<< >Me> Most foot-soldiers in Malkioni lands are from the Farmer Caste. Serfs
> > with weapons is a bad thing, but not all Farmer-castes are Serfs.
>The Loskalmi raise a militia from the farmer class, but its only there >for defence.
So does every other Malkioni country.>>
Indeed.
<< >They have full-time soldiers for the actual arse-kicking,
Just to keep things on track, the issue is foot-soldiers. Professional cavalry is not in debate here.>>
They have full-time foot soldiers too, is my point. Which are not the same people as the militia.
<< >but the fact that they've got so many of them,
I don't see this myself. The number of foot-soldiers in Loskalm is large due to the impending War to end War. >>
That's not exactly my understanding. Without a doubt the threat from the Kingdom of War has resulted in greater recruitment than before, and significantly increased the numbers of soldiers, but not to the point that the present number is 'largely' due to it, IMO. Depends what you mean by 'large', though :-)
<< However foot-soldiers are still common among other Malkioni nations and
have been for quite some time. It's not as if they were an unseen
abomination considering that the
first Malkioni soldiers fought on foot. >>
I don't think we're in disagreement there.
<< >and give them privileges above what the 'proper' farmer
>class get is a cause for tension with other Malkioni.
I'm not so sure. Foot-soldiers are known throughout Malkionism and the Loskalmi would just simply give them the usual privileges. >>
IMO, the nature of the Loskalmi military means that soldiers do indeed get greater privileges than their counterparts elsewhere, although not hugely so.
<< AFAIK there is a dispute over whether they should belong to the soldier
caste (like the Atroxi do) or the farmer caste (as the Tanisorans do). There
are a number of pros and cons about either approach (the soldier caste
solution implies that even the lowest grunt
can become a knight while the farmer caste solution reinforces the division
between cavalry and infantry). >>
I think their solution is somewhere between the extremes of the Atroxi and Tanisorans. I can't go into much more detail though, because of the confidential nature of the current draft of SK.
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Trotsky
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