> 1) Do roads in Sartar go through clan property or between borders?
Both. Roads connect settlements and people. Of course, while Sartar's roads are wide and wonderous, in most parts of the kingdom 'road' can mean little more than a winding oxen track. Clans tend to be largely self-sufficent, with most travel being between steads rather than to other clans or the cities. Because of the Lunar conquest, traders and other parties who wish to escape scrutiny and taxes are forging new roads and back-country paths.
> 2) If through do you have to ask permission to pass through tulas
> when you are not stopping?
Through established tradition and very large numbers, I'd say travel on the King's highways does not require clan permission, though a sacrifice at a road guardian's shrine (which may occasionally detect ill intent) and a tribal level toll would be customary. The cities (which are open territory) would be the focus for collecting such tolls. Previously collected by the city rings, they are now extracted by hoards of petty Lunar bureaucrats.
Another major factor is the Lunar occupation. Members of the slave tribes need written Lunar permission to *leave* their tulas, other Heortling travellers are carefully scrutinised by Lunar patrols and tollkeepers, and require written authority to travel far. Roads tolls are a major source of Lunar income. Obviously they concentrate on the main highways and linking roads.
Whenever you enter a clan's tula, by road or by winding upland path, it is customary to announce yourself with the Greeting lest you be mistaken for a raider. On roads that carry more than a few strangers a day, there may be a member of the fyrd on duty or at least a reliable messenger.
New trails and upcountry roads are constantly being forged to carry travellers and traders who wish to travel unoticed by the invaders.
> 3) Are the King's Roads like interstate roads, passing around
> settlements?
No. They are direct, wide, open and wondrous. They connect the city gates and the city rings. Some were build quite recently, and these would skirt established settlements.
> 4) How do you raid someone far away without fighting every clan
> between you and them.
Surrounding most clan's tulas are regions of wild wasteland - rugged country used only for hunting or seasonal sheep herding. Only a small part of this waste or 'gors and gallt' (to use the Welsh and the Far Place term) is included in the tula. These regions are unclaimed or only notionally claimed - if you avoid mountain valleys and verdant river flats you can usually get from place to place undetected and unchallenged.
Most wyter questions have been answered comprehensively by others. The wyter is not omniscient, its senses are not tuned to everything and things do escape its notice.
> 9) Do clan members ask permission before going to another clan's
> fairs and markets?
I'd generally say no, though they will answer the Greeting as they arrive. The proclamation of a fair is itself an invitation to attend for peaceful exchange and social mixing, under the aegis of the goldentongues who maintain the market rituals. Of course, if you're feuding you'll be closely watched, but the 'peace of the market' is powerful magic. Many feuds are resolved at market time. Of course if an armed band of Black Oaks appears, they'll be met by the weaponthanes and disarmed, market or no market.
John
I don't give a damn if some Thracian ape strut Proud of that first-rate shield the bushes got. Leaving it was hell, but in a tricky spot I kept my hide intact. Good shields can be bought.
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