Yep just uploading this patreon doodle from last month! bit more involved but was fun!
So lets get rambling
Two dens amongst the same clan, grown bitter settle their differences between the best fighters, armed with decorative sticks, they quickly begin their strafes as a duel of blows gets rollin
So lets talk Ceremonial or Endemic Warfare
Endemic warfare is generally how drekir do warfare against other drekir and has a very important distinction from what people tend to think of as warfare
Endemic warfare is a relatively constant state of super low intensity warfare, often featuring a minimum of casualties and sometimes incorporating gamelike elements and serves often as a sort of "vent" for stress and tensions and conflict between groups without resulting in serious death or bloodshed
So endemic warfare is often a far less intense form of warfare and fighting, without actually really trying to kill people, a lot about establishing that "we are the better fighters and in a real fight you wouldn't want to fuck with us so stop saying that you guys have sole dibs on the ruins please"
So what do these tend to look like?
Endemic warfare is highly ceremonial. It's pretty common (though not universal, im painting broadly) for drekir to dress ceremonially, come with their best weapons and sometimes even armor, war paints etc.
Then when the two sides meet is where the ceremonial aspects happen.
It could be anything from wardances and chants and barks to organized mawfights (or in this case a stick fight). Perhaps they throw spears very roughly in the opponents direction. or even sometimes they just insult eachother back and forth.
The point is they are there to settle their differences and maybe engage in some fighting, but not nearly up to the level of which would involve spilling serious blood. Usually at the end of these sorts of conflicts both parties and all the drekir involved go home
maybe with a few bruises or a minor cut from a thrown rock or a mild bite wound, at worst a broken rib
And socially speaking that releases a lot of tension and both groups and go back, brag about how badass they are and then with all the steam vented out both groups can seek a resolution to their conflict
Generally there are also discreet stages of escalation
As of course sometimes a ceremonial fight is not necessarily good enough or tensions just continue to escalate
so its common for ceremonial and endemic warfare to escalate
Perhaps at first its arguments between members of different dens.
Then both dens form warparties that then meet up and insult eachother and show off weapons, but not fight
Then they meet up and maybe have two fighters wrestle eachother and try and get a win there to show that they're awesome and the other group is not.
If it keeps escalating it may then progress to something like say, a dagger fight between two drekir and actual blood is spilled
and from there if things keep escalating
it may start going into village raids and whatnot that may force other dens to intervene etc.
but the point is There are multiple stages of social deescalation that are present that range from pretty harmless to maybe some mild injuries that aren't serious that allow the drekir to resolve their conflicts in ways that do not necessarily necessitate actual very serious violence
So why does this happen?
A lot of people have asked me in the past over the years why drekir wouldn't just Try and annihilate their enemies in a bloodbath and the short answer is that it's just not really smart politically, economically, or psychologically
and the longer answer being a few points
1) Noone in the valley wants to be known as the den that murdered a bunch of drekir from their own clan or tribe (remember these are not unified political blocks when we talk about tribes). It kinda poisons your den politically and results in you losing a lot in the way of trading oppurtunities, respect, etc. and it may even result in violence against your den
after all if you are a den that is perfectly happy to kill members of neighboring dens... every other den and clan in the tribe is gonna really want to review how they feel about you living in the same valley as them
2) Economically wars aren't sustainable and have drastic practical consequences. Most dens are fewer than 100 people and multiden communities may only break around 400 drekir. At these very small population numbers even just 1 death is devastating. If you get into a serious fight and 5 of your own die, emotions aside, is just terrible for your communities economy
thats 5 fewer hands to do work, gather and get food, build buildings, make clothing, make art, all very important things
which can have its own depressive effect on the efficacy of your communities subsistence
3) It's also uh, traumatizing
Who woulda thunk!? Killing other drekir and watching your own drekir die sucks!.. a lot! It's just not healthy and even after thousands of years of forced evolution drekir still don't really like to murder other drekir.
Its worse considering often in these tribal conflict you on some level know the drekir you're fighting. Maybe not intimately but they are other drekir you have seen around as traders or other foragers traveling through, you may have ran into them at however your culture does clan or tribal gathering events, etc.
So really everyone may say they want to fight and be badasses
but really uh... they want to go home intact and resolve the conflict more... on their side! but regardless
and ceremonial and ritualistic warfare often fulfills that function, they are fighting and whatnot but not really getting in a vicious brutal war
and of course when larger serious wars break out between drekir groups they tend to be devasting
the War of the High Lake Tails is my preferred reference, killing over 300 drekir and burning 3 separate settlements to the ground and forcing an entire culture to leave an region and migrate elsewhere
so these mechanisms develop in a variety of different ways in different cultures as a sort of informal mechanism to kinda "vent the steam out" and to resolve a conflict before someone actually gets stabbed
Now for when Ceremonial warfare need not apply
Typically Endemic warfare is extended as an aspect to drekir within a tribe or within a broader culture that understands the concept and steps and generally "this is how we do the dance"
And tends to not be extended to other groups that either don't understand said local customs of endemic warfare, or more importantly, those who are not willing to play by it
this mostly falls under 3 broad gruops
humans, sivilão and bandit dens
Humans tend to, as expected, have the grace of a brick when it comes to getting involved in drekir tribal politics and there are a lot of drekir-human fights that happen all the time.
Considering humans also use guns i mean... its hard to nonlethally and nontraumatically hit someone with a shot from a rifle so its a pretty fast escalation that local drekir tend to not have the patience for
so often drekir escalate quickly to full out violence as understandably, humans tend to lack the tact or understanding to respect local customs of how to handle ceremonial warfare
The Sivilão Of course just straight up do not negotiate with kerrir, a drek is a drek and they need to be taken by whatever means possible or killed if they cannot be really taken reliably
So over the decades most drekir cultures tend to react with similar violence. If they see the sivilão they either run and hide or try to kill or maim them. As the sivilão will not spare them, its necessary they do not spare the sivilão
Bandit dens are a complicated phenomena but also tend to be treated a lot more violently than how a den may treat the other locals in their region. Bandit dens are usually built of exiled drekir from many other dens who have congealed into a single small group of drekir who probably aren't the sort to care about local customs and probably just want your food, some clothes, and sometimes even just want to kidnap a drek or two for their own personal labor slaves
again people who get exiled from dens?.. not usually great people
So bandit dens tend to prompt aggressive and rapid response from the dens they run into and sending a message in a painful way is a common tactic for local drekir in protecting from the occasional bandit den
but yeah for everyone else
You tend to see ceremonial, less dangerous forms of warfare to handle these sorts of things. It's kinda the informal series of rules that everyone follows
a ritualistic fight and dance to resolve conflicts
so yeah
So lets get rambling
Two dens amongst the same clan, grown bitter settle their differences between the best fighters, armed with decorative sticks, they quickly begin their strafes as a duel of blows gets rollin
So lets talk Ceremonial or Endemic Warfare
Endemic warfare is generally how drekir do warfare against other drekir and has a very important distinction from what people tend to think of as warfare
Endemic warfare is a relatively constant state of super low intensity warfare, often featuring a minimum of casualties and sometimes incorporating gamelike elements and serves often as a sort of "vent" for stress and tensions and conflict between groups without resulting in serious death or bloodshed
So endemic warfare is often a far less intense form of warfare and fighting, without actually really trying to kill people, a lot about establishing that "we are the better fighters and in a real fight you wouldn't want to fuck with us so stop saying that you guys have sole dibs on the ruins please"
So what do these tend to look like?
Endemic warfare is highly ceremonial. It's pretty common (though not universal, im painting broadly) for drekir to dress ceremonially, come with their best weapons and sometimes even armor, war paints etc.
Then when the two sides meet is where the ceremonial aspects happen.
It could be anything from wardances and chants and barks to organized mawfights (or in this case a stick fight). Perhaps they throw spears very roughly in the opponents direction. or even sometimes they just insult eachother back and forth.
The point is they are there to settle their differences and maybe engage in some fighting, but not nearly up to the level of which would involve spilling serious blood. Usually at the end of these sorts of conflicts both parties and all the drekir involved go home
maybe with a few bruises or a minor cut from a thrown rock or a mild bite wound, at worst a broken rib
And socially speaking that releases a lot of tension and both groups and go back, brag about how badass they are and then with all the steam vented out both groups can seek a resolution to their conflict
Generally there are also discreet stages of escalation
As of course sometimes a ceremonial fight is not necessarily good enough or tensions just continue to escalate
so its common for ceremonial and endemic warfare to escalate
Perhaps at first its arguments between members of different dens.
Then both dens form warparties that then meet up and insult eachother and show off weapons, but not fight
Then they meet up and maybe have two fighters wrestle eachother and try and get a win there to show that they're awesome and the other group is not.
If it keeps escalating it may then progress to something like say, a dagger fight between two drekir and actual blood is spilled
and from there if things keep escalating
it may start going into village raids and whatnot that may force other dens to intervene etc.
but the point is There are multiple stages of social deescalation that are present that range from pretty harmless to maybe some mild injuries that aren't serious that allow the drekir to resolve their conflicts in ways that do not necessarily necessitate actual very serious violence
So why does this happen?
A lot of people have asked me in the past over the years why drekir wouldn't just Try and annihilate their enemies in a bloodbath and the short answer is that it's just not really smart politically, economically, or psychologically
and the longer answer being a few points
1) Noone in the valley wants to be known as the den that murdered a bunch of drekir from their own clan or tribe (remember these are not unified political blocks when we talk about tribes). It kinda poisons your den politically and results in you losing a lot in the way of trading oppurtunities, respect, etc. and it may even result in violence against your den
after all if you are a den that is perfectly happy to kill members of neighboring dens... every other den and clan in the tribe is gonna really want to review how they feel about you living in the same valley as them
2) Economically wars aren't sustainable and have drastic practical consequences. Most dens are fewer than 100 people and multiden communities may only break around 400 drekir. At these very small population numbers even just 1 death is devastating. If you get into a serious fight and 5 of your own die, emotions aside, is just terrible for your communities economy
thats 5 fewer hands to do work, gather and get food, build buildings, make clothing, make art, all very important things
which can have its own depressive effect on the efficacy of your communities subsistence
3) It's also uh, traumatizing
Who woulda thunk!? Killing other drekir and watching your own drekir die sucks!.. a lot! It's just not healthy and even after thousands of years of forced evolution drekir still don't really like to murder other drekir.
Its worse considering often in these tribal conflict you on some level know the drekir you're fighting. Maybe not intimately but they are other drekir you have seen around as traders or other foragers traveling through, you may have ran into them at however your culture does clan or tribal gathering events, etc.
So really everyone may say they want to fight and be badasses
but really uh... they want to go home intact and resolve the conflict more... on their side! but regardless
and ceremonial and ritualistic warfare often fulfills that function, they are fighting and whatnot but not really getting in a vicious brutal war
and of course when larger serious wars break out between drekir groups they tend to be devasting
the War of the High Lake Tails is my preferred reference, killing over 300 drekir and burning 3 separate settlements to the ground and forcing an entire culture to leave an region and migrate elsewhere
so these mechanisms develop in a variety of different ways in different cultures as a sort of informal mechanism to kinda "vent the steam out" and to resolve a conflict before someone actually gets stabbed
Now for when Ceremonial warfare need not apply
Typically Endemic warfare is extended as an aspect to drekir within a tribe or within a broader culture that understands the concept and steps and generally "this is how we do the dance"
And tends to not be extended to other groups that either don't understand said local customs of endemic warfare, or more importantly, those who are not willing to play by it
this mostly falls under 3 broad gruops
humans, sivilão and bandit dens
Humans tend to, as expected, have the grace of a brick when it comes to getting involved in drekir tribal politics and there are a lot of drekir-human fights that happen all the time.
Considering humans also use guns i mean... its hard to nonlethally and nontraumatically hit someone with a shot from a rifle so its a pretty fast escalation that local drekir tend to not have the patience for
so often drekir escalate quickly to full out violence as understandably, humans tend to lack the tact or understanding to respect local customs of how to handle ceremonial warfare
The Sivilão Of course just straight up do not negotiate with kerrir, a drek is a drek and they need to be taken by whatever means possible or killed if they cannot be really taken reliably
So over the decades most drekir cultures tend to react with similar violence. If they see the sivilão they either run and hide or try to kill or maim them. As the sivilão will not spare them, its necessary they do not spare the sivilão
Bandit dens are a complicated phenomena but also tend to be treated a lot more violently than how a den may treat the other locals in their region. Bandit dens are usually built of exiled drekir from many other dens who have congealed into a single small group of drekir who probably aren't the sort to care about local customs and probably just want your food, some clothes, and sometimes even just want to kidnap a drek or two for their own personal labor slaves
again people who get exiled from dens?.. not usually great people
So bandit dens tend to prompt aggressive and rapid response from the dens they run into and sending a message in a painful way is a common tactic for local drekir in protecting from the occasional bandit den
but yeah for everyone else
You tend to see ceremonial, less dangerous forms of warfare to handle these sorts of things. It's kinda the informal series of rules that everyone follows
a ritualistic fight and dance to resolve conflicts
so yeah
Category Artwork (Digital) / Fantasy
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Any
Size 1280 x 698px
I mean unironically kinda.
But also the idea of drekir in fantastical cosplay fighting with foam swords is something I wish I had the time to draw
But also the idea of drekir in fantastical cosplay fighting with foam swords is something I wish I had the time to draw
I definitely sees this more result of kind humans trying creative solutions to problems using competition to solve problems in way doesn’t kill them especially seeing as they now no longer have ability go back their way life as result also I can definitely see some special forms of ceremonial warfare taking place areas where researching and developing is higher priority than most area (with it being main focus of drekir in that area during winter).
Generally ceremonial warfare is a lot more direct in that, particularly with smaller non state societies. I could see drekir showing off their craftsmanship and there are a lot more thoroughly gamelike examples of ceremonial warfare though I have my doubts that folks would go onto a researching spree to settle disputes. Especially in the social environments of the dragonscape.
Perhaps if it were the space race perhaps though that itself is a really complex environment of larger state societies
Perhaps if it were the space race perhaps though that itself is a really complex environment of larger state societies
You got idea how it works but went in bit too far as I thinking more show of craftsmanship over who could use resources more wisely in those types areas and more so thinking about fact more of showing off than actually fighting with guns I definitely see some showing their deadly precision (whether be hitting hard hit objects or hitting multiple targets in one shot) though definitely see escalating to point someone get shot.
Guns are an entirely unreasonable thing to expect here so I wouldn't even go that far. Not really something to expect a bunch of subsistence peoples to piece together with a metallurgy founded mostly on copper
Speaking of guns, I am wondering what happen to any human made bunker that built into side mountain which could contain some human made stuff and that would may be full intact depending on how well bunker was made and how much local are changed in which case they could any weapon and/or tools that was stored in case of having rush to it for safety reasons.
Sucked into the undercaves and ripped apart by the forces of the undercaves probably.
Either that or destroyed by the immense geographic shifts, or sivilào, etc.
Guns aren't really much of a thing in the dragonscape, too much destruction, I wouldn't ride on that assumption
Either that or destroyed by the immense geographic shifts, or sivilào, etc.
Guns aren't really much of a thing in the dragonscape, too much destruction, I wouldn't ride on that assumption
Aw yeah; finding ways of channeling warfare-feelings into less destructive means is a super important aspect of any society
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