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My matriarchal society. Please review
posted this sometime before, and finally finished fleshing it out. I'm curious to know what people think, and would be interested in any feedback people have.
Culture revolves around an inverse of the biblical story, in which woman was created by God first in her image and given rule over all of creation. Man came from her womb as a companion to serve and protect her. The ability to access magic was given exclusively to women in order to shape the world as she saw fit, and serves as proof of her divine authority. Magic is very powerful and present in all walks of society in the form of magitech. However, it is slow and intensive, often requiring multiple components. This limits it's effectiveness in certain ways, including defense and warfare.
One way magic is used extends to biology. Women have the natural ability to control their reproduction by choosing when to concieve. Pregnancy is a more active process, and is relatively easy on a womans body. Death in childbirth is unheard of, and babies usually surive to adulthood. A woman can carry to term, pause, or speed up rate of gestation at will. However, they are magically cut off during the process, as all of it goes to the child to help it develop. Motherhood is higly valued in this society, and considered a high honor.
Women who have given birth have access to the strongest magics. Birth fundamentally changes women into a higher being. they attain a higher understanding by being one with the force of creation. It could unlock higher levels of magic or maybe just different forms of magic like spells revolving around creating things for instance.
Religious culture centers around creation, and the process of creating life is considered a sacred form of magic. As the bearer of life itself, the female is viewed as the "stronger" sex, more emotionally stable and more likely to cooperate with each other to achieve long term goals. Female warriors are rare, due to a cultural taboo that one who creates life should not be responsible for taking it, and war is generally seen as a male profession.
The nation is broken up into matrilineal clans, with individuals remaining in the clan they were born into. Each clan is led by a clan mother, who retains final authority on all decisions. Society is conservative and traditional, and gender plays a significant role in a person's life. These values are reinforced through social pressure and religious culture.
Responsibilities are divided between male and female councils. The male council is led by a cheiftan, who is elected by the clan mother and is largely responsible for war, security, and things to do with intensive labor. The female council is led by the clan mother directly, and takes care of things attributed to the economy, such as business, trade, magitech technology, administrative tasks, etc.
Men are called to be the protectors and defenders of God's world. They are valued for their strength, honor, courage, and loyal nature. However, they can be emotional and hot headed. Their desire to protect others or prove themselves can lead to reckless mistakes. Men are known to settle disputes with their fists, and need to be guided by a firm hand. The analogy i would make is that of a seth rogen character. Those who conform to society's ideals and reinforce the system and its values rise in power and influence, and considered the alpha males in society. However, they may lose some of the roguish charm that men are known for and are usually seen as an extension of their female relatives.
War is an honorable profession, and is considered to be the height of masculinity. Warriors are valued by society, and celebrated for defending their homeland. This is done because the nation lives in a hostile world and because it gives men a sense of control and authority while preventing them from claiming more power. Sex is recreational, but procreation is tightly regulated. Corporative breeding between clans is the norm, primarily done to secure alliances or trade deals. For women, it is a rite of passage. For men, it is considered a high honor and a symbol of their value and worth to their clan. Successful men are chosen to represent their clans in this manner, and it can a source of bragging rights. It is believed that men do not pass on their genes, but their "spirit". The spirit is the life force of a human being, the energy that powers the body and the seat of their personality and attributes.
As far as crime and punishment goes: Men are the generally the enforcers in this world. They are the ones primarily responsible for keeping peace and order, such as police officers, security, etc. The court system is controlled by the church, which is made up of dominantly female priests. Judges are usually women, and determine punishment based on religious doctrine and tradition. Violence, outside of certain avenues (sports, gladitorial games, war, etc) is controlled and harshly punished with floggings, imprisonment, exile, or death depending on severity.
While male violence is generally frowned upon, there is an subtle undercurrent of "boys will be boys" mentality that is present in society. As the sex predisposed to violence, it is somewhat understandable and to some degree lightly tolerated. A woman however is expected to "know better" and their primary recourse of restitution is through the court system, or through political means. Male on female violence is almost akin to heresy. A man killing a woman is generally punishable by death, as he is not just killing her, but robbing her clan of the future generation that may spring from her. The penalty for rape is a special case. The perpetrator is magically branded with a curse mark, similarly to the mark of Cain from the bible. The mark is clearly visible and forces the individual to feel the pain of his victim. The pain is felt in a spiritual, rather than physical, case. It is a source of shame and ridicule, and the mark remains as long as the courts deem it neccessary.
This is what I have so far. Any questions or comments will be appreciated.




How does the society treat infertile women, or women who don't want children? How do they treat queer people or trans people? Are they all ok so long as they breed, is there a stigma, are they considered natural population control, or what? Is there a difference in the treatment of lesbians and trans women vs gay and trans men? How does magic play into these groups?
Does the "boys will be boys" attitude mean that if a man commits a violent or sexual crime against a man isn't thought as bad or punished as severely? If a man wants to raise kids instead of make war, how is that viewed? Is he thought abnormal for not being violent, or praised for having feminine virtues? How is parentage determined and how much does it matter? Do people only care who the mother is, do the fathers have any rights, are relationships open, are there marriages?
Have there been male-led uprisings in the past? What about other societies or subdivisions within the society that do things differently? How do they view those groups? If the whole world is matriarchies, what would they think of a more Amazonian type?
"Pregnancy is a more active process, and is relatively easy on a womans body. Death in childbirth is unheard of, and babies usually surive to adulthood. A woman can carry to term, pause, or speed up rate of gestation at will. " This feels like a bit much, like humans would end up with a population crisis really quickly once agrarian society was stable. Unless it developed much later with the spread of magic? Can magic prevent ALL childhood diseases and accidents, or just lower them significantly? Are children never born with birth defects? Honestly I think magic making pregnancy less risky and infants less likely to die in the first year is enough, or making it clear that the ease only came after generations of perfecting the use of magic, thus the modern need for population control.
Honestly I don't think you need to "explain" why there's a matriarchy too much. That will feed into existing preconceptions more than explore the new possibilities this world has. I read a book not long ago where there were ONLY women with zero explanation why there weren't any men and it worked because it ran with it and didn't look back. I definitely recommend reading some books with matriarchies and picking apart how they handle it.
This story sounds to me a bit like a Christian version of Black Jewels (Anne Bishop, I think). Of course, the Christian part makes all the difference, since Black Jewels strikes me as more Wiccan-esque.
The men are hot headed and practiced in war, how do the women maintain dominance? Do they use their magic to force the men to obey? Or is the nature of the men in this world such that they don’t even question the order of things? History in our world seems to indicate that hot headed warriors are hard to rule.
Magic takes the place of science, and women as a group control the means of production. Growing crops, technology, etc.
I think you need more. Violence historically trumps science. The mighty force the wise to work for them. The world is not run by farmers and scientists.
To make this scenario feel believable I think you need and answer as to why that pattern is different this time.
From what you’ve said so far I’d say the strongest direction indicated is to play up the honor angle. Something along the lines of not only would violence against women be punished severely as you’ve mentioned, but the lineage of the man who would stoop so low would be punished for multiple generations.
Or something along the lines of pointing out that even though the men are the warriors they engage in battle using magitech which will not work against women. The prospect of being reduced to clubs would give a modern warrior pause…
That's a pretty interesting world. It's seems like you've got a lot of the big stuff planned out, but what about the more day to day stuff? Since it's magic using, what type of technology do they have? Do people still have the traditional nuclear family, or does the theocracy raise the kids? Just curious cause you've changed up a lot of traditional values.
Crystals that power machinery, alchemy, transportation portals, runes that create heat: these are some of the ways magi tech is used. Children are raised by the mothers clan, and marriage does not exist as we understand it. Father figures would be uncles, cousins, and other men of the woman's clan.
Cool. What happens if a woman is born without magic? Is she an outcast? Can she still give birth the normal way, but has no control over it?
Honestly I haven't thought about that? How do you think I should address it?
Well a woman without magic, probably wouldn't be liked that much in such a society. Maybe, she'd fit in better with the male warriors? They could send her out in the wars to get rid of her, and if she makes a place for herself, then all the better.
I don't know about the birth thing though. If magic is absolutely necessary for procreating, then yeah she'd probably be barren. But if she can still give birth, then maybe that would mean magic isn't absolutely necessary for procreation. So that would bring up the question of why only females get it. Maybe the occasional man is born with magic like in The Wheel of Time?