One of the reader complaints I’ve seen a few times about 100K is frustration with the amount of detail allotted to the barony of Darr, since it’s one of only a handful of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms we get to see (beyond Sky, which isn’t so much a kingdom as a self-incorporated city-state of its own, a la the District of Columbia or Singapore) in the first book of the Inheritance Trilogy. In particular people seem to be fascinated by Darr because it’s a matriarchy and a warrior society — which is why I’m fascinated by it too, quite frankly.
Most authors’ worldbuilding is “icebergian”; readers get to see only maybe 10% of what the author actually comes up with, unless the author decides to load the book down with unnecessary infodumps and appendices. I did toss in some infodumps and appendices, because it’s epic fantasy and that’s how us epic fantasy writers roll, but since 100K wasn’t about Darr, naturally I didn’t spend a lot of time on it. Believe me, though, I’ve done a lot of thinking about how a society like that could work. So I figured I’d share the other 90% for people to chew on.
First, a few facts about the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms in general that may not have shown in the first novel (numbering for ease of discussion):
- Darr is not the only matriarchy in this world. There are several — mostly in High North.
- The kingdoms of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms are all “complete” countries, same as the countries in our world — i.e., few of them have monocultures or monoeconomies. (Darr, for example, consists of several tribes which once had separate territories — but as Yeine says early in the story, those old divisions no longer matter.) Most nations encompass several racial or ethnic groups, with one dominating; the Amn veer from this principle in that they are the dominant race of most nations on the Senm continent. Certain kingdoms might be “known for” certain products worldwide, and certain cultures might place more emphasis on certain activities than others, but all of them have some farming, some manufacture, some textiles, etc. Prior to the Gods’ War when the kingdoms were smaller, they could be monocultural and have localized economies, but things have changed greatly in the last 2000 years. Multiculturalism and global economics are now the order of the day.
- Like our world, people in the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms have used contraception — in the same variety and to the same varying degrees of success — pretty much since humans realized sex caused babies. Two main differences from our world, however: a) prior to the Gods’ War, godlings (and for a while, demons) lived among humankind and could sometimes be prevailed-upon for magical assistance, and b) not all of the kingdoms were patriarchial, so knowledge and use of contraception was never restricted or forbidden in those lands. As certain ancient methods of contraception were both effective (used properly and consistently) and available even to technologically primitive societies (the first evidence of condom use in our world was in ancient Egypt, at least a thousand years BC), people in these matriarchies were generally able to control how many children they had, and when.
- The development of scrivening, which happened about 200 years after the Gods’ War, led to the widespread use of contraceptive sigils among people (the sigils can be used by women or men, though naturally women were the most frequent users) of the upper class in every kingdom. These were applied by scriveners for a substantial fee. They functioned much like the Arameri’s blood sigils — permanent until a scrivener removes them. They are 100% effective.
- Predictably, people who could not afford a scrivener’s services began illegally using simple scrivening techniques — bootleg sigils, basically. This practice continues in the present; the Order of Itempas looks the other way for a small fee. Herbalist healers, called bonebenders in this world, can do very basic accelerated wound/bone healing, poison neutralization, abortion and midwifery, etc., and they can apply temporary contraceptive sigils which work as long as they remain visible (about a month). Most middle-class people can afford this; poorer people are still stuck with the less-reliable older methods unless they take the risk of applying the sigil themselves. Many do, but misapplied sigils can result in permanent sterilization (or worse), so few people take this chance.
And now some things I’ve considered that are specific to the Darre people:
- The Darre have a spiritual, though not cultural, analogue in our world: the Amazighs of northern Africa, who were likely matriarchial before their conversion to Islam centuries ago. (They are still matrilineal, and retain some of the old customs today intermingled with the newer Islamic stuff — for example, Amazigh men wear veils, not women.) I say “likely” because much of what’s known about Amazigh history is from oral tradition, which historians tend to discount. Nevertheless, Amazigh tales are littered with ferocious female warriors leading armies into battle, “cleanup crews” of women who would sing bloodthirsty songs while slitting the throats of fallen enemies, and so on. In coming up with the Darre, I just did a “what if” — what if a similar society had continued to develop without externally-imposed patriarchial pressures?
- War (prior to the Gods’ War) was actually quite rare for the Darre. They weren’t really interested in expanding territory. However, raiding of other lands for resources and captives was common — which sometimes triggered reprisal raids and feuds, and could escalate to full-on war.
- This is implied in a single line of the first book, but same-sex relationships are common in Darr. This is one of many cultural adaptations to minimize unwanted children (a la the ancient Greeks and male homosexuality), and to account for the gender imbalance during wartime. There’s not really a cultural construction for “strict” homosexuality; even those who prefer their own gender tend to marry and have children for the good of the family, or pride. However, Darre culture tends to venerate such relationships between women; those between men are ignored. (I imagine they have some name for the practice of homosexuality, but I haven’t figured out what that would be.)
- I thought this was understood, but just in case it wasn’t — not all Darre are warriors. Not all the Vikings were warriors either, though their culture encouraged it; somebody had to grow stuff and make stuff. When not off raiding and fighting, Darre women hunt, farm, and so on.
- Some of the farming in Darr is “farming” of the rainforest; the Darre have a special class of herbalist (called wisewomen) whose job it is to keep track of/harvest/replace wild fruit trees, stands of herbs, medicinal creatures and plants, etc. During wartime, the wisewomen act as snipers, sappers, and guerillas within the forests.
- Darre usually live in extended families, with several generations sharing one house, and related families living near each other in clan compounds. Nuclear families are rare. (This applies to Yeine’s family too; she, her parents, her grandmother, and several of her uncles all lived in a part of Sar-enna-nem.)
- Even before the development of scrivening, Darr was famous for its contraceptive “magic” (which wasn’t magic at all back then, just wisewoman herbalism and rituals designed to encourage the correct practice of the rhythm method). Since they’ve gotten their hands on scrivening techniques, few Darre women have children unexpectedly.
- Despite this, Darre culture encourages childbearing, particularly at certain times. (For example: girls going through the womanhood ritual; if they turn up pregnant as a result, this is seen as a blessing.) Having lots of children is a mark of femininity for Darre women — much like how men are traditionally seen as virile for fathering lots of children in patriarchial societies.
- Female children are more valued than boys, obviously. At times in Darre history, they have practiced infanticide of males. (In present times the Arameri abolished this… but I imagine it still happens sometimes. Probably not often, however; men are too useful to just kill off.)
- If a war is brewing, all young Darre women — warriors and non-warriors, married or not — will generally try to get pregnant and carry a child to term before they go off to fight. They have a name for this deliberate baby boom: the “war crop”. Warriors continue to exercise and practice combat skills throughout the pregnancy, as much as possible. After delivery and the first nursing, warriors turn their children over to the non-warrior women in the family, who act as wet nurses. The children are turned over to men for raising once weaned. A responsible warrior always leaves a replacement — or two — behind when she goes off to war.
- Warriors who are mothers hold higher status and are eligible for higher ranks than warriors who are not. Some command roles are reserved entirely for mothers, on the theory that they will make more responsible/less risky decisions so they can survive and get back to their children.
- Darre men are expected to give their lives protecting the family’s children. Men who fail in this duty are sometimes kicked out of the family by divorce or disowning; shame usually drives them into exile.
- Unmarried Darre men compete in festivals to earn honors and show off their father-potential to prospective brides. (Haven’t thought about what these festivals include. Some sort of physical test, along with tests of cleverness and skill? Dance, maybe, as that’s a concept I’ve played with before.) During the festivals they’re permitted to go home with a woman for a one-night “trial marriage” (mooching from another Earth culture here, the Wodaabe). Pregnancies that result from this are also considered a blessing, and usually are a sign that a man is a “good catch”.
- In the old (pre-Gods-War) days, to marry, a Darren woman paid a “husband price” to the family of her prospective husband (unless she stole or seduced him, which could trigger a feud). Especially desirable men cost so much that frequently a group of 3-4 related women would pool their resources to buy him, then share him, raising all the children together. Husbands were expected to be absolutely faithful to their wife/wives; infidelity was grounds for instant divorce and the man’s family had to give back the husband price. Less-desirable Darre men could still fetch a (low) husband price, but it was more lucrative for them to remain with their maternal family and rent themselves out by the night to interested women, bringing in some income. (They could work, too, even in those days, but only if they remained unmarried.) Poorer Darre women rented or stole men to father their children, since they couldn’t buy one. All of this was abolished by the Arameri, note; nowadays women just pay for the wedding, and men get jobs to support themselves.
- Male prostitution is still rampant in Darr, however. Especially handsome men frequently have wealthy sugar mamas. (Not all that different from our world.)
- Although the womanhood rites of the old days have changed, most Darre men still get circumcized at around age 15. I would like to hope this is done humanely, but I imagine it isn’t always. The Arameri don’t like it, but haven’t abolished it as yet.
- Sex (by an adult) with an uncircumcized male or pre-menarche female is considered the most heinous of crimes in Darr, punishable by death. It’s also pretty much the only thing the Darre consider to be rape; although they’re required to punish accusations of rape according to Amn standards (sex without consent), by their standards a woman who can be overpowered by a man is weak and deserving of ridicule — though men who do this usually find themselves divorced, exiled, unable to marry, etc., because they’ve proven themselves to be poor father-material. Men cannot be raped, in Darre eyes, even by another man.
- Any child born to a married woman is considered her husband’s child, whether this is biologically true or not.
- I think this was clear in book 1, but in case it wasn’t: the position of ennu, while hereditary, is largely a figurehead. The Darre are actually ruled by the Warrior Council, which consists of women and a few men (before Arameri rule, only women) who are nominated and voted in by the populace at large. These are generally women past menopause, and men who are fathers of adult children. The ennu’s job is to be young and strong and represent what the ideal Darre are supposed to be. Any decisions they make can be — and frequently are — overturned by the council. Probably the ennu was an actual ruler long ago (long before the Gods’ War), but I guess they figured out that letting a moody teenage girl run the place without guidance was a bad idea. Nobody tell George.
Let’s see… I think that’s everything. Feel free to discuss!