Dangers in the Iron Age

I have very little knowledge of history indeed, which is a problem, since I'm trying to write Human Aliens with iron-age levels of technology. However, I do know one thing relatively surely: the mortality rates were completely atrocious. Anyone Could Die, and did with great frequency.

So, I've got two questions:

1. Can anyone go into more detail about these dangers?
2. How much of those dangers are mitigated by the Human Aliens essentially being weakened T1000s? (who don't have access/know about shape shifting abilities, so they're essentially ModeLocked as humanoid.) I'm thinking that although Nigh-Invulnerability would certainly help, it wouldn't completely eliminate unnatural death.

edited 23rd Jul '11 3:29:08 PM by Yej

Do you mean like, wolves in the forest, the plague, unsanitary conditions..? What are you looking for?

If I do recall correctly, the Terminators had super strength and were literally indestructible unless you vaporized them. Unless the analogue is hyperbole, you can pretty much rule out anything in the Iron Age being dangerous, unless this isn't Earth and there are some kind of uber-animals running about...

The mortality rate was partly due to lack of significant medical advancements. Women died from complications in childbirth. Men died from inadequately treated wounds in battle. Most people died from inadequately treated illnesses.

But these are aliens, so I'm not sure if this would apply.

A lot. Disease has always been the most prolific killer, and a lack of sanitation and general medical knowledge makes it significantly worse. T1000s don't get sick.

These are the days when toothaches or anything that looks like it might need stitches will probably get infected and kill you.

@2, everything.

@3, it's not Earth, but I haven't thought about uber-animals that much.

@4, would T1000-ness affect childbirth, or would the same sort of complications apply in principle? (Assuming they reproduce, and that's a scary thought, isn't it? )

@5, Ah, thanks. If I go with the axiom, "These things don't get sick," that eliminates almost everything?

edited 23rd Jul '11 3:52:26 PM by Yej

A T1000 would probably live forever on Earth if it couldn't get sick. The only way you could make it die is if you contrive a reason to. (uber animals, for example)

These ones do age, for sustainability reasons.

What is a T1000?

Well then, it'll live until it naturally dies.

It's the robots from Terminator, iirc.

edited 23rd Jul '11 3:54:15 PM by TheEarthSheep

Well, more or less. If they aren't actually machines (are they?) then grievous bodily harm may kill them due to simple lack of medical equipment. Really, it's up to how you set up their biology. If they're entirely biological, though, there's always animals that could kill them. Maybe. Is this actually Earth or a constructed world? If constructed, are there big animals? Like, really big? They might be worth a consideration.

They're not quite biological. They're built out of cells as normal, but the "cell" is actually a post-Singularity micron-scale machine, so if you can injure them severe enough and fast enough, I suppose that would kill them. Though they heal faster than a human. (and can explicitly regenerate, if they're kept alive long enough.)

And this is a constructed world. However, I'm not sure about really big animals, since I'm trying to stick within the Square-Cube Law and such as closely as possible.

edited 23rd Jul '11 3:58:28 PM by Yej

Then nothing in the Iron Age is liable to affect them much except each other. I suppose the environment (lightning, getting wet) could work? Otherwise, the Iron Age isn't that intimidating when you have Healing Factor and are immune to diseases...

I saw it worked out somewhere once how long the average human would live if they didn't age or get hit with major diseases. It works out to about 300 years now, with 700-ish being the absolute limit before the truly ludicrous deaths like banana peels to slip on will get you no matter how careful you are.

They're tougher than we are, but they're also living in a significantly more violent time. I'd still guess the average one makes their first century and possibly their second before someone bashes their head in, with exceptions that could last significantly longer.

Iron Age dangers:

Celts

Romans

Pretty much anyone else with iron weapons.

If your T1000-esque aliens aren't terribly affected by having lengths of forged iron/steel thrust into them (or swung at their necks), then even these won't be much of a threat.

I would have said infection and disease and various other little microorganisms, from a human standpoint.

Yeah, I think I'll avoid flying into Xenofiction, so they will die if you stab them/chop their head off, it would just take a lot more force than doing it to a human.

Since I'm trying to build up to/avoid a specific effect here, what stops this group of people being a Arcadian Utopia, other than in-fighting each other?

Well if I remember right, most of the mortality was two problems:

1) Disease. Urban centres were only self-sufficient in the last few centuries or less (I forget the exact date). Before that, people died in droves from unsanitary conditions and basic illnesses.

2) Famine. Harvests were highly variable and the government only had limited control. If the state was in good condition, you had government silos full of stored grain that would be released after a bad harvest. If the state was not in good condition, lots of people just died.

If your t1000s can't get sick and don't eat food, they'd be fine. But, what is their energy source?

edited 26th Jul '11 11:45:46 AM by breadloaf

You could really make arguments both ways. It's hard to judge the relative effects for social development. This is the Iron Age; written language is still a relatively new thing, so they're probably still happily murdering each other over the differences in their written and spoken languages rather than learning them to understand each other.

Well, the real height of the Iron Age in Europe and Asia was arguably around when Rome really started taking charge in the West, and the Parthian Empire was mopping up the divided regions in the East. Either of those would be a definite enemy for this possibly non-conforming group of yours.

edited 26th Jul '11 2:34:01 PM by Five_X

Farmed/hunted food. Would that be an issue?

Their sociology is kinda complicated, because a wizard messed with them so they got a hat of being inhumanely wise. That's why I'm disregarding them fighting among themselves for the moment, while I work out what that implies.

Doesn't the Romans arriving basically move them into the "classic" era, rather than the iron age?

edited 26th Jul '11 2:43:18 PM by Yej

The classical and iron age overlap.

If they're going with farmed/hunted food of the iron age, then likely (if it's earth-like) hunted food is a delicacy by then. Farmed food would make up most of your diet. Famine is still a problem, even if disease is not. You get a string of bad harvests, droughts or flooding, you'll suffer a period of starvation.

Iron Man.

The classical era began around 800-700 BC, generally with the end of the Greek Dark Ages and the founding of Rome and Carthage. The Iron Age began around the same time or shortly afterwards.