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Questions tagged [nomads]

For questions relating to nomads or nomadic lifestyles of any age or technology level.

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4 votes
5 answers
1k views

Can you have a mixed settled population and nomads?

I'm specifically thinking of having my country's population be around 90% agricultural and 10% nomadic. The nomads would play a substantial role, trading resources and goods from different areas. They ...
J. Rubio's user avatar
  • 2,232
16 votes
10 answers
6k views

How do I justify a society where people have two permanent homes: a summer home and a winter home? [closed]

In medieval societies, fresh food was usually not available during the winter, because nothing could be grown or harvested. I propose the idea of traveling south for winter, like geese, but not in a ...
J. Rubio's user avatar
  • 2,232
13 votes
14 answers
4k views

Why aren't the plains people conquering the city people?

In this state, there are two kinds of people: nomadic, horse-riding steppe-folk, and sedentary urban people. They both share the same heritage (the city people are descended from nomads who settled ...
RHF's user avatar
  • 971
-1 votes
3 answers
184 views

Why would yellow be considered a manly colour? [closed]

I am writing a story that is set in the Fourth World (metaphor meaning uncontracted people, hunter-gatherers, nomads, pastoral peoples, and some subsistence farming peoples, and sub-populations from ...
mammifereviolet4694's user avatar
8 votes
8 answers
2k views

How to make a plausible foot-based mercenary nomadic tribe work in a Late Medieval Setting?

The background of the World setting is similar to 15th Century Europe with low-magic. The tribe in question is a sub-race of human, but having a culture similar to IRL Romani People, who roams around ...
Wolfensniper's user avatar
10 votes
5 answers
2k views

What would a vehicle with these properties look like? A nomad's caravan

On Terra, many many people used to be nomadic. Now very few are. An exception is Mongolia, where now in 2023, about 30% of the population remain nomadic. The world I am building is a sort of global-...
wokopa's user avatar
  • 4,765
5 votes
4 answers
1k views

How could a nomadic society establish a stable civilization?

In my world, there is an entire nomad-based society. While they have some influence based on gypsies, they are mainly based on Mongolian Horsemen. At some point in my fictional history (ca. 12th-13th ...
Crafter's user avatar
  • 2,647
3 votes
4 answers
249 views

Any natural way that a River can "move" by hundreds of kilometers seasonally

I'm designing a Nomadic culture and I had an interesting concept. One of the reasons for nomadism is to find resources that "move" annually. In the case of pastoral nomads, it is to find new ...
spaceamoeba1010's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
177 views

Navigation and time-keeping on a slow spinning planet

I'm working on a story set on a planet that spins very slowly. Days and nights last years, and since it's either scorching hot or freezing cold, people, animals and all living beings must travel ...
MoholyNagy's user avatar
  • 1,151
-1 votes
4 answers
197 views

How Can River Nomads Protect Themselves?

A tribe of peripatetic nomads (Think Travelers or Romani rather than Mongols) ply their trade along a vast stretch of river, profiting as merchants, moneylenders and cargo haulers for an ...
user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
177 views

human version of hermit crabs

I have some tribes of nomads that live in pretty harsh places, going around by carts or building shelter is usually not an option. They live and sleep in some kind of heavy primitive armor, I was ...
Drien RPG's user avatar
  • 383
3 votes
1 answer
262 views

What population size is reasonable for a moving, steam powered, predatory city?

For a DnD campaign, I'm designing a setting with steampunkish tech level, as well as magic used to explain tech accomplishments not possible with real world physics. Almost all settlements in this ...
jayb1rd's user avatar
  • 33
8 votes
7 answers
404 views

How would air-nomads catch food in the sky?

The world: sky nomads in solar-powered airships, roaming planet earth The technology level: 2030s or 2040s. The airships are similar to the IRL designs LCAT60T airship by Flying Whales, Airlander 10, ...
Ligament's user avatar
  • 363
3 votes
3 answers
324 views

What would the economy of a nomadic, spacefaring civilization look like? [closed]

For a writing project, I'm trying to break the mould of some others involved and depict nomadic people who travel in enormous colony-ships, searching for life-bearing worlds similar to their own and ...
Vexus's user avatar
  • 49
3 votes
3 answers
143 views

What knowledge & technologies could still be in use centuries after becoming nomads?

Context: future humans settle a distant planet and genetically modify themselves to never be able to 'settle' (use agriculture, create cities, etc). (Just go with me on how!). As a result, they are ...
T3db0t's user avatar
  • 304
29 votes
7 answers
4k views

Keeping an environment warm without fire: fermenting grass

I am trying to develop a nomad population of human beings, living in a steppe like environment without modern technology, which for plot reasons don't use fire for keeping their refuges warm. I was ...
L.Dutch's user avatar
  • 301k
15 votes
12 answers
2k views

Could a nomadic group build a portable library on wheels pulled by horses?

A fictional nomadic group lives in vardos much like the Romani people. Could such a nomadic group build a giant library on wheels like a giant vardo capable of carrying 50,000 books? This giant ...
Galactic's user avatar
  • 4,454
11 votes
10 answers
1k views

Is there any food a nomad in a carriage-like transport can easily live on?

Let's say there are 2-3 people in a carriage (or van,boat, or anything with a similar size), constantly on the move, unable to hunt (because of reasons) and of course unable to stay in one place and ...
simon's user avatar
  • 465
5 votes
3 answers
1k views

Could Bronze-Age Nomads Effectively Utilize Chariots for Warfare?

Horses were first domesticated on the steppes around 3500 BC, but the horse would not be ridden directly into battle for at least two more millennia. Instead chariots ruled the battlefields of the ...
user avatar
4 votes
8 answers
779 views

Is The Use of Mounted Infantry a Viable Tactic for a Nomadic Empire?

By “Nomadic Empire” I am referring to an expansionist power that resembles the empires created by Eurasian Nomads throughout history ranging from the Scythians, Huns, and of course Mongols. Their ...
user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
3k views

Nomad tribe population

There lives in a desert a large nomad culture, composed of many tribes who wander about herding camels, goats and sheep, trading and offering services to cities and towns, and occasionally raiding ...
Jedboo's user avatar
  • 1,619
4 votes
0 answers
920 views

Cliches to avoid when developing a fantasy nomad culture [closed]

The hero of a fantasy or science fiction story goes to another world and meets a fictional group of semi-nomadic and/or hunter-gatherer people, but, like, maybe not in a transparently racist way. ...
Robyn's user avatar
  • 3,916
12 votes
4 answers
2k views

Could domesticated mammoths sustain a group of nomads

In a fantasy world I have planned, I wanted one of the nomadic groups to live on a frozen steppe. They would primarily subsist by herding and domesticating mammoths. Would mammoths be comparable to, ...
Celestial Dragon Emperor's user avatar
14 votes
4 answers
2k views

Non-Mongol Steppe Nomads

Most of the quasi-medieval world include nomads, most often there is only one culture of nomads and they are accompanied with the footnote "inspired by the Mongols". Even when that isn't the case, the ...
Chlodio's user avatar
  • 513
3 votes
1 answer
361 views

Largest Population for Ancient World Migration/Encampment

What is a reasonable range of number of people that could participate in a cohesive and centrally organized migration/encampment? Assumptions: Ancient times, desert terrain. People include adults ...
Cyn's user avatar
  • 20.4k
11 votes
2 answers
2k views

Mobile hydroponics vehicle

I had an idea for a group of nomads/travellers who sustain themselves with mobile hydroponics system and whatever they can grow on the move. How feasible would it be to have a mobile hydroponic farm ...
Chromane's user avatar
  • 4,568