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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 5596849" data-attributes="member: 4937">Quite often, they hate each other.  They don't call the world blood stained for nothing.The different social relationships arose according to the particulars of each region's history.  I'm not a historical determinist.  I believe that the choices people make influence the structure of the society that develops.  Certain areas became patriarchal monarchies because it was a partriarchal kingship that consolodated power, which ultimately means that there was someone or someones at some time that made choices that resulted in how things were.  Certain areas became matriarchal monarchies because it made sense at the time and place, and they were sustained in this because child birth was relatively less lethal than in the real world (meaning the line of succession was harder to break on the female line than in the real world) and because women could balance the martial power of men with magical power (on the battlefied).  In one case, a matriarchy was put into power as a result of a reactionary movement against an oppressive patriarchy.  In another part of the continent, a partriarchy swept into power as a result of a reactionary movement against an oppressive matriarchy (government by covens of hags).  In one country, an insane king was put down by revolt of leading merchants.  The nobles who had seen the way the winds were going and who joined their movement where heralded as heroes and managed to maintain a share of the power in the resulting plutocracy.  (Complex power sharing agreements are sort of a fetish of mine.)  In another country, a long standing civil war between the warlords who remained after the collapse of a larger empire was ended when they agreed NOT to make one of their number king, but elect an outsider to be the nominal ruler.  In a neighboring country, the one remaining institution that people trusted after the empire collapsed was a school of learning that people looked to to resolve civil disputes.  In the case of Kwalu, they think that they are the one truly cultured nation in the world, the rightful leader of the free world, and that eventually the natural right of their ruler to rule and judge over all the kings of the world will be universally recognized.  In the mean time, they must be content to sing the praises of their ruler in earnestness of the time when his rule is recognized over the whole earth.  The country itself has barely changed in the past 6000 years.  It's like a place where time stands still.  They are also fairly isolated, which discourages direct imperial ambitions.  But they are the regional economic power, a maritime power, and a significant player in the global market both as a buyer and seller.</blockquote>

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