Thracian Warrior Culture

Thracian Warrior Culture

The original Thracian culture was very warlike. It fought constantly within. This began to change soon after Victor Spear landed. Many of the Thracian's despised Victor Spear. One in particular, Rholes led a group of men, The Mighty Men to defeat Victor Spear. This led Victor Spear to having to fight against Rholes to found his first settlement.

Continuous internal conflict caused Victor Spear to form alliances inside Thrace to prevent his original settlements from being overrun. There was also a constant threat from slavers and raiders between the different cities. He sought to end this bringing peace between the different settlements by breaking the hold of the slavers.

While, he was not a warrior himself, he had studied some martial arts and done badly at it. He recognized people who could be warriors and convinced them to join him. He encouraged the founding of the first gymnasia where he would exercise with the warriors. This initial fitness gave them an advantage. He himself had some idea how bodyweight training and basic floor exercises worked. He also could swim and the warriors liked to practice running and wrestling.

The gymnasia attracted warriors from different parts of the league. They began to have contests of strength, prowess, and speed at the gymnasia. Victor Spear met several warriors initially and asked them to be his Hands and look out for things. He also encouraged one of them Diaghis to start breeding dogs for war and protection. The Hands became the adventurers and senior warriors of the Nestos League.

The internal contests and the schools began to replace the conflict between different nobles and groups. The raiding began to die down. One of the raiders Barabass, made a compact with Victor Spear to end his days of raiding and become a merchant and mercenary for Oak and the League. Barabass brought archery skills and Mesopotamian warrior skills. Through trade and outside contact, warriors filtered into the schools bringing new martial skills into the early Nestos League. There were Egyptian followers of the Upright Way, wrestlers from Anatolia, archers from Egypt and Nubia, boxers from Mesopotamia, and others.

It was the invasion of the Kurgan that started the unification of the Thracian tribes. The early battles were pitched battles and left many dead. It was the development of formation fighting from Mesopotamia, the use of incendiaries, archery, and better armor which ultimately led to victory against the Kurgan invaders. The fighting with the Kurgan affected the border tribes more than the central tribes of the Thracians. This strengthened the initial position of the Thracians allowing the Nestos League to take over most of Thrace.

Sitalkes, one of the warriors and hunters of the Oak Gymnasia and a number of supporters went to the Dniester river to prevent the conquest of the Cucuteni by the Kurgan. It was a long prolonged guerrilla war which formed the Cucuteni into armed settlements along the Dniester. Sitalkes learned many skills including camouflage from the Cucuteni, skirmishing tactics from the Peltoi or javelin men from Thrace, as well as an improvised fighting style created by the Cucuteni who called themselves Hammer Men based on the use of the hammers modified from the Imperium and farming mattocks.

There have been many other conflicts since. There was the Kraken conflict in the Cyclades where the Temple of the Celestial Bull and the Great Goddess was formed. The Kraken were driven from the Nestos League. However, it caused the loss of many families. It also introduced new guerrilla tactics and faster boats, outrigger canoes and other water craft.

After the Kraken conflict, the Illyrian pirates were defeated and Illyria submitted and joined the Nestos League. They have sent men to serve the armies of Diaghis. They were used in the conflict between Ur and Uruk.

Following this, Diaghis led a campaign against Uruk and its colonies joining up with Ur and defeating them at Uruk. They still have to consolidate their presence in Uruk. Uruk is a conquered city and it is the first time that the Nestos League has come as a conqueror on a large scale. As part of this conflict, many new tactics and styles of equipment were introduced.

Internally, Thrace is at peace in its central area. However, it constantly fears invasion from the outside because of the Kurgan. Victor Spear imagines that mongol hordes will one day sweep through Thrace. The recent Kraken conflict in the Cyclades has fed this belief that there will be outside invaders and they have to be prepared. This includes supporting his allies in Mesopotamia.