>This is also what led me to ask about numbers of
thralls, because they have
>a population of 1150 and 200 thralls, which I think
is unsustainable in
>Orlanthi culture.
Gary R Switzer
>One possible explaination might be that pre-Rebellion
your clan had a
>population of 900 or so, plus 50 thralls, and less
territory. Betraying the
>Rebels to the Lunars got you 150 "thralls" (displaced
members of those
>clans who chose options 1 or 2) as a share of the
spoils, plus a chunk
>of land from a neighboring clan with the 50 people
living on it.
A number of clans were declared outlaw after Starbrow's rebellion. This would give them no recourse to the law at a tribal or kingodm level against raids on their territory and those raids may well have led to the taking of captives as thralls. Just becauset he clan you have had centuries of confilct with was weakened by the Lunars does not mean you would not choose to epxloit that weakness.
But as soemone else suggests you might well manumit slaves after 7 years (they become part of your household as they have no kin in your clan, you become responsible for their weregeld etc., which could lead to interesting plot developments). Thralls who father or mother children with free can members would themselves become free (historically this only really applied to female slaves but orlanthi culture is euqal) as would their children. Also there might be conflicts within the clan as to whether there should be thralls or not which could make for interesting conflicts).
>:- --Peter Metcalfe
>:Sheriffs exist in Heortland (Glorantha Intro p142).
Although
>:I did put them there because of the Apple Lane
reference.
Aero Hobbies
>I was wondering about that one. I found the reference
to sheriffs in the
>Glorantha books Heortland section really painful.
I think that on his website and in his Tentacles write up on Heortland Joerg has suggested that the Heortland political organisation is quite Anglo-Saxon, and I like this model (I quite like the Anglo-Saxon England under the Normans model, but with better relations between the immigrants and the indigeneous populations and no heriditary nobility for knights but thanes who have achieved their position through merit). Barons and sherrifs are appropriate to that period.
Under the saxon model the sherrif is the shire reeve, a court official within a shire. A shire is an administrative region goverened by an earl earldorman) to whom the sherrif's report. The shire consists of a number of hundreds which have local courts, the shire court is above these. The shire reeve may well have grown out of the king's reeve a local official appointed by the king originally to run an estate, but later gaining authority over local courts. Under the Normans, Barons' began to replace earldormen and sherrif's gained more power.
For Orlanthi we could assume clan=hundred, shire =tribe - so the placement of sherrif's as appointed heads of the clan and baraons for tribes works wellas a model for transition to a more medievel Western culture (of course traditionalist will be outraged after all it smacks of the Emperor to appoint centrally not elect), as happened in Norman England.
As for our friend from Apple Lane, I would explain it as a position created by one of the king's of Sartar with responsibilities for organising local defence, maintenance of roads and bridges or royal estates - to which Dronlan was elected. Remember Apple Lane is not part of a clan tula so it mgith well have been established by Sartar as a trading post as part of his efforsto unite the tribes into a kingdom. It would need someone to enfore the king's peace, there are no clan's to do it. Perhaps he would be best seen as a reeve rather than 'shire' reeve, maybe the 'sherrif' title was a joke by some traveller from Heortland little understood by the locals, who have used the title with pride ver since.
Ian
Powered by hypermail