“ Her pupils were an inhuman swirl of lavender, teal and gold; Agathos eyes, a mark of the goddess Anesidora. ”

Aerea Tempest ⸻ a young woman from Corinth, Greece, struggling to find her calling. Raised in the Agathos circle, she always felt out of place next to other women her age—which could be seen and felt. So going her own way seemed a necessary decision, but it alienated her from her family and the other Agathos— especially their beliefs of ' guiding humans into the state of grace' and getting blessed by the goddess, like they have been. Even though she went through the mortifying ordeal of separating her beliefs from what she truly wanted from life, she still goes through her days using her rare gift of good luck, Eutychia, to help others at the cost of her own misfortune. [ CARRD. ]

⸻ inspired by greek/roman mythology, astrology and other lore. major themes: grief, loss, isolation, betrayal, change vs tradition, magic realism, destiny and not giving up.

MYCENAEA: an independent, fandomless, selective roleplay character crafted for fakevz. // established feb. 2024. MDNI, this is a 21+ only zone! you'll be blocked if I catch you. ger/eng, whatever you prefer.

Children listed from Aren’s lives and in order of birth. 5 trueborn children, 2 adopted, and 5 illegitimate children born of his wife and claimed as his own. Only two souls of his many children survive: @konstcntin & @nikolaigray

Aren’s Children

Aren lived to a very old age and was able to see his children grow up until one was killed in the destruction of Eden and the other outlived him.

Euphranor: son of Erish, born Druid

Eldest son of Aren and Erish, born a druid. Lost his mother in late childhood and was raised by his father and the people of the village that he served. Followed in his father’s footsteps by helping humanity and druid alike, traveling around the world in his first life. Outlived his father. Reincarnated many times and now his soul rests in the Isle of the Blessed.

Elpidius: son of Erish, made Druid

Youngest son of Aren and Erish, born human and made druid by his Archdruid father after the death of his mother. Lost his mother in late childhood and was raised by his father and the people of the village that he served. Was eventually killed in the destruction of Eden in his first life. Reincarnated many times, including at one point as the druid Merlin which became his last life. His soul now rests in the Isle of the Blessed.

Meniates’ Child

Meniates was able to raise his adopted daughter from age 5 up to age 21 before her death.

Ilanna: daughter of unknown, Witch (Adopted)

Young witch, orphaned, living off the streets and found trying to steal from a nobleman in Egypt. Taken in by Meniates and raised as his own daughter. At 21 years old she got killed by a man that she had denied.

Perseus’ Children

Perseus was able to raise his children and loved each one equally up until his untimely death at 41 years old. 

Electryon: son of Andromeda, Human

Eldest son of Perseus and heir to the Mycenean throne, ruling as king after his father’s death until his own death. Married, had many children and was eventually killed. Became a cubi demon.

Gorgophone: daughter of Andromeda

TBD. :)

Perses: son of Andromeda, Human (Illegitimate, Claimed)

Biological son of a sailor and friend of Andromeda. In an agreement of alliance and diplomacy with Cossaei, Prince Perses was sent to live with the family of his future wife, the daughter of Cossaeian leaders, at 17 years old. He eventually helped bring about the Persian people.

Sthenelus: son of Andromeda, Human (Illegitimate, Claimed)

Biological son of a Mycenaean royal guard. Triplet. Became King of Mycenae after Electryon’s death and built a new palace in Tiryns. Was eventually killed by Hyllus, son of Heracles and Deianira.

Alcaeus: son of Andromeda, Human (Illegitimate, Claimed)

Biological son of a Mycenaean royal guard. Triplet. Handled many political and financial affairs in Mycenaea. Married his wife and had three children, a son and two daughters before he was killed by political adversaries.

Cynurus: son of Andromeda, Human (Illegitimate, Claimed)

Biological son of a Mycenaean royal guard. Triplet. Died unexpectedly in his early infancy due to unknown congenital issues. Never made it past 7 months old.

Heleus: son of Andromeda, born Druid

The only son of Perseus to be born a druid. The product of Perseus and Andromeda attempting to salvage their relationship and grieving their lost child together. Lived an honest, humble life before he was cursed to become a tree in his last life. Eventually broke the curse.

Autochthe: daughter of Andromeda, made Druid (Illegitimate, Claimed)

Biological daughter of a childhood friend of Andromeda, and her true love. Died in childhood due to a slow illness. However, was turned into a druid before she died by her Archdruid father. Has stopped reincarnating and her soul rests in the Isle of the Blessed.

Mestor: son of unknown, made Druid (Adopted)

Orphaned noble child from a war and taken in by the royal family. Was turned into a druid by his adopted father at request. Had an illegitimate daughter. Lived a simple life as an artist and eventually married a man he loved, another druid. Has since stopped reincarnating and so his soul rests in the Isle of the Blessed.

Post: Who were the Minoans and Mycenaeas?! The people many believe inhabited Atlantis! For years... https://www.blaqsbi.com/jj3

How Civilization Collapsed in the Late Bronze Age

How Civilization Collapsed in the Late Bronze Age

Episode 18: The Late Bronze Age and End of Peace Ancient Mesopotamia: Life in the Cradle of Civilization Dr Amanda H Podany Film Review This lecture concerns the mysterious collapse of all Near East civilizations during the 12th and 11th century BC. Podany begins by describing the vast Near East trade network established by 1300 BC. The immense wealth of this is clear from the remains of a ship…

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Ariadne and why the Mycenaeans can fuck right off

Warning: Includes brief mentions of r*pe, cultural destruction, ancient patriarchy reminding us why no woman would ever time-travel more than 5 years into the past if that and a great deal of spite for male historians/public education history/mythology classes. 

Possible side effects may include a sudden intense rage for an ancient society equivalent to the innate rage one has for the Romans burning the library of Alexandria, a distinct hatred for ancient men not being able to let anyone have nice things, and a sudden fascination for Minoa. 

Usually, I stick to writing imagines and being happy with that. It’s fun! I love it! But every now and again, in an attempt to escape the crushing forces known as reality and responsibilities I’ll put on a few cutscenes from games I’m: A) Too lazy to play B) Too broke to play C) Too unskilled to play D) All of the above

because cutscenes are free and why torture yourself with impossible levels when its free on Youtube?* *In all seriousness please support video games and video game creators, but no shame to those of us who prefer cutscenes to gameplay.  A few weeks ago I added the game Hades made by Supergiant to the list because the cutscenes were bomb and the characters are so much fun! Intricate as all hell! Hella cute too but that’s unrelated! Now my pretty little simp patootie is especially a big fan of Dionysus and his gorgeous design so the cutscenes with him are my favorite.

I’m re-watching his cutscenes a few nights ago for fun as background when he has a certain line about Theseus. Don’t quote me on this since my memory is foggy at best but roughly it was: Dionysus: Good job with Theseus. Never cared much for him- what he did to that girl was just horrible.*

*I know that’s not his exact line but this is clearly a rant post fueled by spite and ADD-hyper-focused obsessions with ancient civilizations so let’s not worry too too much about the semantics here. 

Now, I like mythology! Personally, I prefer the Norse mythology due to the general lack of very very gross dynamics that several other ancient mythologies seem to include, but I’m decently familiar with Greek mythos. Enough to go - “Why does the God of Wine give a single fuck about the frat bro of Greek heroes being a dick to a woman? Grossness is embedded into the very DNA of all distant relatives of Zeus, a woman being harassed by Zeus or his bastard army is a typical Tuesday in ancient Greece.” 

Wikipedia confirms that Ariadne is the only woman in the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, which I kinda knew already so unless Theseus did some f’ed up shit to some other princess of Minos, Dionysus could only be referring to her. Disregarding what I know about Wikipedia and how it can suck you down the rabbit hole of rabbit holes through sheer fury I stupidly clicked the link to Ariadne’s article. 

By the time we get to the end of this shitstorm, I will have two separate plotlines for two separate stories based of Ariadne, 2k+ notes (and going) on an ancient civilization prior to a week ago I didn’t know existed and within me there will be a rage towards a different ancient civilization I vaguely recall learning about in high school. 

Here’s how this shit went down. 

First of all, apparently after Theseus abandoned Ariadne on an island to die (yep! He did that! To the one person who is the only reason he defeated the minotaur! Fuck this guy.) there are multiple storylines where Dionysus takes a single look at Ariadne and falls in love. 

“A god falls in love?” you say, aware of how most love stories in Greek mythos can be summed up with Unfortunately, Zeus got horny and Hera is a firm believer in victim blaming. “This poor woman is about to go through hell!” I thought so too! And in one variation of the story, Dionysus does his daddy proud by being an absolute tool to Ariadne. In the majority though? He woos the fuck out of her, and ultimately marries her by consent!

Her consent!

In ancient Greece!

The party dude of the Greek pantheon knows more about consent then his father and modern day frat brothers!

Okay! That’s interesting, so I keep reading. 

Ariadne getting hitched to Dionysus is a big deal in Olympus, to the point of getting a crown made of the Aurora Borealis from Aphrodite who is bro-fisting Dionysus, beyond glad she didn’t have to give him the talk about consent. The rest of the gods are pissy especially Hera who doesn’t like Dionysus much since he is the son of Zeus and Semele but they don’t do much. Ariadne ascends to godhood, becomes the goddess of Labyrinths with the snake and bull as her symbol and that’s that on that. 

Colorin, colorado, este cuento se acabado.  And they lived happily ever after. That’s the end of the post right?

NO! Because curiosity has made me their bitch and there’s more to this calling me. 

Also, I was pissed! Still am! Why the fuck-a-doodle-do did I have to learn about the time Poseidon r*ped a priestess instead of the arguably healthiest relationship in the entirety of the pantheon? Why is Persephone and Hades’ story (which has improved since it was first written and I like more modern versions of it, no hate) the only healthy-ish Greek love story I had to learn when Dionysus and Ariadne were right there? The rage of having endured several grade levels of “Zeus got horny and Hera found out” stories in the nightmare of public education led me to keep looking into this. 

There’s this wonderful Youtube channel called Overly Sarcastic Productions that I highly recommend that delves a lot into mythology, and I have seen their bombass video about Dionysus and how his godhood has changed since he was potentially first written in a language we comprehend. 

Did ya’ll know this man is the heir apparent to Zeus? ‘Cause I didn’t know that!

YEA! Dionysus, man of parties, king of hangovers and inducer of madness, is set to inherit the throne of Olympus! Ariadne didn’t husband up the God of Wine, she husbanded up the Prince of Olympus and heir apparent to the throne! Holy shit! No wonder some of the gods were against her marriage to Dionysus - can you imagine the drama of an ex-mortal woman sitting on the Queen’s throne of Olympus? Hera must have been pissed.

BUT WAIT.

There’s more.

The reason we know Dionysus is a very important god and is possibly even more important than we think is because of a handy-dandy language known as Linear B, otherwise known as the language of the Mycenaeans!

For those of you fortunate enough to have normal hobbies and interests, the Mycenaeans were the beta version of the Greeks. Their written language of Linear B is one of, if not the first recorded instance of a written Indo-European language. This language, having been translated, gives us an interesting look at what the Greek gods were like back in their beta-stages before they fixed the coding and released the pantheon. 

Interesting side facts of the Mycenaean Greek gods include:

Poseidon being the head god with an emphasis on his Earthquake aspect, and being much more of a cthonic god in general. 

Take that Zeus, for being so gross. 

The gods in general being more cthonic, as Mycenaeans were obsessed with cthonic gods (probably due to all the earthquakes and natural disasters in Greece and Crete at that time)

Several of the gods and goddesses that we know being listed, alongside some that we don’t consider as important (Dione)

The first mention of Kore, later Persephone, but no Hades because since a lot of gods were cthonic, there would be no need for one, specific cthonic god to represent the majority of death-related rituals.

That’s not what we’re focusing on though! What we’re focusing on is a specific translated portion of Linear B that we have. One of the translated portions of Linear B that for the life of me I can’t find (someone please help me find it and send the link so I can edit this post) says an interesting phrase. “Honey to the gods. Honey to the Mistress of Labyrinths.”

One more time. “Honey to the gods. Honey to the Mistress of Labyrinths.”

Mistress of Labyrinths. 

Now wait a gosh darn minute. Isn’t there a goddess of labyrinths in the Greek mythos? Why yes! Yes there is! Ariadne!

Here’s a question for you. If Ariadne is but a minor god in the pantheon, a wife to a more predominant god, why is it that while all the other gods and goddesses are bunched together in a sentence of praise, the so-called ex-mortal gets a whole-ass sentence to herself singing praises?

And thus, we have arrived to Minoa!

What is Minoa, you ask? Minoa is to Rome what Rome is to us. An old-ass civilization either older than or younger by a hundred years to ancient Egypt. Egypt, that started in 3200 B.C-ish depending on who you ask. That’s old. Old as balls. They were contemporaries to their trading partner, Egypt until 1450 BC-ish. A 2000 year old civilization.

Minoa was founded on the island of Crete, and was by what artifacts we have found a merchant civilization with its central economy centered on the cultivation of saffron and the development of bronze/iron statues of bulls. Most of what we know about them comes from artifacts and frescoes found on Crete that managed to survive everything else I will mention later, but what matters is that we know a few things about them. 

Obsessed with marine life for some time, given their pottery. 

Had the first palaces in all of Europe, some of them ridiculously big. 

Wrote in Linear A and Cretan Hieroglyphs, both still untranslated languages. 

Had a ritual involving jumping over a bull, for some reason. 

Firm believers in “Suns out, Tits out.”

You’d think I’m kidding on the last one but no! No no no! All the women apparently rocked the tits-out look in Minoa!

^^^^One of many, many Minoan works featuring women giving their titties fresh air. ^^^^

“Wait a second Pinks! What does this have to do with Ariadne being the Mistress of labyrinths?”

Well you see dear wonderful darling, while we know very little about Minoan religion because Mycenaeans (we will get to those bastards in a second), we do know this:

All the religious figures appear to be exclusively women.

The most important figures of their religion seem to be goddesses as there are few artifacts featuring male gods.

Because of the religion, the culture may have been an equal society or even a matriarchy! Historians who are male aren’t sure. 

A frankly ridiculous amount of their temples, including the ones in caves in the middle of fuck-all feature labyrinths. A lot of labyrinths!

Their head god is a goddess! Whose temples have labyrinths and whose main symbols are snakes and bulls. Who do we know is a) the mistress of labyrinths and b) is symbolized a lot by snakes and bulls?

ARI-fucking-ADNE THAT’S WHO!

Ariadne didn’t upgrade by marrying the prince of Olympus! Dionysus wifed up possibly the most important goddess in all of Crete and becoming her boy-toy! 

I’m not even kidding, most Minoan depictions of the goddess’ consort features a boy/man who cycles through the stages of death. Dionysus himself in several myths goes through the same cycle - life, being crushed, death, rebirth, repeat.  Cycles the consort goes through in Minoan legend depictions too!

Okay, that’s great, but what does that have to do with the Mycenaeans? Why do you want to single-handedly go back in time and strangle the beta-Greeks with the nearest belt?

Everything I just said about Ariadne being a Minoan goddess, the Mistress of Labyrinths being hella important on Minoa, is all theoretical. The Mycenaeans are partially to blame for making it theoretical. 

Minoa thrived for 2000 years but it had a lot of issues, mostly caused by natural disasters. Towards the end of their civilization (1500 BC-ish), the nearby island of Thera, today known as Santorini, decided to blow up. The island was a hella-active volcano that when erupted, destroyed a lot. 

How big was the eruption? Well when Pompeii was wasted by Mt. Vesuvius, the blast was heard from roughly 120 miles away, 200 km. 

The blast on Thera was heard from 3000 miles away. 4800 km away.

Fuck me, the environmental effects of the explosion were felt in imperialistic CHINA.

Holy shit that would waste anybody! And it did! Minoa went from being a powerhouse in the Mediterranean to scrambling to recover from losing 40,000 citizens and who knows how many cities. Tsunamis may have followed the blast, further destroying ports which for a navy-powerhouse of an island nation is a bad thing and the theorized temperature drops caused by a cloud of ash lingering for a while would have destroyed crops for the year.

Minoa was fucked. 

The Mycenaeans and all their bullshit made it worse.

Up until a few hundred years prior to Thera’s explosion, Minoan artifacts don’t depict much in terms of military power. Why would it? Crete is a natural defense post. Sheer cliffs, high mountains and a few semi-fortified areas would make it pointless to invade. It’s only when the Mycenaeans in all their bullshit decided to attack/compete that Minoa really needed any army to speak of.

Guess who decided to invade while Minoa was reeling from an incredibly shitty year? Mycenaea!

Guess who won?

Also Mycenaea!

Nobody knows how this shit went down though because wouldn’t you know it, the Mycenaeans in all their superiority-complex glory decided to destroy most written accounts about Minoa, a good junk of the temples and culturally eliminated most of Minoan beliefs. 

Minoa isn’t even the real name of the civilization! It’s just the name Arthur Evans, the guy who re-motivate interest in Minoan archaeology, gave to the civilization because the writings that would have included the name of the civilization were destroyed.

“That sucks!” Fuck yes that sucks! “What does that have to do with Ariadne though?”

Oh ho ho. Strap in because you’re about to be pissed. 

Those of us unfortunate enough to be aware of all the bullshit the Christians pulled on the European pagan belief system are familiar with the concept of cultural, religious destruction. There’s a special name for it I don’t know but if I did I would curse it to be absorbed by the horrendous will of fungi. 

An example: Christianity was not the most popular of religions amongst the Vikings. A monotheistic religion that is heavily controlled did not strongly appeal to anyone with a pantheon as rad as the Norse one. 

In order to appeal to the Vikings, what monks would do is they would write down traditionally Viking stories which up until that point were orally passed down. Beowulf, the story of the most Viking Viking to have every Vikinged, was one of these first stories. 

However! Did these monks write Beowulf as closely to the original oral transcript as possible? Of course not! They took liberties! While Norse features such as trolls and dragons and all sorts of Norse magic occur, there is a lot of Christian features added in. 

This happened across all Pagan religions that Christianity came into contact with in Europe. Stories would be altered when written down to be more Christian (this happened to the Greek Pantheon too btw), holidays that were Pagan magically lined up with ones the Vatican just happened to suddenly have. Even names of mythological figures were taken and added onto Christian figure names. Consequently, a lot of pagan religions they did this to got erased over time, with many of their traditions and details being lost forever, and the details we do know being tinted by Christianity.

The Mycenaeans were likely no different. 

Minoa and Mycenaea were as culturally opposite as can be. Minoa is theorized to be a matriarchal or equal society*. Mycenaea and most of early Greece absolutely was not. In fact, during early stages of their religion where they believed in reincarnation, the Mycenaeans believed the worst thing to come back as was a woman. 

Did you get that? With your options ranging from man to ever single animal on Earth, a woman was ranked as beneath literal animals in Mycenaean society.

Fuck the Mycenaeans.

* This is not to say Minoa was without fault, as a society that is matriarchal or equal can still have rampant issues such as privilege, classism, racism, sexism and more, but when history has a shortage of civilizations that didn’t treat women like shit, you find yourself rooting for them more. 

 What do you do then, when you take over a society that is very much the opposite of a nightmare of a patriarchy? You fold their beliefs into your own to bait them into yours. Going back to the Linear B line about “Mistress of Labyrinths” that line would/could have been an early tactic of incorporating Minoan belief into Mycenaean belief. Other goddesses and gods were made into aspects of Mycenaean gods. Bristomartis, the Minoan goddess of the hunt, would become Artmeis. Velchanos, a god of the sky, would become Zeus. 

With more time, the religion shifted more into Mycenaean and eventually into ancient Greece as we know it. Through trade other gods and goddesses would continue to shift and change, some being straight up imported (Aphrodite for example). Dionysus himself changed a lot too, going from a God representing freedom and attracting slaves, women and those with limited power into his cult, to a God of parties for the wealthy. 

Theseus and the Minotaur was a myth likely based on a Mycenaean myth based on a Minoan myth that changes Ariadne from an important, possibly the important goddess of an ancient religion and relegates her to a side character in a pantheon so vast that she would be lost within it. 

All of this brings us to today. Today, where as soon as work ended I spent most of the day, as well as the past two days, looking up everything I can on Minoan civilization and added it to my notes. Spite is fueling me to write two possible different stories for two different fandoms where Minoa dunks of Mycenaea and it is giving me life. Expect an update within the next two weeks folks as I lose control of my writing life once more. 

In summary: Ariadne deserves more respect, fuck the public education system for skipping over the good parts of Greek mythology instead of the r*pey as shit parts, the Mycenaeans can eat my shorts, and a world were Minoa became the predominant power instead of Greece would be an amazing world to live in.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk. Pink out. 

Ancient Greek Palace Discovered Near Ancient Sparta

It appears to have been built in the 1600s to 1500s BCE, during the Mycenaean Age. At the site, archaeologists found objects of worship, clay figurines, a cup adorned with a bull's head, swords and fragments of murals.

The recent find is being described as a "palace" -- despite having just ten rooms. Times have certainly changed in the last 3,500 years.

another go at a minotaur character. their name is nemoi. they experienced a vision from kynareth and are among a group of minotaur trying to establish a firmer presence in cyrodiil . theyre involved in KOTN alongside kyle, likely being driven to mantle the role of morihaus

Andromeda, Princess of Aethiopia/Queen of Mycenaea - color study 

My tumblr is rapidly devolving into a dumping space for all my artistic ventures, no matter the quality... oops? But I needed to get my artistic urges out of me, and in the lack of motivation to write, I’ve been sketching and painting like crazy.

This one is a product of a personal pet peeve of mine - I decided to say screw post-Ovid white-washing of Andromeda and go with most accurate geographical location her kingdom could be located at going purely by the records and references in myth and etymological meaning of Aethiopia in Greek (roughly translated, it means land of ‘burnt-skinned’, and is physically located near the tip of Horn of Africa or at the edges of Arabic Peninsula)

for @valtolianheir

Such a simple barricade, tables and chairs jammed in at odd angles, couldn’t be expected to hold for long. The smell of blood would call the creatures past whatever wall they might raise. Gaetan was having a drink in one of the lower-looking taverns when a woman was carried inside, one leg shredded terribly. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as he realized what was wrong with her, saw the injury and processed what it could possibly mean.

Then came the screams.

He’d looked to each other patron, and they’d looked to him as well. Were his clothes too clean? Was the pendant too large? What gave him away, even in another nation? With his sleeves too short to push up, Gaetan just moved as steadily as he could to one of the tables, flipping it onto its side and moving it towards the doorway. The barrier was simple, all wood and nails, as even an education at the Mycenaea didn’t spin gold from straw. It wasn’t long before one of the beasts took to the scent, Gaetan backing the others in the tavern against the farthest wall, most of them behind his outstretched arms.

🌱Ilias and Theodore in Lekanes olive grove 🌳 In our “Lekanes” olive grove there is a special aura. The Ancient Mycenaeas preferred, especially, this place and this ground to plant their olive groves. You will feel very satisfied and pleased as you take care of your olive trees and wander among them. Also, extra virgin olive oil, based on history of Mycenaean era, will be supplied to your family. Come here to feel this unique emotion and let us show you how to respect the nature. #farming #love #olivegrove #olivestreeadoption #lekanes #goritses #zarkadi #mantalas #zachsrias #greece #hellas #green #olives #nature #instagood #picoftheday #adoption #hollyday #biology #bio #oliveoil #extra #sun #husqvarna #hyunbai #flowers #hot (στην τοποθεσία Mycenae) https://www.instagram.com/p/CNsjpdLjtxf/?igshid=1lu1au0ezeg47

Romawi yang Agung

❂ Permulaan Romawi KunoSelanjutnya, kita akan berkenalan dengan sebuah peradaban yang awalnya dibangun oleh masyarakat di wilayah semenanjung Italia. Sejak 800 SM, sebuah suku bangsa bernama Etruscan menjadi suku yang paling dominan menguasai daerah itu. Banyak yang mengatakan bahwa suku bangsa Etruscan di semenanjung Italia adalah keturunan dari orang-orang Mycenaea yang berlayar pergi dari…

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I would argue that trying to reduce state and societal success to a single metric is reductive, and rather that multiple benchmarks should be used. Furthermore, I posit that any claim to success should be evaluated in the context of the geographic outgrowth of the society-it is much harder for Kamchatkan reindeer herders to achieve a complex society than it is for the peoples of the Henan valley, with their access to millet and loam. Following that, I say that the metrics we should use are a combination of longevity, quality of life, technological and cultural advancement, religious/cultural influence (which I separate from High Culture, as a thing mostly of the elite). Once we start looking at more complex societies, I would also include sovereign control, and efficiency of the state. Upon the advent of the 20th century, and the Age of Ideologies, I would add fulfillment of supposed principles and a sense of communal wellbeing (which I differentiate from nationalism.) We cannot merely use longevity, because then we are left with many isolated societies which did not advance-think of the Sentelese, and others which regressed to previous stages of civilization, the most clear cut example of this being Tasmanian Aboriginals, who lost much of their toolworking knowledge when the sea levels rose. Yet contrast this with the Bronze Age city states, which lost writing during the collapse. The Tasmanians suffered a slow decline, whereas Mycenaea saw an immediate rupture. Yet claiming that Tasmanian Aborigines were more successful than Egypt or Assyria is to ignore the multitude of differences and contributions of the former two. Yet we can not discount it entirely, at least among interconnected societies, for the ability to maintain a contiguous general cultural identity is a remarkable achievement when so many societies fall throughout history. Technological advancement is indeed extremely important, marking the ability of a people to sustain enough population to where a substantial number are not dedicated directly to food production and can dedicate time and resources to other things. Writing never predates agriculture. Yet technological development alone is not enough-the Jomon, for example, developed pottery before all of Asia (and possibly the entire world). Where are they now? Confined to Hokkaido as the Ainu, displaced by the Yayoi-who would become the modern Japanese people. Technology may mark a people as advanced, but it is not a mark of success by itself. We count Mayans as successful because their technological advancements led to a civilization that had grand regional influence that stretched far beyond their immediate borders as a dominant cultural force. And this metric, one of cultural influence, may lead us to conclude that technology alone is not the sole metric. Turning now to Africa, we are met with the curious case of Shaka Zulu. Rather than speak of the battle of Isandlwana, I want to speak of the Mfecane-the Crushing. It is true that Shaka and his conquests would not have been possible without the iklwa, far more consequential than the existence of the spear was the revolution in how war was conducted-both in tactics and philosophy. Obviously, the development of melee combat was responsible for great death and would undoubtedly have made conflict in the region much bloodier. However, what transformed the Mfecane from bloodier but essentially the same tribal warfare to the regional upheaval that it was was the assimilation and extinction policies of the Zulu-absorb only the women and young men of a clan or village, kill the elderly and men of fighting age. Inevitably, some escaped, and having learned Zulu tactics, they in turn descended upon more distant clans unfamiliar with the new order. In such a way, a radical change in the manner of war spread, allowing a kingdom whose borders never exceeded that of Kansas came to influence peoples they would never hear of or see. There is a reason one of the universal traits of both the absolutist monarchs and the Benevolent Despots (and I am not sure these two are as disparate as is typically thought), was bureaucratic reform and centralization, and why one of Diocletian's most important reforms, which still has a direct effect on the world today, was tax reform. It's why the backbone of the Bronze Age command economies were scribes, why the Mongols placed such a high value on administrators and civil servants-the ability of the state to know what is happening and respond effectively is paramount to it's long term survival and internal efficacy. Khosrau I, great though he might have been as a ruler, was hobbled until his administrative reforms stripped the nobles of much of their power, creating a bureaucratic class that him to focus on his grand campaigns and universities. In the US, the federal government, being much weaker and more decentralized than most technologically comparable societies, did not truly need one of these until the age of the Railroad and Factory, when it instituted the Pendleton Civil Service Act, finding the old ways to be unworkable. There are many factors that explain why this is so, and many other examples I could've used, but these ones show a clear cut example, and many of them are not as commonly talked about, and so I felt they were more poignant.

NationStates • View topic - Scrutinizing State & Societal Success

a run-on of historical things of which i was not aware...