The Aiel and them being fit

[Durinax]

Zulu were 6 feet plus I believe, as well as dark skinned agility trained and engaged in an almost constant state of war in the savannah I believe.

 

The Zulu where named after their first king type guy, who took a small tribe (remember the start of modern aiel) who where relatively weak and they agility trained and conquered all neighboring tribes up until the Great Trek of the Dutch when their empire was destroyed by gunpowder I believe was how it went

[Padraic_Seebrr]

Wow, looks like the 10 years planning WoT were seriously planning and not just procrastination.

[Durinax]

you cannot really write a book, make a game, movie etc without doing extensive research throughout the world to get inspiration. If you do it would be really hard

[Paladin]

I just want to point something out.

The Zulu people are not giants. Average around 5'6-5'8.

I live in South-Africa and I work with three of them.

 

I think of the Aiel as more of an amalgamation of the Maasai of Kenya. Very tall people who are remarked for thier endurance & long distance running(anyone seen the recent Athletics World Championships, Kenyan winners in a lot of the long distance events), more cattle herders than warriors. And the Zulu of South Africa who have a warior history if not society and the assegai + shield traditional weapons, and the significance of chairs in the culture. Not quite the Aiel significance but among more conservative Zulu's if a man is in the room no woman may sit on a chair etc.

 

The Aiel also remind me more of the Fremen from Frank Herbert's Dune than anything else but thats a whole diffrent subject all together.

[TrollocFodder]

the Aboriginal guy... name was something like Nannarella--which they told me meant 'man of the sex-magic', but i later found out meant 'white river'.

I can see how they'd mean the same thing  ;)

[TrollocFodder]

The Zulu impis of Tshaka and Cetewayo normally ran 80-100 miles/day and fought pitched battles at the end of the run. This was in hot tropical conditions. Each warrior used to carry a oval-shaped shield and 3-4 short spears called Assegai. Sound familiar to anyone?

 

Sounds familiar other than "hot tropical conditions". Tropical = hot, but with rainfall. The Waste is notoriously dry.

 

This has always bugged me considering the Aiel's predeliction for violence. Generally speaking, cultures that exist in desert regions can only survive by careful regulation of their water consumption. Fighting in a desert is a great way to dehydrate, and so tribes would surely adopt non-violent means of resolving conflict with actual violence only as a last resort.

[The Yes Guy]

This is sot of unrelated to this topic, but does anyone else have a really hard time picturing the Aiel as they are described? I can't help but imagine them as looking like Native Americans, when in reality they are supposed to look like Celts(?). The immediate image that comes to my head is of dark haired and dark skinned people, which is totally wrong. This is a serious hindrance to my ability to enjoy them. Call me petty, but its tough being wrong all the time.

[Durinax]

they arent naturally dark, they would be like Celt's who where out in the sun all day (to the extreme) they are described as sun-dark so they would have extreme tans, and over time they would start being darker