> These type of initiates/rune lords would probably never get married
> (who would want to marry them?)
Not a problem: they have their fleecy friends to keep them company. (No offence to Welsh or Kiwi readers, I'm sure).
> I had thought that herding would have been an adult profession and
> that there would be adult herders in the clan along with adult farmers.=
> This is the way I had always invisioned the world.
Children looking after the sheep/goats/whatever is a common division of labour in the RW. There are adult shepherds too (think of the Biblical "Good Shepherd"), and in predominantly herding cultures like the Praxian Nomads you'll get many "full-time adult Herders" (they probably think of themselves as "Praxians". But in a mixed economy like Sartar, jobs get split according to who can do them best.
There are adults in the clan who own sheep and cows and fields and fruit-=
trees and vegetable plots, and make their own clothes and wooden tools, and repair the roof when it blows down in a Gagarth storm, and say a blessing before each meal, and tell stories, and vote in weapontakes, and keep a sharp stick and hard hat over the hearth for emergencies. This is one guy, right, not a Shepherd and Cattle-Rancher and Farmer and Orchard-Keeper and Veggie and Weaver and Carpenter and Builder and Blessing-Sayer and Storyteller and Politician and Warrior. And if you asked him what his "job" was, he'd look at you funny, like. And if you asked him how he lived, he'd say "As Orlanth intended: free, on my own land, and beholden to nobody."
> Having children do this kind of duty makes some sense.
Gee, I'm sure the RW cultures that did it would be pleased to hear this!
> The main problem, however, is entrusting the young boys with being
> the first line of defense against raiders from other clans.
They aren't meant to fight. They're the early warning system. Small boys are meant to come tearing down the hillside as fast as their windmilling legs can carry them, shouting "Poss!!" at the tops of their high-pitched voices. They haven't a hope of rounding up the herd usefully in the time before raiders come upon them. And they wouldn't stand a hope in hell up against adult raiders -- OTOH, adult raiders aren't trying to kill Gods- -who's son on a sheep-raid. (They're probably after cattle, guarded by the men of the clan, in any case. Sheep are cheap and unimpressive).
The *real* danger for the children is being out in the hills if broos or other nasties (including trolls) are out and about. This is a good reason=
to teach young children how to recognise and flee from chaos.
Useful spells for boys watching sheep:
Farsee spotting lost sheep; seeing approaching raiders
Mobility chasing strayed sheep; running down steep hills
Detect Raiders as Detect Enemies: finds people after your sheep
Glamour cast on ewe: it looks more like your girlfriend!
Who needs Rune Magic to watch sheep in a field?
Nick
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