The inhabitants of Arathi

Admin Antall Innlegg : 244 Join date : 2012-06-27

The inhabitants of Arathi
by Saihna Trollbane and Gahalla

Great thanks and credits to Gahalla for sorting this lovely post out! (I've edited a few things, but most of it is kept as it was)

Part one. Arathorian peasants

Farmers, miners, woodsmen, fishermen, herdsmen, hunters, quarryworkers and other pofessions inculding time-consuming backbreaking manual labour

For the peasants the village is the centre of their lives. It's their home and most of them will never leave it for their entire lives. Some of them will on occassion take their ox-driven cart to transport goods (food that is) to sell on the market and some will on occassion travel to a nearby village to arrange for marriage.

Now... what do an arathorian village look like? Well... to answer that question we better look what their enviroment looks like. The arathi highlands are covered in rocky hills with sparse vegetation. The entire landscape is rolling and it is easy to hide from searching eyes in crags and behind rocks. It's filled with big dangerous animals like raptors and big predatorial spiders. It also sports a large populations of amani trolls which are not exactly too keen on the humans and lately ogres, who are not exactly know for their philantropy and pacifism.

In other words, not the kind of place where you let your kids run unsupervised.

The way I'm imagining it is that the peasants live in walled off villages, a bunch of houses on a hilltop surrounded by a wooden pallisade (I'd imagine made out of birch or similar) supported by an earthrampart. Surrounding this hill will be the village communal fields where they grow their food. Each family will own their own house and a small lot closest to the wall and will spend their days working on both the communal field and their own lot.

The villages will also have a tall tower in which they place a couple of sentries that have the job of looking out over the hills surrounding the village for dangers. If they see any they're to sound the alarm and allow the villagers to rush back inside the walls long before any threat comes close.

The village elders, will probably be tasked with teaching and taking care of the children during the days. But once they reach the early teens they will be expected to help their families work the fields. They're considered adults around the age of 15 or so and at that point they'll be expected to start thinking about marriage (but it's probably no hurry).

A family is also bigger than what we call families today. Not only because parents get more children (two reasons, the first is to make sure you have at least one survive to get grandchildren, the other is that there's no such thing as contraceptives) but also because you don't move away from your parents, you get your wife to move in with them. So having four or five generations in the same home, not unsual.

Besides the family homes and the tower the village will also sport:
A granary where the grain is stored.
Several millstones where the grain can be made into wheat.
Probably a pond, so that you can raise ducks and perhaps even fish.
A smithy, sitting next to the smith's family's house.
A storagehouse, the purpose ought to be rather obvious
A chickenhouse, so they can raise chickens.
Some villages will also sport beehives or aviaries (to raise pidgeons... for eating). It will no doubt also contain a pen for sheep.

The typical village will not raise cattle however, cattle needs large space to move around in and eats a lot (compared to sheep and goats anyways). Sure they provide you with milk, leather and meat. But they're rather expensive and I don't think the walled villages can afford to raise many of them. Perhaps the odd ox to drag carts.

Now, so far I've described typical villages. But many villages will also produce other stuff than food. Like maning villages.

In essence, these villages will look just the same. Walled villages with farms around them. But about at the most a day from the village there'll be a small walled camp. This camp will either be a loggingcamp, a mine, a quarry or similar. To this camp some of the men and women, will head off for a season and work in. When they return towards the end of the season they'll bring the ore/stone/wood with them. When the taxcollector comes after harvest they'll hand that resource over. In return they'll keep more of the food for themselves.

Fishing villages on the other hand, will not farm as much. They'll still have the farms. But mostly they'll sail out on the sea and fish instead. Instead of paying grain to the taxcollector they'll give him salted fish.

As for horses... The Queen of Stromgarde as taken into intrest to breed true arathorian horses up at a said secret farmhouse in the mountains. She transports the young-adult mares and stallions to Stromgarde here they are trained accordingly to arathorian requirements. When the horse is "broken in", she provides the army of Stromgarde with their needed steeds. Although as the breeding happens more or less through the whole year, the horses that are "over" and not needed for the moment (aka for soldiers in the army that need new ones due to their other one dying i war or for other reasons), is shipped out to the villages and given as gifts for the inhabitants so that they may move accross the Highlands easier and faster.

Some villages are dedicated to hunting game and capturing wild horses. Much like miners they'll do this in seasons and return when it's time to harvest. Most of the hunting will also be small game caught with traps, not sneaking about on the hills shooting raptors (thought that probably happens on occassion as well )

So how do peasants earn money? Mostly, they don't. Which is why they're poor. A good life for a peasant means you produce enough to pay your tithe and not starve until next harvest. You technically don't need money. The smithy will make you stuff and in exchange he'll get food from the communal field. The tax will be payed with food or resources.

However, some peasants will on occassion take some of the crop they've grown in their family plot and take it to the nearest market and sell it. Earning themselves a few copper in the process. Which they'll naturally invest in stuff they need (like alcohol at the local tavern). This is not something done often since it costs you at least a day's work, so most people stay home.

So what do the peasantry do when they're not busy clearing the field of vermin, sowing, harvesting, making butter, making cheese, gutting fish, etc? Well... this happens on two occassion... when it grows dark (you work from dawn to dusk) or on a holiday.

On the evenings they'll catch up together around the fire, listen to the elder tell a story or sing songs together. Perhaps dance a bit or play a game. But not for a very long time... they need their sleep after all.

Holidays are days of celebration. Some are more or less fixed, like religious holidays and a celebration after a succesful harvest. Others are flexible like marriages, a visit from a bard or such and perhaps contests of martial skill. These are days dedicated to having fun and eating good food.

Life isn't just working and celebrating however, there's religion as well. Within a days travel of every village there'll be another one with a church. Every now and then people will saunter forth from their villages to go to the church for some spiritual indulgement. The countrypriest will spend much of his time travelling between the villages and helping out both with his knowledge on life and existance but also with other stuff like treating wounds, delivering babies and perhaps help with the harvest.

The other thing that is very much present in any peasants life is death. In fact with so much disease and so much danger, death is so omnipresent that most people are rather phased when they reach adulthood. There's probably not a single arathorian who haven't lost a sibling to disease and probably not one village where a mother has died in childbirth.

Particulary disease is a scourge on the countryside, while the clergy can combat it... they can't be everywhere at once either. Naturally... a cold doesn't kill you. Most people can survive a influenza as well. But smallpox and plague are much more deadly.
On the other hand... there's other diseases that we in the modern world suffer from but a typical arathorian wouldn't.

Allergies and asthma for instance is virtually unheard of (pm me if you want details about that). There's no such thing as HIV and most people don't live long enough for cancer to be a problem.
People suffering from autoimmune, neural, muscular and bleeding disorders will unfortunantely go a crash course in survival of the fittest however.

When it comes to martial dicipline... Stromgarde is a nation of warriors and the arathorians are a hardy people. But short of the burgoise and the nobility, there's not many available. Most peasants will probably know their way around a bow (due to training to defend their village) and can probably fight reasonably with a club or a improvised polearm, but they do not know how to fight. They'll never have learned how to dodge and are not used to see people get killed. They'll panic easily and doesn't know what to do. They might be better than other peoples... but they're not good.

In fact, doing a draft among the peasantry is a sign of desperation (in all nations). It means that your standing army of warriors (nobles that is) is not enough and you have to pull your workforce to die in battle (because they will). While they might know how to handle a weapon... they have not had the years of training that a noble has. Nor can they afford the equipment that the burgoise can. Even if they get equipped by you... they're a low morale bunch.

That said... some cultures on terra had a tradition of using contest in archery to recruit skilled marksmen (particulary the british did this). The local noble would pick the best shots and train and equip them and keep them as his tithe to the king (nobles are required to keep a force). Other cultures simply chose those who looked the strongest.
The arathorians, being a warrior culture, no doubt have a similar system where the nobles visit his villages and pick out a few stronglooking lads to equip and train. In return he probably gives their familes a taxcut or some money and the kid is sent away to serve the noble for a number of years (after which he may return or stay, his choice).

That said... the highlands are not a fertile place and the population is low. The fact that Danath, the nephew of king Trollbane, was a mercenary captain hints to how the arathorians really kept a large military. They hired foreigners. Allowing them to be strong despite their low population (it also tells us they used to be rich).

To finish up
:

The typical arathorian peasant is a hardy person. He or she will have been shaped by the windswept landscape filled with danger. They're suspicious and untrusting of strangers and most probably did not care much when they heard that Stromgarde had fallen. Things kept on going as they always had.

They hold hard on what they got and work even harder without complaint, doing their duty to the kingdom by filling the taxcart with food and materials. They won't stand for corrupt nobles and probably are easy to riot against what is unjust however.

Most of them are attentive and have some rudimentary skill with a weapon, so they're a good stock for soldiers but still require much training.

But overall they're a simple people, most cannot read or handle math. They do not know much about the world or about their own faith, most probably don't know more history than what their grandfather can tell them. That the arathi highlands was once an empire is most likely a thing not many know.

Overall they're probably considered a bit backwater by other nations and probably their own nobles as well. But noone will refute that they work hard and do their job well.

This would be between 80 to 90 percent of the human population in the arathi highlands.

As for the population, it would be around four or five thousands, included the Stromgarde army and the royalty.

» Arathi Highlands Game Lore