Thanks to everyone that wrote in comments regarding my questions around the setting for a Lunar trading scenario. My apologies for taking so long to write back; I generally am too otherwise occupied to write in during the week.
Some responses:
> > From: daniel posselt <tposselt_at_yahoo.com>
Oops. Somehow my brother’s name got on my email. Sorry for the confusion; my name is Theo, not Daniel.
General comments:
From Harry Grawe
<< Interesting you chose that background, I worked on
some stuff about 12 months ago, where the background
was a Jillaro-based Lunar trading family fallen on
hard times. >>
Yes, I’d love to see this. You can send it directly
to me if you like – the best address is
tposselt_at_dc.com.
Responses to specific questions:
> > 1. Where should this be set?
>From Harry Grawe:
<< I figured Jillaro was far south enough to be a
little bit away from the action in Glamor and the
Tripolis - especially the politics and infighting, but
close enough to the Conquering Daughters Roads and to
a major river to foster lots of trade. I believe (and
I'm no expert) that the Syllian province also has a
fair amount of variety in the races and cultures that
settled there. >>
Hmm, Jillaro does sound appropriate. Does anyone know more about Sylila, in terms of the mixture of peoples?
Peter Metcalfe says the following:
<< Sylilans are basically your Orlanthi barbarians
with a Pelorian veneer (in Heartland eyes that is -
other Orlanthi cannot tell the difference between
Sylilans and other Heartlanders. Their leaders are
the lunarized rulers of cities and towns, and they'll
fit in quite easily with client-patron concept. >>
Also in G:IttHW:
“Darjinians… are found in the Satrapies of Darjiin,
Doblian, Sylila, and Kostaddi.”
G:CotHW says that Sylila has 400k inhabitants.
Based on this, I’d like to run the following basic
outline of Jillaro by you all:
* Jillaro has about 40k inhabitants.
* The ethnic breakdown of Jillaro is as follows: 50%
Heortling, 20% Darjiini, 15% Dara Happan, 15% ‘Lunar
Other’ (or mixed-ethnicity)
* The religious breakdown would follow similar lines:
40% ‘safe’ orlanthi, 15% Darjiini, 10% Yelmite, 35%
Lunar (mostly Rufelza and Hwarin Dalthippa with some
other lunars).
* Jillaro is the intersection of the Daughter’s road
and the Oslir. In addition it is close to two major
sources of Iron (Imther and Jord). As such it is a
major Lunar supply crossroads, especially for military
materials.
Mike Dawson suggests another location:
> Ah, Lunar cities. For my money, there's no more
> interesting "low profile"
> place than Dorkath, the Font of Decadence. Where
> special plumbing carries
> wine to revellers, where everyone knows the Fifteen
> Kinds of Baths
Sounds like fun. Also sounds kind of enervating as a home base for the PC’s, though, so I might keep that in check as a weekend getaway…
Peter Metcalfe gives me many excellent data points. Some specific responses:
On Patronage:
<< "sponsor" is not quite the word. The patrons are
getting benefits from their clients. A more
illustrative parallel (although it's most the same
thing) would be the relationship many small businesses
might have with the local mafia family. >>
That gets to the heart of the question. In Rome the patrons received, among other things, votes. Obviously this doesn’t hold in LE; so what sort of benefits do the patrons receive? Your Mafia analogy suggests mostly direct, economic benefits – cuts of the profits, etc. Am I reading this correctly?
Peter again:
> Pelandans are your Greek analogs.
In the sense of social organization, mostly, I assume. As an aside, is this also true militarily?
More Peter:
<< If the family is running the city, then they would
be militarized. If they are not, then the families
running the city will not permit them to be
militarized (to the extent of participating in Dart
Warfare) >>
Is this true throughout the empire – that there’s a fairly complete monopolization of force by those at the top? I can see that the ruling groups/families would prevent the development of a competing force, but I see the LE as being too chaotic to allow the oligarchs to prevent some forces from developing under them. But then, this may only be IMG.
Me:
<<* for a moderately large house, what magicians could
be expected to belong to it or be employed by it?>>
Peter:
> It depends on what you mean by magician.
Sorry. This followed a bit too closely on the discussion of dart wars. I meant, ‘what magics would be available to the a generalized Lunar trading house, that would help it with it’s economic endeavors.’ I don’t mean to imply a focus on dart wars. Also, I confused Irrippi Ontor and Etyries.
In any case, reading through Peter’s great response,
here’s the sort of magic that might be reasonable to
find in a moderately powerful trading house in
Jillaro:
* Initiates or devotees of Etyries, Lokarnos, or
Issaries, or of herocults of the same
* Worshippers (broadly defined) of house gods or
ancestors
* Yanafali as members/heads of house guards * Makabeus sorcerors * Logicians (btw, where can I find more about these?)
Mark Galeotti sent in some excellent comments, about which I have no questions, and sent me some useful material offline. Thanks, Mark!
> > If anyone would like to be a more detailed
reviewer
> > for the scenario once I write it up, please let me
> > know.
>
Harry:
> I'd love to see what you write.
Okay, I’ll send it to you, and also Wesley Quadros. If anyone else would like to see it, let me know. It’ll probably be a couple of weeks before it’s ready.
Regards,
Theo
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