[gurps] [Worldbuilding] Intriguing concept

[Pauli Hakala]

Rupert Boleyn wrote:
> On 3 Jul 2006 at 8:43, Matt Riggsby wrote:
> 
> 
>>Easy:  there's little or no attachment to the parents/the nuclear
>>family.  There's loyalty to a tribe or extended family, a common
>>concept in most societies (we in the modern west are an exception to the
>>global trend).  Children are raised by whoever is left behind:
>>matriarchs past fighting years, the mildly disabled, and whoever the
>>society can't economically afford to put into the field.
> 
> 
> Or they're raised in the way the Spartans are supposed to have raised 
> their boys - in boarding schools with next to no parental contact. 
> Loyalty was to their school mates, and then to their 'dining clubs', 
> rather than to family.
> 
> For amazons, I'd have them raise both boys and girls like this, with 
> them segregated and the girls raised as warriors and administrators, 
> and the boys raised as labourers, etc.
> 

Tends to work better on citystate or smaller scale - An expanding
empire will inevitably run into problems with maintaining the
discipline and avoiding overt influences from other cultures.
Exact control over how the lower working class is raised is not
at all necessary, when the ruling warrior class is skilled,
disciplined and well armed. (This lower worker class would also
include any conquered people, of course.)

What I would see as the most important defining trait of a
mythic amazon culture, is a comparatively small core of elite
female warriors at or near the very top of the whole regions
arms race. The Spartan model is not the only way to produce
such a warrior class, simply put the prestige status, power
and wealth attached to the warrior elite might well be sufficient
to attract the best female warriors of each generation in
an amazon culture.

Warhorses, composite bows and some armor in the hands of a small
skilled and highly motivated elite force can make all the difference
in a low-tech battle, and can conceivably defeat a much larger
infantry-based opposing force. Mobility, firepower, armor - an
elite of horseback archers could have all of these three key
advantages over most of their opponents.. Also, if most of the
fighting is done by the very sharp speartip of highly mobile elite
warrior core, losses are likely to be quite few in number (as
compared to the high numbers of enemy casualties) and thus
fairly normal family structures could be very practical..

Just my .02 Euros.


-Pauli
-- 
"..Wings on my back, I got horns on my head. My fangs are sharp
and my eyes are red. Not quite an angel or the one that fell.."
-Lordi, Hard Rock Hallelujah, Eurovision 2006 Winner (292 points)