Re: Re: The Hidden Gale storms Crescent Manor...

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_...>
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 14:13:04 +1100


Guy: great humakti song! I bet the bit about 'the Storm has betrayed us' gets any watching stead-boys going!

Now, Lunar camps. Two comments, one about support folk and one about Sartarite auxiliaries.

  1. Sartarite Auxiliaries

Sartar is complicated. Many 'Lunar' troops will in fact be local auxiliaries who speak the language, know the territory and likely as not have an ongoing feud or traditional antagonism towards the clan they're 'pacifying'.

A position with the Lunar auxiliaries will also be an alternative for some Sartarites who missed out on being clan weaponthanes because they or their bloodlines weren't powerful or influential enough. Similar duties, good comparative pay and some *very* mixed motives.

A Lunar camp will also have many links with local merchants and suppliers, and over time their will be local wives and husbands as well, just as there will be retired veterans who have settled into the local community.

2. Camp Followers and Boyzone Glorantha

Charles:

>And what about the non-combatant camp followers that you would expect
> ("girl-friends" for hire, cooks, low grade merchants etc.)?

Good point. Often overlooked.

In every army, those involved must attend to a wide variety of different things that take up 90% of their time: gathering and cooking food, attending to drunk, wounded or disturbed comrades, dealing with merchants and supplies, organising communications, washing, constructing, digging, building and maintaining morale, defending the camp or baggage train against raiders. Why is it so often that when men do this we think of them 'soldiers', but when women do this they are either 'invisible' or we think of them as nurses or 'whores'?

Now Charles hasn't done this - I just wanted to start with a dramatic flourish. :) What follows is a bit incidental but, I hope pertinent.

Why do we have to assume the women involved in a camp are prostitutes? Wouldn't men form long-term attachments, or take their wives on ten year postings? Wouldn't female soldiers (this *is* the Lunar Empire) bring their husbands? (The term 'whore' once was broader than its current usage - in crusade and medieval times it could also mean 'common-law wife' or simply 'domestic'. So there's a historical misunderstanding as well as neander-phallic military attitudes involved here).

Far from being a mere rabble of de-facto prostitutes, 'camp followers' both male and female perform essential logistical and command functions as cooks, laundresses, and quartermasters, and in our world did up until the C19th. They provide psychological security and family relationships for fighters who are often cut off from 'normal' community life.

The Lunar Empire in particular must have some strange and wonderful arrangements in place for the military, given their prominence of women in their military and political mainstream and the ongoing clash between Yelmic, Goddess and provincial attitudes. There are amazons and artesses, priestesses and demonesses, as well as misogynistic Yelmies and grumpy Carminians. There will be 'vingan' equivalents too, non-combatant widows and widowers driven to revenge when their spouse bids too many APs against some storm-crazy cattle-raider. (Hold on! What did I just say?...)

John



nysalor_at_... John Hughes

When evil is afoot, and you don't have any arms, you gotta use your head. And when evil is ahead, and you're behind, you've gotta get off your ass and do the legwork. But, when you can't get a leg up, you gotta be hip, you gotta keep your chin up, and kick some butt...

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