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| A Mongolian Woman, painting of Dashtseren GUNGAA |
More than many
other medieval cultures, the nomadic one can offer opportunities for
interesting role play of a traditional woman, that is not only as a shamaness, an
artist or a kind of tomboy. A recent blog entry about women on the Celestial Empire blog reminded me that I wanted to write a bit more about this topic in order
to encourage women as PCs -and hopefully as player as well.
First statement:
Nomad women are no Barbie girls, they can be as terrible as she-wolves.
Second
statement: Nomad women have much more freedom, at least of expression, than many of their sisters from other medieval settled civilizations.
Some tasks
are of course traditionally reserved to them, like cattle milking or raising babies,
as others are reserved to men. But women must take care of the camp when men are
away: they command the servants and the slaves and have to be able to protect the
cattle and the children from all the dangers of the Steppes, including
predators like wolves. They are helped in this task by dogs, which obey to
them. They are skilled at survival. Women need therefore not only various skills,
but also a strong willpower, both things which make women PCs interesting to
play. In the domains they are assigned to, they are the rulers, but outside of
this, they must not stay shy and self-effacing.
