> Argrath's real name was Garrath, as far as we can tell
What leads you to this conclusion? That's like saying that Sir Tristram's real name was Tramtrist, the name he used when he was incognito. I always thought Garrath was hiding out in Prax, after killing the Lunar tax collectors.
Julian Lord
> Tradetalk, and one of the reasons it has
> spread so successfully is IMO that it is fairly similar to the original
>Mantongue
I don't know that there was a Mantongue (Darktongue and Aldryami are nearly instinctive for their species, and humans have no instinctive language). Even if there was, it probably wouldn't be Tradetalk, which I think is a simplified language, like a pidgin. I can't think offhand of any place where it has a creole form (i.e. people have adopted it as a native language, extending it to a full language).
Bruce Hollebone wrote
> David Dunham notes that historical agricultural densities are 1-2
>people/sq. km for
> dry farming and up to 6-12 people/sq. km for irrigated land.
> (See: http://www.pensee.com/dunham/facts/food.html )
I'm not convinced of the accuracy of that data, unfortunately. I haven't yet found a corroborating source. (If anyone has one, please let me know!)
> The Questlines article has 18,000 Colymar on a package of land about 60
>by 100 km
> (pre 1613). Assuming that 50% of the land is arable (overly generous
>perhaps) this
> gives us a population density of 6 ppl/sq km, excluding the added load of
>towns and
> cities. Even including a fertility bonus of 10% from Ernalda (or
>whomever), this would
> mean that the Orlanthi have a pretty sophisticated irrigated agricultural
>system and
> are fairly densely packed in their farming vales.
I don't believe Sartar is irrigated. Irrigation almost always implies an entirely different social system, which we know they don't have. (Irrigation leads to a hierarchical society -- the Dara Happan culture fits irrigation much better, and guess what, they're known to practice irrigation.) So any premises which lead to irrigation are suspect.
One assumption may be that those figures are for arable land only -- they may well include hinterlands, fallow land, pastures, etc.
Looking at things from a different angle: an average clan has about 2 hexes on the Dragon Pass boardgame map; this is about 240 hides* of land (each hide is about 120 acres, enough to support 1 family). If you assume a family is around 8 people (father, mother, 2 grandparents or other elders, 1 adult unmarried sibling [or client], 3 kids), you get 1920 people per clan, max. Since clans are usually smaller in population, this fits well -- not all land is under productive use. I haven't counted how many hexes the entire Colymar tribe has, but I'm pretty sure this number is in fairly good agreement.
> The cattle graze in the valley floors
Only part of the year -- check The Haunted Ruins and you'll see that Sartarite clans practice transhumance.
David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_pensee.com> Glorantha/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html> Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
Powered by hypermail