Since everyone else is jumping into this one (with utter disregard for rules
1 and 3, I might add), I thought I'd restate the situation to be explained:
- Esrolia is ruled by women.
- Esrolia has lots of farmers (not noted for being top-knotch soldiers
without considerable training).
- Esrolia has not been conquered except by The Only Old One, the EWF, the
God Learners (well, they invaded, anyway), the Pharaoh, and, in the near
future, the Lunar Empire. Sure, they've been raided by various neighbors,
but not conquered the way a nice ripe target ought to be. They haven't been
nibbled away around the edges, either. Rather, they've expanded modestly in
the northeast and west.
From this and other known facts, we can make some deductions.
- Esrolia is not Egypt. There are tempting parallels (lots of farmers
raising lots of grain, ancient and presitigious culture). However, Egypt
got conquered by lots and lots of people, especially after Alexander. What
makes Esrolia different from Egypt? (or any other farming-intensive culture
of ancient Earth).
- Esrolia has magical defenses. Earthquakes and fissures and gnomes are
all very well on the battlefield, but presumably the attackers have magic
for war that's at least as good. No, I'm more impressed by the withdrawal
of fertility, such as preventing any children from being born among the
invaders' people. A good crop failure could really cool the lust to invade,
but you have to be careful not to leave your enemy with nothing to lose by
invading.
- The Esrolian army is made up of male soldiers with female officers. How
do they keep the army from mutinying and putting a man into power? A couple
ways:
- Divide and conquer. Each of the husband cults fields its own units.
The Argan Argari won't want to see an Orlanthi man made king, and vice
versa. Their "us" versus "them" isn't men v. women, but my cult against the
other guys'. This helps with putting down revolts, too.
- Conditioning. Just as the British army followed officers of a
higher social class than the grunts for centuries, Esrolian men are used to
taking orders from women officers.
- Selective breeding. Read _The Door into Women's Country_. Brrr.
None of this means that mutinies are impossible, but they don't succeed for
long.
- The Esrolian army is sufficient to hold off most invaders until the
magic effects can protect the Queendom. It hasn't been used to invade other
countries, however.
- Even if the invader does grab some cities, the magical effects drive
them off or kill them within a short period of time. Esrolia has a
mechanism to prevent locally-successful invaders from consolidating their
gains. This may be the same as their magical defenses. Or it may be
similar to the way a Brit general (can't remember his name) was neutralized
in the American War of Independence: it was said that Philadelphia took him,
rather than the other way around, because he prefered the comparative luxury
of the city to marching through the trackless wilderness called the countryside.
- Esrolia hasn't had any civil wars in which one side calls on an outside
ally for support, until recently. This is because the Pharaoh, and before
him the OOO, prevented this.
- Despite the perception of the land as peaceful, Esrolia has its share of
violence. When women there struggle for power, however, they do so behind
the scenes, through relationships, rather than through mustering armies.
There are a fair number of suicides when matriarchs (or lower women) find
their positions suddenly untenable. There are also a fair number of people
being accidently pushed off roofs, poisoned, etc. They'd fit right in in
the Lunar Empire.
- --Martin
"What is _this_ thing called, Love?" --Benny Hill