Re: Ethilrist's men and total population

From: Jeff Richard <richaje_at_...>
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2005 17:24:57 -0000

> That's probably the discussion I remembered. The difficulty is the
> numbers published in the Hero Wars book, which is the most recent
> published source, are incompatable. I'm happy to regard them as a
> mistake based on 500 cavalry squadrons rather than 100 which gives
> slightly lower figures than yours.

That sounds a lot more reasonable. Maybe around 500-700 Black Horse Riders and around 2000 foot soldiers. Hiring out the Black Horse Troop is the main source of revenues for the County - I doubt the county produces enough of an agricultural surplus to support the riders without those additional revenues. I suspect the agents of the count regularly purchase grain from the Vendref at Queens Post.

I'm sure a lot of Sir Ethilrist's focus is on preventing the Grazers from having an opportunity to eliminate his little county - the Grazers could muster around 4000 horse, and if the Grazers had allies (like the Beast folk or the Tarshites), Black Horse County could be wiped out (and I am sure there are a lot of Grazers that really really hate Sir Ethilrist and his riders - he's probably a symbol of evil to many Grazers). In fact, I would be surprised if Sir Ethilrist does whatever is necessary to keep the various kingdoms of Dragon Pass at each others throat so that there is a need for his services and so they can't unite to eliminate him.

Jeff