Barbarians

From Almeopedia

Barbarians are of course not an anthropological or historical category; they are a conceptual object. In certain periods of history, they are well-armed, dangerous conceptual objects, the kind that can come in and burn down your village. In modern urban cultures like our own they are simultaneously a term of disdain reserved for the worst atrocities, and an attractive fantasy image of unrestricted power.

A creation like Conan, or even more sophisticated portrayals such as the historical creations of Poul Anderson, are not really about historical reality. They're something of a modern bourgeois's idealized anti-portrait of himself. The imagined barbarian possesses all the manly virtues he feels he's lost, and cares nothing for the petty restrictions and rituals that impede him. (Ironically, for the ancient Greeks, barbarians were cowardly and effeminate; the film 300 inherits this view.)

Historical barbarians can be defined as linguistic outsiders; as pastoralists; or as primitive peoples.

Babblers

Greek βάρβαρος referred to people who spoke Greek badly or not at all; Verdurian malsfaom is literally 'one who speaks badly'; the Cuêzi was neni-nemi, like the Greek an imitation of mere babbling.

In the modern world, to disdain outsiders for being outsiders is atavistic; in premodern societies it was only good sense to be wary of outsiders. Not speaking our language, they are likely to reject our other norms as well. It also make them look dumb, which quite unfairly contributes to the stereotype of primitiveness.

Nomads

The quintessential barbarians are perhaps nomads; thus Bar. kêntorî 'desert lord' or Ax. reravirti 'rover'. The relationship between agriculturalist and pastoralists need not be strained: the inhabitants of Skouras have always traded with the nomads of the Lenani steppe, who are linked to them culturally and linguistically; the ancient Cuzeians had paternal feelings for their own "Little Brothers", fellow Karazi who herded in the highlands of Eretald.

Great expanses of steppeland, such as the Asia or the Barbarian Plain, however, create huge nomadic population, and during the Dark Years these erupted multiple times into Eretald and Xengiman. The nomadic lifestyle of Ereláe goes well with war: everyone in the tribe is mounted and expert with bow and arrow; by contrast the great populations of agricultural states consist mostly of sedentary peasants of no great military use; only in heavily militarized eras are their armies a match for the nomads.

Some of the nomads are content with overlordship and tribute; others, notably the Gelyet, were cruelly destructive. On the other hand, peasants expand if they can into pastoral land (e.g. Lácatur or Bolon) with no qualms about the nomads they are displacing, and civilized states' counter-raids against the nomads consist mostly of killing enough of them to discourage aggression.

Actual nomads are by no means macho badasses who despise the soft plains-dwellers. They enjoy the fruits of civilization, especially those that are portable, such as jewels or titles of nobility; they are much quicker to adopt agriculturalist gods than peasants are to acquire nomadic ones; nomadic conquerors often outdo the local peers in their patronage of the arts.

In Arcél the nomads had no horses, and the regions suitable for pastoralism were much smaller; they have thus been less important historically-- though both Belesao and Uytai have seen barbarian conquerors.

Primitives

The glory of civilized states is of course their technology, and they look down on cultures which lack any of it, whether cities, writing, coins, cannons, and manufactures. As a corollary, such cultures are considered unrefined, ignorant of everything from literature to manners. Their rich oral culture and sophisticated spirituality is of little interest to outsiders.

Great cultures may be so used to dominating their neighbors that they are not quick to notice that they no longer do. The Xurnese called the northern kingdoms barbaric until their wealth and scientific knowledge becamse undeniable, and even today they are slow to accept foreign ideas.

Hunter-gatherers are generally so little threat to civilized states that they aren't even worthy of being called barbarians; in Verdurian they are rudomî, primitives.