Native Naivety

Warden-Yarn15

Warden-Yarn15

Really Really Experienced
A long time ago I wanted to write about an unexplored "Rimworld," where Colonists, or Anthropologists, fresh off their rockets, would study natives both near and far and list down their rituals - from fun parties, to wedding ceremonies, to being ̶w̶e̶i̶r̶d̶o̶s̶ voyeurists and watching the tribals mate.

Because my brain is so dependent on motivation, which it lacks, I dropped developing this concept and moved on, though dabbled on it every now and then to no success. One and a half years later, I think I've developed another idea, and this is just me writing things down, just in case, after playing the Tomb Raider reboot for the first time.

What if, say, in either tribal land or an underdeveloped society, such as Edo Period Japan for example or a fantasy proxy of such so that ̶I̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶l̶e̶a̶r̶n̶ ̶a̶n̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶c̶u̶l̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ there's a bedrock to the story for those interested in writing a world, rather than the smut.

With that established, the newcomers/foreigners would pretend that they're gods or goddesses by showing that they have control of the elements. Be this just a gun, water guns, a toaster oven, somehow being able to bring a car, whatever, as long as it fools the natives into thinking that they're much more than what meets the eye.

So, a small group of people are deified and have control over a civilization. Whatever comes next, still hasn't been mapped out.
 
Some of the original Star Trek episodes had a bit of this kind of feel. modern, high-tech individuals visiting barely civilized worlds.

Can I suggest a non-fiction source for this too? Captain James Cook's journal of his first adventure around the world, - a 5 year mission seeking out strange new lands in his modern overpowered ship, boldly going etc. Cook/Kirk, they didn't even change the name very much. The journal is available online in Gutenberg.
A lot of interesting interaction with Pacific islanders who as you suggest, took them for deities in some instances.
Not so much the warlike Maoris though, (who seem to be the Klingons) and attacked them unprovoked, canoes & spears Vs ships guns.

There's quite a few of the 17th to 19th century explorations have this kind of feel. random individuals bringing modern magic to new locations.
I read once about a guy stranded, lone survivor from a shipwreck in central Africa with not much more than a large box of sewing needles who managed to trade these into a remarkable empire including several wives - think modern metallic arrowheads, fishing hooks etc.
 
Star Trek also did the "alien planet has a culture similar to one on Earth" a few times. One time it was Nazi Germany and the reason was that some human had intentionally meddled with the local population and made them imitate Nazis for reasons that I forget now.


On another occasion it was a planet that worshipped the constitution of USA but IIRC on that time they concluded that they had by pure coincidence developed a religious text that just happened to be identical to one revised version of the constitution of a country that used to exist on Earth.



So when even classics like Star Trek have already done the "a culture similar to one on Earth" a few times, you can use it as well and not feel like a hack. If you want to make it more plausible, just add that the researcher has started using Old Earth terms for the culture when they realized the similarities and all the terms are translated.
 
There's an erotic novel series called "Slave World" by Stephen Douglas [Either a pen name or a hilarious coincidence] with a take on this. The main characters are scientists in the 'modern' UK who manage to open a portal to an alternate universe England where sex slavery is a thing and the weapons and majority of the tech is roughly Victorian. They think they are going to waltz into the place and be Gods, but it doesn't go that well.
 
I guess the scenario lends itself to the tricking / bullying / coercion of those in a position where they feel unable to say no and potentially could be considered slavery / rape depending on your viewpoint / how its written.
Additionally, whichever scenario, its unlikely that the visiting people are going to be the same race as those being duped, so there is that element of racial exploitation too.
Like Remy said, fun,
 
The premise also reminds me of "The Road to El Dorado" where the protagonists get mistaken by the local people of El Dorado as gods. You can definitely make your protagonist/s take more advantage of being deified and use it for their sexual gain, or the culture they stumble upon has more sexual rituals and less "human sacrifice" ones. Maybe, the 'sacrifice' could even be offerings of sex slaves. One of the sex slaves could even be someone like Chel, who recognizes the protagonist/s as false gods, and they have to team up to find ways off this unfamiliar world or eventually get caught in their lie and get killed by the devout for blasphemy.

Like the others mentioned, 'native naivety' is a fun premise you can do a lot with.
 
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