> In message <ctqmlc+keck_at_e...> "Mike Dawson" writes:
> >
> >. My guess is that in many clans there is
> >> a surplus of stickpickers for the work they are trusted to do and
> >> bloodline and clan loyalties mean there is no incentive to use more
> >> skilled people even if the work can be done more efficently.
> >
> >This seems unlikely to me, after the decimation of the male population
> >through various lunar repressions.
>
> Why? stickpickers, in general, are the people who have no skills
> and no capital (tools, livestock, etc.). They are the ones who
> turn up for fyrd duty with a battered shield, a bent spear with a
> loose head and no armour. They're stuck in the back rank to make
> up the numbers but no one is surprised if they're the first to run
> away.
>
> In truth the Lunar repressions probably increase the number of
> stickpickers. When a regiment of Lunar soldiers seizes and butchers
> a clan's entire herd all the thanes and carls are promptly reduced
> to cotters. Within a year no wheat can be grown because there are
> no oxen to plow, everyone is poorer and cotters who were only just
> managing find they no longer can.
You're absolutely right. So I guess all the Sartarites die. Especially after enemies burn their
woodpiles.
Mike Dawson