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Old 10-10-2019, 03:49 PM   #21
talonthehand
 
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Default Re: Magical Matriarchies [Fantasy]

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
I mean that magical society is a matriarchy. Of course, the larger society could diverge.
It's entirely possible magical society would be a matriarchy, but not a certainty. There are times in the real world where a small minority has dominated over a large majority (apartheid in south africa for instance) - quantity of people isn't a guarantee of having power.

If the female mages have more potent magic, or if schools for teaching magic are preferential towards women, then they could certainly form a matriarchy. Or if male mages are a new thing - maybe there's something in the y-chromosome that prevented the development of magery, and there's only recently (say, past several generations) been a mutation that's removed that. Then the mage-matriarchy would be the only thing the society has ever known.
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Old 10-10-2019, 05:39 PM   #22
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Default Re: Magical Matriarchies [Fantasy]

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What would you add to the settings?
An underground alternative to the matriarchy that seeks to subvert and overthrow the matriarchy.
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Old 10-18-2019, 06:39 PM   #23
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Default Re: Magical Matriarchies [Fantasy]

Another possibility is to have magic of some aspects of society be more amenable to females.That is a little different from what the OP suggested but it is an interesting take.

Or the whole society can be a labyrinthine Gormagast like thing and some corners of it are just more in tune to women.

It doesn't require an underground attempt to overthrow the patriarchy, though that can be PART of it (hey why not) but sometimes the matriarchal elements just ARE.

What you get is sort of a dungeon delve or a Deadly Decadent Court.
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Old 10-19-2019, 04:52 AM   #24
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Default Re: Magical Matriarchies [Fantasy]

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What would be the impact of sexual disparities in magical populations? What would you do with such a setting? What would you add to the settings?
One game I played in had a race of gnome like folk, except the female gnomes were more like rather muscular human woman, and the males basically a servant harem class.

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I think you might do whatever you want. You wouldn't be forced to have a female magocracy.
Following on from the above, the male gnomes still had all their cannonical artificer traits and skills. Give the male gnomes a propensity for alchemy and enchanted artefacts, and the warrior females some form of rudimentary battle magery, and (as we say down here) Bob's your uncle.

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... a Deadly Decadent Court.
Scheming warrior matriarchs, hatching plots and coups whilst playing games not dissimilar to Mah Jong, all whilst sipping tea.
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Old 10-19-2019, 10:29 AM   #25
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Default Re: Magical Matriarchies [Fantasy]

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Scheming warrior matriarchs, hatching plots and coups whilst playing games not dissimilar to Mah Jong, all whilst sipping tea.
Great idea...
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Old 10-19-2019, 12:30 PM   #26
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Default Re: Magical Matriarchies [Fantasy]

Patriarchy was the norm on ancient Earth because untrained men were better than untrained women in battle and, given the relative inputs, women were more important demographically. Thus men, because they were better at battle and more expendable, were in charge of weapons and violence. All you need for a warrior matriarchy is to make women better at violence and to transfer more of the reproductive work to the males. Say a goddess of war and fertility blesses women with enhanced battle prowess and allows males to lactate and carry the embryo for most of the pregnancy. Males that don't co-operate lose fertility, virility, and battle skills.

With the women in charge of violence and weapons, women would run things.
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Old 10-19-2019, 05:57 PM   #27
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Default Re: Magical Matriarchies [Fantasy]

I could see a Matriarcal Goddess offering a Pact which gave those that followed a 15 point Code of Honor ( Matriarcal Warrior Witch) and a Disceplen of Faith (Ritualism) and Vow ( Fight for the Glory of the Goddess) eight levels of Magery that could only be used in battle. Magery with the limitation only in battle would be about six per level. Thus fourty-eight points minus about thirty-five for the Code of Honor, The Disceplens of Faith, and the Vow, for thirteen points. Thus an IQ 12 Magery 3 warrior woman with a base rate of thirteen, would have a Base Rate of 21 ( 20 for Very Hard Spells) in battle. Thus they would have the ability to cast without gestures or speech( a massive advantage in a fight) and substantially reduced energy costs.

Adapt the Disworld Staff Advantage to cover the swords of the Warrior Witches and ways to store more fatigue in their arms and armor and these witches could mow down vast armies with small war bands.
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Old 10-20-2019, 10:10 AM   #28
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Default Re: Magical Matriarchies [Fantasy]

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Say a goddess of war and fertility blesses women with enhanced battle prowess and allows males to lactate and carry the embryo for most of the pregnancy.
Aren't all you accomplishing is just making women men and and men women? I mean, isn't the definition of a woman (in a general, biological sense) the ability to bear children and breastfeed them? Yes, I know there are a billion cans of worms with this definition, but I'm not sufficiently informed to argue about them.
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Old 10-20-2019, 11:28 AM   #29
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Default Re: Magical Matriarchies [Fantasy]

Strength only matters in warfare when you are using muscle-powered weapons, which is not necessarily a factor when magical systems like RPM are in existence. RPM can allow for the creation of powered weapons gadgets that do not require any ST, as well as non-weapon attacks. If a woman can use RPM to transform a man to the size of a beetle, she can step on him as easily as if he was initially ST 20 as if he was initially ST 10. Or she can make him into a shadow and ignore him while she goes about her business.

Against magic, Magical Resistance becomes the primary defense, followed by high HT and Will (though Mana levels may help). High ST stops being as much of an important factor, especially since RPM can also enhance ST. In effect, it is the side with the greatest magical support who wins battles, as sides without magic suffer a tremendous disadvantage.
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Old 10-20-2019, 11:58 AM   #30
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Default Re: Magical Matriarchies [Fantasy]

[QUOTE=TGLS;2291384]Aren't all you accomplishing is just making women men and and men women? I mean, isn't the definition of a woman (in a general, biological sense) the ability to bear children and breastfeed them? Yes, I know there are a billion cans of worms with this definition, but I'm not sufficiently informed to argue about them.[/QUOTE]

I thought I was setting up an oligarchical system of government on a world like Earth in ancient times and coming up with a reason why the women got to oppress the mn instead of the other way round. To deal with Alexander Howl's point, if you had an ethnic group with sex linked Magery, all women born with Magery 0 but only the normal ( for this setting ) number of men. And the women all both trained in magic and took initiations to increase their level of Magery, then, men and women could remain biologically the same and women could rule over men as oppressively as men have ruled over women. But the tiny minority of female mages proposed at the start of this thread would have simply been coopted by a Patriarchy.

Women have been oppressed because of a serious power deficit in relation to men. To flip the situation you'd need to put men at a massive power deficit in relation to women.
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