>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.
>
Ah, I actually got the 60% figure in an unpublished Greg doc on the
Carmanian Religion that I was privileged to read a while back. <I have
permission to use this *completely unofficial* info in my website, so I
guess it is OK to talk about it here. If not, someone should let me know
ASAP!> As with any unpublished Greg doc, you can take it all with a
boulder-sized lump of salt. :) I like the idea, though. Given the
history of the region I really don't see the Carmanian religion being
restricted to a tiny few at the very top of society. Having belief in
the Carmanian religion a prerequisite for being "free" makes sense to
me. It is another point of distinction from those smelly, dirty,
ignorant, serfs!
Also, I haven't seen the actual published ILH yet but an early draft I read talked about a new Carmanian caste called the Romanak - landless Carmanian "free" peasants. Was this dropped from the published version? I have yet to receive my copy.
Finally, IMG the Hazar caste is broken down into the subcategories of "Knight" and "Freeholder". The freeholders are yeoman farmers who pay for their land, in part, through military service.
So... My proposed 60% "Carmanians" includes nobles (Karmanoi and Hazar Knights), Viziers, and "free" farmers (Hazar Freeholders and Romanak). The "unfree" farmers are the non-carmanian serfs.
>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.
>
I agree completely. In my game, most of the people in rural estates are
non-carmanian serfs, while most of the people in towns and cities are
"Carmanian" freemen. Also, (per the unpublished religion doc) the urban
Carmanians tend to practice a more westernized (sorcerous) version of
the Carmanian faith while the rural Carmanians tend to worship a more
eastern (theistic) version. I don't know if this idea will ever make it
into published sources, but it sounds cool to me.
Anyway, all this is not what I am trying to figure out right now. My real question is "How 'carmanian' are the various satrapies, compared to each other." The actual percentages are not that important. How about just listing them in order of Carmanian influence? My proposed order was Worian, Jhor, Bindle, Spol.
After writing my last email, I have been reading up on Worian. While the Bisosae around Lake Oronin might have been early converts to the Carmanian faith, it looks like the Bisosae of Vanstal might not have been so eager to join. Might this have an effect on the current number of Carmanians in Worian? At the very least, I would say that the Carmanian religion practiced by the Vanstali would be of the eastern (theistic) variety more than otherwise - except around Brinnus, of course.
Southern Jhor also seems to be very Bisosae heavy. The city of Minstinus a historically Bisosae city, and the area south of Osthens was all ancient Bisos territory as well. I might want to switch Jhor and Worian's place in the list of Carmanian strength. (Jhor, Worian, Bindle, Spol?). I don't know. The Pasture of Syranthir and the Carmanian Protectorate having both been mostly in Worian [FS pg 33 & 35] is pretty compelling.
Finally, Spol might not be as Carmanian-lite as I thought. The Dark Shahs had strong Spolite connections, so the Spolites might just worship a locally Dark flavor of the religion. On the other hand, in the 1200s (FS page 49) Spol is not described as part of "Old Carmania", but rather is called the "Old Darklands". What this implies I am not exactly sure. I think I will stick with my "Spol is the least Carmanian satrapy" idea. Even if the upper class is steadfastly Carmanian (the Dark version) it doesn't seem out of character that they would have a larger percentage of serfs than the other satrapies.
Thoughts?
~Kevin McD
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