Simon Hibbs:
>I wouldn't go this far. The Shadow Empire was ruled by male trolls
>for hundreds (even thousands?) of years and they were still trolls
at
>the end of it. Just because the males are in power doesn't mean the
>females are bereft of influence or magic. In fact in situations like
>that I'd expect that power would actualy be split between power over
>external and internal affairs, with females playing at least a
>prominent role in the latter.
In "splitting the difference" -- it occurs to me that when the females are in power, the "let's make stronger kids" faction probably has an easier time of it. Much fun could probably be had (though keep in mind, I'm writing a lecture on Wilhelmine parliamentary politics to give today...) by considering the different factions within "uz society" and how they'll want to allocate magic in various ways. I'd assume that females want to dominate "external" affairs, so they can use them for the primacy of internal affairs. Why waste the magic and other resources on extrnal things?
This worked in Arkat's Dark Empire or the OOO's Empire because, though ruled by male (sorta-)trolls, they used the system in ways that benefited the females. It'd be interesting to speculate about what happened on occasions when Ezkankekko wanted to take too much from the uz for things that seemed not to suit the females' long term plans! : )
As to the male-female problem: it's damned hard in troll society to "take power" without some female support, and even the biggest, baddest uz like Geras Shag has a mother (and sisters) keeping an eye on 'em. It's possible for Zorak Zorani to dominate sections of uz society, even to rule entire lands (briefly), or to dominate regions - - but the ZZ are so internally destructive ("Hey! We're in charge! That means --- CHARGE!") that I can't imagine they'd hold power very long, unless there's a succession of surprisingly talented and mellow Death Lords around (and even then, I'd think ol' blue-eyes would be sending some spirits of retribution eventually!).
I'm not sure male trolls, at least the sane ones, _want_ to take power from females. Maximize their own power in society? Yes. Increase the powers of their wives/sisters/nieces/aunts/mothers? Of course. Take it away? Ur. That's woman-magic, how do you dominate that? I suspect we're thinking like humans: I doubt uz think much about gender roles, they just *do* things.
This said, it's the Hero Wars, where the old rules are made to be broken! : )
Cheers,
James
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