It seems that (unfortunately) it is only a honorific title for the original defenders of Tortosa in 1149 and their (female) descendants, but not a religious female fighting Order. Being an honour given by the count of Barcelona, it is not a religious order. Having said that, nothing prevents you from changing the story slightly and have the Pope recognize them and turn them into the "ass kicking bitches of Christ". :mrgreen:
Oh yeah, thats very common for sure! Stereotypes or idolised fantasies for the win, lol... :mrgreen:
Thats why i said that you shouldnt use THAT rather extreme stereotyped myth.
You could for example use the same reason that probably affected the Hausa-states into having lots of women warriors, the simple background fact that newborn males are weaker than females, and in a society with less healthcare, you can easily get a surplus of women because more male children die within the first few days and months after birth. Its speculated that for some reason the Hausa had something reinforcing that effect, leaving them with a society with 10-20% more females than males.
There´s also the very real effect that if a society is stressed, the ratio of male/female births move towards favouring more males... Invent something that causes this effect the other way around and you have a simple and logic reason for having common warrior women in a society.
Or simply make up a more or less heavily matriarchal society. You can do it pretty much any way you want and still probably be realistic enough.
:mrgreen:
Of course, there´s no reason why in your game the Amazons might not BE faeries for example. I think it might be a nice little twist to play with.
And the Mongol shamans, well one of the main basis for the Amazon myth is from the Kazak area, maybe they join in WITH the Mongols?
Hehe, just thinking wildly here. Its your game so use what you feel good about.
If they were, the "Order of the glorious Saint Mary" that i mentioned wouldnt be the first such 80 years later now would it?
Ah, so the title were inherited, couldnt find any English source being clear on that.
No, its a knightly order, as i said. Its also not a fighting order, but an order made up from fighters.
Nah, just make the "Order of the glorious Saint Mary" appear a century earlier. I think the order of the hatchet should remain non-religious, true to its roots so to say, but it could be made into a fullfledged, recruiting and training fighting order.
I just got "Sundered Eagle" and I've read the story about Alexander the Great and Queen Thalestris. That made me think that these Amazons may be not so bad idea
Funny, that
Amazon myths were definitely part of the medieval mindset. You can find references to them scattered all over, even if fighting orders for women were unusual (kudos to Direwolf for his research, BTW)
It looks like the speculation is due to end shortly. The book is expected in the warehouse on Thursday going by the latest update on the Atlas-Games home page.
