Re: Food and Famine

From: Weihe, David <Weihe_at_danet.com>
Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 18:52:17 -0500


Andrew Larsen posted a couple long missives about the food consumption of French peasants in the 18th Century. This is very interesting for those who are running campaigns in Malkioni lands. It does not apply very closely to Orlanthi cultures, however.

It should first be remembered that carls were hardly peasants. Even cottars would expect to eat better than French peasants that he described. It may well apply to thralls, of course.

One major factor in adult height is the amount of protein consumed while a growing child. Viking burials in England, Norway, Ireland, and Ireland indicate that the average male height of these people, that the invaded, and the Byzantines (who traded with them, and thus should not have been quite as much in awe of them) uniformly described as giants, was about 5ft 8 inches, or a bit shorter than the USA baby-boomer average. This implies that they probably ate just a bit less protein than was eaten on average in the USA during the 50's and 60's.

Obviously, 3 or 4 crop rotation will not supply this amount of protein, in fact no amount of crop rotation will do it, without the scientific farming advances of the 19th century and later. This implies that most Orlanthi lands must be used as pasture and woods, to supply enough forage for domesticated animals and/or land for hunting wild ones. This implies that we should raise the importance of the Lady of the Woods to much nearer that of the local Grain Goddess, even in the most settled regions, let alone the wilds of Far Point (where John Hughes started this discussion).

This also implies that all Heortlings should automatically get a "Big and Tall" keyword in HW, at least when dealing with Dara Happans and Lunar Heartlanders, or Malkioni societies, and perhaps a +2 or +3 to SIZ when below the average 13, in RQ. Even the civilized nobility will be much shorter, from the evidence of late medieval/early Renaissance armor (which always looks like it is a slightly minature reproduction or built for dwarves), compared to the barbarians.

This may well also apply to Praxians. Their American Indian analogs were also described as extremely tall by initial European explorers, who were eating like, though more than, the French peasants. It may possibly apply to Pent tribesmen as well, although their Mongol analogs tended to short and stocky, like their ponies.

My question is what about the troopers from Muse Roost (since we get information about running them as adventurers in HW)? Do they run to civilized heights, even though the demon steeds are supposedly about the size of RW chargers and destriers?


Powered by hypermail