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The Anglean Republic
Ofiach:
To refine my point a bit here.
The Clan/Tribal system isn't the one you're probably think of it is more like a Nation-State, they just call them Clans because well it's heritage! Each Clan contributes members to a type of ruling advisory committee and there is a High Lord and a Centralized city of government, I still think a High Lord should be elected upon the death of the old High Lord. Once again he doesn't meddle in the affairs of the clans but he does have ultimate say in raiding rights and political decisions. As for the day to day decisions and a Clans own military he does not interfere unless something is terribly wrong.
Thanes and thralls and norse vernacular would fit with these guys also, you can have a very organized society bound by strict rules of ethics concerning eachother, and their thralls, but with a "your stuff is our stuff" mentality to other cultures.
Example: Yeshan Empire finds a way to make an airship lighter and faster. The High Lord decides to send a military force to capture it and puts certain Clan Lords in charge of the operation. Clan Lords talk build a flotilla and send them on their way under the command of one of their Thanes.
Another piece of fluff, Discipline would have to be quick and brutal. Their environment can kill them they can't have someone being a complete... errm screw up. So if you do screw up and survive you are punished swiftly. "Cruel and unusual" by todays standards, but honestly aren't cruel and unusual punishments the kind that grab peoples attention? I don't see them running a prison system either because, to put it plainly, they couldn't afford to feed a bunch of useless criminals. Punishments are dealt and everyone moves on afterwards.
Last thing here. These people would be very family oriented, children are taught by the entire community, maybe there aren't sit in the classroom schools but each child is given lessons from the different professions. Even if he is most likely to take over his fathers profession.
Also how would women be treated in this society? I was thinking about it and thought they would be more inclined to raise families and tend the cities while the men flew around raiding. However they aren't forced into those roles and can become pilots, engineers and Marauders as well. Just wondering if anyone had any input on that.
@ Jess I have no clue how you plan on writing all these ideas for 6 cultures..... your mind must be on a whole nother level of creative than a normal humans :P
Gato Blanco:
YAY SPECULATION! took longer than i thought to write this.
Reiterating the national politcal strucutre
High Lord/High King- Learder of the Allthing
Allthing-governing body
Clans-Families/organisations that are present in most settlements around Anglea, to varying strenthgs depending on the settlement. Quite likely to have seats in the Allthing
Thane-Local representative/learder of the clans in a settlement, runs day to day activities as well as being in charge of a specific task given to it by their Clan Lord
The High King and/or the Allthing can give a task to a clan or clans, preferably ones that has performed well in the past or have shown aptitide for the particular task (Though this is unappealing to the Clans, they want to be the only one performing the task)
The Clan(s) and the Allthing/High King convene and choose a location to perform the task. Other clans may be recruited into the endevour based on their aplitude or strength in the settlement.
The Thane(s) in charge would do the bookeeping, getting thralls and citizens and ships and factories and whatever, and oversee the task from his base of opperations. Raids may or may not have their Thane in the field, depending on factors. Because reasons.
Certain clans could have more skilled engineers, and the senario that you illustrated could be accomplished by 2 clans, a clan for retrieval and a clan for reverse engineering, one of whom's speciality is raiding, whereas the other one is understanding and immitating. There could even be a third clan, a minor player, whos job is to take a look at the blueprints and get to improving on the design after it has been understoodl
I read about what they did for discipline in World War Z, where they would use things like Pillories for public shaming for light offences. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillory I can see the use of brands for more serious offences, the design and location depends on the severity of the crime. Capital punishment is met with beheading, Stark style. Local Thane with his own sword. Brutal, quick (usually) and lets them become productive members of society or agriculture again.
I totally agree with your point on women, and I'd like to take it a step further. Viking (I know, I know, theyre not vikings) women were mostly left to work and maintain their home (as opposed to go out and raid which was the man's role), but they had absolute control over her domain, indicated by the symbolism of the keys. (Because its on the internet, it must be true http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/vikings/women_01.shtml) Using this, I'd suspect that female Anglean pilots would own their own ships, and use some sort of key/compass motif on their person to show their status as mistresses of their domains. Furthermore, it is indicated that viking women were apt in the art of trading, thus a lot of the Angean merchant fleet would be lead by women. Women would play an equal part in Anglean society, but somewhat avoid the super testosterone machismo warfare side of it. Which is the best side, btw.
Lord Dick Tim:
I love how we are told, no, not Vikings, and suddenly it's "ok Sami and Norse then."
So this society is good to its people, what about civic services, hospitals, volunteerism, police?
Ofiach:
Well my initial thinking was along the lines of the Clans having their most skilled engineers joining a Guild of Engineers or some such body, I can see the Clans ruling their domain and requesting aid from the super skilled engineers when theirresident engineers need help.
I see the same for the military and the trade organizations in this society. There is a centralized form of everything but also a local form. So the Clan Lords have their own engineers. pilots, tacticians, and traders. The High Lord of the Allthing also has it's own set of these and uses them to bolster and support Lords in need.
Maybe the Allthing focuses more on the trade and engineering while the military is handled by the individual clan Lords. The High Lord just tells them if he wants a specific target taken, then bestows the honor of the fight on certain Lords.
As for the discipline I think branding might be over the top, they want to punish the mistake not shame the guy who made it. Their mentqality is you screwed up we punished you it's over now go do better.
Ofiach:
Ok so at this point I'm beating the Anglean Republic to death but.....
Their Marauders, the actual ground infantry that goes in blows S**t up and pillages. How would these guys be set up?
I was thinking they would usually operate in bands of 20-30 split into 5 man groups. The reason I say 20-30 is simple, you can't fit many more than that on an airship before you start worrying about weight, 10 men with armor and weapons could easily hit 2000lbs. Take into account these boys are probably from hardy stock and train all the time.
I think their leadership would be somewhat simplistic, 6 team leaders in a 30 man group each with a specific place in the hierarchy, so if say a couple team leaders die there is no confusion as to who's running the whole band once they come back together after hitting a city.
I'm not talking about a military infantry unit here I'm talking about a highly specialized group of crazies that "Hot Drop" off airships into a city and slaughter the opposition. These aren't barbarians howling and raping, they're just efficient and brutal. Imagine a city already going bonkers because of an airship battle overhead also having to deal with 30 killing machines unleashed in the streets.
I can also see these guys used as an advanced scouting team. maybe 5 of them go into a bigger city and scout the defenses and sabotage them a couple months before a raid happens. Disguised as traders or freelancers, then when the city is taken they can stick around or just leave. (I'm drawing this idea from the "Black Company" book series) as far as getting their reports to their allies, well carrier pigeons worked just fine for a long time.
Ok now onto their look, I do like the idea of them wearing some sort of body armor, I like it even better imagining them impersonating a societies demons. As for weapons I would think these would be compact firearms maybe even just simple handguns, they can liberate rifles from the troops they kill if they need them. I would also imagine them bring explosives of some sort, the really nice stuff tends to be locked away. This next one is just something I like and probably not really practical buuuut... Blades of some sort, they're going to be doing alot of their work close quarters inside buildings and that can lead to hand to hand alot, a blade of some kind could end those fights quick.
As for the handguns thing, I just don't see a group of Marauders lugging around big rifles, they will be doing alot of moving so they don't get bogged down fighting big enemy forces. I'm picturing an M1 garand style rifle as being as being the main infantry weapon more than a Tommy Gun or MP40.
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