>In the case of standard distances, what use are they? and how do you
>measure them?
Standard measures are very useful. How much land is my stead traditionally allowed to farm? How far from the village do the wild woods begin, where no pigs may be kept to preserve the woods for hunting? How far must a Vingan be able to cast her javelin before being accepted as a weaponthane? How much grain must the chief give to the clan spirit-talker each season? I suspect the Orlanthi define the answers to all these questions in terms of standard measures.
On the other hand, I'll accept that they are not standardised to the extent that we are used to. But an acre as "the amount of land a man may plough in one day" seems very orlanthi to me. So in an Orlanthi context, a "mile" is our approximate translation of their term that means "the distance that a man may run in the time it takes the fyrd to assemble" or "so many multiples of the length of the chief's thumb" or indeed "the distance a vingan may throw her javelin". And I think that most Orlanthi have at least as good an idea how far a mile is as we do.
Cheers,
Graham
-- Graham Robinson graham_at_... Albion Software Engineering Ltd.
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