Category:Amazon



AMAZON Kingdom of Women Amazon is host to a matriarchal and aggressive culture where the women are the valorous warriors and the smallish men are suppressed in near-slavery, quite the reverse of the rest of the Black Kingdoms. The culture originated with an ancient queen who assembled an army of female infantry and cavalry and attacked the villages she came across, subduing the men and recruiting the strongest of the women until she had consolidated a suitably sized region.

Description
Female warriors train by hunting and fighting. Husbands and lovers are captured, not wooed.

The Amazons are a tall, very darkly skinned race that is more robust than graceful. They have black, kinky hair.

The Amazons use the in-game Kushite race when creating a character.

Clothing
Amazonian clothing is made out of cloth, fur or leather, like most of the clothing found in the Black Kingdoms. Amazonian clothing is known for its distinctive red leather, which is made using a scarce red dye sacred to the Amazons. Leather garments are typically fringed and often have patterns stamped into them. Common patterns include animal pictures, meanders and spirals. Cloth is typically embroidered and dyed black, red, yellow or indigo most of the time – although other colors are used when available. Leopard skins are commonly worn by the Amazons.

When not at war or raiding, the Amazons who live on the savannas and veldts wear cloth tunics and knee-high boots. The boots are made of either cloth or leather and have tough leather or wooden soles. The Amazons of the rainforests, when not fighting, go nude, wearing naught but an embroidered panel over their groin or a type of short kilt wrapped around their hips, depending on their wealth and status. Wealthier or higher ranking Amazons wear kilts or panels made of animal fur.

In addition to clothing, the Amazons also sport tattoos, cosmetics and jewelry. Henna is applied on fingers and toes and Stygian kohl is used on the eyelids. Red, yellow or white paint may be used to create patterns on the cheeks and forehead. As far as jewelry goes, earrings, bracelets, anklets and necklaces are most common. Headdresses of fur, feathers and gemstones are also worn.

The Amazons keep their hair in a variety of styles. Most of the Amazon warrior-women of the savannas wear their hair in dreadlocks. Those of the jungles wear their kinky hair in a bush or shave it short.

Slaves are not permitted to wear clothing of any kind. Clothing is only accorded to those who are free.

Behavior and Notable Oddities
Amazons generally use bronze weapons, especially short swords, scimitars and battle-axes.

The Amazons consider swords to be symbolic of men, so they fight with swords in their inferior hands (the left in most cases). An axe is considered to be symbolic of women, so the axe is brought to battle in the superior hand (the right in most cases). The Amazons prefer a distinct form of battle axe known as the labrys, which is seen as symbolic of female empowerment.

Amazons love wrestling and make entire festivals around it.

Amazons are well known for their dances; they have a dance for virtually every occasion.

There is no real cosmology or even a fixed theology among the Amazons. They have religious events, ceremonies and myths but these are not based on specific theologies.

Amazons accept new myths as readily as Aquilonians might accept a new story told by a friend about his day. Amazons do not look for coherence in their religious experiences or in their myths. In this system of ever-changing beliefs, there are no religious heresies and no heretics.

Religion

 * Mdetis
 * Animism
 * Ancestor veneration

The goddess of Amazon, Mdetis, is portrayed in sculpture as a beautifully shaped female head with thick, curling, wild hair, swollen eyes, fangs and an out-hanging tongue to give her beauty a fearsome aspect. She represents the mysteries of female genitalia, female wisdom and female cruelty.

The Amazons believe that their ancestors can influence them. They believe in a spirit world and that all things possess spirits. Amazon religion is ultimately animist. However, the Amazon who denies these things is not branded a rebel or even chastised. Her views are as welcome as any others.

Amazons practice human sacrifice, especially in respect to worshipping their goddess and the ancestor spirits. They sacrifice both babies and adults, although usually they only sacrifice males. Only in extremely urgent or powerful rituals will a female be sacrificed.

Infant sacrifice involves throwing the baby into a large mortar and pounding the baby to death for the purpose of war magic. Adult sacrifice involves draining the victim of blood. The blood is drained from the right side of the body for war and violence and from the left for more peaceful applications of magic. A sacrifice in the name of war involves decapitating the victim with a sword.

Government
Ruler: Queen Nzinga

Currently, Amazon is ruled by Queen Nzinga. Her rule is law but she must always be cognizant of the will of the people, for if they lose faith in her she loses her position.

The imusa are the upper class of elite warriors and nobles. The imusa are in charge of defense, raiding and trade. The imusa usually dress in a more splendid fashion than their inferiors, having better access to diamonds, gold and fine pelts.

Below these warrior women are the imbad, the herders and vassal warriors. They are usually vassals to the imusa and are in charge of livestock.

Beneath the imbad are the ìnhædin, who are the crafters and smiths.

Below the ìnhædin are the men, who are basic laborers and childcare providers.

At the bottom of the social ladder are the slaves.

Economy and Common Professions
The Amazons cultivate grain and vegetables in small subsistence gardens around the villages. The jungles are known for flooding, so agriculture therein is light at best. Orchards provide hazelnuts, almonds, apricots, dates and figs for consumption or trade. Amazon is also a source of cinnamon, rosemary, myrtle, coriander and certain peppers. A trade in cloth from the south is regarded as especially lucrative in Amazon. The trade with Stygia for Stygian amulets is robust and Amazon trades slaves with the Ghanatas, Kush and Stygia.

Myrtle is used to create an interesting perfume, which is traded heavily in Zembabwei, Stygia, Turan, Iranistan and Vendhya but the most sought after commodities of Amazon are diamonds and gold. The Amazons keep the locations of their mines and other sources a strict secret.

Common Professions

 * warrior
 * smith, other crafts...woman

Sex Roles and Marriage
Women are the hunters, warriors and rulers of Amazon, a reversal of the sex roles typically found in the Black Kingdoms. To avoid pregnancies while learning the arts of war, young Amazons are expected to maintain their virginity until they kill their first male in battle. Those who fail in this are enslaved and possibly sold to the Ghanatas, Kushites or Stygians. Once a woman has killed a man, the woman has sexual freedom in all ways, including having male visitors when her husband is absent. Once a woman has killed a man, she may visit the akualek for herbal contraceptives. She must bring proof of the kill on the first visit, either in the form of physical proof or a witness.

Amazon women are permitted female lovers at any time.

Roles are always strictly submissive for men.

Marriage is not allowed until an Amazon woman has killed a man in a face-to-face fight. Husbands and lovers are acquired in war and in raids. Amazons have little concept of love in a marriage. Marriage is for status and for childbearing so it rarely occurs before a girl is 10 years old. If an Amazon can afford more than one husband, she may marry as many as she likes. A divorce is simple – the woman takes her bed (or even the entire home) to her mother’s house.

Any children remain the possessions of the mother but the father still bears the burden of primary care.

Divorces are usually accompanied by joyous parties for the woman held by her family and friends.

Slavery
Amazonians purchase slaves from the Ghanatas. They occasionally sell slaves back to the Ghanatas, to the Stygians and to various Black Kingdom nations. Slaves are required to go about their duties naked.

The Amazons enslave men they capture in war (they typically kill any that resist capture too strongly – the strong-willed rarely make good slaves). They also enslave women who are disruptive to their communities because of their acts or omissions. Those Amazons deemed too strong-willed to serve in Amazon are sold to others as a form of exile.

Slavery awaits those, who are willing to bend.

Influences
Villages of aboriginal people in central Africa.

Simple, grass-roofed houses are common. Amazon houses are extremely primitive except in Gamburu – The capital of Amazon is Gamburu. Gamburu was built in ancient times by an extinct culture and its site was appropriated by the Amazons, who built on top of the ruins and mimicked the old style as best they could. It is surrounded by a low wall of uncemented stone blocks that rise to twice the height of a man. There are four gates in the circular wall; each gate is flanked by guard towers with archer slits and machicolations.

TIP: smaller houses with thatched roof. Central buildings may be bigger.

More Information

 * Conan: Amazon