Re: Talents and slaves

From: jeffrichard68 <richj_at_...>
Date: Wed, 07 Jul 2004 22:14:12 -0000

> > Fazzur probably made quite a bit off quashing
> > Starbrow's Rebellion though - that may have generated as much
> > plunder as the initial invasion (maybe more).
> Hmmm. And it was (sort of) started by the Lunars being obviously
> provocative....

Our Seattle Farmers Campaign (as you know) has been exploring the period leading up to Starbrow's Rebellion. I think that Euglyptus thought that the tribes had been successfully cowed by Harvar Ironfist's furious quashing of the Righteous Wind rebellion and by Jomes Wolf's quashing of the Telmori. He knew that there was a growing conspiracy involving - at least - the Culbrea and Kheldon tribes and wanted to flush it out.

Personally, I think that Euglyptus was hoping to provoke a response from Queen Kallyr and King Hofstaring that would justify using extreme force to subjugate those tribes (especially Hofstaring who was viewed as the greater threat). I think he counted on the disunity of the Sartarites (especially the pride of the Colymar) would allow him to quash the free tribes piecemeal.

> Am I being overly cynical, or do I detect a Lunar money-making
>scheme here?

Maybe. IMG, Euglyptus has turned the governorship of Dragon Pass into a money-making operation for the Assiday family through generous kickbacks from the tax farmers, overreporting the number of effective soldiers, "gifts" (or is that bribes) from the tribal kings, and loot from Pavis. However, he might get a little jealous of how much money Harvar Ironfist makes off selling slaves from the RW rebellion to the Tarshites and thus might be willing to try to provoke a little rebellion for his own profit. If so, it worked out disasterously!

> > Average it
> > out over the period of Occupation (1602-1625) and maybe it comes
out
> > to a thousand or so slaves a year. Maybe more.
> erm, how fast do Sartarites breed???? Is this a sustainable crop??

Assuming that there is some 150,000 Sartarites (give or take ten thousand), the Lunars should be able to take a thousand or so slaves a year without too much difficulty. On the other hand, I think that amount of slaves taken fluxuates each year (although the trend rises from 1602 to 1625) and I doubt this is the result of some intelligible policy. It is just that the opportunity increasingly presents itself!

Jeff