New Earth: Fantasy Pantheon Inspired by Afro-Brazilian Religion

Eliane Bettocchi's research report presents "New Earth," a fantasy role-playing game setting whose pantheon and faith systems draw on Afro-Brazilian religions, particularly Candomblé, Umbanda, and Tambor de Mina. The project's central thesis is that Eurocentric foundations in game design, including the Hero's Journey, Judeo-Christian dualism, and European aesthetic proportions, narrow the range of stories and players that games can serve, and that decolonial design principles offer a corrective. Drawing on a ludonarrative educational method the author calls "LudoPoetics," the work frames game design as a cyclical process of understanding, applying, and disseminating knowledge.

The setting depicts descendants of enslaved Africans and Indigenous peoples defeating colonizers and rebuilding their identities. Its Orisha-inspired deities are served by clerics, champions, and monks, with temples architecturally derived from African compounds. The magic system is grounded in cultural channels of witchcraft, faith, and the paranormal, and the work situates itself within the Incorporeal Ludonarratives platform, which includes five settings. The authors also draw on scholarship by Campbell et al. (2015) and Silva (2002, 2005), arguing that religion and game studies have been dominated by a white, male, Christian perspective that marginalizes non-Christian Black traditions.

The research is explicitly preliminary. Results from Concept Art and Game Design classes suggest that students can use the setting to develop critical awareness of design assumptions, and the authors hypothesize that minority students who see themselves represented may be encouraged to become designers. No quantitative data or formal findings are presented. The planned expansion into a Minecraft world modeled on a Juiz de Fora city map, along with a cowrie-drawer mechanic built in RPG Maker, shows the team treating decolonial theory as a practical design tool in which mechanics must align with narrative.