Shadow_in_the_Mist
2017-09-17, 01:57 AM
Ah, the Amazon; the mighty warrior-woman of a fantasy era long past. Whether you feel a sense of fondness or shame for this character archetype, there can be no denying its impact on Dungeons & Dragons. Beyond the subtle fact that women are presented as being equally capable of adventuring as men, in the distant days of AD&D, Amazons were not only a monster in one of the Greyhawk compendiums, but actually presented as a PC option too.
Yes, it's true: the Complete Fighter's Handbook had an Amazon Warrior kit for fighters, which was followed by the Amazon Priestess and Sorceress in the Priest's and Wizard's Handbooks. Now, in all fairness, they weren't very good kits - honestly, they're a little embarrassing to look back upon.
Still, the nostalgia fuel is enough to make me wonder something. Among their many other problems, Amazons often tend to run into the issue that they ultimately boil down to being defined by the fact that they're a human culture where women are the warriors instead of men. But... what if you mixed the Amazon concept with the "humanoid" concept? Amazon Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes and Halflings were actually mentioned, albeit (very) briefly, in AD&D.
So, I came here to ask; what ideas can you come up with for Amazon cultures based on races other than humans?
Incidentally, yes, I'm aware of the various logistical issues that make warrior-women...inefficient... in real life. But this is fantasy. If you can buy creatures that spew lightning, or live off a diet comprised entirely of brain tissue, or consider volcanic magma a comforting material to bathe in, then you can buy Amazons. If you can't buy Amazons, then kindly keep it to yourself.
Speaking from a personal perspective, in general, I can see Amazons falling into one of two conceptual bases; the "Racial", where you have a species entirely comprised of women and must thusly have some way of reproducing asexually or homosexually, and the "Cultural", where the Amazons instead represent a distinctive faction within an otherwise normal race. As such, I intend to try and come up with one concept for both archetypes for each race that I have ideas for.
Whilst my own inspiration sadly ended with these three, I will point out that an Amazon race based on High Elves or Eladrin would be a very unique take on the subject; these races are traditionally associated with magic over martial prowess, and whereas the "standard" Amazon is a proud warrior, nothing says that elven Amazons cannot turn to war-magics and/or the blending of martial & magical prowess to support themselves.
Dwarf Amazons:
Racial: The Daughters of the Earth Mother
In this iteration, dwarves were not created by the typical grim, long-bearded, smith-like creator-god, ala Moradin. Instead, they were shaped into being by the desires of the Earth Mother, goddess of the world, of life, and of creation in its most literal act. Born to give her comfort in her loneliness, the dwarven stature reaffirms their metaphysical status as her children, whilst their otherwise mature and solid physiques is due to being made in their image.
These dwarven amazons most likely reproduce through crafting new generations; a dwarf may spend years, even decades, painstakingly carving the most perfect depiction of a dwarven infant she can from the best stone she can get before ceremonially praying to the Earth Mother and having her daughter brought to life. They may also be able to literally will new dwarves to spring to life fully grown from earth or stone, but such acts are potent divine intervention, and thus likely restricted to the mightest priestesses, sacred celesial conjunctions, or the direst need of the dwarven people.
This version of the dwarven amazon is compatible with all three of the dwarf subraces so far, and the subrace chosen can affect further refining of the concept. Using Mountain Dwarves as the basis for the Daughters suggests a war-like and possibly aggressive people, clearly possessed of a strong martial tradition. Hill Dwarves, in comparison, suggest a more peaceful culture, one that revels in the blessings of its divine matriarch. Duergar, if one shakes off the alignment expectations, would represent a more mystical version of the Daughters, one that believes in living as close to their mother's womb as possible. The three subraces could even be used in tandem to represent specific castes of the same race; hill dwarves as the "civilians", mountain dwarves as the warrior-caste, and duergar as the mystics.
Cultural: The Hearthguard
In this iteration, dwarven culture is not patriarchal, but matriarchal. Women are respected as the keepers of the hearth; they are the center of the clan which is traditionally so important to the dwarven mentality. A dwarven woman is trained from birth to fight; not to seek war abroad, but because when danger threatens the clan-holds, it is the women who take to the field, fiercer and more terrible by far than the menfolk.
Obviously, this iteration works best for amazons of the "men are respected, but do not fight" style.
Orc Amazons:
Cultural: The Wild Tribe
In most depictions of orcish culture, despite being every bit as capable as their menfolk, females are oppressed and downtrodded, treated like chattel and fit only for sating lust and birthing litters. When a female possesses sufficient strength to fight her way to a position of power, usually, she then comes down in support of these oppressive behaviors: paranoid fear of being overthrown by a feminine rival leading to behavior that sabotages the chances of her gender as a whole.
The Wild Tribe iteration is a case where this was not what happened. Instead, the founder-heroine of this tribe of all-female orcs rallied her sisters to rise up and escape their oppressors. Being orcs, of course, this amounted to murdering their menfolk in a gruesome orgy of violence.
Naturally aware of their tenuous position, the Wild Tribe has learned to fight smarter, rather than harder; they mostly war with other orcs, who see them as an abomination in the eyes of Gruumsh, and have learned tactics such as ambush, retreat and subterfuge in order to survive.
Most likely, the Wild Tribe follows the darker aspects of Amazonian propagation; capturing strong, virile-seeming male orcs and then dispatching them after they have been bred to as many females as plausible, with the sons being executed and the daughters brought up to follow in the steps of their mothers.
An obvious step to take in order to soften the Wild Tribe is to have them make peace with local humans; any ally is better than no allies, even if it is a bunch of pinkskins. This may even lead to voluntary mating between Wild Tribe females and human men - who, for all their faults, are rarely as abusive or violent as male orcs. In fact, the Wild Tribe may now be predominantly or solely comprised of half-orcs, even though they would still culturally consider themselves "orcs".
A grayer tone, of course, is to merge both aspects together; the Wild Tribe trades with its human neighbors and takes temporary lovers from their ranks, but also routinely captures, breeds with and sacrifices orc males to ensure its bloodline remains strong and vigorous.
Gnoll Amazons:
Racial: The Elder Sisters
In spotted hyena packs, it is the females who feed first. So, when magic taints the carcasses upon which they feed, it is the females who are subsequently transformed into gnolls.
This iteration of gnollish amazons can work either with Yeenoghu - who may be female as well, in this setting - or with a primal spirit of some kind.
Regardless, the Elder Sisters are a race comprised solely of hyena-women, who propagate through magic; they anoint selected corpses with mystical reagents - and just whose they select would depend on their interpretation; these could be their own dead, or just victims they slaughtered - and feed these to hyena packs. The females eat first, and so transform into new gnolls as well.
Cultural: Daughters of She-Is-Fiercer
Perhaps the simplest and most obvious race of non-human Amazons in D&D; these gnolls emulate their spotted hyena relatives, and so it is the females who are bigger, stronger, fiercer and in charge. Males tend to domestic work, whilst females fight and lead.
Yes, it's true: the Complete Fighter's Handbook had an Amazon Warrior kit for fighters, which was followed by the Amazon Priestess and Sorceress in the Priest's and Wizard's Handbooks. Now, in all fairness, they weren't very good kits - honestly, they're a little embarrassing to look back upon.
Still, the nostalgia fuel is enough to make me wonder something. Among their many other problems, Amazons often tend to run into the issue that they ultimately boil down to being defined by the fact that they're a human culture where women are the warriors instead of men. But... what if you mixed the Amazon concept with the "humanoid" concept? Amazon Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes and Halflings were actually mentioned, albeit (very) briefly, in AD&D.
So, I came here to ask; what ideas can you come up with for Amazon cultures based on races other than humans?
Incidentally, yes, I'm aware of the various logistical issues that make warrior-women...inefficient... in real life. But this is fantasy. If you can buy creatures that spew lightning, or live off a diet comprised entirely of brain tissue, or consider volcanic magma a comforting material to bathe in, then you can buy Amazons. If you can't buy Amazons, then kindly keep it to yourself.
Speaking from a personal perspective, in general, I can see Amazons falling into one of two conceptual bases; the "Racial", where you have a species entirely comprised of women and must thusly have some way of reproducing asexually or homosexually, and the "Cultural", where the Amazons instead represent a distinctive faction within an otherwise normal race. As such, I intend to try and come up with one concept for both archetypes for each race that I have ideas for.
Whilst my own inspiration sadly ended with these three, I will point out that an Amazon race based on High Elves or Eladrin would be a very unique take on the subject; these races are traditionally associated with magic over martial prowess, and whereas the "standard" Amazon is a proud warrior, nothing says that elven Amazons cannot turn to war-magics and/or the blending of martial & magical prowess to support themselves.
Dwarf Amazons:
Racial: The Daughters of the Earth Mother
In this iteration, dwarves were not created by the typical grim, long-bearded, smith-like creator-god, ala Moradin. Instead, they were shaped into being by the desires of the Earth Mother, goddess of the world, of life, and of creation in its most literal act. Born to give her comfort in her loneliness, the dwarven stature reaffirms their metaphysical status as her children, whilst their otherwise mature and solid physiques is due to being made in their image.
These dwarven amazons most likely reproduce through crafting new generations; a dwarf may spend years, even decades, painstakingly carving the most perfect depiction of a dwarven infant she can from the best stone she can get before ceremonially praying to the Earth Mother and having her daughter brought to life. They may also be able to literally will new dwarves to spring to life fully grown from earth or stone, but such acts are potent divine intervention, and thus likely restricted to the mightest priestesses, sacred celesial conjunctions, or the direst need of the dwarven people.
This version of the dwarven amazon is compatible with all three of the dwarf subraces so far, and the subrace chosen can affect further refining of the concept. Using Mountain Dwarves as the basis for the Daughters suggests a war-like and possibly aggressive people, clearly possessed of a strong martial tradition. Hill Dwarves, in comparison, suggest a more peaceful culture, one that revels in the blessings of its divine matriarch. Duergar, if one shakes off the alignment expectations, would represent a more mystical version of the Daughters, one that believes in living as close to their mother's womb as possible. The three subraces could even be used in tandem to represent specific castes of the same race; hill dwarves as the "civilians", mountain dwarves as the warrior-caste, and duergar as the mystics.
Cultural: The Hearthguard
In this iteration, dwarven culture is not patriarchal, but matriarchal. Women are respected as the keepers of the hearth; they are the center of the clan which is traditionally so important to the dwarven mentality. A dwarven woman is trained from birth to fight; not to seek war abroad, but because when danger threatens the clan-holds, it is the women who take to the field, fiercer and more terrible by far than the menfolk.
Obviously, this iteration works best for amazons of the "men are respected, but do not fight" style.
Orc Amazons:
Cultural: The Wild Tribe
In most depictions of orcish culture, despite being every bit as capable as their menfolk, females are oppressed and downtrodded, treated like chattel and fit only for sating lust and birthing litters. When a female possesses sufficient strength to fight her way to a position of power, usually, she then comes down in support of these oppressive behaviors: paranoid fear of being overthrown by a feminine rival leading to behavior that sabotages the chances of her gender as a whole.
The Wild Tribe iteration is a case where this was not what happened. Instead, the founder-heroine of this tribe of all-female orcs rallied her sisters to rise up and escape their oppressors. Being orcs, of course, this amounted to murdering their menfolk in a gruesome orgy of violence.
Naturally aware of their tenuous position, the Wild Tribe has learned to fight smarter, rather than harder; they mostly war with other orcs, who see them as an abomination in the eyes of Gruumsh, and have learned tactics such as ambush, retreat and subterfuge in order to survive.
Most likely, the Wild Tribe follows the darker aspects of Amazonian propagation; capturing strong, virile-seeming male orcs and then dispatching them after they have been bred to as many females as plausible, with the sons being executed and the daughters brought up to follow in the steps of their mothers.
An obvious step to take in order to soften the Wild Tribe is to have them make peace with local humans; any ally is better than no allies, even if it is a bunch of pinkskins. This may even lead to voluntary mating between Wild Tribe females and human men - who, for all their faults, are rarely as abusive or violent as male orcs. In fact, the Wild Tribe may now be predominantly or solely comprised of half-orcs, even though they would still culturally consider themselves "orcs".
A grayer tone, of course, is to merge both aspects together; the Wild Tribe trades with its human neighbors and takes temporary lovers from their ranks, but also routinely captures, breeds with and sacrifices orc males to ensure its bloodline remains strong and vigorous.
Gnoll Amazons:
Racial: The Elder Sisters
In spotted hyena packs, it is the females who feed first. So, when magic taints the carcasses upon which they feed, it is the females who are subsequently transformed into gnolls.
This iteration of gnollish amazons can work either with Yeenoghu - who may be female as well, in this setting - or with a primal spirit of some kind.
Regardless, the Elder Sisters are a race comprised solely of hyena-women, who propagate through magic; they anoint selected corpses with mystical reagents - and just whose they select would depend on their interpretation; these could be their own dead, or just victims they slaughtered - and feed these to hyena packs. The females eat first, and so transform into new gnolls as well.
Cultural: Daughters of She-Is-Fiercer
Perhaps the simplest and most obvious race of non-human Amazons in D&D; these gnolls emulate their spotted hyena relatives, and so it is the females who are bigger, stronger, fiercer and in charge. Males tend to domestic work, whilst females fight and lead.