Amazonians

Overview
Amazon is a vast area of the Black Kingdoms, which lies south of Stygia and Darfar. It is bordered to the west by the Southern Desert and defined in the east by the River Styx. To the south, Amazon extends into the equatorial rainforest. At the end of the Hyborian age, thousands of Amazon slaves will be brought out of the Black Kingdoms by the Hyrkanians.

The Amazons are a tall black race, more robust than graceful. Their skin is dark and they have black, kinky hair. The Amazon culture is organised as a nation constantly at war. The female warriors train by hunting and fighting. Husbands and lovers are captured, not wooed.

Matriarchal Culture
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. The Amazons continue to be ruled by a queen instead of a king. The queen does not marry nor does she maintain a lengthy relationship with any one man lest a king arise and rule the Amazon people. The queen does have sons and daughters and her eldest daughter is the heir to the Ivory Throne of the Amazons. The queen enters into temporary sexual alliances for political gain at times, usually killing her lovers after a few intimate encounters.

Provincial Life
The village is the centre of life in Amazon. An Amazonian village is called a livata (plural mavata). A livata is home to one to two hundred people and moves every decade or so to ensure healthy soil for the crops. Any placement of villages or cities on the accompanying map are approximations only because of these movements. On the savannahs, the movements of the mavata are even more frequent as the plains Amazons have a nomadic lifestyle. The governor of a livata is called a mkulunta. The plural of mkulunta is akulunta. The land around a livata is communal and is used to grow crops and pasture the livestock. The harvest is divided equally among the people of the livata by the administrators of the farms, although the mkulunta receives an honorary cut before the general division among the population begins. In addition to the premium accorded to the mkulunta of the livata, a certain amount is also set aside for the mbanza, or provincial capitals.

Beyond the mavata are the mawena (singular liwena), which are basically provinces. A liwena is a collection of mavata. The liwena is administrated by an mwena (plural awena) who lives in an mbanza, or provincial capital. An mbanza is the equivalent of an Amazon town, home to between one and five thousand people. An mbanza does not move like a livata does. It is supported by taxes and tribute from the mavata in the liwena.

The mawena are administered by the queen at Gamburu, the closest thing to a city in Amazon, as well as its capital.

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 colours are used when available. Leopard skins are commonly worn by the Amazons.

Women, Men, 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.

Other women have more specialized roles. Some are in charge of trading caravans and others work as master craftsmen, supervising the work of men. Others become priestesses or oracles, or become powerful administrators whose duties preclude them from being part of an army. These roles are handed down from mother to daughter. The community as a whole supports these individuals with portions of their hunt or war-loot.

Male Amazons remain at the home. They do not fight and must obey their wives in all things. They are not considered free citizens and may not take a role in deciding anything about the community but they are allowed to wear clothing, unlike slaves. Fathers are expected to care for any children but all children belong to their mothers. Mothers teach the girls how to hunt and how to fight and the fathers teach the boys how to tend the home.

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.

Trade and Economy
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.

Slavery
Amazons 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.

Arms and Armor
Most Amazons maintain a bronze short sword, a doubleheaded bronze battle axe (called a labrys), a bronze-headed throwing spear and a hunting bow. Trading or stealing iron or steel weapons is a sign of strength among the Amazons who lack the industry to make such weapons themselves. Also, unlike much of the southern Black Kingdoms, the bow is an honoured weapon among the Amazons. For armour, most Amazons use leather breastplates with bronze squares tied to them and bronze studded leather straps worn in the manner of a kilt. Amazons use crescentshaped shields.

Military
The Amazons are highly regarded among the Black Kingdoms as courageous and cunning warriors. They are known to be swift in battle and completely unafraid of engaging in combat. Technically, in the event of war, every woman can be called for military service, although rarely does an area move its entire population into war. Often a sorceress accompanies an army to cast spells to terrify their foes. Men are usually called to carry baggage and supplies for the army

The most common strategy used by the Amazons when faced with a potentially superior foe is to retreat (or even appear to flee), then turn and fight. If a fight is not going well for the Amazons, they will scatter in as many directions as possible, then circle back to surround the enemy and renew the fight. The Amazons prefer to fight from a position of advantage and when the advantage is lost, they disband and appear to flee – only to return with restored vigor and hopefully with a new advantage.

Government
Amazon is split into various provinces, sub provinces and basic village territories. At the head of this complex chain of division is the Queen of the Amazons. Currently, Amazon is ruled by Queen Nzinga. Her rule is law but she must always be cognisant of the will of the people, for if they lose faith in her she loses her position. She appoints the nobles who rule the provinces and she has the power to remove any of them from office but generally politics keep her from exercising that right as often as she might like. The villages offer tribute and taxes to the sub provinces who in turn 10 Amazon pay tribute and taxes to the provinces, who then pay tribute and taxes to the Queen. All rulers are expected to appear annually before the Queen and give an account of their realms and their actions.

The hierarchical structure is nearly feudal in design. Those higher up are responsible for the safety and well-being of those beneath them. All report to their superior for continued power and, ultimately, to the queen. The Queen of Amazon rules her province and commands at least six mwena. The six mwena command several nwena, or rulers of sub provinces.

Social Standing
Amazon has a stratified, hierarchal society with social classes. The imusa are the upper class of elite warriors and nobles. The imusa are in charge of defence, 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 labourers and childcare providers. At the bottom of the social ladder are the slaves.

Religion
Many of Amazon’s religions are dominated by superstitions and magic. Shamanistic beliefs co-exist with ancestor worship and the worship of local gods and demons.

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. She is also said to be the goddess of war and healing.

Sacrifice
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.

Sorcery
Sorcery in Amazon is often handled through dance and hand flicks. To offer a blessing, a sorcerer flicks her hands from her stomach, then from her heart and then from her head; a curse is handled in the opposite manner, flicking from a person toward her own stomach, heart and head, symbolically taking power from that person into herself.

Amazonian sorcerers tend to be Witch-Doctors or Shamans.