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edited 11th Apr '18 6:31:51 PM by dRoy
Besides the potential slave revolts. I can see people considering mayrilinetation as as means of rebellion, specifically in the form of having the eldest daughters inherit the properties and reputations instead (albeit covertly)
Alternatively, there could also be a covert resistance forming in response with the purpose of infiltrating these armies and freeing their sons and brothers from them, likely with assistance from the regime's foreign and domestic enemies. Including potential abolitionist holdouts from the previous regime if they are still alive.
Depending on how much of a dick the ruler generally is, they might have additional problems that said resistance will exploit. And I suspect they are not the type that reads the evil overlord list.
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Another word for 'warning' is 'threat'. How the other provinces choose to react to 'don't disobey me, or I'll enslave your children' is a potentially rich source of problems.
The key question though is, when do you want this backfiring to occur? The classic way 'military slaves' backfire is by ending up as just the military and then as 'in charge'(see e.g. the Mamluks), but that takes time.
Another question is 'how is slavery viewed in these cultures?' Literally enslaving the children of your enemies would be a horrific war crime in the modern world and common practice in any number of ancient societies, how people react will depend on what they expect.
According to all available sources, during the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, the supporters of the "Patriots" were at best a third of the population and the earlier into the conflict you go (Or before the conflict) the less support they had.
It's generally agreed that most of the support seen at the end of the war, was gained during a period where the British state overreacted to the actions of the Patriots. Mostly by blockading Boston and generally punishing pretty much everyone for the "crimes" of a few, or having inhuman treatment of prisoners. They also did war crimes on the family of the enemy, and even on random passersby.
In fact, it's very common for rebel groups to blow up something or assassinate an official, with the deliberate hope that "The State" will overreact so much, that the general population will forget how ugly terrorism by rebels looks, and focus on terrorism done by a much more powerful state.
This tactic works more often than not. The only times it doesn't work, is when The State doesn't overreact (Typically because it's actually democratic, and not stupid.)
Another thing to point out, is that it's a very common problem that conscription leads to the military becoming full of regular people, but mostly the poorest. So you go from having an "elite" of professionals, who are volunteers and are supporters of the regime... to having people who are brought against their will and who are often the source of unrest.
Having the peasants conscripted and armed in mass, was one of the biggest causes of the downfall of the Russian Empire.
Edited by WorkingOnBeingGood on Jul 18th 2023 at 6:24:08 AM
How advanced is this regime in terms of administrative technology? Being able to conduct a census to identify all the male children is not a trivial task, let alone conscript them - there have to be local agents to enforce it, which means either expensive continuous military occupation or offering people enough of a reward to betray each other. What do the conquerors gain from this policy that they wouldn't get faster by just killing everyone?
Besides matrilineal inheritance, I can also imagine the culture quickly adopting new traditions of nomadism, gender ambiguity, and/or exiling boys to secret camps in the wilderness.
ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NOTo: ECD & Morning Star 1337
A military-slave, in the context of the setting, is a conscript soldier and cannon fodder.
A military-slave is indoctrinated at a young age, shortly after the regime kidnaps them after turning 10 years old, to serve the regime. They are trained heavily in basic infantryman skills and some familiarity with motor vehicles, conditioned to follow the orders of freed officers, and are subjected to harsh discipline.
A military-slave cannot be promoted beyond the corporal rank. They would spend their lives being commanded by Non-Commissioned officers and Commissioned officers from provinces loyal to the regime. They are send to crush rebellions by provinces and destroy any form of resistance against the regime through atrocities.
Military-slaves are generally kept in line through force and terror. They are subjected to the whims of officers, receiving harsh discipline such as flogging and hard labor for even the simplest violation, and live in fear of retaliation by well-armed, well-trained elite voluntary troops who act as overseers.
The military-slave system provides a few practical functions for the regime:
- First, it serves to debilitate any form of resistance by stealing the populace's abillity to support themselves. The populace needs male children in order to provide them through manual labor in factory and farming jobs.
- Second, any future rebellions would cause a crisis of conscience among potential rebels. Rebel groups would be completely conflicted by whether they should fight their own sons or continue on fighting against the regime.
- Third, it provides a massive amount of loyal soldiers who would not betray since they are removed from their influence of their parents and be heavily indoctrinated by the regime. The regime can turn them against the populace as a psychological weapon to destroy morale.
To: Noaqiyeum
In the context of the setting, the regime rules a technologically-advanced nation. It is able to mass-produce weapons and vehicles, run a fleet of airships and battleships, and operate a computer system for the purposes of documentation and surveillance.
The system of gathering male children for conscription goes like in the following process:
A small squad of military-slaves led by an officer arrives in a village by airship. The officer would demand the village to surrender all male children above the age of 10 to the military. Should the village refuse the demand of the officer, the military-slaves would be commanded to enter the homes of villagers and round up all male children.
Once the roundup is complete, the male children are brought onboard the airship by the officer and the military-slaves. The airship departs, heading to the next village for another roundup until every village in the formerly-rebellious province is cleared.
Obedience.
If the regime killed everyone as a punishment of rebellion, it would only serve to brutalize and mobilize the populace to start more rebellions since they would be clearly justified in defending themselves from a tyrannical state. By abducting male children, it would instill despair among the populace because "rebellions are built on hope".
Edited by AdeptGaderius on Jul 18th 2023 at 10:24:45 PM
Ah.
I think the indoctrination itself could backfire if the lads come to think that their superiors are a threat to the nation itself. I'ma ssuming that generals and such would try to addressed that by fostering cults of personality aroudnthemselves within their own platoons, but that would lead to two nasty side effects:
- the first being their men's willingness to attack allies for perceiving them as a threat (esp if their general/cult leader is a narcissist on the level of Aurora, an Attention Whore that sees anyone more liked then them as an obstacle to be removed), this would lead to the regime's forces backstabbing themselves because they would be loyal to their leader more their the head of the regime, and being presumably an Evil Empire, said general are prolly not bereft of ambition and designs on the throne themselves.
- the other one would be that they would be by definition, fanatics, and are therefore less likely to regard civilians on either side as their concern, leading to mass death all around. It also possibly makes them mini Keystone Armies, as taking down the general/cult leader would render these acolytes in a crisis of faith a that would lead to either suicide or them being neutralized and disarmed.
There is also the angle of "better to die then to be brainwashed" as the oppressed might consider murdering their sons as a Mercy Kill and an attempt to deny their occupiers resources. However this will weight on the parents heavily, but that might not prevent serial killers from springing up killing other people's sons using this as a pretext. The likelihood of this happening would likely depending on if the occupiers are also confiscation the things that would be inherited by the sons, wither directly or otherwise. If so, then some might see it as them having lost everything already and therefore have nothing to lose
Edited by MorningStar1337 on Jul 18th 2023 at 7:36:25 AM
Yeah, I can definitely see a scenario where the women and girls take over once the boys begin to get enslaved, maybe not immediately but it would definitely make more sense to adapt and grow, instead of crumbling. The girls would be the ones staying home, doing house work, working jobs, raising kids, and having lives, so it only makes sense that they become the leaders and the spark of hope lives on.
Also, I feel like making things completely crushing and hopeless would only be more likely to inspire rebellion, because at that point what have you got to lose? I'm reminded of The Hunger Games where President Snow explicitly says he wants the Districts to have just enough hope to continue to follow the Capitol, because killing all their kids every year would just inspire them to fight back or stop working, but allowing a victor gives them something else to focus on and a reason to play along. So if things really do become hopeless, I don't know if people would end up playing along with the empire's wishes — they may even just find it less cruel to kill their male sons at birth or disguise them as girls or something.
Edit:
'd, and with some of the same ideas too
Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 18th 2023 at 10:37:49 AM
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallAnother thought is that doing this might lead to severe population problems in such regions—after all, there would eventually be no more men available to have children with the women.
(Which, no reflection, seems like it might only increase the likelihood of a women's revolt happening at some stage: they have no sons and no husbands left, and no prospect of future generations...)
Now, the state could try to move loyal people into the regions for the purpose of repopulation—but that presents its own problems: Will those people remain loyal once their own children are subject to enslavement? And if the children of those people aren't subject to enslavement, might that itself not be manipulated one way or another to sneak at least some of the children of non-loyal people through the cracks?
Another thought is that I could see a rebellion forming by virtue of secreting away a percentage of sons into hidden training camps, where they're taught hatred for the state and trained to fight against it.
My Games and Asset Packs(Which, no reflection, seems like it might only increase the likelihood of a women's revolt happening at some stage: they have no sons and no husbands left, and no prospect of future generations...)
Now, the state could try to move loyal people into the regions for the purpose of repopulation - but that presents its own problems: Will those people remain loyal once their own children are subject to enslavement? And if the children of those people aren't subject to enslavement, might that itself not be manipulated one way or another to sneak at least some of the children of non-loyal people through the cracks?
In the context of the setting, according to the laws of the regime and the social values of the country, women are forbidden from inheriting property. The abduction and conscription of male children by the regime drives the families to destitution because their only source of livehood and patrimony is gone, so they are forced to marry their daughters to loyal citizens of the regime.
The loyal male citizens married to daughters of families punished for the rebellion inherit all property from the daughter's family. Their sons are exempt from their punishment, since enslavement only applies to the next generation of families punished for the rebellion. The census of the regime enforces a strict law to prevent misassignment of them.
For the military-slaves, they are denied any opportunity to form a family. Instead, the regime indoctrinates the military-slaves that the regime and the military are their only family and that their former families, the ones who participated in the rebellion and taken away, are perfidious and abandoned them. The military-slaves see the regime as their grandfather, their officers as their father, and their fellow military-slaves as their brothers.
First, that's not how indoctrination works, it's not remotely that effective, even on children.
Second, child soldiers are a terrible idea as slave soldiers in bad conditions just in principle because children have worse impulse control on average. If they don't like a commanding officer, they will kill a commanding officer whatever may happen to them for it. The advantage of child soldiers is that they'll fight for non-monetary compensation like duty and things, but this is only true because the unfortunate truth is the majority of child soldiers are volunteer, they aren't press-ganged.
Conscript armies are notoriously ineffective, child conscript armies even more so. This is a major reason child soldiers stopped being used often in Europe after world war 1 (until the Nazis brought it back when their entire army collapsed and they needed someone to try to fight)
All that aside, yes, the main risk from a child conscript army unit is a Janissary or a Mamluke situation where when they get older, they'll become a lot less loyal, pretty much no matter how they've been propagandized at because it quickly becomes a cultural thing in their close family of "the rest of the army", and become a lot more politically active, which when you're in the military, means "more willing to shoot government officials who try to cut your funding". Chances are they'll overthrow easily two or three separate governments of this regime in coups, simply because they've been armed and lack impulse control.
It's very difficult to intimidate a child into not doing something, and indoctrination is a polite fiction that we tell to avoid thinking about how life in repressive dictatorships actually works.
I do wonder how many of the loyal ones moved into such regions would remain all that loyal, once they start to empathise with the locals.
My other thought is similar to one that I mentioned in my previous post: that, once a rebellion is so punished in one region, the next rebellion (perhaps in another region) might not then prepare by moving their male children to a hidden location before acting.
My Games and Asset PacksNow, what's to stop the women from taking over in secret? Hear me out — they maybe can't officially and legally become the inheritors, but they will be the ones left, they'll be the ones growing up, and they'll be the ones watching their sons and brothers die. Even if they're forced into marriages with loyalists, I can't imagine they'd just roll over and let this happen. I can instead see a situation where they rebel even in small ways, even in secret ways, and have an unofficial "status" — even if it's just among each other, where they work to topple the empire behind the scenes and in ways that won't be nearly as obvious as the boys trying to shoot their commanding officers.
And as Ars mentioned, there's no way to guarantee all of the husbands will be loyal to the empire. Some may end up becoming rebel leaders in their own rights (or in my POV, helping their wives to rebel :P) and others may simply be concerned with their future stability, and others yet may want to grab power for themselves. You can't ensure that everyone who marries these women will want to follow the empire's laws and keep these rebellious populations in submission, whether they're lower class workers with reasons to feel oppressed or they're higher ranking officials that may have some personal ambitions.
Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 19th 2023 at 1:10:58 PM
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallDoes anybody know when snow and ice started really coming in Germany in winter 1945?
When i try to google "winter 1945", everything seems to be about winters 1944-1945 or 1946-1947. I asked on Quora but only one guy answered, with insults and condescension, and ordered me to buy books which idk if they were even published in my home country.
Edited by Nukeli on Jul 19th 2023 at 11:00:32 AM
~*bleh*~I Googled "germany historical weather "1945"" and found this
, but it's only for Berlin.
If you don't want Berlin, you might have slightly better luck searching for a specific area in Germany as opposed to just the whole country, which is a decently sized area that could conceivably experience totally different weather conditions in different parts of the country. My own home state, Ohio, is only a third of Germany's size and during Spring and Fall, it's not unheard of for one part of the state to get buried in snow while the Ohio River border area down south is warm enough for sunbathing.
Some of the results from that search indicate that weather records may not go back that far, however, and I would expect them to be less complete the physically further you go from major cities like Berlin and Hamburg. If you're trying to determine weather conditions that affected the outcome of or at least occurred in the time and physical area around a certain real-world historical event, you could find some clues in first-person accounts from people who lived through and spoke about that event.
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."Has the name "Starkiller" been used in anything? I know it's the original last name George Lucas wanted to give Luke in Star Wars
Edited by Brandon on Jul 19th 2023 at 7:02:55 AM
Like creepy stories? Check out my book!There was also Galen "Starkiller" Marek , the protagonist of The Force Unleashed.
Edited by jawal on Jul 19th 2023 at 2:54:04 PM
Every Hero has his own way of eating yogurtWhen a work’s character occupies a lot of bytes, what does that really mean? Does it mean the work is popular? Does it mean that there are compelling characters? Does it elevate the work to a higher place than other works. This confuses me, since it makes me fear that this wiki is being used to show what works are overrated and underrated.
How should i write death from a semi-first person perspective?
By which i mean the narration is in third person, but heavily colored by the character's perspective, thoughts, opinions, and emotions (and so can also be very wrong or biased).
The death in this case is the gateway to the character getting isekaied in chapter 1: she's shot and trampled when the enemy raids, watches her friends and coworkers die before perishing from her injuries while the fight is still ongoing. But then she wakes up in some place.
Edited by Nukeli on Jul 20th 2023 at 2:07:18 PM
~*bleh*~Emphasize the character's thoughts/emotions by describing a scene and then veering off into personally significant details and the character's observations. Do you have sample text?
So, let's hang an anchor from the sun... also my TumblrIs it possible for a wealthy woman in 2008 American who previously gave birth twice before die from postpartum hemorrhage after giving birth to her third child?
Working out a character's backstory and while I figured that her mother would die when she's very young, one of the options I'd came up with was the Death by Childbirth thing. I mentioned wealthy as the woman and her family are super rich, thus it's very easy for them to afford expensive American healthcare.
And while it's still possible for a woman to die from childbirth complications in 21st century America
, it's more rare than say in Victorian England and I still wanna make sure it's plausible in this case.
Edited by Cutegirl920fire on Jul 20th 2023 at 5:11:52 AM
CG for short

In what ways a repressive policy can cause harm to people and how it would backfire on a regime?
For context, a regime enacts a policy of taking all male children above the age of 10 from the citizens and conscripting them into the army as military-slaves, who would spend their entire lives serving the regime and crushing down rebellions.
The policy is punishment for the provinces that rebelled against the regime, serving as a grim reminder and a warning for those who attempt to rebel. It also breaks the will of the people, since male children are prized in their culture and the only way to inherit property and reputation.