Carmanians

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_quicksilver.net.nz>
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 23:22:48 +1200


Kevin Paul McDonald.

>I am taking a second look at the Western Reaches from a
>religious/cultural point of view. Specifically, I am looking for a
>ball-park figure for what percentage of a satrapy's total population is
>"Carmanian".
>
>By Carmanian I mean a person who has accepted the Word of the Prophet
>and worships in the "Carmanian" way. A "non-Carmanian" would be defined
>as someone who has *not* personally accepted the message of Carmanos and
>worships in a (Vizier approved) pre-Carmanian style. All Carmanians are
>freehold farmers or better by law, unless they are being punished for
>some terrible misdeed. Most non-Carmanians are peasants, although some
>are resident foreigners.

Hazars are gentry rather than freehold farmers. The original RQ3 occupation charts gave a breakdown of 2% noble, 5% wizard (including priests, scribes as well as adepts) and 8% soldier, while the rest were serfs. You could stipulate that some of the farmers are actually gentry and so would be in the Hazar caste but even then, your suggested 60% seems too high.

I prefer to approach a possible breakdown another way. 90% of the population is rural, while 10% is urban. Bearing in mind that the Carmanians are socially dominant, most of the rural folks are serfs and their masters are Carmanian. How much masters there are depends on taste but one in every ten doesn't sound too large.

In the towns, the Carmanians are again dominant and I assume that most people here are Carmanian. Anywhere between one quarter and three quarters of the urban population sounds right. Hence I get about 15% of the population that are
Carmanians.

--Peter Metcalfe

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