Mantua - A Man's World Ch. 07

NON EROTIC! For those who are interested, here are some brief notes about Mantua and its society. Feel free to skip this as there is no erotica here. As I wrote this story, I got more interested in this world and how it developed.

INTRODUCTION:

The idea of writing a society with a large gender imbalance came to me one idle evening. Immediately, I figured a five male to one female imbalance would be a hugely unpleasant world with women kept locked away by the strongest men for breeding purposes. Given males' greater physical strength and aggression, I thought that the most likely outcome would be the unattached males wandering angrily and aggressively around trying to get access to any woman. I know that, in theory, a woman should be powerful in that world but in reality I think they would be utterly powerless except for the most rare of circumstances. I thought this because of the hugely misogynistic societies in the world both past and present. From Athenian Greece to modern Afghanistan there are too many societies where women are completely devalued. Even in our Western societies, women have only really achieved equality within the last century or so and many women feel with some justification that they are still not truly equal. At the time of writing there has never been a woman as US President and as for a female Pope? Forget about it. Women are still massively outnumbered by men in company boardrooms and as CEOs of large corporations. Sadly, even now a number of women fear walking down the street alone late at night; a situation which I think is unacceptable.

So I thought that society with a five male to one female imbalance would most likely become some kind of hell for everyone very quickly. Even the powerful men at the top of the tree would be fearful as they know that younger and stronger men would eventually come along to usurp their position. And could they even trust their bodyguards...?

However, I thought a five female to one male imbalance has far more potential. To explain how this occurred, I figured that chemicals in the atmosphere might cause this asymmetry after the colonists arrived. Yes, I know, this is not hard sci-fi but I wanted to keep it plausible. However, the concept of a large female to male gender imbalance intrigued me as to how things could develop and I would like to get other people's take on it as well so if you have ideas for other societies on this world to be explored, please drop me a line. Our world is not a uniform culture (though more than it was with the current dominance of US culture) and neither would this world be.

Mantua is a sci-fi/fantasy story with the setting in a regressed lost colony. Yeah, I know, been there -- done that. Unfortunately, as I suspected it might, my story does seem to be descending to an Edgar Rice Burroughs level (oh, dear) with plenty of adventures for the pair. This is Literotica after all and so the story had to be sexy -- as far as I can do it, anyway! This is not great literature, but I think a story should be exciting with things happening to the characters and not boring masses of data about society etc. although there is stuff about how the locals live. Also, I am having fun writing it.

While my story features male domination, I would like to reuse what another Literotica writer said about their stories: 'My kinks are not my politics'. Which I think is a point worth reiterating.

MANTUA PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:

Mantua is an Earth-like world closely orbiting a main K-sequence orange dwarf star giving the planet an overall pleasantly tropical temperature.

The planet has five small moonlets in varying close orbits which are probably captured asteroids. They are similar to Mars's two moonlets, Phobos and Deimos and orbit the planet appearing as bright pinpoints of light even during daylight hours. These moonlets as well as the relatively closer sun and other tectonic forces create the planet's small erratic tides.

It is the only planet in the system apart from a few rocky or icy dwarf planets out towards the edge of the solar system and two asteroid belts. There are no gas giants.

It has an equatorial diameter of 7,100 miles making it slightly smaller than Earth.

Its gravitational pull is approximately 0.92 that of Earth's making Terran humans slightly stronger than local natives.

A Mantuan day lasts approximately 28.2 Earth hours while a year lasts 192.4 days. Generally, a year is divided into five months of thirty-eight days with a two day End and New Year's celebration and then a leap year as and when their calendar requires.

It is a water world with its surface covered by 90% water and so it has little land mass. Earth's percentage of water is 70%. There are two sub-continents about the size of India and Argentina. The larger is roughly heart-shaped while the smaller is elongated. As well, there are several thousands of islands and archipelagoes. These vary in size from large islands of about 200,000 square miles like Madagascar or Baffin Island down to small islets and atolls. These are mostly found scattered around two thirds of the equatorial circumference but there also some at the tropics and beyond into more temperate regions. It also has two small polar ice-caps but that is it for land.

As most people live around the equatorial belt, there is little seasonal variation but they are able to grow several crops a year. The climate is mostly pleasant, hovering around 72F, and dry during the day with rain during the slightly cooler nights. It is usually cloudy and humid but the sun can burn through thinner cloud cover. Inevitably it is cooler towards the poles.

Main crops are edible tree-ferns as well as rice, wheat or oats on dryer ground as well as vegetables. They also grow vines for grapes and wine. Some species of indricotheres are specially bred for milk and meat. A common food animal was imported, the Waukuku was also brought. The Waukuku is a slow moving creature with a barrel-shaped body, six legs and can graze on almost anything.

In the oceans, native life has evolved to include armored fish-like creatures, quite similar to the armored fish of the Devonian era. Most fish are quite small but some species are huge. These creatures resemble lampreys and eels rather than true fish. There are also large kraken squid-like animals in the depths. Otherwise there are sponges, anemones, armored slugs and underwater plants. However, some earthly species like tuna and cod have been introduced and coexist with native species.

On land, there are large tree-ferns and lichens resembling plants from Earth's Carboniferous Era. The islands are mostly covered in thick jungle except for cultivated areas. However, on the larger sub-continent there is a small desert where a range of mountains block the prevailing winds. There are few species of native land animals -- the most dominant being similar to six legged newts and salamanders. There is a kind of land-cephalopod, too. Unusually, flying creatures never developed on Mantua.

MANTUAN SOCIETY:

The colonists arrived over 1,800 years previously from a now forgotten world. On their colony ships they brought various animals with them, mainly the indricotheres which they then bred for different purposes such as draft animals, racing and food. Other Terran animals were also brought including hyenadons to act as a natural predator for the indricotheres. These are prized for hunting. Also, inevitably, various pests came with them such as mice and rabbits, rubble runners and troads.

The colony was established partly as an agricultural settlement and also to act as a waystation between two larger, more important worlds.

However, after a generation, the colonists noticed that far more girls were born than boys. An analysis of the planetary atmosphere showed that trace chemicals affected male sperm production meaning far fewer Y-chromosome sperm were produced. Also, they found the tree-ferns produce natural aphrodisiacs like oxytocin and pheromones which meant that people wanted to reproduce.

However, Mantua was always a backwater and when much of galactic civilization collapsed during the Second War against the Xolongo Determinants, it was forgotten about. During the war it's sponsoring planet was heavily asteroid bombed and all records there were destroyed. The colonists themselves had no spacecraft and little industry, and without a supply of off-world technology they soon reverted to a pre-industrial level of development.

With a five to one female to male ration, the population rapidly expanded over the next few generations until it outstripped the available food supply. This came during several years of drought and civil wars as states competed over scarce resources and during this time of famine, the population crashed. Local civilization collapsed and all their records were destroyed or lost, too. As civilization rose again from the ashes, it was decided that women needed to be kept under control in order that the birth rate be restricted to manageable levels. During this time, several systems to achieve this aim became popular over much of the planet.

The people of Mantua have a legend about coming from the stars but even that fable is disputed by Mantua's scholars. They are mostly happy with how they are and don't think much about life off-world.

Given its widely scattered islands there are many different languages and dialects spoken. As Colfax and Skyann have universal translators fitted powered by brainwaves, they never experienced that difficulty.

The people of Mantua have a pantheistic religion worshiping varied deities. Rather than reinventing the wheel I used Earthly ones. Popular gods and goddesses include Ceres, goddess of agriculture; Neptune god of the sea; Jupiter who is mostly worshiped by rulers. However, there are more local divinities. The people of the expanding state of Janus have the two-headed god Janus as their chief god. Elsewhere, Northmen like Wighere have a different but analogous pantheon. Wighere mentions Thunor (Thor) several times.

However, partly because of its separated islands, there are several different societies on Mantua. Colfax and Skyann landed on the larger of the two sub-continents which was dominated by the expanding nation of Janus. On this landmass and the nearby islands the women live in harems. These harems vary in size roughly depending on the status, power and wealth of the male. Most working men have a small harem of one to three women but those of higher status can have dozens and the Proconsul in Janus City, currently Fortun VI, is reputed to have hundreds. However, the woman can leave and go elsewhere by mutual consent. Most men are kind and take care of the women in their harem as they do not want to lose them.

Unfortunately, given the massive gender imbalance, women are generally not regarded as full equals in this society and have to defer to men. However, some women, especially those over child-bearing age, are released and tend to live in all-female groups. Also, there are some exceptional women who have forged their own way outside of the harem system and a few have had lesbian harems themselves.

However, there are rumors whispered among the women that there are other societies elsewhere including a gynocracy on a remote island where women are more dominant and men are kept in chastity and have to humbly serve the women there in order to earn the privilege of being allowed to occasionally mate. These rumors are dismissed by their menfolk as nonsense!

TERRAN TETRARCHY:

The Terran Tetrarchy is the current incarnation of the long standing Terran Empire. It is currently ruled by four people chosen by a Senate. While Earth is still the most important world it is only the first among equals. It is the seat of government and culture but other worlds are almost as crucial. There is the ecumenopolis (world-city) of New New York which controls much business and finance, OverByzantium and the trading federation of Regina. There are many thousands of planets ranging from paradise worlds down to penal colonies and everything in between. There are agricultural and industrial worlds, a theocratic dynasty, communal worlds etc.

Over millennia, the human Terran Tetrarchy has expanded and contracted many times due to power struggles, economic collapse or civil wars caused by one faction or another. Many major planets have sent out colonies but, over time, data has been lost or destroyed and now nobody knows how far along the Galaxy's spiral arm humanity's reach has spread. However, once again the Tetrarchy is expanding outwards again and coming across forgotten worlds.

Like Earth, Mantua is located within the inner edge of the Orion Arm. It is located further out along the rim away from the galactic core. In a recent expansionist phase, the Terran Tetrarchy came across Mantua and wanted to create a refueling base for hyperdrives by extracting hydrogen from the ocean. It was intended to build a floating base on the unoccupied third of the ocean, well away from any landmass. However, initial probes revealed that the planet was already colonized so before establishing any base it was necessary to do a study to know what impact it would have on the natives if they stumbled across an advanced civilization on their world.

So the fleet dispatches a scout starship, the Convolvulus, which sends out several pairs of explorers to find out what impact off-world contact might have with the locals. They find that this world has regressed more or less to a pre-industrial society similar to the Iron Age or early medieval period. I am currently several chapters in and the women live in harems although there is an alternative for women who don't want to live in a harem and those past child-bearing age. The women are not slaves and can leave the harem by mutual consent if they want and go elsewhere. Needless to say, the male explorer is loving it; the female less so.