>From: Kmnellist_at_aol.com
>Beatpot refused to "peel another spud for the empire" and this was the cuase
>of his original revolt I believe. This might be metaphorical spud peeling I
>guess but if taken literally infers that they have potatoes in the Empire. I
>presume mashed in Alkoth.
Perhaps potatoes are troll food - hard lumps dug out of the ground and eaten raw. The Lunars have introduced the inovation of cooking them as a cheap food for militia and the poor. No traditionalist, Orlanthi or Dara Happen, would eat troll food unless desperate.
>From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_bigfoot.com>
>Joerg Baumgartner:
>
>> >Why on earth should the maximum size of the tribe collapse
>> >so drastically? Why should it even collapse at all?
>
>>In short: Finances and Taxation.
>
>Since this sort of thing didn't happen in the real world,
>I find it difficult to see why it should happen for the
>Orlanthi.
>
>>A king needs to collect revenues from his tribe, and before the
>>Orlanth Rex structure the priests did channel the financial flow
>>to the kings. (Of course they extracted their own share, too.)
>
>A supposition for which there is no evidence. If anything, the
>Orlanth Rex cult would have allowed the Kings to collect revenue
>from the Priests whereas they couldn't before.
Do the Orlanthi pay taxes? that sounds more like a feudal setup than the traditional Celtic/Viking analogue. I see clan and tribal chiefs being supported by a combination of their own resources as thanes and gifts for help in settling disputes etc. The nearest thing to a tax I can think of would be the gifts expected of foreign merchants for the chief's huscarls to keep order in the market.
Of course the Lunars have introduced taxes on all sorts of things which is another source of friction "Why should I give you something? - you haven't done anything for me."
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/ --__--__-- End of Glorantha Digest
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