Ythrians And Monwaingi

The kind of diversity attributed to Ythrian choths in Poul Anderson's The People of the Wind is realized among Monwaingi Societies in his After Doomsday. Two Monwaingi colonies sharing a planet may have diametrically opposed life-styles and social systems, extreme individualism as against extreme collectivism, or even biological feudalism based on genetic engineering of different castes into divergent sub-species, and yet make no attempt to convert or conquer each other, while at the same time accepting robotic policing of any minor infringements of each other's territories or activities. Sf authors try to imagine alien psychologies and Anderson succeeds in this more than once. From what we are told of the psychology of the Ythrians, intelligent winged carnivores, I consider it unlikely that they would accept despotisms or some of the other extremes attributed to them. They can just fly away from despots - unless, of course, they are wing-clipped slaves. But any such system would be too antithetical to their individual pride and territoriality. Wyvans cannot enforce their decisions. They rely on the support of custom and public opinion. I like Khruaths but not Oherran.