>I don't think the medical care available to the average Orlanthi
>is all that great.
Compare it to the medical care available to the average mediaeval farmer, then. The availability of magic removes some of the threat of tetanus, at least.
>And Barntar plows are by no means 'irrigation farming'.
True. I have been wondering about Esrolian plowing for some time, though...
>>Dawn Genertelan population may have been in the order of a half a
>>million west of the Shan Shan mountains.
>Again this is far too low IMO. The Heortlings are not Neolithic
>farmers and so it is not reasonable to assume neolithic population
>distributions for them.
I was taking into account that harvests were "not so good" during the Grey Age. Farming seems to have been fairly abandoned during the Greater Darkness - - the youth of Heort the Swift doesn't exactly sound like much farming to me. I suppose that - not counting destruction by chaos and other influences - - population has experienced a steady decline throughout the Greater Darkness, and didn't really get a boost after I Fought We Won.
>>The Theyalan missionaries brought about a population expansion of an
>>enormous degree with their teachings of Lightbringer magics and customs
>>- - including healing (CA), agriculture (Orlanth&Ernalda, aldryami
>>support!), knowledge about technology (LM, dwarf contacts) and trade
>>(Issaries). They also brought back valuable knowledge from the people
>>they encountered.
>The Lightbringer secrets would only make their magics more
>powerful and not grant any of the other benefits that you
>mention.
There would have been a transfer of ideas as soon as contact was established. The recipients I had in mind were e.g. the Entruli tribes of Maniria, like the Ditali.
>In particular, Chalana Arroy would not have much impact on
>overall population. Healers are very rare then as now and
>would contribute buggerall to the welfare of the common
>farmer.
There wouldn't be many full healers, but there surely would be an increase in lay healers after her missionaries spread lightbringer worship, wouldn't there?
>The Barntar cult and cattle are good things to have, but they
>are not unique to the Heortlings AFAIK.
"This is how Bless Crops works!" should make a difference...
>The Aldryami support
>is minimal as their magics are suited to growing trees and wild
>forms of vegetation. They are unsuited for adaption to human
>cultivation.
They cooperated. To mediaeval as Gloranthan farmers, keeping out the wild weeds was a major trouble. Now, if the Aldryami cooperated, this part of th ework wasn't necessary.
>The Lhankor Mhy Sages would still be illiterate bumpkins dressed
>in sheepskins and strongly devoted to reciting lineages.
And devoted to resolving law-suits, avoiding mutual slaughter.
>I strongly
>doubt that any technology the dwarves have can improve the plight
>of the average farmer to any meaningful degree.
Need I say Alchemical Transformer?
>>Assuming a constant growth rate of 3%, you can start out with 20000
>>people in Kethaela and Kerofinela at the Dawn and arrive at 10 millions
>>around 200 ST, or 0.64 millions around 115 ST (when the peace of the
>>Theyalans began to fall apart, and growth rate is reduced).
>I seriously doubt that such a population explosion would have
>occured.
So the Dawn Orlanthi were less fertile than the modern Pakistani?
>You have the population increasing sixteenfold in less
>than a hundred years. This would create a huge strain on all
>aspects of Orlanthi society.
More of a strain than the really bad conditions prior to the Dawn?
I doubt people would have noticed...
Powered by hypermail