Warfare and Agriculture

From: Karin Goihl & Daniel Fahey <goihlk_at_zedat.fu-berlin.de>
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2000 21:50:33 +0100


Daniel: >>...talking about citizen hoplites who formed to fight for their polis.
Darvall: ...>I think I see your point, the O/i are in a similar, not identical to...

The actual point of my message was to back up Joe's obviously true statements, but yes, this is part of the point of the content.

>My problem is that I see O/i life (& Sun Domer life if it comes to it) as
>involving much more warfare than that of these greek farmer/soldiers. This
>is part of what balances out the fertility magics in G. There is less time
>available, or the time there is is used less efficiently due to being
>encumbered by weapons. Thus what should be a prosperous land frequently
>faces famine.

This is a great observation. I always think of Gloranthans as having it somewhat easier than others, with all that magic to help them, but I think you're right here. They have to battle all those monsters, Lunars, each other, and what-have-you, and so have less time and fewer resources available for making a living. You could put it another way. They spend as much time as necessary on farming, which is less than people on Earth do because of the use of magic, but then they use more time for conflict-related issues.
Daniel


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