How would you describe the politics and cultures of some faction?

[Tyrfingr]

Problem is that most people sees the greeks and the celts as one people, where in reality there was no such unity...there were independent greek city-states and independent celtic tribes, yes, but no unified nation. If quite a few of the celts and greeks unified under one banner from time to time, these federations were both rare and short-lived.

[moonburn]

the germans put a great amount of importance in not allowing 1 man to have too much power (but then again so did the athenians and their democracy and eventually the roman republic with the boni trying to ostracize cesar at every step he took)

basic point is how strong where the kinship ties beteween diferent comunities in the barbarian world that was the most important thing the blood ties thats why it was so important for diferent tribes to retain their names and find comon ancestry (normally gods or demigods) and even in roman literacture we see that where some german tribes where considered brothers or cousins of other celtic tribes and could call for help when in need

in those regards the doric lineage that the spartans shared with the syracusans and a few other colonies where stronger then for instance an alliance with the boitians

lets put it this way the people of my street rule the dudes from the other street suck but they don´t suck as hard as people from other blocks after all theire in our side of town but even the dudes on the other side of town don´t suck as hard as the dudes on the next village and even they are cooler then people from another district wich in term are cooler then dudes who are from other regions and everyone in my country is always better then any foreigner but then again we´re all europeans and dudes from other continents suck hard but we´re all 1 planet and if there are martians they will undoubatly be douchebags and will smell milky way all the way the other galaxy´s can´t get it straight ...

something like this until there´s a perceived threat being a greek/lusitanii/german/gaul didn´t mattered only the people in your imediate family and then extented family and then town and so forth

this being said social hierarchy was none until there where perceived threats or influences from "outside" you will not see a need for a leader and to waste resources in a leader until there are catleraiders threatning you and then you and the dudes from the other farms will join to defend your combined property´s and will elect a leader who in turn will not be able to tend his plot and must be suported by the rest and thus hierarchy starts how it evolves will always depend on the threat from above and the bad experiences from whitin (democracy and the need to elect leaders comes from bad past experiences in the same way as dictatorships rise from either the need to have stronger leadership or from greed and understandment that a stronger and more united group will enable you to rise higher)

the lusitanii for instance never had kings and never had the need for kings until they where trully threaten by galba and the process started there ended with viriathus being acclaimed king by his soldiers (wich included also celtiberians iberians and not just people from his tribe the lusi )

original barbaric societies are anarchy´s wich have an organic development dependent on the stimulus they have both from outside (threats) or needs from within (excess population search for better or more resources or lack of social peace)

kelts are diferent in the sence they where no longer an original barbaric society but instead a culture as developed as the hellenic one in the terms that they had hierarchies that expanded beyond their towns and went as far as tribal confederations

in the end a strong leader is only as strong as he can provide his suporters with what he needs (or in ceasar words speak with passion and you´ll get many suporters but unleass you temper your passion with reason and inteligence you´ll never be able to provide your suporters with what they need and thus your fall will come fast enough)


what are we talking again ?

[fomalhaut]

Problem is that most people sees the greeks and the celts as one people, where in reality there was no such unity...there were independent greek city-states and independent celtic tribes, yes, but no unified nation. If quite a few of the celts and greeks unified under one banner from time to time, these federations were both rare and short-lived.

i'd say EB fixed that perception for me.

and moonburn idk what we are talking about now but that's a great post!