Inter-Tribe Conflicts

*"The destiny of your people is to join the Five Points. We are powerful together, and alone, you are weak. I'm not negotiating this further. Your inability to see our strength is making us all, far too weak."* - **Brigdhe Catach, Chieftain of the Five Points.**

Conflicts between Tribes is not rare. It can arise for many reasons. Sometimes conflicts occur when nearby Tribes want access to a shared resource. Conflicts can also occur when one Tribe or another feels that their honor has been besmirched or that somehow another Tribe lacks respect. Conflicts also occur when particularly ambitious Chieftain rise to power and seek to conquer the nearby Tribes to set-up vassal villages. Conflicts can occur when a feud between families in differing Tribes escalates to outright hostility between the Tribes as wholes. There are plenty of reasons why Tribes may come to blows, and the outcome of such conflicts can change the course of Tribe history and politics.

## Wars Between Tribes

When hostilities between Tribes break out, war can be declared. Ancient Tribal Law governs that a Tribe shall not attack another Tribe without a declaration of war at a Gathering. Once war is declared, there are no rules which govern the engagement except that warriors are not allowed to effectively raid and destroy a village. Only combatants are expected to fight. Should a particular Tribe seek to destroy another village, Ranger Outfits may be summoned to protect the villagers who are non-combatants. Effectively, once a Tribe has run out of warriors either through death or who are simply unwilling to further engage, the Tribe has lost the war. If a Tribe refuses to surrender, rather than forcing capitulation, an invading force may simply set-up an effective siege around the village, denying access to the Great Forest and fields until the village surrenders. Because villages are often very easy to invade and raid, Tribal Law exists to protect villagers from slaughter and is enforced by Ranger Outfits. A Tribe which violates this becomes marked in the minds of nearby Tribes and seen as crazed or outright vicious. Thus the fate of a brutal conqueror is often death at the hands of a combined alliance of nearby Tribes. Therefore, it may often be the easiest course of action for an invading Tribe to simply pillage a nearby, weaker village, doing so comes with the extreme risk of inviting violence from all other nearby Tribes who have no desire to fall to the same fate.

Besides the very basic and ancient law which prevents Tribes from slaughtering each other, there are also a few similar laws that govern warfare in the same vein. Tribes are not allowed to indirectly massacre their enemies either through means such as poisoning water supplies or luring packs of creatures to the fields of their enemies. Such cowardly acts are also considered crossing the lines in terms of honorable war, and many stories exist where a powerful, warring Tribe was brought to extinction by its neighbors for committing such atrocities. Again, once a Tribe loses honor in the eyes of its neighbors, it isn't long before they meet a violent end.

Beyond that, warfare between Tribes is largely ungoverned. Attacking another Tribe is not an easy task. First and foremost, a Tribe must send its precious warriors to engage the enemy. Doing so requires crossing the Great Forest which itself is dangerous. Further, sending your warriors out on a war path also means they are no longer home to provide labor to sustain the village. Thus, waging war is very expensive. The loss of life can also bring subsequent economic and stability ruin to a village as populations of villages are often very small, thereby feeling the impact of a great loss of life much deeper than larger nations would.

Battles between warriors are often fought around a village or in ambush within the Great Forest. During a time of war, any Tribesperson who leaves the area of a village is considered a combatant. Therefore, hunters, trappers, and gatherers are often targeted and need to be defended from raids. Tribes may set up traps in the forest as well, something which is considered effective if not a bit cowardly. Larger scale battles can occur when two villages of greater size can field small armies. Often, armies can only be raised when more than one village forms an alliance against another alliance. Their warriors will go to war together, often hunting down the army of the other Tribe to try and force an engagement. Prolonged maneuvers are often not effective between the Tribes because it is not overly difficult to forage for food in the wilderness. Thereby, in such large conflicts, it is often simply preferable for the warriors to engage each other in a decisive battle to simply put an end to the war.

That being so, it is still possible for wars to dissolve into long term struggles especially if one side cannot soundly defeat the other. Such long wars take a tremendous toll on the villages as wars are very expensive. Typically, when a war dissolves into a long term conflict, it is because both sides have all but destroyed the others ability to field a larger, conquering force, and now, neither side willing to give in, they have begun an effective guerrilla war which can last for a very long time. During these protracted conflicts, Ranger Outfits are often called in to ensure that violence does not spread to neighboring Tribes, and often, this political pressure combined with waning economics will eventually force the warring Tribes to come to terms of peace.

## Results of War

In the event that one side or another is victorious in a war, effectively forcing the surrender of its enemy, several important things can happen. The most likely scenario is that terms of surrender are reached. The losing side often now must give up power to one degree or another and attempt to provide reparations to maintain their survival. Sometimes, however, the goal of the war was to conquer, and the losing Tribe may now become a vassal of the conquering Tribe. This can happen by either the winning side installing a new Chieftain, one from their own village, or by simply destroying the village and absorbing the remaining populace into their own village. Life as a vassal is often preferable to that of absorption as it may take generations before families that have been conquered become of equal status as of those in the conquering village.

As a Tribe conquers other Tribes, over time, its power base becomes stronger. This is often because vassal Tribes end up paying duties to the conquering Tribe, forming a sort of federated Tribe. Throughout history, such federated Tribes have taken on the moniker of Great Tribes. As a Tribe grows in power, so too does its influence. Neighboring Tribes, afraid of the conqueror may choose to simply become vassals rather than facing a conflict. Further, the combined power of a Great Tribe may be able to easily crush competitors in the region. If a Great Tribe becomes extremely large, it may eventually encompass the entire region served by Ranger Outfits effectively meaning that the Outfit becomes a part of the Great Tribe.

Maintaining an empire as a Great Tribe is notoriously difficult. The rough, individualism of the conquered Tribes make it very difficult to fully subjugate them. Further, as the power of a Great Tribe grows, especially one which was built through conquest, so too will its notoriety. As a result, as the borders of the Great Tribe expand, so too does the threat that neighboring Tribes feel. It is not uncommon therefore for a Great Tribe to eventually meet its end due to bloody engagement between a massive alliance of neighboring Tribes bent on stopping the conquerors from expanding any further.

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--Neil (talk) 17:26, 19 October 2016 (AST)