AlliesandServants
No Lunar has many servants—at least not compared to the teaming cities of the interior. There are large cities in the lunar domains, some of them far out in the Wyld—bastions of order maintained by spell and artifact, but even there the numbers are limited. Because of that, most lunars, especially most younger lunars, take over and control nomadic “barbarian” tribes. The Elders have city states—but younger lunars do not. In fact being able to properly nurture and guide a tribe from nomadic to a city or nation is one of the ways a young lunar can gain respect—so long as the project doesn’t blow up in his face.
The Silver pact has general guidelines for mortal followers, focusing on insuring that the average “Barbarian” is self sufficient, clever, and able to function in the chaotic environment of the fringe. There are many practices of initiation and ordeal designed to help as many tribal warriors as possible to unlock their essence and the Lunar elders have created a number of MA’s focused on low essence beings and heroic mortals to better hone their skills—some of the MA’s are actually closer to forms of magic, allowing tribal thaumturges to be more effective in open combat (and it must be said, occasionally make great deals of money teaching their arts to others).
= Tribes, Wars, and “civilization” =
The Lunars do not like modern civilization—for a very pragmatic and simple reason, namely that it currently exists as a pyramid, a tiny number of people living in comfort on the backs of thousands of peasants and slaves. Peasents and slaves are some of the *most* vulnerable to the fair folk or Yozi’s, and are also pretty worthless in a fight. One reason the lunars like to lead raids is that it forcibly shows kingdoms just the sort of problem having a vast number of sheep can give rise to when the wolf drops by—and also permits the tribe to augment it’s numbers by taking prisoners, who often could care less.
It should be noted that in many places the lunars could easily destroy the kingdom targeted—if that was their point. The lunars are not stupid, and whatever creation thinks, even Lookshy would be hard put to defend against dozens of celestial level sorcerers and the horrors they could unleash. Beyond the danger of Sidereal intervention, lunar raids are just that, raids, intended to modify behavior and provide “live fire excercises”, not destroy nations.
Among the tribes themselves, lunar molding focuses on honing the individuals skills—children play games of hide and seek that involve everything from riddles to tracking, while young adults ordeals involve cleverness as well as bravery. “Unstoppable” Challenges to young warriors often have a way around it (such as an elder lunar who is obviously invincible…but as the warrior who bothered to talk to the shaman knows, cannot resist riddles), and neither bravery nor cleverness is enough to carry someone all the way through. The most skilled warriors, often are offered a chance to serve an exalted beastman, or even a celestial lunar—and sometimes a nifty artifact…although these are handed out in moderation.
A few things the lunars have tried to stamp out is a reliance on slavery—slaves weaken both slaves and masters, and produce an environment of fear—destructive fear. A tribe continually worried about a slave uprising is unlikely to be very useful in a war. Some tribes do keep slaves, taken on raids, but no tribe with lunar associations practices hereditary slavery—the children of slaves are themselves free, and part of the tribe.
Essentially to the mature Lunar, the perfect society is one in which everyone is very competent at one thing… and passibly competent at everything else. Not everyone can be a deadly warrior—but everyone should know which end of the spear is sharp. Not everyone can be a great healer…but everyone should know how to dress and treat wounds. To the lunars, over specialization is nearly as bad as slavery—it is, in fact slavery of a different sort, insuring that should the structure of society break down for any reason, those who have become too specialized will die.
Beastmen, babies, and the question of rape.
Most tribes have a number of beastmen in them—the genetically modified humans that the lunars created to be able to exist without the aid of technology or magic. Many of them are essence weilders and thus very important. There is a certain amount of interbreeding, and the lunars, being shapeshifters, honestly (except for very young lunars) see nothing wrong with it. The legends that they sleep with animals *do* annoy them—while shape may not bother them, sleeping with something that is nonsentient very much does. Also, few beastmen are subhuman in intelligence—as always, a brain is the most powerful weapon a lunar or mortal has.
Rape, while occurring, is not as common as the realm would believe—it is, in fact almost unknown among the lunars themselves, for the simple fact that the sheer charisma possessed by even a young lunar is enough to conquer most resistance—the stories of princesses or princes being carried off by lunars often gloss over the fact that not to long later, said “prisoner” is seen attired in moonsilver armor, attending her lover as a guardian in battle. The other factor often ignored is that very few lunars are interested in having long term relationships with incompetents. Given a choice between a lusty barmaid who will fall into bed, and an immaculate monk who might try to kill him, but is very close to his power and skill—and will, most lunars will go for option “b”. Lunar relationships, needless to say, can be complex and tension filled. On the other hand, no lunar is ever monogamous—and many villages and tribes have had more than a few half caste children, and many offer up their best for the honor. Needless to say, there are quite pragmatic advantages to this, and some celebrations could give the Cynis pause—although the more sadistic forms of pleasure seldom exist among them.
Among their followers, there is rape—when a barbarian force comes over the walls, even the mightiest lunar has a hard time controlling them, and there is more than enough ill will to engender a desire to punish the enemy. Some lunars just accept this as the way of the world, while others try to avoid it—honoring chieftains who maintain control over their people and sometimes publicly chastising those who go to far. The most common way of doing this is setting up legends and stories that those who indulge in rape over much are frightened of dealing with a strong woman…and that possibly it implies something about their manhood… A more serious reason to avoid rape is succinctly summed up—the fair folk can use it. Drunkeness, rape, murder—all of those imply chinks in the armor of the soul that a fae can exploit—and there are warriors who fear ravishment as they do not fear facing an enraged Yozi.
Tribute Villages:
Some Lunar domains include villages, full of laborers, with fields protected by tribes and wards. These are tribute villages where goods are created for trade to tribes—and more importantly where a safe haven exists for tribal mothers. Many prisoners from creation end up here, mostly women and children and those who cannot endure the life of the tribe. While Cynis wags speak of the pleasures of the villages, the Lunars encourage the skewed sex ratio for reasons that have nothing to do with pleasure. First of all, many tribal women spend their pregnancies in these villages, where they are safer. Secondly, the lunars foresee the need for radically expanding their population, should the fae ever be defeated or some catastrophe befall creation. For that reason, they have a large number of women, in warded villages where very minor geomantic alterations would drastically enhance fertility. In such a way the lunars insure that even drastic losses among the tribes endure for only a few generations at most. The leader of these villages is usually an older member of a tribe, no longer capable of holding his own physically, but full of wisdom. In other cases an Resplendent Celestial Child, ironblood or even a Lunar or Alchemical (very rarely) will be in charge. *Those* villages are usually collocated with something very important.
Next, the GreatCities
Return to CharlesGray
