Re: the fyrd

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 12:30:04 -0700


> TR states that the fyrd "never" leaves the tula. Would this be an
> Orlanthi Never like the Orlanthi All?
>
> I imagine this is the kind of issue that only occurs at the tribal
> level or higher, but I was wondering what folk think the process
> would be for raising large scale forces, should the need arise to
> fight a pitched battle.

The clan warband is the weaponthanes, the champion, the warband leader, guys who take the "warrior" keyword, (wannabe weaponthanes, usually), and guys who want to become warriors. The Clan Warband has its own wyter, which may leave the tula to take war to the clan's enemies.

As other people stated, the fyrd is *all* the combat capable people (Orlanthi all - if the fyrd leaves the tula, there is still a little core left behind - Elmali hearthguards and the like). *Any* man who worships Orlanth must join the fyrd when called up. Worshippers of other gods might or might not have to - it depends on the god. Lhankhor Mhy Lawspeakers don't have to, for example. Their place is taken by those women who follow warlike gods (Vinga, etc). So the fyrd, when called out and fully assembled, is about half the adult members of the clan. There are healers and other "auxileries" often join up as well. Normally, the fyrd is for "home defense". Their wyter is the clan wyter, and if they leave the tula its magic cannot "cover" them.

If the clan decides to go to war and wants to send more than just the warband, they summon the fyrd and hold a special ceremony whereby all the members of the fyrd are temporarily inducted into the warband. Now they have a wyter that *can* leave the tula and give them magic in "foreign lands" (like the next valley over...). If the clan *really* wants to go to war, then the *Clan* wyter is taken along. This is a desperation move - the clan wyter is stronger even than the "Fyrd+Warband" wyter (do the numbers from TR 101), but if it is lost then the clan is destroyed as a community!

When the *tribe* calls up the the army, the clan send its warband (whether or not it sends the fyrd as part of it), and the tribal army has its own wyter. Unlike the fyrd joining the warband, clan warbands joining the tribal army do not "join the wyter", but only get some good magic from it. The clans act as independant units. It will take Argrath to make a true "army level" wyter possible, the way the Lunars already do.

The only exception to the above (and very rare it is, according to Greg) are true Peace clans. They do not have a warband wyter, and so can't take war off the tula. They still have a fyrd, of course. Of course, a peace clan probably has bought off all the surrounding clans (they have all those extra cows just lying around, after all), and may even hire the surrounding clans as mercenaries when they need someone attacked...

Roderick

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