Some questions...

From: Viktor Haag <vhaag_at_...>
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 13:43:38 -0500

I have some questions about Start history/culture, which will assist me in my campaign: any answers, official or otherwise, are appreciated...

• Are there any more detailed maps of the areas inhabited by and surrounding the Kheldon tribe lands?

  I have the "Dragon Pass" map from KoDP that's available on the   Issaries site: are there any maps, semi-official or otherwise,   that detail the countryside between Boldhome and Swenstown?

• Anyone have a finer timeline for the events in 1618 surrounding the dismantling of the Dundealos? Here's a rough chronological sequence: does anyone have dates for these events, or other events that should also get put in the sequence?
  • tax collector visits the Dundealos tribe [was this a special trip, or did the same tax collector visit other tribes in the area first, and if so which ones?]
  • tax collector rapes the Dundealos King's daughter [how ever would a Lunar tax collector get in a position to do this? how stupid or lax would the tax collector's "retinue" have to be to allow this to happen? collecting taxes from a barely captive people must be a tricky job (c.f. further questions below)]
  • Dundealos "rebels" : seems to me that something like this would be a reasonable sequence of events:

+ Daughter's screams alert someone (guard, weaponthan,

       someone) who catches the tax collector in flagrante
       delicto



     + King's weaponthanes, plus members of King's fyrd, capture

       tax collector and his "retinue" (no doubt some lives are
       lost in the struggle, on both sides)



     + King immediately convenes his ring (how long does this

       take, a day, or an hour? Does the King's ring live with
       the King or near his stead, or must they be fetched from
       their own clans/steads?) to decide what must be done



     + The tribe/King decides that the summary execution of the

       tax collector is just and appropriate punishment [what
       does the tribe decide to do about the collector's retinue?
       kill them as well? sell them back to the Lunar occupation?
       release them? How does the Lunar occupation feel about
       ransoming their officials and/or guards? How does the
       Lunar occupation feel about the crime of rape, and the
       process of weregeld?]



     + Somehow the Lunar occupation receives word about what

       happened among the Dundealos. If the collector's "retinue"
       was released, then they can find out that way. Otherwise,
       how would the Lunars find out?



     + Lunars decide to seek nasty reprisals against the

       Dundealos King: perhaps they arrive to grab him (and
       others) to arrest them for the crime of killing the tax
       collector/guards?



     + The tribe decides that heading down that path would be

       impossible; they kill/drive off the detachment sent to
       arrest the King and prepare for the worst.

  -- The worst arrives all too soon; a Lunar Army is sent to
     quell the "rebellion" and most of the Dundealos are killed
     or driven off their lands.

  -- One of the Dundealos clans that decides to turn against
     their King is set up as the head of the new Enstalos tribe?
     [Where would the Enstalos come from, otherwise?]

• Lunar immigrants trickle in to land grants
  • Anyone have details on the process of "Lunar tax collecting"? How exactly do the Lunars collect taxes from the fronteir tribes? What does a Lunar tax collection team look like? My mental picture of the situation is that the tax collector himself is an officious bureaucrat, whereas his "retinue" would be formed from a squad of the local occupying army (nearest garrison?), and who would have very little time for the collector (in fact, some of them probably would have more sympathy for the Orlanthi, than the tax collector; especially if he's assinine enough to rape a tribal King's daughter).

  What is the Lunar presence in the area, and where are there   centres of operation? Where would the tax collector have come   from, and who would he report to?

• What happened to the Dundealan kingsdotter? Was she killed as part of the rape? Did she survive the dismantling of her tribe? Is she historically significant?
• When does the tax collector arrive? I'm assuming in the Earth season, since that would be the time to take advantage of the farmers' harvest. Given that: how quickly did this whole process take?

  It would seem unlikely that all of this could get sorted within   a season (and with Dark season following on Earth season, it   seems unlikely that any of it would happen then).

--
Viktor