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The Esaal government, society, and population is neatly split in half. The men and the women; fulfilling different roles and culturally, very distinct from one another.
With the exception of young boys before puberty; men do not live with the women. They roam, exactly as their animal ancestors did. Where as women live in more or less stable groups; once extended families of matriarchal status, their children, and lower ranking females with their own children pushed more and more to the outskirts. However, as the Esaal advanced; the evolutionary disadvantages of male bachelor groups invading a female pride, killing all the children to make them receptive, and then mating with them quickly began to outweigh the advantages. Of course, the instinct for infanticide for the men was difficult to breed out of them, and the women were not used to the "settled" agricultural lifestyle; and neither wanted or needed men around for the vast majority of the year. How could this be amended? They found a way.
Even now, in the space age, the Esaal menfolk only interact with the womenfolk briefly and rarely. Only after a successful mission, with plunder; with its own value, for research, or merely symbolic. They fight, they scratch, they bite as the males approach; putting on the show of them being unwelcome. They resist, and the men insist. But this is all an act. Who makes the weapons and munitions for the menfolk? Yet these women have no weapons. Who is educating and training the next generation of children for their roles at all time? Yet these women conveniently never have any children around when the menfolk come around; they're all safe and sound somewhere else, well in advance. The next generation is secured, genes from the successful conquerors to keep them sharp, and the two halves of the race can go their separate ways; with the men back on their stupid bastard adventures and campaigns of endless dick-swinging and glory seeking; and the women can go back to actually running the empire behind the scenes and cleaning up the messes. Both leave satisfied, if a bit bruised. The other races may not understand it, but truly, this is the best solution for everybody.
>This is a bonus post. Quest will continue at the normal time.
