Re: Gloranthan maps

From: bethexton_at_...
Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 13:24:05 -0000

Ummm, I think this is something that will vary tremendously with population density. Obviously your opinions and your Glorantha will vary, but IMO:

When there is more land and resources than people to fully exploit it, I think you are right, people mostly worry about the control of key resources--which certainly includes people, so you while you may not care where those sheep are being herded, you know that the flock owner owes you a certain number of sheep each year.

However at some population density the critical issue tends to become the allocation of resources. There isn't enough forest there for everyone who lives around to gather all the firewood they would like, and there are not enough deer for everyone who might want to to hunt them, and so on. So who gets to decide who can gather firewood or hunt deer? And what can that person get in return for allocating those rights? When you reach that point, although maps may not be good, I think ownership is quite accurately known (although no doubt frequently disagreed upon).

So, a (human) border that runs along a mountain chain or an elf forest may not be accurately described. But one that cuts through the Oslir river valley will be well defined (although even then no doubt the details are quibbled about).

You'll even see a mix in a small area, when certain resources are scarce and others aren't. Along a fertile river valley the borders between sections are no doubt well described. In the less fertile hills above the valley the borders may be very poorly described.

In some administrations there will be sufficiently sophisticated bureaucracy to track most of this. In others it will be more a matter of tradition. Either system is subject to challenges, in the former "The border is described as following this stream, the stream has moved, so my border should move with the stream and I get the extra land," in the latter "My grandmother told me of pasturing the sheep in White Bloom Vale when she was young, even describing the tricky ford there. After the black fleece spirits, of course we didn't pasture so widely, and we didn't mind our neighbors using our pasture for a while, but by tradition it is still ours, and now they must get out and let us use it again!"

--Bryan

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