World Building in the Bronze Age: Politics, Religion & War!
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- Опубликовано: 11 июн 2024
- Sometimes, what you need is a concise overview of how to world build in a specific era. For that reason, I created my Era Defined series. Join me in discussing the bronze age, with a focus on the impact of religion, the governments people had and how warfare was conducted. We'll round out today with a look at the types of magic systems that I feel fit the bronze age best.
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Intro music by Ivan Duch ivanduch.com/songs/
Chapters
0:00 The Bronze Age Defined
1:23 Government Styles
10:04 Bronze Age Religion
16:08 Bronze Age Law
18:50 Bronze Age Warfare
23:12 Bronze Age Magic
#justintimeworlds #mariemullany #worldbuilding #sangwheelchronicles #bronzeage #history #fantasy #dune
My books: www.mariemullany.com/work
World Anvil Affiliate: worldanvil.pxf.io/jitw
I've read hidden blade and enjoyed it. I'm a physical book kind of guy and I'm after a paperback. Which method for me to buy paperback version sends the most money your way? I'd do Amazon right now, but I want to be sure there isn't another way where your margins are better first.
@@dylanbuttera Amazon is perfect, their royalty share is actually quite reasonable. I’m so glad you enjoyed Blade :)
Amazing video as always! Can never get enough of the Minoans or Bronze Age stuff
I feel like another element to consider is how a lot of empires back then were more hegemonies where "the king of the universe" essentially coerced the kings of less powerful city-states into paying them tribute. The only Bronze Age civilizations that I know of had just one king who ruled directly were the Egyptians and the Assyrians, and they had to delegate most of the time to nobles, nomarchs, and family members.
Bizzarely the main form of government was a mix of monarchy and theocracy. There's already a sort of theology around monarchy already, even today, but back then the kings and royal families were just as much priests as they were generals. Probably due to how if a bad storm came along or a drought then everything is screwed up so they will need that religious power. Nevermind the city-deities.
As for warfare and the gods, I'd imagine it'd be particularly intense if the gods made their presence known and the cities of different gods were fighting each other. IRL a lot of the wars in that time were thought to also be fought in the heavens by the gods of the fighting cities, and since the losing god's vessel could be taken away and held prisoner, I'd imagine it'd be fierce in terms of spectacle and brutality unless it was restrained by rituals and laws of war.
I did consider speaking about “if the Gods were real” but it got out of hand as a section of a video 🫢😄 I might do a video just on that at some point.
A couple important notes about chariots and cavalry:
Bronze Age horses were not large enough or strong enough for most of the things we now associate with cavalry, that's why chariots existed and were used. Most Bronze Age military riders were youths not yet fully grown, and they were primarily scouts and messengers.
That being said, a fantasy setting isn't necessarily locked into actual history's timeframe on horse breeding achieving the size and strength needed to carry fully grown and armored warriors into battle on horseback. Depending on the fauna you populate your setting with, it might be perfectly reasonable to skip chariots entirely, whether because the horses are big enough for conventional cavalry or because one of the fantastic creatures populating the setting can serve as war mounts, be those flying mounts like griffons, pegasi, or dragons, or simply large enough land creatures like warg-style wolves, or boars 14 hands tall at the shoulder or some creature entirely unique to the setting in question. Heck, maybe even terror bird cavalry.
Similarly, you don't have to stick with horses as the animals pulling chariots. Terror bird drawn chariots could be a terrifying weapon on a fantasy Bronze Age battlefield, and they'd be better able to defend themselves from brave or desperate infantry trying to sabotage your chariot by wounding or killing the animals pulling it.
Another great video. I'm writing a pseudo bronze era novel right now and have enjoyed this series very much. This one was the icing on the cake.
Thanks for the good work!
Very Good Video. 😊
I’m loving all these videos, but I’m waiting on baited breath for the age of sail 😃
Soon :) I don't quite know what to do with the middle ages haha
Zhou dynasty started the concept of the Mandate of Heaven.
Interestingly, it was the industrial revlution that allowed the nation state to rise and replace the city states.
It was industrial revolution technology - railways, telegraph, printed newspapers - that forged links between cities and created a feeling of nationhood. Industry also needed a mass market for its factory products - a whole nation instead of a city.
How the empires (Persian, Roman, Chinese, etc.) held together before all that technology, is a mystery to me. Could you do a video on how empires worked?
BTW Sargon of Akkad is still around. He even has a RUclips channel.
I could definitely do an empire video :D And yeah, the industrial revolution changed a lot.
Nation states as we understand them grew out of the Thirty Years War, before the Industrial Revolution. Similarly, city-states didn't really reappear in Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, other than in Italy itself. Feudalism and feudal kingdoms were a legitimately different beast from city states.
@@TheAchilles26 medieval germany begs to differ
@@noahmiller8042 medieval Germany.......the Holy Roman Empire, decentralized and feudal AF. It can beg all it wants, it still fits
@@TheAchilles26 what im saying is the holy roman empire was a bunch of german speaking city states very loosly unified in a confederation the fact that they happen to be fuedal is irrelevant to the fact they are city states
If knowing the name of places and people can you power over them I bet there'd be a public name and a true name he would try hard to keep that hidden
That’s exactly how many Egyptian rulers functioned :)
What do you think of a tribal Confederacy in city states working together
Absolutely viable. A series of city states all run by confederacies that cooperate could be a very interesting form of government