Re: Karse, Birds/Bats, Headhunters, Crusades

From: Nick Brooke <Nick_Brooke_at_compuserve.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 1997 03:10:37 -0400



Rich/Hasni writes:

> My campaign is currently centered on Karse, and I was wondering
> if anybody has decent estimates of the size of the city.

Chaosium published a Midkemia sourcebook called "Carse" (a city roughly modelled on Caernarvon), which was used as the Gloranthan city of Karse in their house campaigns. Joerg Baumgartner would be your man for any conversion specifics. It's very pretty, as I recall.

Quickly running my brain past your own numbers:

> Is a city size of 10,000 appropriate?

Sounds big, but if it works for your game, why not?

> What is the standard size for a Lunar Regiment? 1000?

I use c.1000 for infantry, c.500 for cavalry. If we're talking about "Dragon Pass" counters, that is. There'd be more training (and retired-but-remusterable) troops, but for example a Lunar Phalanx in the field would have around 1000 men, if deployed all in one place.

> What size of a town watch would be appropriate for a city of
> 10,000? 500?

That entirely depends on the city. Having 5% of the population be in the watch sounds paranoid; I'd have thought a few dozen, unless this is a "Neighbourhood Watch" militia scheme (i.e. in the whole city, roughly one in eight adult males takes turns guarding the streets and walls against potential invaders). City population of 10,000 gives c.30-40% adult males (3,000 or 4,000) -- and 500 men is a *lot* of these. Can the city afford to support them?

> Would an additional 500 make up a decent militia?

Yep. See last set of comments. Are the militia meant to be "every able-bodied man, attending drill sessions one day a week", or "a semi-professional full-time fighting force, living in barracks and ready to fight in the field at a moment's notice"?

> Is 500 soldiers excessive for a Palace Guard?

Definitely, unless there's someone *very* important in the Palace. I'd have thought a few dozen *good* retainers (with appropriate training and experience against Dart Competitions, assassinations, etc.), with a Rune Level or two always at the governor's side, would make more sense.

> In an emergency, would it be exessive to think that a good
> 4,000 people could come to the defence of the city?

Izzat from within the adult male population of the city (the 30-40% of 10,000 people we were discussing earlier), or adding in emergency support from nearby villages and small towns, etc. Generally, I'd assume 25% of the population is the most that will be able to fight (i.e. this figure approximates all the able-bodied adult men of an Orlanthi or Praxian clan); the more civilised you get, the less able to down tools and up weapons your population becomes. (Which is why the Provincial Militias are c.5% of the population in a warlike state like Tarsh, and why the Heartland Corps is c.1% of the population of the Lunar Empire itself).



Andrew asked about non-light-cult birds. Further to Sandy:

Tricksters & Ravens. Humakti & Ravens, too (watch the feathers fly!). Ralian Orlanthi & Eagles. Dragonewts & Demibirds. Seven Mothers & Mourning Doves. Player characters & BIG Condors...

Also, correcting Sandy's orthography: it's not "Ducks & ducks".

It's:

        Ducks
                  Ducks And
                                More Ducks
                                                (!)

BTW, the great thing about forest-dwelling mesoamericans from Umathela is that it can only mean they've lost their cities... probably made the profound error of building them from Green Stone. (You just *know* a civilisation's about to vanish when they build everything from Green Stone, don't you?)



Owen writes:

> It has been suggested that bats began as birds, and were changed
> when they aligned with the dark. Given the primal dark came
> first, before fiery Yelm, surely it was the other way around?

Er... why? If flying feathery things only came into being along with the element of Fire/Sky, your argument makes little sense. Like saying hippopotami must have existed before horses or hippogriffs,  because Darkness, Water and Earth existed before Fire. (cf. "Hippogriff's Avenging Daughter" for the true myth).



Gary Switzer wants to know about head-taking in Dragon Pass. My homepage includes the story "The Fox King", which includes notes on the prevalence and acceptability of this custom nowadays. Note that in "Dragon Pass", Argrath is able to field a regiment known as the Headhunters: in discussion with Greg, he confirmed that these are "old-time" Orlanthi traditionalists (following the old Celtic or Scythian or whatever-model-you-like head-hunting custom), not Weird Chaotic Thanatari. (Part of the EVIL of Than is that it perverts the perfectly understandable and honourable custom of head-hunting into some warped chaotic abomination).

Mike C:
>> Actually, a Crusades-era game sounds pretty good to me, though >> you might have some political-correctness issues.

Jane W:
> Either it's very un-historic, or it's unplayable for female
> characters, surely?

Surely not! Frankish fighting noblewomen are a documented historic feature of the Crusades. Along with Christian cannibalism, etc. Read any good book (like Runciman) on the subject. Not to mention that the *idea* of women warriors was common to Christian and Islamic chivalrous romance at the time, giving you good models (I particularly recommend "Young Nur and the Warrior Girl", from the 1001 Nights).

(Quite agree about Saladin, BTW).

This reminds me of the T$R "D&D in the Thirty Years War" book, which included a lovely little disclaimer saying "People at the time took religion very seriously, but we've tried to play down this aspect of the period..." doh!

(They also refused to give alignments for the participants: I'd love to see their elegant simplicity applied to the conflict...).

Irrelevantly,

::::
Nick
::::


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