The Koryos: the Indo-European Warband that Changed the World

In prehistoric Europe and Western Asia the people of the steppe waged war against one another and settled peoples in the form of the raid. Bronze Age warfare was like that. There were no armies in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Conflict between groups was waged by small warbands stealing cattle and abducting women with which to strengthen their own tribes. The youths would undergo a long and complex warrior initiation on their path to manhood and the koryos was the climax of that process. To quote from The One-Eyed God by Kris Kershaw, these warbands were primarily “the business of the adolescent boys, who functioned as highly mobile guerrilla bands and at the same time learned hardiness, self-control, stealth and strategy, and other warrior qualities.“ In my novel series Gods of Bronze the heroes are part of a koryos. *Support the Channel* Patreon ➜ PayPal ➜ Ko