Contraries, Heyokas, sacred clowns, whatever; that's my point: I'm trying to think of Shaman units for the Native American civs. Heyokas appear in Sioux culture, and Plains Indian culture in general, in the Pueblos, the Hopi, and..more, I guess. The point is, that a Heyoka unit would be useful.
But, my purpose wasn't just to cast broad hints about a new unit, either. I was thinking that
some types of Shamans could be developed from existing units. For instance:
Spiritwalker = Shaman set as 'air' unit with 'recon' ability, or with 'invisible' flag.
Right? See what I'm thinking?
Skinwalker = unit + animal fortify, attack anims.
Not too smooth, but effective.
Dreamwalker = similar to Spiritwalker, probably.
One could limit them to tribes that actually had that subculture. Certainly.
That goes to the second part of my research (
please correct me if I'm wrong):
Almost all of the tribes had
Societies, or
Lodges which usually had animal names, i.e., Bear Lodge, Buffalo Lodge, etc. Some were ceremonial, i.e., Sun Dance Lodge; some were militaristic, i.e., Dog Warrior Lodge. There were even distinctions within societies, i.e., winter and summer Heyoka societies.
To simulate this, we could use societies to build units: the Buffalo Lodge would produce Buffalo Warriors, for instance. The shaman units could be built by a Medicine Lodge, which could be a tech and or an improvement, or both.
And if you want to see the basis of the weirdest tech
ever, read about the Navaho
Witchery Way.