Zero Revenge wrote:Soren wrote:The idea of civilians as distinct from fighting forces is a pretty recent one in human cultures, let alone in an alien one that doesn't have a concept of the nation-state. Ijad loyalties are personal and tribal - that has good and bad points. Feudal societies are run on personal and tribal loyalties. So are drug gangs. Reputation is everything, and laws, contracts, and customs are enforced by direct personal violence and the threat of violence.
Oh... oh okay, mildly terrifying.
I should point out that one of the reasons the Ijad are so attached to their religion and culture is that it's the biggest unifying and limiting factor on intra-Ijad violence. There are things you're forbidden from doing to other believers; much the same way Islam forbids the enslavement of fellow Muslims, say, or early Mormonism countenanced violence against non-Mormon settlers. Ijad culture and religion are intertwined, and Ijad are less religious bigots than they are cultural ones; knowing the basics of Ijad language and custom goes a long way towards reducing friction with them, because it means you're no longer considered a 'barbarian'.
(This also means that the Ijad religion spread a lot like Islam spread in places like West Africa; convert, or the tribes near you would be free to do bad things to you. It's a license... but only against outsiders. Very tidy.)
Zero Revenge wrote:Soren wrote:Ijad have the host-symbiote separation, which means they can practice the same kind of violence on each other without killing each other permanently. Until recently, that was pretty easy to keep under control - pre-gunpowder societies have a hard time killing enough of each other off, and when you can slip into a new body, it's not really murder, is it? More like stealing a horse. Then humans showed up - hosts who are also people. That was just a giant monkey wrench in the gears in so many ways.
Oh. Holy Crap. I never thought of that. That's also mildly terrifying.
Yeah. Again, Ijad have had varying levels of prosperity and success in modifying their social structures - some Ijad worlds and regions have developed complex power-sharing arrangements between tribes and ethnic groups similar to real-world Nigeria or Malaysia, while a very few others are starting to look, to use the bard's phrase, 'all Baghdad and s--t'. The good is every bit as good as the bad is bad - separating the good from the bad is going to be the work of centuries, some of them very bloody indeed.