mineral Vibranium. By consuming a heart-shaped herb found near the area of impact, the Wakandans' chief Bashenga gained superhuman senses, strength, durability and intelligence. Bashenga declared himself to the Black Panther and announced that he and his people were chosen by Bast the Panther Goddess to guard the meteorite from outsiders in order to protect them from the Vibranium's power of mutation, thus establishing the Kingdom of Wakanda, the royal dynasty of the Black Panthers and the Panther Cult.

The Zulus were originally a major clan in what is today Northern KwaZulu-Natal, founded ca. 1709 by the Wakandan warrior Zulu kaNtombhela. In the Nguni languages, iZulu means heaven or sky. At that time, the area was already occupied by many large Nguni communities and clans and the Zulu were only one of dozens of different peoples. The rise of the Zulu Empire occurred under the rule of the legendary Zulu chieftain Shaka, who united the tribes that once were part of a confederation of tribes called the Mthethwa Empire to form an imposing empire under Zulu hegemony ruled by the royal House of Senzangakona. Shaka's social and military reforms would change the structure of southern Africa forever. Some of the Shaka's most important allies like the Zulu warriors Galazi the Wolf and Umslopogaas as well as the latter's wife Nada the Lily are still folk heroes of the Zulu's descendants. Dingane and Mhlangana, Shaka's half-brothers, appear to have made at least two attempts to assassinate Shaka before they succeeded in 1828, with help of other tribes that held a grudge against Shaka's ruthless government and warfare.

Only a short period after Shaka's assassination, the Zulu Empire made first contact with the British explorers. At the start of 1879, war erupted after King Cetewayo refused to disband his army and accept British authority. At first, the Zulu had surprising success: They managed to defeat the British at the Battle of Isandlwana on January 22. However, the British got the upper hand after the battle at Rorke's Drift, and finally they won the war with the Zulu defeat at the Battle of Ulundi on July 4. This disastrous defeat was due to the obvious technological superiority of the British Empire as well as the overthrow of the royal House of Senzangakona in the vengeance of Zikali, a wicked wizard of the Xhosa tribe known as "The-thing-that-should-never-have-been-born" and "Opener-of-Roads."

After the decline of the Zulu Empire, the British established 13 subkingdoms, which fought amongst each other until 1883 when Cetewayo was reinstated as king over Zululand. But the in-fighting between the Zulu continued for years, until Zululand was absorbed fully into the Cape Colony, becoming a part of the British Empire. With the discovery of diamonds and gold in Zulu territory, a time of greed began: Many expeditions looking for treasures damaged the weak Nguni tribes even further. Most notable diamond prospectors were Diana Emerson's team of explorers, the French mining engineer Victor Cyprien and Dr. Jane Bushwell, who trained monkeys to look for diamonds. The reactions of the tribes to the colonial powers were very different: While many fought the intruders, like Ndebele King Lobengula, others didn't even notice them like the Sho tribe led by Xi who came to civilization at the first time in 1980 after they found a "sacred" Buzz Cola bottle, while others befriended the strangers. The best known white friend of the Zulu was the British explorer and adventurer called Allan Quartermain who befriending Shaka's old ally Umslopogaas and Umbopa, the rightful king of the forgotten Kingdom of Kukuanaland, which was ruled by the ruthless King Twala and his evil advisor Gagool during that time. After Quartermain helped to make Umbopa the next King of Kukuanaland, he left the Zulu territories northwards, looking for Solomon's Mine, the People of the Mist and the immortal queen Ayesha.

At the beginning of the 20th century, many countries inhabited by Zulu and other Nguni peoples achieved independence: Draka, Azania, Sangala, Lesotho, Zamunda, Narobia, Zimbabwe, Ishmaelia, Canaan and Genosha, just to name a few. Additionally, the long lost country of Wakanda opened its borders during the reign of the Black Panther T'Chaka, beginning to sell the lately unearthed Vibranium. After the arrival of the explorer Ulysses Klaw, the first outsider entering Wakanda, T'Chaka was murdered by the greedy Klaw. Soon, his son T'Challa avenged his father's death and became Wakanda's next and possibly greatest Black Panther together with his wife Ororo Iqadi Munroe, knwon as Storm. In 1971, the commander of the Zamundan army Idi Amin failed at overthrowing the current rulers of Zamunda, opening a path to power for the benevolent rule of the Joffer dynasty whose current patriarch Jaffe Joffer promised to protect the damaged nation. In the following deacades, Jaffe and his son Akeem not only changed Zamunda into a prosperous kingdom, but also formed a strong alliance with the USA.

Between 1948 and 1994, South Africa suffered from apartheid, a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government. A series of popular uprisings and protests were met with the banning of opposition and imprisoning of anti-apartheid leaders like J.M. Curren, Michael Kafka and John Kumalo. Reforms to apartheid in the 1980s failed to quell the mounting opposition, and in 1990 President Frederik Willem de Klerk began negotiations to end apartheid, culminating in multi-racial democratic elections in 1994, which were won by the African National Congress under Nelson Mandela. But the vestiges of apartheid still shape South African politics and society. At the end of the 20th century, an unknown alien race landing near Johannesburg was enslaved by the government and forced to work under extreme conditions.

The following century would only bring pain to the peoples of southern Africa. Following the biological weapon launched by the Umbrella Corporation near Kijuju, the Zulu were nearly driven to extinction during the civil war between the United Front for Liberation and Labour (UFLL) and the Alliance for Popular Resistance (APP), two radical parties that came to power after the collapse of some African governments in 2008. The gruesome war ended with the rise of Edmond Zuwanie from Matobo. Initially, Zuwanie was seen as a liberator and as a bringer of peace, but with the Awakening of Magic in 2011 he would turn into a cruel dictator, who arranged an ethnic cleansing that would kill thousasnds of magically evolved metahumans as well as native tribesmen and white people, leading to a violent revolution against Zuwanie in 2014 and to his condemnation by the United Nations. But with Zuwanie gone the power vacuum led to another bloody civil war in Southern Africa. After years of civil war and genocide, from the ruins of South Africa sprang several new nations: The Oranje-Vrystate (populated by the surviving descendents of the white Boers), the Trans-Swasi-Federation, the Cape Republic and the Zulu Nation which was dominated by the Zulu Elves. After decades of civil war and racism a treaty was signed to unite the nations of Southern Africa to an unstable federation called Azania in 2040.

Because of the devastation of Africa's powerful partners Europe, the USA, Russia and Asia during World War III, huge parts of Africa suffered of enormous poverty after the big war, although they were never actually involved in the war itself. Powerful American and European companies took advantage of this fact, turning Africa's tribes against each other and becoming the de-facto rulers of most of Africa. Eventually, the Maasai gained enough power to liberate Kenya from the clutches of disaster. Uniting various tribes to the Pan-Africa Federation, Africa became a major player on the global stage.