A Short Bloggling

The Amazons are a people scattered throughout the world. They are found among many ethnicities and have intermarried for generations. First and foremost an Amazon is loyal to the nation, and then to their clan. They are people united by blood and religion.

Today would have more but my laptop died. So I have lost a few of my current papers on Amazo. I should hope to have it back soon, otherwise I'll have to redo all of the information.

Shamans and Priestesses...and something else

Amazon Religious Leaders and Clergy

"Daughter, you are the blood of the Strong. Born from 'Those who are' and 'Those who shall be'. You are Amazon, a child of the Steppe and the ancient lines of the honored dead."

-Codex, Book of Ancestors Chapter 1, Line 2

Amazons are lead by the will of the spirits, or they were in times past. In the modern day, the Codex is often seen as a simple gathering of texts and ancient scrolls. Hand written down and copied perciesly as it was originally wrote, the Codex is the core doctrine of the Amazon religion. However, the true interpreters of the Codex are not a singular priesthood nor clergy.

In the Amazon Faith, one can either become a Shamanka, or one of the Priestess of the Lady. The Shamanka give the words of the Totems and in turn devote themselves to one of the Clan Spirits (another term for Totem). They are the voices and interpreters of the will and seek the guidance of them. Shamanka also exist as the guides for the inspiration taken from the honored dead. Often the Shamanistic aspect of Amazon faith requires more oral knowledge than written.

The Amazon priestesses are those who teach from the Codex and guide the Nation as religious clergy. They much like a Mullah or Rabbi teach the rules and laws of the Nation. For if an Amazon is to purely live up to the Lady they must fully understand how she is the Soul of all Amazons. Which in time hopefully helps a young Amazon understand her connection to the greater universe via Arteɲei.

New Possible Clans

Herodotus spoke of the Gorgons. A tribe of women that lived near an island (the full name escaping me). This caught my attention after I read a book detailing several possible origins for the Amazones in history. One thing I found interesting was that these "Gorgons" were also related to Medusa (note I do know that by defintion Medusa as a monster is a Gorgon :) ).

I have for a while thought about how to connect this tribe to the Amazones. And in truth I find them not unlike the other Lost Clans. In this manner I plan on developing them more and adding to the Nation as they grow in my mind.

Current name ideas:

CoiledViper

StrikingSerpent

GhostSerpent

The new totem teaches the ideals of Patience, Decisive Action, and Careful planning.

Arrow Child Excerpt

This is a few paragraphs from my current draft of the Arrow Child story...

 Arrow Child - A Tale from the Amazon Diaspora

"The steppe was cold that winter. A winter so cold that even after the coming of spring the area was still silent. The landscape was old, and so was the mound that inhabited it. Erected over a thousand years in the past by roving nomadic tribes, it was a testament to the ingenuity of the mounted warriors that had survived the land millennia ago. A large thing created from earth and piled rock. The mound was very old, a kurgan, a burial place where the honored dead were put to sleep.

The kurgan was mostly over grown and hard to find among the rolling hills of the Ukrainian plains. Many like it had been found in by grave robbers and archaeologists alike in the past. Several were looted, and the lucky few had their treasures found and saved. For some reason, this one had never found. Something about it kept even the most daring looter away. By all accords it was the kurgan of a lost Scythian warlord. A chieftain who had fought in many battles and who had supposedly been slain by the Romans or by other accounts Heracles himself.

Years had the chieftain stood in his cold grave. So many that there was no record of whom he might be. Only the fragment records from excavated kurgan and stolen scrolls gave any hint even to the supposed location. These fragments were what lead Stephen Doukas to the far away place. The burial site was far enough from the road to be somewhat difficult to get to. It also blended it into the surrounding area, almost to the point that it seemed the mound had been purposely camouflaged.

Stephen was a man determined. After extensive study in Oxford and other prestigious schools from Britain and America, he had developed an obsession. It had taken months before he realized it. For some reason one single pot shard to had him to this location. It had all started when he had come across a man claiming to have access to an old Scythian piece of pottery. Just a fragment, it was covered in Ioanian Greek lettering. It was something that caught his eye right away.

Without thinking Stephen had spent the next year searching down and locating more pieces of the pot. The first fragment contained broken lettering and though he didn’t know the actual language Stephen had hired a translator out of Athens specializing in ancient Greek dialects to discern it and the other fragments he found. After many months of piecing it all together he found the mention of a supposed Scythian warlord who had fallen to the wrath of Heracles himself. As a Greek and an archaeologist, the possibility of finding a relic linking the modern day to the mythological past the opportunity was more than he could imagine.

So it was within moments of the day coming to fruition at noon that a jeep follow by several others of its kind made their way along the plains road. Only a few mentions from the locals and notes from other kurgan had given them a vague idea of where the location. After the road gave way to unending steppe they pushed on. It took hours and they would keep going. Finding the mound was what mattered, and then opening it to see what lay within."

A bit on Amazon religion and family

Basics of Amazon Faith
Amazon Religion is a combination of Animistic, Pantheistic and Monotheistic beliefs. They believe in Spirits. Everything has a spirit, from the small pebble on the shore to the soul of the Amazon nation itself (Arteɲei). The Amazonian people have for years kept alive their native religion via a written accord simply called the Codex. A gathered source of documents and scrolls detailing their old rituals and their history as a people. One aspect of the Codex is how it plays into the Amazon Clan system.

Amazons are split into roughly (currently) four clans: Snowleopard, Runninghorse, Longtalon and Stormcrow.

Each Clan is in turn descended as a group from a powerful Spirit Totem. The Totems are the most powerful spirits worshiped by their individual clans and are the guiding forces behind the people of their clan. Clans often pay respects to another Clan's totem, but they do not call upon it in faith. That is for the named Clan ONLY. So Snowleopard Clanswoman do not look to Runninghorse as a guiding spirit or as a source of faith. They pay homage to Snowleopard alone as a source of wisdom.

Each Totem also symbolizes a given aspect. Snowleopard means wisdom, motherhood and life. Runninghorse is strength, sincerity and passion. Longtalon (whose totem is a Steppe Eagle) represents acumen, agility and learning. Stormcrow symbolizes intelligence, adaption and survival. Besides the four clan totems there is the ultimate or Soul Totem. Who the Amazons call Arteɲei, or in the Greek, Artemis. Arteɲei is the mother of all Amazones and is considered the very soul of the Nation. She is the inspiration for all Arrow Children (prophets or great leaders) who have led the nation in times of peril.

In Amazon Cosmology Arteɲei came to them when they became a nation and left the Olympians to join her daughters among the Spirits. The Totems in turn set aside their original mantle and became the advisors and guides to Arteɲei and her children. In this manner Arteɲei is not a sole god, but is the Amazones connection to the universe at large. They as a people acknowledge other faiths and wholeheartedly respect them. What they dislike is when others attempt to interfere with their connection to the world. To them the ability to speak to the Spirits, Ancestor Spirits (honored dead and source of Ozikon) and the Totems is a major part of their identity as a people. For it was Snowleopard who taught them humility and strength and it was Runninghorse who inspired the first Rakei (queen).

Amazon Family and Clan
All Amazones claim descent from a powerful Clan Moiety (as stated above). They gain their clan through their mother and in turn can change it if their soul desire does not align with that of the Clan. Each Clan in the Nation had its purposes and connections born out of the original Band and Warband lifestyle of the people. Originally the Snowleopards were priestesses and leaders among the Tribe. The RunningHorse were calvary and warriors. The Longtalon evolved into scouts and hunters while the Stormcrows became masters of Lore. Over time this attitude evolved and the Clans took on different means with each in turn donating it's own powerful blood to the ruling Dynasties of the Nation.

Clan is more of a spiritual connection than a real descent. Amazonian kinship is marked by what is called and Ozikon (from the Greek, Oikos). Ozikon are an assorted group of common lineages that in turn are aligned with a given Clan. In the story of Arrow Child, the Asker  family claims descent from the Ozikon of Hippolyta, while the Alkaiel are descended from Alkaia.

Many surnames and family names can be attributed to one Ozikon. For an Ozikon is the Sisterhood (and brothers for those who are born Amazon as males) of bloodlines that descends from an honored dead or Ancestor Spirit. The actual connection one has to the honored dead in Amazo society falls more into an ideal of inspiration rather than actual worship. Unlike full ancestor worship, the honored dead are revered as guides much like the Totems. With each Ancestor or Ancestral Spirit group giving an individual ideology to their descendents via the Ozikons Codex, a special copy of the Amazo holy texts where all members of a given Ozikon are recorded. Some Codex are old enough to record several generations spanning several centuries.

Amazonia was a kingdom that lasted from the late period BC to the early centuries of AD. It did not fall until the eventual occupation of thrace and even then the local people were not crushed till a final uprising in Themiscyra by the Snow Leopard Clan under one of the later dynasties. It was then that the Romans sacked the city and every woman, man and child except a chosen few from each clan were sold into slavery or put to death. This is what is simply called the Chaining. A time from when the Nation was scattered to the winds and what would later give rise to the lost Clans of LongTalon and StormCrow.

Period wear during this time depended upon gender and status within society. Manyof the fashions found in Amazonia were tied to those found in Persia at the time and directly evolved from the former Steppe life the Amazones used to live in.

My dear sister drew me a few concept art sketches of this wear and I finally have had the time to paste it.

The follow is an upperclass politician or military figure:

The next piece is showing a middle class Amazon:

Amazonian wear tended to favor the ability for the legs to be unrestrained. They also favored a robe like design but did adopt some of the Hellenic designs introduced to them by first the Ionians and later the Macedonians under Alexander the Great.

Amazonian fashion in the modern day still favors head scarves and head wraps in a way. Owning a shawl with the totem of one's clan is often a sign of respect and a way for the younger generations to connect with their roots.

Amazons did have a warrior / ritualistic regalia that they all wore during times of ceremony or in specific actions of wear. The regali included a leather chest piece with trousters and then gauntlets and greaves. The person would then wear a mask that had a veil that covered the rest of their head. Regalia in itself was singular to the person who wore it and often not it was important to cover as much skin as possible. This was because the regalia evolved from the traditional Scythian armor worn by the Amazons before Hippolyta united the Clans after the death of the first Queen.

To this day Amazons still practice the wearing of their war regalia and often sometimes those of American blood with Native American heritage will often mix the two cultures to create something new.

I shall hopefully have a vocabulary of Amazo soon! Mostly because the next scene of Arrow Child has a few lines in Amazo.