Guandao
Rajah of Minyue and Langkasuka
PRECOLUMBIAN
Edohi of the Cherokee
Capital: Kituwa
Unique Ability: Selu's Justice Founding a Religion or Capturing a Holy City begins a Golden Age. Military Units receive a unique promotion providing a +10% Combat Strength bonus against the Civilization that controls the Holy City of the Dominant Religion in the Cherokee City when they were created.
Unique Unit: Chunkey Pitch Requires the Wheel; replaces the Coliseum. Provides +2 when building Land Units.
Unique Unit: Raven Replaces the Scout. Inflicts a Combat Strength penalty on enemy units. Can be upgraded to Musketman with Gunpowder.
Some explanation: The leader and the Unique Ability are based on a story from Cherokee oral history. According to the story, a young Cherokee war chief united the people in a revolt against the oppressive religious order that dominated their society. The war chief's name is not known, but Cherokee historian and novelist Robert Conley used the name 'Edohi' for this man in his novel depicting these events. If Carthage can have Dido, the Cherokee can have Edohi. Selu is the name of the Cherokee Corn Mother as well as the Eve-like figure in the Cherokee creation story. She, like Edohi's wife, was murdered.
The Chunkey Pitch is the field where the chunkey game is played. Chunkey is an ancient game popular in the Southeast and a few other places. The game involves throwing a spear at a stone disc that is rolled down a smoothed field. Their are a few variants to the game with different objectives; the most common objective is to throw the spear closer to where you think the stone will stop than the opposing team. Chunkey Players show up in a lot of artwork from the late Pre-Columbian Southeast and the game had quite a bit of historical popularity as well. Like other sports in the region, it was frequently used as an alternative or prelude to war.
Ravens were relatively high ranking war leaders, whose skill and bravery distinguished them. Their main duties were to scout ahead of the war party, find the enemy and uncover his weaknesses.
Still toying around with an earlier colonial era variant of the Cherokee. Probably would be more Trade-oriented, since many of the recorded leaders from the early 1700s were trade commissioners overseeing relations between the Cherokee and the British.
Love the chunkey reference