> The wilderness, even the well known wilderness near steads, has the
> potential to be far more dangerous than on earth. And the areas with
> enough game to be worth hunting (as opposed to trapping) tend not to
> be so close to the stead. The odds of bagging a deer on a day-trip
> probably aren't high. Going farther adds tremendously to the
> difficulty and risks.
Partially true I'd say. Deer are pretty adaptable. The fact that the people have cleared the land and left big clumps of trees here and there actually makes ideal deer habitat. That, plus chasing all the large predators away, would make areas near the steads pretty good for deer. Of course the potential fly in this ointment are the alynxes. Would they bother chasing deer if the people in the steads were feeding them? Dogs will chase animals just for the heck of it
> - Most of the men will be very busy around the farm in planting and
> harvesting time, as well as just before and after those times as they
> prepare/recover. In between is mostly fire season, when you don't
> want to be too far from the stead. The rest of the year the weather
> tends to be miserable. Late Storm season might not be too bad, but
> then you need to be careful not to kill mothers of most species.
That still leaves a lot of Dark and Storm season to get out and kill beasties.
> - Most animals are fairly hard to kill with spears or bows. Large > scale hunts typically involved using the less skilled members as > beaters to help drive large amounts of game into a killing zone. > Somehow this just doesn't seem to fit with the Heortlings. Maybe > they do it, but it certainly doesn't seem common in the culture. > Also, the very rough land most of them have left as wilderness > doesn't favor this approach.
I don't think they'd go after game with beaters either, doesn't seem that likely to me either. Don't forget that lots of Heortlings can supercharge their spears or javelins. And despite the difficulty of killing animals with spears and such people did manage to do it even in small groups for a long time.
> Having said all that, I imagine that many Orlanthi do get some game,
> but it makes much more sense to me that this is more along the lines
> of snaring rabbits and trying to bring down grouse in the nearby
> woods when you have a quiet couple of hours than in serious hunting
> trips. Oh, and in season probably stealing wild eggs from the nest
> is popular.
I think you could get deer near the steads as well for the aforementioned reasons. There are undoubtably lots of taboos about which animals you can hunt and when. These taboos probably tie quite nicely in with the times of year when most people are too busy to hunt or the game needs to be protected.
I just thought of the number one reason why Odaylans spend time away from the steads - so no one can make you farm!
> Although I'd agree about getting away from the wife and kids part,
> but I'd imagine it being for a couple of hours after you've milked
> the cows rather than in heading off to the bush on a serious
> expadition.
I can see the possibilty of groups getting away in the less busy seasons for a drunken weekend. They probably bring back the odd would be hunter who managed to spear himself or who got hit by a friend's javelin. (I can see the women shaking their heads as the brave hunters head off into the bush, spears on shoulders and the equivalent of a two four (a case of 24 beer) in their packs wondering how many bandages and how much ointment they should have prepared for their return).
> This all seems fairly logical to me, but when I think about it, this
> is also roughly how my great-grandfather and grandfather did it
> homesteading and later running a dairy farm (with pigs and a few
> horses along with the cows, but no sheep) in northern Ontario (with
> three useful fields spread amongst a lot of bush).
Most pioneers would have managed to squeeze the occasional hunting trip in. Unfortunately in Glorantha you get an increased possibility for them to end up like the movie Deliverance:-(
Oliver
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