*Thread on the Comitatus*

The Comitatus is the ideal of a heroic lord and his band of oath bound friends, sworn to defend him to the death.

1.) For Indo-Europeans, Tibetans, Arabs, Japanese and the Turkic tribes, the Comitatus is the most powerful form of social organization. It formed the basis of all steppe cultures and feudalism, and breeds courage and honor.

2.) Toxaris the Scythian perfectly captured it by saying: "Friendships are not formed with us, as with you, over the wine-cups, nor are they determined by considerations of age or neighborhood. We wait till we see a brave man, capable of valiant deeds, and to him we all turn."

3.) The friends gathered together in a Comitatus are not merely content with sheer survival, much less with fungal life. For them, the thirst for everlasting glory and great wealth, and their vow of absolute loyalty, is what is truly important.

4.) By forming a Comitatus, the friends of the lord become brothers. For this reason, many societies, ranging from the Hungarians to the Norse to the Mongols, swore blood oaths, in which two men would swear oaths and become brothers by drinking their blood mixed together.

5.) The ties of the Comitatus ran deep. As Tacitus says, for the Germanic tribes "to survive the leader and retreat from the battlefield is a lifelong disgrace and infamy." For the same reason, Genghis Khan killed a Kerait warrior who deserted his commander and tried to join him.

6.) The penalty for disloyalty is also stated in Beowulf: "You shall have no joy in the homeland you love, and each man fare alone and landless when foreign lords learn of your flight, your failure of faith. Better to die, than dwell in disgrace."

7.) The ties of the Comitatus did not end with death either. The followers of a lord accompanied him into the afterlife as protection. For the Tibetans, Mongols, and Norse, among others, this meant the followers committing suicide when their lord died.