[Lurker_at_Threshold]

Personally I think it would be cool to have Early Age Machaka be able to summon a litany of lesser gods, cumulating in with size 6 giant spiders and the lion headed titan pretenders which broader selection magic. Of course the problem with these lesser deities is that they often compete with the pretender for the affection of followers and would be saddled with varying levels of heresy depending on their power.

For late age, as a change of pace, it would be interesting to see Machaka as one of the few uncorrupted nations. I'd imagine that it would be historically based off of Mali and Songhai. The backstory could center around the Pretender vanquishing the Black Sorcerers from the god mountain and founding the great city of Timbuktu a haven for alchemists and philosophers. Tuareg light infantry would form the core of the nations military, its capital heroes would come preequiped with golden bracers of protection, and magic wise death would largely be replaced with astral.