Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Werra »

If Teidar that can kill with unamplified TK are uncommon, how did they go about breaking up infantry formations?

And what is the limiting factor in their lethality? Are they too weak to kill even directly attacking organs or are they too inaccurate to attack the weak points that require little force?

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Werra wrote:If Teidar that can kill with unamplified TK are uncommon, how did they go about breaking up infantry formations?
Mostly by pushing, tripping, or lifting as a coordinated group.
Werra wrote:And what is the limiting factor in their lethality? Are they too weak to kill even directly attacking organs or are they too inaccurate to attack the weak points that require little force?
Attacking unseen internal organs of a moving target requires both high TK skill and accurate anatomical and physiological knowledge, which was in short supply in pre-industrial times. Most of the attacks that a Classical-era Teidar knew how to perform were on the order of a "Force-choke" and not instantly lethal, though some (like a "kidney-punch") did have a chance to stun or incapacitate. The brain is especially vulnerable to telekinetic attacks, but not all Loroi of the period knew this; in our own Classical period, some of the top Greek scientists thought that the brain was just a cooling mechanism for the blood.

There were some Teidar that had the skill, power, and/or expertise to instantly kill with telekinesis, but they were in the minority.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Jericho »

Arioch wrote:
If nguni shields could reliably stop bullets, I think the battles of Rorke's Drift and Ulundi would have turned out every differently. However, since the Loroi infantry weren't facing bullets, I'm not sure that's relevant. You don't need to chase down skirmishers when they can't hurt you because they don't have any effective missile weapons.
My bad... should have worded myself a little better. The point i was trying to make is that it is possible to create a strong large shield using light materials if you want one. Not bullet stopping perhaps but certainly enough to protect against swordblades and other lighter weapons (polearms not so much i'd warrant).

Arioch wrote:
The percentage of warriors could be as large as half, even in antiquity. Many pre-industrial jobs that we consider to be "civilian" were handled by the warrior class, including most municipal, engineering and many skilled craft jobs (especially those involving production of weapons and armor). Loroi need less food than humans, and their staple crop was an ultra-tech supergrain, so they didn't need as many farmers as humans in the comparable era did.
Could you eloborate on this a bit more?

Is there any list of professions that are exlusivily civillian? Apart from farming. On that subject are farmers self employed or serfs of a local lord?

How much of a crossover is there between civillian and warriors that practise in a similar field (assuming that they do)? In medieval europe you would have the swordmakers and the knifemakers guilds which weren't allowed to produce each others goods (leading to a hilarous dispute regarding the german messer). Would the Loroi have the swordblades made by warriors and later let the civillian do the menial task of producing the hilt and decorating it?

Don't know if i've asked this before but have there been an effort to phase out the civillian Loroi entirely from Loroi society and leave those lower tasks to their alien subjects? Like making laws that forbid breeding for the civillians and let them die out from old age? Or do they Loroi still want them around less they be forced to rely entirely on smelly inferior aliens (like Golims)?

Lastly what is the loroi word for civillian? Is it directly translated or they call civillians something more derogatory like serf, laborer or workers?
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Jericho wrote:Is there any list of professions that are exclusively civilian? Apart from farming. On that subject are farmers self employed or serfs of a local lord?
Loroi subcultures in different times and locations had different laws and customs, so there was some variation. In most, civilian workers were forbidden from engaging in combat or the direct support thereof, and warriors were forbidden from working for personal profit. Warriors were not above menial labor (like Roman legions, they were frequently put to work building roads and outposts and other infrastructure, or to forage and sometimes harvest crops in enemy territory, or even in friendly territory during an emergency), but such work was supposed to be for the common welfare, and they were not allowed to sell the fruits of their labor. Civilians were usually excluded from manufacturing weapons and armor, partly to help keep the working class in line, but also partly to keep them from being targeted during wartime and to discourage looting and pillaging. In some subcultures, nearly all "town" jobs were considered military and the civilians were restricted purely to rural jobs (in Daiam, they justified city fortifications by making nearly all city-dwellers military), but in most cases the two were more integrated.

Food was probably the main strategic asset produced by civilians, but they tried to treat food as a civilian asset, and there were strict rules against destroying food or using starvation as a war tactic. If there are no city walls, there are no sieges.

The legal status of the working class varied under different governments and subcultures and over time. In most of the Classical period, civilians were not overtly considered property, but they owed fealty to a state government or an individual that was similar to that of peasants in medieval Europe. In the modern Loroi Union, civilians are legally free agents, though they may often owe significant duties to the guilds or orders to which they are affiliated.
Jericho wrote:How much of a crossover is there between civillian and warriors that practise in a similar field (assuming that they do)? In medieval europe you would have the swordmakers and the knifemakers guilds which weren't allowed to produce each others goods (leading to a hilarous dispute regarding the german messer). Would the Loroi have the swordblades made by warriors and later let the civillian do the menial task of producing the hilt and decorating it?
Resolution of overlap varied, with the work sometimes given to one group or the other, or sometimes with the two groups working together. Sometimes civilian blacksmiths were involved in the weapons manufacturing process, and sometimes they were excluded to the point of all steel tools being the exclusive province of warrior smiths. There was no civilian weapons market, so a civilian langmesser-like "long knife" sword was out of the question. As warfare became more industrialized, it became harder to keep civilians completely out of strategic production, and civilians and warriors had to become more integrated in the military-industrial sector, as they are in the modern Union.

However, when it comes to civilian guilds and rival monopolies of civilians goods and services, there is still a fair amount of silly contention over who is allowed to make what. Some Loroi nations are still more mercantilist than free market.
Jericho wrote:Don't know if i've asked this before but have there been an effort to phase out the civillian Loroi entirely from Loroi society and leave those lower tasks to their alien subjects? Like making laws that forbid breeding for the civillians and let them die out from old age? Or do they Loroi still want them around less they be forced to rely entirely on smelly inferior aliens (like Golims)?
Though the ancient sagas hint at a time when their ancestors were pure warriors (labor being done by "others"), I think most modern Loroi warriors dislike aliens far more than they dislike Loroi civilians.
Jericho wrote:Lastly what is the loroi word for civillian? Is it directly translated or they call civillians something more derogatory like serf, laborer or workers?
The most common term is sobedi, which just means "worker." A more derogatory version is sinadas, which means "fallen."

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Onaiom »

So, basically, the Loroi Civilian Caste was the same thing as the peasant women in the Medieval Age (farmers, tailors and midwives).

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Jericho »

Onaiom wrote:So, basically, the Loroi Civilian Caste was the same thing as the peasant women in the Medieval Age (farmers, tailors and midwives).
I got the same feeling but to be fair peasant women would probably enjoy higher status than loroi civillians. Having a more important social role overall.

Would a male child born to a civillian mother be confiscated (for lack of a better word) or offered to the warrior class as a tribute?
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

Jericho wrote:
Onaiom wrote:So, basically, the Loroi Civilian Caste was the same thing as the peasant women in the Medieval Age (farmers, tailors and midwives).
I got the same feeling but to be fair peasant women would probably enjoy higher status than loroi civillians. Having a more important social role overall.
Loroi civilian females can own and run large businesses, so I'd say they have a higher status than most European peasant women of the medieval period, as the latter couldn't own or inherit property independently of their husbands in most cases.
Jericho wrote:Would a male child born to a civillian mother be confiscated (for lack of a better word) or offered to the warrior class as a tribute?
All male children are wards of the state, raised in state-run creches, regardless of their parentage. Males are considered to be outside of the class system, and have a special status that is neither warrior nor worker. Who your mother's family is can be an important part of a male's social status, but the male children of a warrior and a worker might find themselves together in the same creche, school and adult job.

However, the percentage of Loroi, both male and female, born to civilian mothers is relatively small, especially during peacetime. The majority of civilian females were born to warrior mothers, but washed out of warrior training. Even though the percentage of children who fail the trials is small, with the frequency of Loroi generations it doesn't take much to keep up the population of civilian females, who, unlike their warrior counterparts, have a good chance of surviving for a large portion of their potential 400-year lifespans. It is normally only high-status civilian females who are allowed to reproduce, except in special circumstances such as when strong population growth is desired, or in special locations (like Maia, which has for most of its history has had an "almost" unrestricted reproductive policy, which is why a large percentage of the Loroi in the colonies have Maian ancestry).

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by GeoModder »

After over eight (Earth) centuries of 'almost' unrestrictive population growth, the Maian population must be double or triple (if not more) that of the other 3 'sister worlds' combined.
If not political, did this makes the Maiad sector the economic heart of the Loroi part of the Union? And am I right to asssume there's a higher percentage of civvies compared to warriors in the Maian demographics?

In the Insider tensions because of lopsized political representation between the three original sister worlds is mentioned, of which Perrein and Taben have a smaller population level compared to Deinar.
Are there political tensions between Maia and Deinar as well because of a lack of representation in policy making (for example, all emperors have been Deinar natives)? Or does the Diadem Council nowadays have a significant presence of Maia-descended Loroi, possibly mitigating such problems?
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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Jericho »

Arioch wrote:
Jericho wrote:
Onaiom wrote:So, basically, the Loroi Civilian Caste was the same thing as the peasant women in the Medieval Age (farmers, tailors and midwives).
I got the same feeling but to be fair peasant women would probably enjoy higher status than loroi civillians. Having a more important social role overall.
Loroi civilian females can own and run large businesses, so I'd say they have a higher status than most European peasant women of the medieval period, as the latter couldn't own or inherit property independently of their husbands in most cases.
What inheritance laws do Loroi have actually?

Jericho wrote:Would a male child born to a civillian mother be confiscated (for lack of a better word) or offered to the warrior class as a tribute?
All male children are wards of the state, raised in state-run creches, regardless of their parentage. Males are considered to be outside of the class system, and have a special status that is neither warrior nor worker. Who your mother's family is can be an important part of a male's social status, but the male children of a warrior and a worker might find themselves together in the same creche, school and adult job.

However, the percentage of Loroi, both male and female, born to civilian mothers is relatively small, especially during peacetime. The majority of civilian females were born to warrior mothers, but washed out of warrior training. Even though the percentage of children who fail the trials is small, with the frequency of Loroi generations it doesn't take much to keep up the population of civilian females, who, unlike their warrior counterparts, have a good chance of surviving for a large portion of their potential 400-year lifespans. It is normally only high-status civilian females who are allowed to reproduce, except in special circumstances such as when strong population growth is desired, or in special locations (like Maia, which has for most of its history has had an "almost" unrestricted reproductive policy, which is why a large percentage of the Loroi in the colonies have Maian ancestry).
Where all males wards even in ancient times?
If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through. General C.H Melchett commander of some unknown british regiment in the western front.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Jericho »

On another unrelated topic Is there a story behind the picture of Cobalt in the insider page or is it just a random drawing?
If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through. General C.H Melchett commander of some unknown british regiment in the western front.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

GeoModder wrote:After over eight (Earth) centuries of 'almost' unrestrictive population growth, the Maian population must be double or triple (if not more) that of the other 3 'sister worlds' combined. If not political, did this makes the Maiad sector the economic heart of the Loroi part of the Union?
Yes, the Maiad cultural group (which includes the majority of the colonial population) if by far the largest portion of the Loroi population. While Maia itself is an important commercial center and a strategic crossroads, the Maiad Sector as a whole does not have as many large, productive colonies as some more influential sectors (notably Seren), and it does not have any native alien civilizations.
GeoModder wrote:And am I right to asssume there's a higher percentage of civvies compared to warriors in the Maian demographics?
Yes.
GeoModder wrote:In the Insider tensions because of lopsized political representation between the three original sister worlds is mentioned, of which Perrein and Taben have a smaller population level compared to Deinar. Are there political tensions between Maia and Deinar as well because of a lack of representation in policy making (for example, all emperors have been Deinar natives)? Or does the Diadem Council nowadays have a significant presence of Maia-descended Loroi, possibly mitigating such problems?
While there have been tensions between "old world" and "new world" Loroi, they have mostly been cultural rather than political. In the second Loroi civil war (the Neridi Succession crisis), somewhat ironically it was the sitting Emperor (Swiftsure) who had been trying to democratize and decentralize the government, and it was the regional governor (Eighth Dawn) who ultimately restored Deinar-centric imperial rule, and there were Maia-descended personages on both sides. Although Eighth Dawn was Deinar-born, her base of power was in Seren and many of her lieutenants were Maia-descended Seren natives, and so the Maiad cultural group was fairly well represented in her government. And in the age of colonial expansion and foreign war that followed, the needs and concerns of the colonies were always given high priority (and the Emperor often governed from the frontier), whereas the grumblings of Taben conservatives deep in the heart of the empire where nothing interesting happened might not always get the attention that they felt they deserved.
Jericho wrote:What inheritance laws do Loroi have actually?
They vary according to local customs, but for the most part they are governed by individual wills and contracts. Personal property among the warrior class is subject to a variety of regulations, so a lot of the land and property was held in trust by the extended family group rather than individuals, and distribution of such property was usually controlled by a council of clan elders. If a modern Loroi who holds personal property dies without a personal will or a family contract specifying inheritance, then the eligibility for inheritance follows a path through various relatives (sisters, daughters, cousins, etc.) in an order according to local laws and customs, which vary. But much of a warrior's worldly goods (including housing) will often be provided by the state, and on her death, these revert to the state rather than being transferred through inheritance.

In Deinar history, hereditary titles (such as there were) were often allocated in a similar manner: by decision of an executor council. Important Loroi personages often had many offspring; systems that allocated arbitrarily (such as to the first born rather than to the most powerful) often led to civil war, and those that mandated even distribution among offspring often led to the subdivision, fragmentation, and ultimate dissolution of empires (see: Frankish Empire).

A daughter of a warrior family who fails the trials and is discharged into civilian life is often by custom granted a one-time outlay from the family estate, but then subsequently has no legal claim on the family's property. Inheritance among civilians is determined entirely by will or contract, since many civilians never have children and are often not directly related to those who they live and work with. Many civilian guilds have contracts with their members that mirror the function of the warrior extended families in overseeing inheritance, allocation of joint property, etc. A warrior may not inherit property from a civilian, even if she is related.
Jericho wrote:Where all males wards even in ancient times?
Sort of, but not always. In most ancient Deinar nations which had adopted some form of the caste system (the ones that didn't were known collectively as "barbarians"), males were recognized as a protected class, and reproductive access to males was strictly controlled. Males and females alike were the responsibility of the extended family, but in many cases these clans or houses were in effect the local government in semi-feudal systems. Clan rights over males persisted into the starflight era, but this was transferred to the central government along with the abolition of traditional clan names as a result of the first Loroi civil war.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by icekatze »

hi hi

I have to wonder if there are ever any Loroi warriors who purposefully choose to go into civilian businesses. I can imagine there might be some temptation for profit, but also I could see some cases where ineffective civilian run business might motivate some Loroi to take one for the team and try to turn things around, even if it is only indirectly benefiting the military.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

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icekatze wrote:I have to wonder if there are ever any Loroi warriors who purposefully choose to go into civilian businesses. I can imagine there might be some temptation for profit, but also I could see some cases where ineffective civilian run business might motivate some Loroi to take one for the team and try to turn things around, even if it is only indirectly benefiting the military.
Warriors may work with a private company if it's involved in strategic production (as modern military officers work as liaisons with armament and aerospace companies, or to help manage a private company that has been nationalized for some reason), but individual warriors don't usually get to decide where they are posted, so these are not assignments a warrior can purposefully choose. A Loroi warrior can't simply choose to retire from the military and take a job with a private company; once she has passed the warrior trials, she has warrior status for life, unless she is discharged for some reason, which is rare. For a private company to be able to bribe a warrior with the promise of a lucrative civilian job is one of the forms of corruption that the prohibition against warriors working for profit was meant to prevent.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by boldilocks »

Arioch wrote:Loroi civilian females can own and run large businesses, so I'd say they have a higher status than most European peasant women of the medieval period, as the latter couldn't own or inherit property independently of their husbands in most cases.
They most likely have higher status than any european peasants, men or women, as they were all bound to the land and so could not own and run any businesses, unless you call a farm their business.
They are more like tradesmen than peasants, I'd guess. Though some of the rights the peasants "lacked" (such as the right to marry without the consent of their lord) don't really translate to loroi society.

Of course the duties and privileges of peasants varied across europe and across time, especially after the black death.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

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Arioch wrote:
icekatze wrote:I have to wonder if there are ever any Loroi warriors who purposefully choose to go into civilian businesses. I can imagine there might be some temptation for profit, but also I could see some cases where ineffective civilian run business might motivate some Loroi to take one for the team and try to turn things around, even if it is only indirectly benefiting the military.
Warriors may work with a private company if it's involved in strategic production (as modern military officers work as liaisons with armament and aerospace companies, or to help manage a private company that has been nationalized for some reason), but individual warriors don't usually get to decide where they are posted, so these are not assignments a warrior can purposefully choose. A Loroi warrior can't simply choose to retire from the military and take a job with a private company; once she has passed the warrior trials, she has warrior status for life, unless she is discharged for some reason, which is rare. For a private company to be able to bribe a warrior with the promise of a lucrative civilian job is one of the forms of corruption that the prohibition against warriors working for profit was meant to prevent.
What could be gained from bribing a warrior? I assume one of the higher brass might have control over production contracts.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Arioch »

boldilocks wrote:What could be gained from bribing a warrior? I assume one of the higher brass might have control over production contracts.
The "higher brass" are warriors too. As are pretty much all government and police. The idea is to prevent both bribery by civilians and extortion of civilians by warriors, both on large and small scales, at all levels. Corruption is one of the biggest problems in authoritarian regimes.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Jericho »

boldilocks wrote:
Arioch wrote:Loroi civilian females can own and run large businesses, so I'd say they have a higher status than most European peasant women of the medieval period, as the latter couldn't own or inherit property independently of their husbands in most cases.
They most likely have higher status than any european peasants, men or women, as they were all bound to the land and so could not own and run any businesses, unless you call a farm their business.
They are more like tradesmen than peasants, I'd guess. Though some of the rights the peasants "lacked" (such as the right to marry without the consent of their lord) don't really translate to loroi society.

Of course the duties and privileges of peasants varied across europe and across time, especially after the black death.
Farms were certainly a business and if you owned your own land you were also expected to be conscriptet and fight in wars which is another reason serfdom became more prevalent in the middle ages as poorer peasants agreed to it to avoid conscription and certain taxes. This is also a big reason why women for example were the last choice when inheriting property as they were seen as unfit to take on the social responsibility expected of your class. I think we should be clear to make a distinction between a peasant and a serf, one of them owns their own land and the other is owned by a lord.

The big difference between Loroi caste system and european fuedalism apart from gender roles seems to be that feudal systems in europe had five different classes of people and military service is based on property ownership wheres the loroi only have three classes of people (males being counted as their own class for the sake of argument) and property ownership does not seem to be the defining feature of your military status. It's hard to make an accurate comparison when the workers and warriors can make up an equivalent of two or three classes at ones in the loroi system. The only class that they don't seem to be able to cover is the clergy but that is probably handled by the males of their species.
If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through. General C.H Melchett commander of some unknown british regiment in the western front.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

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Speaking of corruption and bribery. Isn't telepathy a natural deterrant towards such behaviour? A Loroi ruler need not worry about loyalty from her peers (as much as a human would) as they would be very open about their position to begin with. This could actually create a much more benevolent dictatorship than anything we could manage as the ruler could spend more treasure on her subjects than her keys to power.
If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through. General C.H Melchett commander of some unknown british regiment in the western front.

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by boldilocks »

Jericho wrote: Farms were certainly a business and if you owned your own land you were also expected to be conscriptet and fight in wars which is another reason serfdom became more prevalent in the middle ages as poorer peasants agreed to it to avoid conscription and certain taxes.
Peasants didn't own the land, though, at least that wasn't the norm in medieval society. They rented/tenured it from the lord or from a bishop.
Jericho wrote:This is also a big reason why women for example were the last choice when inheriting property as they were seen as unfit to take on the social responsibility expected of your class. I think we should be clear to make a distinction between a peasant and a serf, one of them owns their own land and the other is owned by a lord.
I believe you're thinking of either a free-tenant or a franklin rather than peasant here, as serf is a subgroup of peasant. But even the free-tenants were still subject to and paid rent to their lords. (Although in the same way I suppose you could say that all loroi are subject to and pay "rent" to their governments)
Jericho wrote:The big difference between Loroi caste system and european fuedalism apart from gender roles seems to be that feudal systems in europe had five different classes of people and military service is based on property ownership wheres the loroi only have three classes of people (males being counted as their own class for the sake of argument) and property ownership does not seem to be the defining feature of your military status. It's hard to make an accurate comparison when the workers and warriors can make up an equivalent of two or three classes at ones in the loroi system. The only class that they don't seem to be able to cover is the clergy but that is probably handled by the males of their species.
The feudal systems of medieval europe are rather disparate so it's difficult to compare with a more "defined" system. If we think of the clergy as a class of scholars and scientists, which was their biggest economic function in medieval europe, then I guess we have something to compare to. Is science handled by the military or civilian sector of the economy, or is it spread all over?

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Re: Miscellaneous Loroi question-and-answer thread

Post by Jericho »

boldilocks wrote:
Jericho wrote: Farms were certainly a business and if you owned your own land you were also expected to be conscriptet and fight in wars which is another reason serfdom became more prevalent in the middle ages as poorer peasants agreed to it to avoid conscription and certain taxes.
Peasants didn't own the land, though, at least that wasn't the norm in medieval society. They rented/tenured it from the lord or from a bishop.
Jericho wrote:This is also a big reason why women for example were the last choice when inheriting property as they were seen as unfit to take on the social responsibility expected of your class. I think we should be clear to make a distinction between a peasant and a serf, one of them owns their own land and the other is owned by a lord.
I believe you're thinking of either a free-tenant or a franklin rather than peasant here, as serf is a subgroup of peasant. But even the free-tenants were still subject to and paid rent to their lords. (Although in the same way I suppose you could say that all loroi are subject to and pay "rent" to their governments)
I probably mispoke a bit here but i don't think i argued against freeholders paying taxes or rents. What distinguishes them is the social expectations and fees they have to pay and obey. And i'm well aware that the ratio of freeholders to serfs differed between regions in europe (in fact norway and sweden are the only nations whose land was largely owned by freeholders as opposed to the church or nobility that i know of) however that doesn't mean that they didn't exist in the rest of europe as well and they shouldn't be lumped together with serfs because they had a very different status in society.
boldilocks wrote:
Jericho wrote:The big difference between Loroi caste system and european fuedalism apart from gender roles seems to be that feudal systems in europe had five different classes of people and military service is based on property ownership wheres the loroi only have three classes of people (males being counted as their own class for the sake of argument) and property ownership does not seem to be the defining feature of your military status. It's hard to make an accurate comparison when the workers and warriors can make up an equivalent of two or three classes at ones in the loroi system. The only class that they don't seem to be able to cover is the clergy but that is probably handled by the males of their species.
The feudal systems of medieval europe are rather disparate so it's difficult to compare with a more "defined" system. If we think of the clergy as a class of scholars and scientists, which was their biggest economic function in medieval europe, then I guess we have something to compare to. Is science handled by the military or civilian sector of the economy, or is it spread all over?
In modern times science is involved in every sector of the economy but in medieval times it was almost exclusivily the church that preserved and advanced our understanding of the world. And in some cases supressed it.
If nothing else works, a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through. General C.H Melchett commander of some unknown british regiment in the western front.

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