mintyfreshbless
zip zap krakow
- Pronouns
- Any
catboys acquired, world domination follows
GODSTAR - a Science Fantasy Civilization Quest
- Thread starter ScottishMongol
- Start date
-
- Tags
- civ quest
if you support the path of studying dolphins and ravens soon they will join and the league will truly be multispecies then the next step is multi corporal league
Turn 6 Sanctuary Actions
- Location
- Great Khanate of Scotland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Jointly Study War Machines
The war machines captured from the Machine Army have vexed your Mechanicals ever since they fell into your hands. While they are self-replicating and you still have access to them, and you know how to operate them and thus can still use them in war, you have made no progress on understanding their deeper workings. Sanctuary does not have technology nearly on this level, but they do have vehicles of their own and thus have a higher vantage point.
You pool your best minds in a joint research project, the engineers from Sanctuary teaching your Mechanicals how to build and repair their own vehicles. Their trucks, motorboats, and light planes are easy enough to grasp once you have schematics and can be taught the underlying theories, and your Mechanicals show rapid progress in designing their own versions; your military planners especially are interested in using the planes for military purposes. The motorboats in particular offer to rapidly change the volume and speed of trade on the river systems, and many merchants are clamoring to buy them, while others in the League are looking into integrating these machines into your supply lines, using them to replace your old inefficient overland systems of travel.
All of that aside, your joint research team throw themselves at the war machines. They discover that the machines are basically the same in fundamentals; they do not use any exotic methods of fuel or propulsion, and even their machine spirits are not too different from those either you or Sanctuary are familiar with. You are even able to understand the drones rather well.
The most complex part is the self-replicating nature of the machines. The support vehicles which allow the construction of new vehicle parts is fiendishly complex, and several have to be disassembled along with lesser war machines in various stages of aborted assembly, each of their parts individually analyzed. What you find only baffles your researchers further.
The support vehicles take in metal and other raw materials and, using a variety of different internal mechanisms, converts them into parts. They interact together in complex ways you only barely understand, although you are able to gain a few innovations from individual steps in the process which could be useful in more grounded industrial processes.
No, what your researchers struggle with is the lack of any control mechanisms whatsoever. It seems that what animates the support vehicles' construction and assembly system and guides it to build according to the established designs is the machine spirit itself. Sanctuary's researchers believe that, since these machines predate the Age of Unreason, there may have originally been a different system that oversaw the assembly process – perhaps the "computers" which only exist theoretically in Sanctuary's tech package. However, at some point, perhaps soon after they were uncovered by the Machine Armies, they developed animating spirits and the computational components withered away like vestigial organs.
Theories and speculations aside, you are able to successfully cultivate machine spirits to reproduce, and the first self-replicating technical rolls out of its shop in Sanctuary to great fanfare. The process is expanded to include boats, planes, and the other war machines you captured from the Machine Army. Moreover, now that you know how to induce magically-automated methods of assembly and construction, you could apply this to many other parts of your industrial base.
Speaker for Sanctuary
It is the first Sanctuary-wide election that the city has ever experienced, and it is, naturally, chaotic. It quickly becomes clear that the majority of potential candidates are members of the elite class of legal scholars, unsurprising since those are the most educated and respected individuals, although a few minor interest groups do run their own candidates. The primary candidates of course are those representing the pro-syncretism and pro-nativist factions, respectively.
The election takes the form of speeches, debates, and campaigning, all of it quite vigorous. The pro-syncretism candidate naturally argues for closer integration, cultural assimilation, and further political reforms to Sanctuary. The nativist candidate, surprisingly, offers a moderate view. Any hardline nativists of course would have refused to run, and the nativist candidate offers a vision of Sanctuary as an autonomous part of the League, free to practice its own culture without foreign influence.
A few clashes between supporters of one side or the other are reported, but the election itself goes smoothly. To your surprise, turnout is extremely high, perhaps due to the heated topics involved or simply the novelty of the situation. The pro-syncretism faction gains an even higher margin of victory than expected, perhaps due to the nativists' moderate candidate alienating more hardline members of his faction.
Still, as the first Speaker-for-Sanctuary arrives in Whiteclay to join the High Council, Sanctuary savors its first helping of democracy, and finds that it likes the taste.
Teach Spirit Veneration
The Sufi doctrine of Sanctuary may claim there to be only one God, but only a blind fool would deny the existence of other spiritual beings. Under their doctrine, spirits are intelligent, incorporeal beings who we are obligated to cultivate good relationships with, but they are not truly divine. The existence of beings like Lightning-Speaker or River-Woman is also accounted for. Certainly, they are powerful, owed a certain amount of respect, and perhaps one may request their assistance in certain tasks, but one wouldn't necessarily call that worship, would they?
In fact, some rather bold members wonder if the spirits themselves could not be converted, for which they claim there to be some precedent, but that is neither here nor there.
Still, while Sanctuary has cultivated good relationships with the nature spirits around them, using rituals they learned from their allies, and while they can fit those spirits into their doctrine, they remain unlearned in many of your ways. You set out to change that.
Their own customs regarding reincarnation mean that venerating the spirits of the dead isn't very applicable, but you can certainly teach them how to venerate the spirits of the trees and animals in more complex ways. There are few hunters or woodsmen among the urban-dwelling population of Sanctuary, but many of their allied tribes are eager to adopt your ways as, despite having converted to Sanctuary's faith, they still retain close ties to the land.
Following on that, you also begin to teach them about your major spirits. Lighting-Speaker, the patron and animating spirit of your electrical grid, is of course of primary importance as you and Sanctuary share that grid, and they dedicate their own electrical stations and transformers to Lightning-Speaker.
River-Woman also serves as a way to link your two societies together, as she governs the river that flows through the League and whose delta Sanctuary sits on. River-Woman's shrine in Sanctuary is an impressive structure, a monument of their architectural style. When they make an offering of goods, sinking a boat in the river delta, River-Woman herself makes an appearance as she does for you. She lays her blessing on the city, and your holy men believe that she has been greatly empowered now that her name is known along the entire course of the Long River.
Of course, Sanctuary does put their own spin on things. Their customs lead them reject designs such as idols or visual depictions of the spirits; instead, they favor swirling abstract patterns, or calligraphic murals which form the names of the spirits. Shrines to Lightning-Speaker feature wood panels with fractal burns created by running electrical currents through wooden boards. Meanwhile, shrines to River-Woman naturally feature abstract patterns meant to invoke flowing water. There are other notable additions – Sanctuary's mystics craft charms that invoke the spirits, or write poems about them in Arabic, or contemplate the mystical qualities of their written names.
Some of these aspects of veneration are even picked up by the rest of the League, as the interplay and exchange between your culture and Sanctuary's has strengthened your understanding of the world.
The war machines captured from the Machine Army have vexed your Mechanicals ever since they fell into your hands. While they are self-replicating and you still have access to them, and you know how to operate them and thus can still use them in war, you have made no progress on understanding their deeper workings. Sanctuary does not have technology nearly on this level, but they do have vehicles of their own and thus have a higher vantage point.
You pool your best minds in a joint research project, the engineers from Sanctuary teaching your Mechanicals how to build and repair their own vehicles. Their trucks, motorboats, and light planes are easy enough to grasp once you have schematics and can be taught the underlying theories, and your Mechanicals show rapid progress in designing their own versions; your military planners especially are interested in using the planes for military purposes. The motorboats in particular offer to rapidly change the volume and speed of trade on the river systems, and many merchants are clamoring to buy them, while others in the League are looking into integrating these machines into your supply lines, using them to replace your old inefficient overland systems of travel.
All of that aside, your joint research team throw themselves at the war machines. They discover that the machines are basically the same in fundamentals; they do not use any exotic methods of fuel or propulsion, and even their machine spirits are not too different from those either you or Sanctuary are familiar with. You are even able to understand the drones rather well.
The most complex part is the self-replicating nature of the machines. The support vehicles which allow the construction of new vehicle parts is fiendishly complex, and several have to be disassembled along with lesser war machines in various stages of aborted assembly, each of their parts individually analyzed. What you find only baffles your researchers further.
The support vehicles take in metal and other raw materials and, using a variety of different internal mechanisms, converts them into parts. They interact together in complex ways you only barely understand, although you are able to gain a few innovations from individual steps in the process which could be useful in more grounded industrial processes.
No, what your researchers struggle with is the lack of any control mechanisms whatsoever. It seems that what animates the support vehicles' construction and assembly system and guides it to build according to the established designs is the machine spirit itself. Sanctuary's researchers believe that, since these machines predate the Age of Unreason, there may have originally been a different system that oversaw the assembly process – perhaps the "computers" which only exist theoretically in Sanctuary's tech package. However, at some point, perhaps soon after they were uncovered by the Machine Armies, they developed animating spirits and the computational components withered away like vestigial organs.
Theories and speculations aside, you are able to successfully cultivate machine spirits to reproduce, and the first self-replicating technical rolls out of its shop in Sanctuary to great fanfare. The process is expanded to include boats, planes, and the other war machines you captured from the Machine Army. Moreover, now that you know how to induce magically-automated methods of assembly and construction, you could apply this to many other parts of your industrial base.
Speaker for Sanctuary
It is the first Sanctuary-wide election that the city has ever experienced, and it is, naturally, chaotic. It quickly becomes clear that the majority of potential candidates are members of the elite class of legal scholars, unsurprising since those are the most educated and respected individuals, although a few minor interest groups do run their own candidates. The primary candidates of course are those representing the pro-syncretism and pro-nativist factions, respectively.
The election takes the form of speeches, debates, and campaigning, all of it quite vigorous. The pro-syncretism candidate naturally argues for closer integration, cultural assimilation, and further political reforms to Sanctuary. The nativist candidate, surprisingly, offers a moderate view. Any hardline nativists of course would have refused to run, and the nativist candidate offers a vision of Sanctuary as an autonomous part of the League, free to practice its own culture without foreign influence.
A few clashes between supporters of one side or the other are reported, but the election itself goes smoothly. To your surprise, turnout is extremely high, perhaps due to the heated topics involved or simply the novelty of the situation. The pro-syncretism faction gains an even higher margin of victory than expected, perhaps due to the nativists' moderate candidate alienating more hardline members of his faction.
Still, as the first Speaker-for-Sanctuary arrives in Whiteclay to join the High Council, Sanctuary savors its first helping of democracy, and finds that it likes the taste.
Teach Spirit Veneration
The Sufi doctrine of Sanctuary may claim there to be only one God, but only a blind fool would deny the existence of other spiritual beings. Under their doctrine, spirits are intelligent, incorporeal beings who we are obligated to cultivate good relationships with, but they are not truly divine. The existence of beings like Lightning-Speaker or River-Woman is also accounted for. Certainly, they are powerful, owed a certain amount of respect, and perhaps one may request their assistance in certain tasks, but one wouldn't necessarily call that worship, would they?
In fact, some rather bold members wonder if the spirits themselves could not be converted, for which they claim there to be some precedent, but that is neither here nor there.
Still, while Sanctuary has cultivated good relationships with the nature spirits around them, using rituals they learned from their allies, and while they can fit those spirits into their doctrine, they remain unlearned in many of your ways. You set out to change that.
Their own customs regarding reincarnation mean that venerating the spirits of the dead isn't very applicable, but you can certainly teach them how to venerate the spirits of the trees and animals in more complex ways. There are few hunters or woodsmen among the urban-dwelling population of Sanctuary, but many of their allied tribes are eager to adopt your ways as, despite having converted to Sanctuary's faith, they still retain close ties to the land.
Following on that, you also begin to teach them about your major spirits. Lighting-Speaker, the patron and animating spirit of your electrical grid, is of course of primary importance as you and Sanctuary share that grid, and they dedicate their own electrical stations and transformers to Lightning-Speaker.
River-Woman also serves as a way to link your two societies together, as she governs the river that flows through the League and whose delta Sanctuary sits on. River-Woman's shrine in Sanctuary is an impressive structure, a monument of their architectural style. When they make an offering of goods, sinking a boat in the river delta, River-Woman herself makes an appearance as she does for you. She lays her blessing on the city, and your holy men believe that she has been greatly empowered now that her name is known along the entire course of the Long River.
Of course, Sanctuary does put their own spin on things. Their customs lead them reject designs such as idols or visual depictions of the spirits; instead, they favor swirling abstract patterns, or calligraphic murals which form the names of the spirits. Shrines to Lightning-Speaker feature wood panels with fractal burns created by running electrical currents through wooden boards. Meanwhile, shrines to River-Woman naturally feature abstract patterns meant to invoke flowing water. There are other notable additions – Sanctuary's mystics craft charms that invoke the spirits, or write poems about them in Arabic, or contemplate the mystical qualities of their written names.
Some of these aspects of veneration are even picked up by the rest of the League, as the interplay and exchange between your culture and Sanctuary's has strengthened your understanding of the world.
Huh, did we got sanctuary vehicles for free?
- Location
- Great Khanate of Scotland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You got better than Sanctuary vehicles, you upgraded them to self-replicating models.
- Location
- an unseen void
- Pronouns
- Any
we remain blessed by our continuing union with the one faction whose aesthetic truly rivals ours.
and war machines...good! it's so good
and war machines...good! it's so good
Archivist Grim
Totally not AI
- Location
- The abyss
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They
*pats technical on the hood*
Driver: This girl can produce so many vehicles
Turn 6 War Actions
- Location
- Great Khanate of Scotland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The War Between the Leagues
Slavery is an abomination to you, and it cannot stand. The League of Strength is an aggressive power, but a weak one, riven with internal revolts. Your war planners believe that it could fall if given a hard enough push, and any potential threat to the True People as a whole either from the League of Strength itself or from an outside enemy seeking to exploit their weakness can be removed. However, you must act fast, as the Machine Army of All-Under-Heaven cannot be distracted forever.
The Great League sees mobilization on a level it never has before, the Grand Army called up, equipped with the industrial might of the League. Sanctuary does not have a strong martial tradition, but respecting your alliance they do send a unit of mechanized infantry along with some whirling dervishes – elite swordsmen with mystical abilities.
League of Strength: 3 dice. 37, 56, 36 = 126.
Great League: 3 dice + 1 dice (Sanctuary assists). 47, 100, 47 + 76 = 270 (+5 Technology bonus.) = 275.
Rebels: 1 dice. 35 (+20 omake bonus) = 55.
Great League: 3 dice + 1 dice (Sanctuary assists). 47, 100, 47 + 76 = 270 (+5 Technology bonus.) = 275.
Rebels: 1 dice. 35 (+20 omake bonus) = 55.
The League of Strength is spread out and fighting too many fires; their industrial capacity is hampered by slave revolts, and the rebels on their southern border are able to take and hold territory. While a large army has been dispatched to reclaim the "Southern Marches", military advisors and equipment from the Great League stiffen the defenses long enough for the Grand Army of the League to smash through the League of Strength's forces.
It's barely a contest; the professional, mechanized army of the south goes up against an army dominated by warrior-aristocrats. To be sure, the League of Strength fights hard, unleashing everything they have. The land itself seems to turn against you, an oppressive feeling wearing on morale as you push deeper into the League of Strength's heartland. Campaigns of psychological warfare are paired with war magics that strike fear into the heart of your men. Nightmares of teeth and claws emerge from the woods to savage your forces, the Warrior Lodges of the League of Strength use all their war magics, tearing into unprotected units, taking terrible tolls before they are cut down.
But cut down they are, as your own Warriors are dispatched against enemy hardpoints, as mass charges of war machines shatter enemy lines, as your war mages call down rituals to turn the tide of battle. Sanctuary's small forces make an impressive showing, their whirling dervishes able to go toe-to-toe with the most elite enemy Warriors, their mystic sword-fighting arts cleaving through war magic that would turn bullets.
It's more than just military might, however. You are backed by the full industrial might of the League and Sanctuary both; each spent bullet is replaced with ten more made in factories by free men, each ruined war machine is replaced by two more as they replicate themselves, every fallen man will be replaced in a fortnight by another, armed, trained, and driven to the front by a finely-tuned logistical machine coordinated by Historian-bureaucrats. Your espionage network tells you of enemy movements and allows you to outmaneuver them and preempt counterattacks, while the groundwork laid among local rebel groups gives you knowledge of the terrain and local support, while the League of Strength realizes far too late the trouble they're in and tries to concentrate their remaining forces at their capital.
The final battle sees them unleash their remaining magical weapons, calling up vengeful ghosts of their fallen warriors, but Sanctuary's mystics enter the spirit world and do battle with them there personally. As the last war altar is toppled from atop its pyramid, your holy men sense the magical infrastructure that held the League of Strength together unravelling, and the malevolent will that pushed back against your invasion suddenly dissipates. The remaining leadership surrenders to you and submits to your will as the liberated people take to the streets in celebration.
The war is over, but now the reconstruction begins.
Turn 6 Crisis
- Location
- Great Khanate of Scotland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
CRISIS
Custom dictates that during a war, the League is led by a "War Council" elected from members of the Warrior Societies, who manage the war effort and step down at the cessation of hostilities, returning governance to civilian leadership.
But for a week after the surrender of the League of Strength, the fate of your civilization hangs in the balance.
The War Council of the Great League announces a delay in elections, citing the ongoing occupation and reconstruction of the former League of Strength, as well as alluding to the continued threat of the Machine Army of All-Under-Heaven. In other words, they have raised the specter of an open-ended period of military rule.
Warrior Societies Loyalty Roll: 38 +10 (Merchant Guilds) +10 (Craft Guilds) +10 (Labor Councils) = 68.
Everything drags to a halt. The Labor Councils are first to act in protest, wildcat strikes spreading across the League like wildfire as they shut down factories, then infrastructure. The entire League seizes up as the organized working class flexes its might. The Craft Guilds are next to act, joining the strikes in protest of the War Council's decision. When the pre-war High Council reforms, joined by Sanctuary's Speaker, they affirm that they are the legitimate government of the League. The merchants throw their support behind it, as do the strikers after a period of confusion. The Grand Army of the League's loyalties are split in this time, but that at least means they are not solely in support of the War Council.
For a week, everything balances on a knife's edge...and then, weighing the odds stacked against them, the War Council resigns…in disgrace, no less, a fate usually reserved for a War Council that has suffered a military defeat. The High Council of the League is restored and, once they announce elections will be held, work resumes slowly.
The first item they must deliberate is the fate of the Warrior Councils. This brush with military rule and the resolution of the crisis in firm favor of civilian authorities means changes shall be made, but the question is what kind of changes. There are various harsh and punitive actions proposed, as well as more measured ones, and it is a debate that is echoed on factory floors and in assembly fields across the League.
[] The Warrior Societies will be reformed.
They will become permanently subordinate to civilian authority, the tradition of War Councils will be abolished, but the Warrior Societies will continue to exist, serving as elite shock troops and special forces within the Grand Army of the League.
[] The Warrior Societies will be abolished entirely.
Their property will be seized, their traditions abolished. A way of life will end. New recruits will be chosen from the Grand Army to serve as officers and to learn elite war magics.
Pick one. Vote will open in 24 hours.
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- Location
- Ohio
[X] The Warrior Societies will be reformed.
I like the Warrior Culture idea, I just want them to be nobler and honorable; also they can't keep trying to seize power. I say reform but make them subordinate.
I like the Warrior Culture idea, I just want them to be nobler and honorable; also they can't keep trying to seize power. I say reform but make them subordinate.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] The Warrior Societies will be reformed.
There's nothing wrong with their existence and let's not lose a major cultural touchstone when we don't have to. Reform is certainly needed, but abolishing them is, I think, a bridge too far. Abolishing our major professional warrior class right before we likely go to war is also less than ideal.
There's nothing wrong with their existence and let's not lose a major cultural touchstone when we don't have to. Reform is certainly needed, but abolishing them is, I think, a bridge too far. Abolishing our major professional warrior class right before we likely go to war is also less than ideal.
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- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
There's a moratorium guys, votes not open.
- Location
- Great Khanate of Scotland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You know it really didn't occur to me to clarify this but I probably should have - no matter what, the specific people who led the plot against the League will be punished[1] and the rest will be investigated for their loyalties. It's entirely possible that there were members of the Warrior Societies opposed the coup. The reform vs. abolition vote is solely on whether you believe the rest of the Warrior Societies can be trusted not to do this again, whether they're institutionally unsalvageable or not.
[1] With expulsion from the Warrior Societies, possibly also having their property seized or being sent into exile.
[1] With expulsion from the Warrior Societies, possibly also having their property seized or being sent into exile.
- Location
- an unseen void
- Pronouns
- Any
I'm also leaning towards 'reformed.' That still involves reforms like "no war councils ever again" and "the warrior societies no longer run the entire military" and "the military is permanently and clearly subordinated to our democracy," which I think covers the essential reforms to power and undercuts the parts of the Warrior Societies which have concerned me the most.
Any society, but maybe ours in particular, thrives on diversity. Having the Warrior Societies stick around means there's a second institutionalized viewpoint inside the military to support alternate doctrines and avoid groupthink, and we've seen the value just this turn of maintaining things like the Craft Guilds.
Also, tbh, I would like minority viewpoints inside the League not to think that "total extermination of our traditions" is something that's easily put on the table, even if this case is a relatively justifiable one.
Any society, but maybe ours in particular, thrives on diversity. Having the Warrior Societies stick around means there's a second institutionalized viewpoint inside the military to support alternate doctrines and avoid groupthink, and we've seen the value just this turn of maintaining things like the Craft Guilds.
Also, tbh, I would like minority viewpoints inside the League not to think that "total extermination of our traditions" is something that's easily put on the table, even if this case is a relatively justifiable one.
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- Pronouns
- He/She/They
IIUC problems of this sort have been hinted at from the very beginning, with our issues with the Raven Tribe. Having an elite military class is kind of... socially toxic in itself. This is the worst expression of it so far in our society (though the LoS shows how things can get far worse), but I think there are also many smaller social benefits to getting rid of them.
As for our military capabilities, it's clear that we're building a modern, professionalized military of soldiers rather than warriors - they're not needed anymore.
Anyway, they literally tried to coup us - above all else I just can't trust that we won't have problems with them again.
[] The Warrior Societies will be abolished entirely.
As for our military capabilities, it's clear that we're building a modern, professionalized military of soldiers rather than warriors - they're not needed anymore.
Anyway, they literally tried to coup us - above all else I just can't trust that we won't have problems with them again.
[] The Warrior Societies will be abolished entirely.
The Bird
tEM IS GUD...RITER!
- Location
- In that den of villains and scum, OKLAHOMA
[] The Warrior Societies will be abolished entirely.
yeah i think it's time to old yeller the warrior societies: they aren't culturally healthy and we're developing a professional soldiery anyways. Best to lance the boil now instead of using half measures to let it fester.
yeah i think it's time to old yeller the warrior societies: they aren't culturally healthy and we're developing a professional soldiery anyways. Best to lance the boil now instead of using half measures to let it fester.
- Location
- Warsaw
I suggest reform over abolishment. It is simply the better of the two options. Punish the offenders and set it up to prevent future incidents. Not to mention such radical change in our military at this point. It can wait until after the machine army is taken care of at least.
@ScottishMongol is this something we need to be worried about? I thought we kind of had them at our total mercy?
- Location
- Great Khanate of Scotland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
There's enough political will that you could carry it out regardless.
- Location
- the Republic
- Pronouns
- He/They
I've been debating this on Discord, but just to share my thoughts here:
I think reform is the best path forward given our present situation and our general goals. Maintaining a balance of classes and distribution of power is what made the warrior coup a non-starter, and chopping down a pillar of our society would only destabilize it further. By reforming the societies, we retain our elite troops with their unique traditions while also cementing their loyalty to the League, giving us the best of both worlds.
Also, I want to see a vibrant, heterogeneous military, not a gray standardized mass of conscripts or volunteer-mercenaries.
I think reform is the best path forward given our present situation and our general goals. Maintaining a balance of classes and distribution of power is what made the warrior coup a non-starter, and chopping down a pillar of our society would only destabilize it further. By reforming the societies, we retain our elite troops with their unique traditions while also cementing their loyalty to the League, giving us the best of both worlds.
Also, I want to see a vibrant, heterogeneous military, not a gray standardized mass of conscripts or volunteer-mercenaries.
Cassiemouse
Market Atheist
I am also concerned about the violence abolish would entail. Seizing their property and destroying their traditions sounds like quite the exercise of state power and would put the boot on the neck of a significant fraction of our population.
Warrior Societies
- Location
- Great Khanate of Scotland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
AN: I thought this might help the decision.
***
A Warrior Society is fundamentally an organization of elite warriors with special magical traditions, known as "war magics". A tribe can have multiple societies, each with slightly different traditions, iconography, and abilities, but there are constants. Warrior Societies recruit from within their tribe and have close relationships with each other, ensuring they coordinate as a whole across the League. Some have friendly rivalries which express themselves in efforts to outdo each other in battle, or in the sporting events/ritual war exercises that characterize the Warrior Societies during peacetime.
Warrior Societies support their members through a mix of loot, donations from family members, or donations from the tribe as a whole, depending. With recent improvements in logistics, governing Councils have taken up much of the slack. There are some families which have a tradition of sending members to Warrior Societies, but there is nothing that could really be considered a "Warrior family" the same way there are merchant families or Mechanical families. It's still considered an honor to support a family member who's a member of a Warrior Society.
When you join a Warrior Society, you undergo a ritual initiation, a test of toughness and strength, and you leave your home to live with the Society. Because of a number of cultural factors Warrior Societies are mostly, although not solely, composed of men. You kind of have to be considered pretty butch to be a woman in a Warrior Society.
As mentioned, members of a Society live, eat, and train together to build close fraternal bonds, as well as undergoing rituals together. These rituals primarily involve group dancing, augmented by costumes, chanting, music, and other ritual components. In battle Warriors wear ceremonial battle regalia which doubles as a psychological tool as well as serving actual magical components, which means unless a Society is specifically dedicated to stealth tactics, a Warrior can be easily identified by their regalia on the field. Warriors count their victories and kills and amass prowess and rank within the Society through this. A Warrior's personal magic is also said to increase with their victories, meaning a Society's leading and most veteran members are also its most powerful.
There are plenty of rituals, each for individual components of the war magic they rely on, but the most important involve going to and coming home from war. When going to war, Warriors will mantle themselves with war magic which improves their strength, stamina, and shields them from harm. When coming home, Warriors undergo ritual cleansing in order to remove the stain of killing from their souls, usually also undergoing a period of isolation as a group while they heal from any psychological trauma.
In addition, as your society has transitioned to a professional army with Warriors serving as your officer corps, some war magics have emerged which are more concerned with individual leadership rather than battlefield prowess - stiffening the resolve of the men under your command, or making it easier to issue orders to them through magical messages, for example.
***
A Warrior Society is fundamentally an organization of elite warriors with special magical traditions, known as "war magics". A tribe can have multiple societies, each with slightly different traditions, iconography, and abilities, but there are constants. Warrior Societies recruit from within their tribe and have close relationships with each other, ensuring they coordinate as a whole across the League. Some have friendly rivalries which express themselves in efforts to outdo each other in battle, or in the sporting events/ritual war exercises that characterize the Warrior Societies during peacetime.
Warrior Societies support their members through a mix of loot, donations from family members, or donations from the tribe as a whole, depending. With recent improvements in logistics, governing Councils have taken up much of the slack. There are some families which have a tradition of sending members to Warrior Societies, but there is nothing that could really be considered a "Warrior family" the same way there are merchant families or Mechanical families. It's still considered an honor to support a family member who's a member of a Warrior Society.
When you join a Warrior Society, you undergo a ritual initiation, a test of toughness and strength, and you leave your home to live with the Society. Because of a number of cultural factors Warrior Societies are mostly, although not solely, composed of men. You kind of have to be considered pretty butch to be a woman in a Warrior Society.
As mentioned, members of a Society live, eat, and train together to build close fraternal bonds, as well as undergoing rituals together. These rituals primarily involve group dancing, augmented by costumes, chanting, music, and other ritual components. In battle Warriors wear ceremonial battle regalia which doubles as a psychological tool as well as serving actual magical components, which means unless a Society is specifically dedicated to stealth tactics, a Warrior can be easily identified by their regalia on the field. Warriors count their victories and kills and amass prowess and rank within the Society through this. A Warrior's personal magic is also said to increase with their victories, meaning a Society's leading and most veteran members are also its most powerful.
There are plenty of rituals, each for individual components of the war magic they rely on, but the most important involve going to and coming home from war. When going to war, Warriors will mantle themselves with war magic which improves their strength, stamina, and shields them from harm. When coming home, Warriors undergo ritual cleansing in order to remove the stain of killing from their souls, usually also undergoing a period of isolation as a group while they heal from any psychological trauma.
In addition, as your society has transitioned to a professional army with Warriors serving as your officer corps, some war magics have emerged which are more concerned with individual leadership rather than battlefield prowess - stiffening the resolve of the men under your command, or making it easier to issue orders to them through magical messages, for example.