> > >Why would ANYONE bother to raid nomads?
> > Horseflesh, reprisals, weapons, leather goods etc.
> > >Sure, you can burn their yurts, but
> > >everything they own is mobile, so the wealth basically runs away.
> > The stuff in the yurts will not run away but has to be packed away.
>But wait, just to use your examples, horseflesh - that would be running
>away self evidently.
But horses aren't kept in yurts, are they? And if they run away, then the Rathori can fire into the herd and expect to hit a couple.
>Weapons, well, they'd be
>being used. I can't think of a less efficient way to get a weapon than to
>try to rip it out of a warrior's hand?
Perhaps you have forgotten what the eastern Rathori do not have metal weapons and the CharUn do? The Praxians do raid the Orlanthi and other people for those necessities.
>Leather goods...seriously?
Yes.
>The
>Rathori would leave the forest full of animals to go onto the steppe -
>totally out of their natural environment, and a region second only to a
>desert in lowest animal population per hectare (ok, third after arctic and
>desert) - to get Leather goods? That's pretty silly.
What is animal population density got to do with this since worked leather goods are not found in the wild? The CharUn have a higher technology than the Rathori as can be seen in their clothing (worked leather and crude hides). Hence CharUn leather goods will have value in Rathori society.
> > >Even if the Rathori did defeat a yurt, they would have a hell of a job
> > >getting out with theirr loot, especially as they can't ride the horses
> > >and the horses would not want to go with them and would resist.
> > Horses are not the only loot in a yurt.
>They're the only wealth that couldn't be easily tossed onto a horse and
>ridden away.
Yurts and their contents themselves cannot be easily tossed onto a horse and ridden away.
>You don't have to pack up the tent to run away with the money, and if the
>money's gone, why risk your skin (as a raider) to grab an empty tent?
Perhaps you ought to look at Praxian Housing on p12 of the Players Book: Genertela where it makes the distinction between house tents (everything is unpacked for stays of more than a week in one area) and travel tents (smaller, less comfortable, defensible etc). The Pentans will have similar living arrangements and thus to suggest the Pentans can toss everything and ride away at all times is just plain silly.
> > >If the Char Un use them for food, and most of the hoofprints represent
> > >beasts sans riders, doesn't that mean that they'd have LOTS of remounts?
> > No, for the simple reason that most horses are unfit for riding, just
> > like most trollkin are unfit for warrior duties.
>Totally, utterly disagree. Completely. Worked 2 years (summers) as a
>rancher in Montana/Wyoming, very frequently had to deal with wild mustang
>herds. I would expect that a horse herd is a horse herd. These were wild
>mustangs that had never been broken or human-trained.
You have obviously forgotten that these mustangs were descended from Spanish horses that had been bred to take a rider for something like two thousand years. The CharUn horses are not in the same position as they are bred for things meat food, milk, draft and carriage. Under such circumstances, you will tend to get a diversification of specialized types just like you do for _cattle_.
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