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eccentric-nucleus · 2 months ago

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anyway wrt 'other projects i am thinking of working on' here is a kind of enormous worldbuilding document about Setting Stuff

sorry for some of the formatting; the tumblr editor seems to be literally incapable of handling paragraphs inside of lists, whether that be in markdown or in actual html; you have to go to rich-text and then manually fiddle with stuff. this is also the only way to add a readmore now, i think?? god why is the tumblr editor so bad. i should just post this on my dreamwidth tbh

so it's a desert planet overall, inspired in some mix of... dark sun's athas, kenshi, morrowind, trigun, gears of war, westerns generally, etc. there's a big crater at one pole (at least one pole) that's a water ocean; it's called the sea of fog b/c the actual ocean is hidden beneath hundreds of meters of local cloud cover. there's an equatorial acid sea & the overall landmass is more-or-less divided into northern and southern halves. there's probably an isthmus somewhere that connects the two but it's kind of out of the scope of my current worldbuilding.

mostly my current worldbuilding has focused on one specific region that i'll say is 'roughly the size of russia'. the 'great desert' (tho as you can tell from the planet description, it's mostly desert all over). loosely: bounded at the north when the desert turns into steppe and corn fiefdoms start to dominate around the polar ocean; bounded at the south by the acid sea; bounded at the west by a huge mountain range; bounded at the east by... less discrete geographical features, but eventually there's perpetual sandstorms and huge unstable fissures that are difficult to pass.

(yopa, in the new hive, is in some variant of this setting. as you might recall, they're down south a few days travel from the acid sea. that's the southern border of the world map! arguably i should have had 'acid rain' as a weather type instead of 'sandstorms', but w/e there's plenty of other things i'd tweak now if i could. weird how i say going north leads to a lowland instead of a highland. that would be below sea level!!)

also there's likely gonna be some level of procgen integration for any game i make with this setting, & so i'm not really 100% on whether this is gonna be a template to build off of, in terms of 'these are the kinds of organizations and cultures you'll see emerge' vs. a specific idea in a specific world. it depends on how good i get at world history simulation, really.

a few notes on the various peoples that inhabit the great desert:

the corn kingdoms of the north. on rolling prairie/steppe with occasional rocky obstructions erupting through. very scattered trees, w/ more cultivated around villages. corn (or a corn-like grain, you know how it is with fantasy worldbuilding) is their staple crop, and pretty much every little village has their own heirloom variety. corn patterning is a highly political subject. every time some new attempted-ruler tries to unify the disparate fiefs and villages the big visible symbol of that is them growing their preferred kind of corn. food tithes only desiring the proper kind of grain or demanding more if it's 'unsuitable varieties', that kind of thing. one of the major strains is a bitter, rich cyan color that needs heavy nixtamalization to be particularly edible & only grows well in the regions immediately ringing the sea of fog; outside it grows pale and reedy from nutrient deficiency. meanwhile another one is a sweeter, mealier red variety that grows well in southern desert soils. i have a whole document on corn varieties and the political implications of growing each one. this is very much inspired by like... japan pre-unification, warring clans kinda situation. they probably have a higher % urbanization than most of the other peoples on this list b/c they actually do food importing i wrote a bunch of stuff on them and only later realized that even if the planet overall is hotter & so they're only just approaching temperate regions at the poles, they're still at the poles so presumably they have like 18 hour nights at winter or w/e. i don't know how that's gonna work out as a farming society. i might have to do some math about axial inclination and revise this section some. occupation-wise: lots of farmers. lots of lawless roving bandits from released conscripts after one clan or another had a military offensive collapse. that kind of thing.

the nomadic tribes of the great desert. there are a bunch of them (12? 13?) but i only came up with names of some of them major tribes. each tribe has a specific variety of weird mask that they wear as face coverings b/c of cultural beliefs about not showing yr face to those outside yr immediate family. the ash tribe wear masks of pitted volcanic rock that are just like, weird rocks. the masks are like a 'public face' in the same style as having a public name vs. a private name, & they consider everybody else to be weird uncivilized faceless demons each clan is made up of several smaller tribes, & they loosely confederate with each other as needed. the clan names get translated into other languages as things like "ash" or "vulture" or "fire-eater", but in their own language there's a chunk more nuance that's not really translated well. each one is associated with a loose constellation of concepts & there's probably some kinda inflectional state that refers to ones own subtribe or family lineage within the larger clan that tends to get removed in translation. anyway they travel along routes in the desert between various oases & are generally considered to be bandits or evil spirits by many of the other peoples who try to inhabit the great desert. there's a lot of king of dragon pass style "it's just friendly social behavior to sometimes raid a nearby camp and steal their goats" activities going on. sure, you don't want to murder the people you're raiding but sometimes they get a cracked head and that's just the cost of having sociable relations. this is how they figure out their relative ordering of power among themselves, but this behavior is not well regarded by the settled villages that get raided. they're just evil bandits who steal their stuff. occupation-wise, i have these put down as producing an awful lot of witches. witches, poets, warriors/raiders, artists. presumably also animal caretakers and scouts/foragers/rangers, too

very far south, along the edges of the acid sea, there are stilt-villages of fisherfolk who catch the weird things that live in the acid shoals. they build from some kinda tree-like acid vegetation and they have to cover everything they build in thick layers of resin pitch to make it acidproof. lots of waxed leather raincapes. pretty much everybody has pitted acid scars all over regardless. there are probably some villages out on islands in the acid sea that are totally disconnected from everywhere else save for like, shingle-bottomed resin boat travel over the acid sea. these are the only peoples who might plausibly have traveled to the other continent. if we're assuming the world used to be more watery & then the oceans sublimated away leaving behind mostly acid, these people would be living on what was formerly the abyssal plain. but maybe that's not what happened!

there's some striped canyons somewhere with big cities carved into the walls & bridges made between them. not a lot of notes on these people aside from lots of artists and bards

there are also the big mesa-temples. big mesa. hollow it out! temple complex at the top. big warren cave-city. they worship families of great beasts they consider to be divine messengers. brulvundojn is from here! it's not great. they're very eugenics-y in their attempts to breed humans into a great beast lineage. generally it doesn't take. when i was rereading the ancient nanowrimo novel that brulvundojn is actually from, i was like "oh noktigo is great" so i guess in this continuity he would be one of the rare true chimeras to come out of the breeding program, & his response was to immediately get the fuck out of there. i'm not sure if brulvundojn is 'from there' in the sense of being some offshoot of a royal lineage, or if he's from there more broadly as in he was once a peer to one of the lineages that got fixated on breeding themselves out into the world & he got out before anybody started worshipping him. the thing with the great beasts is that they are less, like, physical animals that are big and weird, and more like a physical embedding of a physical rule or structure. well, 'the new hive' is an extremely low-fantasy take on things so nobody in that really has magical powers. but in general. brulvundojn embodies the principle that those who trespass boundaries are doomed to death for their violation of the natural order & he doesn't really like being that very much. usually when a great beast breeds w/ a human you just get like, a human with some claws. whatever. sometimes you get another great beast, who is less a separate individual and more a different facet of the great beast's concept. a true chimera who has some of the conceptual nature is very rare. they're also very dangerous b/c great beasts are kind of circumscribed in their capacity for free action by the strictures of their concept, & chimera don't have that. they just have spooky powers and the capacity to do whatever they want with them. anyway some of the older lineages of great beasts are no longer living in a mesa-temple with their families so much as they are unweaving the conceptual boundaries of reality and reweaving it into something more aligned with their conceptual judgment. you can think of it as a pocket dimension if you like. or like the oblivion dimensions in the elder scrolls.

the walled oasis cities! they're also in the middle of the great desert, maybe a little on the northwestern-ish expanse. these are the most dark sun aspect of the setting really. ancient mages, maybe responsible for the ruin of the world, decide to set up a civilization to serve them. the big capital city-states all have the mage's domain (big tower, w/e) at the center, & the entire industry exists essentially to serve them. over time they've allowed lesser mage families to spring up (they need somebody to do the weak magic, after all) and those sometimes establish smaller cities with their own mage towers at the center. most of the original mages have retired from public position as official dictatorial mage-emperor for life, b/c they're perfectly capable of keeping the society tuned to their needs without also having to do any of the actual work of running it. meanwhile, all the citizens in the cities are like "wow we sure are lucky to be born in the only true, free society!!" while they are busy having their labor exploited and having their unions crushed by mage-knights and dying young of poverty and sickness. i feel like it's a little too on-the-nose tbh. architecturally they're very persian-influenced oh yeah so a few centuries ago a mage constructed some helper workers in the form of chesspiece/chaturaji golems. pawns to do simple menial labors, and then rooks/boats for building, knights for scouting, elephants/bishops for simple magic and the management of other golems, and then finally royals to create new golem pieces. then the royal pieces killed him because he was the last remaining inefficiency in the perfect automated world he had built for himself. that's how the cautionary fable goes, at least; maybe their true motives were different. anyway now there's a whole subspecies of chesspiece golems & i have a big gay romance outlined between a black knight & his childhood friend. they lived in some outlying mage-compound that ended up collapsing & most of the servants escaped and became outlaws. theyre gay fantasy cowboys.

there was at one point an empire of the frozen phoenix, though its lands have receded extensively & its former lands are mostly a few handful of former-peasant tribes picking out a rough existence in the ruins of former cities. only a handful of their cities remain, with more splintering off into rebellion each day. in the remixed version of 'the new hive' the defecting soldiers will probably come from here, which is maybe a problem b/c in my docs i only really have about one line about them, like: 'phoenix empire: former empire, decayed/decaying.'

one of the eastern borders is a land of unstable ground where fissures that ooze blood and rotting meat break open. sometimes acid springs seep fumes down into raw meat and send up charred fumes. there are small, scattered villages of rot-fishers, who live on the edge of the more stable fissures and fish up chunks of meat. they're pale and red-eyed and frequently have bizarre bloated deformities. a lot of people consider them to be harbingers of plague and pestilence. sometimes instead of growing old they metamorph into sinewy flesh monsters with intense psychic powers. i'm sure it's fine.

another one of the eastern borders is a land of perpetual sandstorm, kept going by spells from an order of witches, to hide away their lands from outsiders. how mysterious. wonder what they're up to.

there are moon-rabbits who say they came from the black moon. they live in warrens in the hulls of ancient machines that are strewn across the wasteland, and almost never leave. they're very nervous and conflict-averse. they have a prophecy about the end of the world they've read in the movements of the planets. there's a splinter race of jackalopes who are bigger and much more likely to travel outside. also, they have horns. occupations: engineers, glassblowers, astronomers, artificers.

the northern foothills of the western mountains are sparsely covered with vegetation and sometimes broken up into karst mesas, and clinging to the tops of some of them are the remnants of old forests. they're inhabited by remnants of some druidic order, mostly goatmen and humans, and they mostly stay to themselves and aggressively attack any outsiders

the western mountains proper are the eastern edge of some vast and sprawling orc / ogre empire. there are small outposts on the mountains themselves, and vast machine-cities on the far foothills over the main mountain ridge. the springs on the western side of the range seep black oil instead of water, & there's a sea of ichorous oil even further west, beyond the mountains

there's some cenote-cities along the mountains too, probably in the southwest expanse as it peters out for the descent down to the plains of the acid sea. natural cenotes of lightly brackish, highly mineral water have been expanded and cultivated into tiered cenote-cities, mostly inhabited by reptile-people. maybe a bridge to the underground. like the underground with the gheist in it?? we'll see how things shake out

these get shorter and shorter as i go further b/c i want to be closer to the end of this post. i haven't even touched on whatever astau is. anyway.

broadly speaking this is a world where the vast majority of it is rocky, dusty inhospitable wasteland, with scarce outposts of habitable land. travel between the regions is uncommon, though it does happen, and large-scale travel, like with an army, is pretty much unheard of due to the lack of supplies. it all comes back to logistics.

anyway this is the setting/project that a lot of the things i've been talking about over the past few, uh, years have been about? or at least circling around. guess why i was trying to work out medieval crop yields in the first place. i want some numbers here for population and arable land!!

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histoireettralala · 2 years ago

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Capétiens vs Plantagenêts: a matter of suzerainty.

It was also his position as suzerain which gave Louis VII the chance of interfering in and inflaming the quarrels which raged in the Angevin family. This was an effective means of weakening his great antagonist. Henry II and Eleanor produced a large family, and reared four of their sons to the age at which custom demanded that they should be provided for. Their eldest son Henry was granted Normandy in October 1160 and was associated with his father on the throne of England in 1170. Richard was given Aquitaine in 1169 and Geoffrey Brittany in 1175. John, the youngest child of Henry and Eleanor, was not old enough to be entrusted with any estates until the very last years of his father's reign, and by the time he came of age all the available lands had been given away. As Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Poitiers, the sons of Henry II came to perform homage to the King of France and became his men. It was in vain that Henry II sought to utilise the Norman procedure of pariage to maintain the unity of his continental territories in favour of his eldest son, the "Young King" Henry. (Under pariage the eldest son succeeded to all the heritable property and was alone answerable for it to the suzerain; each of his brothers received a share, but held it of him). This device could not be put into full operation in Aquitaine, which was not part of Henry's heritage but Eleanor's. And when she granted it to Richard, he owed homage not to his father or his eldest brother, but to the King of France. The Young King Henry had done homage as Duke of Normandy to Louis VII in October 1160. When he repeated his homage in 1170 it was made to embrace Anjou, Maine, and Brittany as well. At the same time Richard did homage to Louis for Aquitaine.

It is true that in 1174 Henry II compelled his sons to perform homage to him after their rebellion, but this new homage did not necessarily annul their homages to the King of France. Henry II himself had done homage to Louis VII in 1151 and again in 1169, and was to perform it yet again to Louis's successor, Philip Augustus, in 1180. Thus throughout the conflict between Louis VII and Henry II the French king's suzerainty was affirmed and recognised. This did not save Louis from defeats at his vassal's hands. Nevertheless, to judge from the Toulouse affair in 1159, Louis' suzerainty occasionally cramped Henry's style, and put him in the wrong in the eyes of contemporaries, including the barons of his continental fiefs. To play the rebel vassal was hardly prudent for a king when many of his own vassals were rebelliously inclined. It was not that the idea of rebellion itself shocked feudal society. On the contrary, it was one of the legitimate courses open to a vassal needing to safeguard his rights against the encroachments of his suzerain. But in the disputes between Louis VII and Henry II, Henry was the law-breaker as well as the vassal in revolt. For his rebelliousness against an impeccable suzerain there could be no justification.

It may be objected that Louis VII was constantly intriguing with Eleanor of Aquitaine and with Henry II's sons. But after all Eleanor, as Duchess of Aquitaine, was herself a royal vassal. Two of Henry's sons had done homage to Louis. Another, Geoffrey, by dint of his father's vassalage, was the French king's rear-vassal. And the king had, as suzerain, not merely the right but the duty to concern himself with the welfare and harmony of his great vassal's family, to ensure that a proper settlement was made on the sons. It would be unfair to accuse Louis of hypocrisy; nor did Henry ever complain that the French king was making trouble in his family. Louis' own grievances against Henry were many and varied, and Henry never made a serious effort to deny their validity.

Thus from 1154 to 1180 Henry II had the appearance of a vassal engaged in unjustifiable revolt against his suzerain. This line of conduct undermined his own position. It constantly reminded the baronage of the Angevin fiefs that the King of France was Henry's suzerain- if only because his suzerainty was so often invoked. And it helped to prevent the fusion of the individual elements of the Angevin empire on the continent. Provincial separation, already too strong for Angevin rule to subdue, was reinforced.

Robert Fawtier- The Capetian Kings of France

#xii #robert fawtier #the capetian kings of france #louis vii #henry ii of england #aliénor d'aquitaine #henry the young king #richard the lionheart #geoffrey plantagenêt #john lackland #jean sans terre

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oleworm · 2 years ago

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Was thinking about the story we're writing and how I would explain it to somebody else (it's about imperialism, it's about cultural AND economic assimilation [can't really have one without the other], it's about the unequal allocation of resources, it's about control strategies, it's about the games local elites play to maintain a degree of power within an Empire or adjacent to an Empire, it's about a person who believes a story about who they are and about how life is and how they make poor choices by taking the fiction as a fact, it's about how a person grows up without consistent adult figures in their life constructs a piecemeal identity and goal in life, it's about finding love and care in a place that should not allow for life beyond the barest animal functions, etc) and that also made me think about how the first time I was made to seriously consider the existence of empires was in a class about [redacted] and how to identify them in the [redacted] record, what were the physical markers of its existence when there was no writing to refer to, but also what modern and historical empires did, the typical centre-periphery thing, direct vs. hegemonic control, etc; meanwhile few or no comments were made about how we or our professors were enabling extractivist [redacted] by US institutions and individuals because it came with its own benefits of connections and prestige, it was interesting to think how the more established professors had their little fiefs, dispensed sinecures ("I'll give you a museum," "I'll talk to my buddies at Stanford / Yale and they'll let you in just like that, but it means that you will defend me when allegations are made against me / but it means that I am rewarding you for having slept with me"), and one of the reasons they could trade in these positions is that US [redacted] aren't allowed to excavate most of their own sites so they have to go somewhere else, and guess what we have a lot of!

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reussir-a-tout-prix · 1 year ago

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Gabrielle Kane vs Souleymane Ciss : Le procès en appel renvoyé au 15 janvier. Près de sept mois après sa condamnation par la chambre correctionnelle de Dakar à trois mois de prison avec sursis et à payer 2 millions FCFA comme dommages et intérêts au sieur Souleymane Ciss pour atteinte à son honneur, revoilà Gabrielle Kane devant la chambre d’appel. La féministe avait interjeté appel et son recours qui devait être jugé ce lundi devant la Cour d’appel de Dakar vient d’être renvoyé au 15 janvier 2024. Gabrielle Kane vs Souleymane Ciss : Le procès en appel renvoyé au 15 janvier Gabrielle Kane rattrapée par son passé, des photos fuitent sur la toile En effet, l’activiste a été jugée et condamnée le 5 mai 2022 pour des faits de diffamation et injures publiques à l’endroit de Souleymane Ciss, ex candidat à la mairie de Thiès Est. Ayant interjetée, le procès qui était initialement prévu pour le 20 novembre a été renvoyé au 4 décembre avant d’être renvoyé à nouveau. Adji Sarr est devenue folle révèle Gabrielle Kane 1 → A LIRE AUSSI Justice : Gabrielle Kane devant la Cour d’appel ce lundi 4 décembre Pour la petite histoire, Souleymane Ciss avait servi une citation à Gabrielle Kane . Cette dernière avait publié sur sa page Facebook un post dans lequel elle accusait l’édile politique « d’avoir répudié une fille âgée de 18 ans justement 4 jours après avoir consommé le mariage, sous prétexte qu’elle n’était pas vierge ». À cela, elle ajoutait que cet homme qui était investi dans son fief de Thiès comme candidat à la veille des législatives avait besoin du sang d’une fille vierge qu’il allait utiliser à des fins mystiques. Adji Sarr est devenue folle révèle Gabrielle Kane 2 → A LIRE AUSSI Le procès de l’Oustaz Oumar Sall renvoyé au 8 décembre Des accusations que la partie civile avait contredite en soutenant que la fille dont Gabrielle Kane faisait allusion était son épouse. Néanmoins, Souleymane Ciss avait, devant les premiers juges, reconnu avoir divorcé de son épouse du fait qu’elle n’était pas vierge. Gabrielle Kane vs Souleymane Ciss Le procès en appel renvoyé au 15 janvier → A LIRE AUSSI Cristiano Ronaldo ruiné par un procès à un milliard ? Et Gabrielle Kane, pour sa part, avait maintenu ses accusations en soutenant que tout ce qu’elle avançait était avéré, parce que Souleymane Ciss avait laissé la fille dans un piteux état après leur nuit de noces. Ce qui d’après elle est prouvé par un rapport médical versé au dossier.

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pateralba · 1 year ago

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FEODALİZM

Konuyu evrenselleştirmek için kral vs. gibi yetke adları yerine "egemen" sözcüğünü kullanmayı seçtim. Öncelikle bilinmelidir ki feodalizm komplekstir. Ayrıca zaman ve mekan bakımından tüm Orta çağı kapsamaz. Feodalizm, burjuva devrimlerine kadar süren erken feodalizm ve manoryalizm (feodalizmin doruğu - malikane sistemi) olarak iki sürece ayrılır. İki ayrı feodal sürece ek olarak yıkılış sürecinden söz edeceğim.

Feodal toplum, köleci toplumun bağrından koptu. Orta çağda, köleci toplum devrilirken feodal toplum kuruldu. Feodalizm yavaşça ortaya çıktı. Büyük toprak tekelleri rakiplerine baskı yaptı ve eşitsiz rekabet oluştu. Köylüler iflas etti ve seçkinlerin gözetimine geçti. Feodal toplumda koruyan-korunan (süzeren-vassal) ilişkisine dayanan fief sözleşmesi vardı. Bu sözleşme ile taraflar bağlılıklarını yasallaştırdılar. Feodalizm egemenliğin savunmasına dayanıyordu. Orta çağda egemenler topraklarını savunamadı ve toprağın bir bölümünü soylulara verdi. Soylular toprak kazandıklarında düşük rütbeli korunanlara dağıttılar. Onlar da kendilerine verilen toprağa karşı asker beslemeye ve feodallere destek sözü verdi.

Feodalizm, ayrıca egemenlerin en üstte olduğu hiyerarşik ilişkiye dayanır. Köleci toplumdan kalan devletler, toprakları çıkarları karşılığında kölelere dağıttı ve köleci toplumun sonunu hazırladı. Dağıtılan toprak (feod) sınıflı toplumun feodalizm sürecini başlattı. Yeni egemen sınıfa hizmet eden serfler, köleler gibi mülksüzdü. Toprak satılsa da, feodal değişse de serf toprakla birlikte satılırdı. Tarımda serf emeği köle emeğinin yerini aldı. Tarım ekonomisinde tekelleri feodaller temsil etmeye başladı. Orta çağın özgür çiftliklerine allod denir. Allodları alıkonulan köylüler, topraklarını düzenli işleme koşuluyla tekellerden toprak aldı. Bu geçici kullanıma prekarey adı verilir. Tekeller yerleşik düzenden yarar sağladıkları için köylüleri topraklardan çıkarmadı. Feodalizmin kuruluş sürecinde feodalin mülkünü kullanan bağımlı köylüler hukuken üçe ayrılıyordu. Özgür kökenliler, bağımlılar ve köle kökenliler. İkinci ve üçüncü gruptakiler, erken Orta çağda ortaya çıkan toprağa bağlı kiracı çiftçilerin (kolonuslar) ve köle kökenlilerin devamı olanlardı fakat birinci gruptakiler feodalizmin başlangıç sürecinde topraklarını yitirerek serf olanlardı. İlerleyen süreçte allod sahibi diğer özgür köylüler de topraklarını ve bağımsızlıklarını feodale kaptırdılar ve serf oldular. Feodalizmde feodaller, iki gruptan oluşur. Soylular ve ruhban takımı (din adamları). Soylular, köleci toplumda bedeni kuvvetli olanlardan buraya değin gelebilmeyi başarmış aylaklar, krallar, prensler, dükler, baronlar, kontlar veya başka dillerde çok daha fazlası idi. Ve insanlığın ilk asalakları din adamları, psikoposlardan rahiplere veya başka inançlarda başka şeyler olarak adlandırılan bir yığın parazit sürüsü. Ve ayrıcalıksızlar, serfler! Feodalizmde güçlü merkezi devlet yetkesine rastlanmaz. Skolastiğin egemen olduğu toplum yaşamında din etkilidir. En üstte egemen (çar, padişah, kral vs.) vardır. Çoğu ulus için egemenleri, yaratıcı ile bağlarını kuran varlıktı ve kontrolü altındaki toprakların tek sahibiydi. İlerleme çok yavaştı. Dolayısıyla artı değer yönetimi egemenlerin yetkesiyle belirlendi. Yani feodal toplum da tıpkı köleci toplum ve ileride feodal toplumun bağrından kopacak kapitalist toplum gibi siyasidir. Feodalizmde, feodal yönetim yereldir ve bu yönetim kamu yetkesidir. Ayrıca güçlü merkezi devlet yetkesi olmasa da merkezi yönetim ve kamu yetkesi hiçbir zaman tümüyle kaybolmamıştır. Egemen ise eşitlikler arasında birincidir. Feodalizmin temeli serfler tarafından üretilen artı değere tekellerin el koymasıdır. Temel eylem tarımdır ve bu toprağı temel üretim aracı yapar. Bu tekellere toprağın rantından yararlanma imkanı verir. Erken feodalizm, ticaret ve şehir yaşamının ortadan kalktığı ve yerini kır yaşamının aldığı bir düzendir.

Temel mülk toprak ve buna bağlı üretim ilişkileri feodalizmin tüm toplumsal düzenine işlemiştir. Ayrıca şehirde de sosyal farklılaşma vardır. Çünkü feodalin etki alanında yalnız köyler değil şehirler de yer alır. Feodalin sömürüsüne şehirli zanaatkarlar da uğradı. Çünkü feodalizmde köy, politik olarak şehre egemendi. Feodal, şehirliler için en büyük egemendi. Fakat zanaatkarlığın artması ile tefeci ile burjuvazinin elinde servet birikmesi, sonunda şehrin köy üzerinde egemenliğini beraberinde getirdi. Feodal egemenlik zanaatkarlığı ve ticaretin gelişmesini engelliyordu. Bu nedenle şehirler sürekli olarak feodallere karşı mücadele ediyordu. Sonunda politik özgürlüklerini, öz idare hakkını, sikke hakkını kazanmayı ve vergiden kurtulmayı başardılar. Burjuvazi, tefeciler ve zengin zanaatkarların elinde yeterince para bulunduğu için, şehirler feodallerden para karşılığında da kurtuldular. Fakat yine de çoğu kez özgürlüklerini silahlı mücadelelerle kazandılar. Feodal egemenlikten kurtulan şehirlerde ise burjuvazi, tefeciler ve büyük emlak sahipleri egemendi. Feodal mülkiyet, mülk olan toprak üzerindeki insanları da kapsardı. Erken feodalizmde ücretsiz ekonomi ve faiz ekonomisi olmak üzere iki temel üretim biçimi vardır. Ücretsiz ekonomide bir bölümü feodale ayrılan toprak ikiye ayrılır. Serf, feodalin toprağında kendi ihtiyacı için emek verir. Bu ekonomide gerekli ürün ve artı ürün zaman ve mekana göre birbirinden ayrılır. Serf feodalin toprağında çalışmadığında kendi toprağında çalışır. Faiz ekonomisinde bütün toprak köylüye dağıtılır ve ürünün bir bölümü faiz olarak feodale verilir. Serf, bu ekonomide artı emeği kendi ekonomisinde harcar. Köy ile şehir arasında ticaretin gelişmesiyle iç pazar oluştu. Ticaret sermayesi, köylü ve zanaatkar arasındaki değişimin aracıydı. Burjuvanın karı, eşit olmayan değişimden kaynaklanıyordu. Burjuva metayı değerinin altında satın alır ve üstünde satardı. Karın kaynağı, köylü ve zanaatkarın ürettiği artı ürün ile bazen de gerekli ürünün bir bölümüydü. Dış ticaretin gelişmesiyle birlikte meta üretim ve dolaşımının farklılaşması da güçlendi. Dış ticaret, köleci toplumda oldukça gelişmişti fakat feodalizme geçiş sırasında geriledi. Üretimin artması ve meta ilişkileri dış ticareti yeniden canlandırdı. Sonuç olarak para dolaşımı gelişti ve sikke basımı mükemmelleşti. Üst yetkeye göre ekonomi, küçük devletçilik, yolların bozukluğu, ulaşım aracı geriliği, standart ölçü ve para biriminin olmayışı ve feodallerin burjuvaziyi soymaları Orta çağ ticaretini engelliyordu. Feodal toplumda para ililşkileri geliştikçe tefeci sermayesi de gelişti. Tefeciler feodal soylulara olduğu kadar zanaatkar ve köylülere de borç para veriyordu. Para ilişkileri yaygınlaşırken feodal mülk de pazara dahil olmaya başladı. Feodallere, şehir zanaatkarlarının lüks ürünlerini satın almak için daha fazla para gerekli oldu. Böylece köylülerin ücretsiz ekonomi ve diğer ödemelerini para ödemesine çevirdiler. Bununla birlikte köylü ekonomisi de pazara dahil oldu. Feodalizmde toprak mülkiyetinin yapısındaki hiyerarşi toplumu da şekillendirir. Daha önce bahsettiğimiz gibi fief gereği, küçük toprak feodali, feodal soyluya ödeme yapmak zorundadır. Toprak feodali savaşta feodal soyluların yanında yer alır, buna karşılık onlar da toprak feodallerini korur. Fakat bu durum ileride para ile değişecektir. Erken feodalizmin asıl sorunu, fetihten sonra başlardı ve egemenin sorunları çözmesi gerekirdi. Çözümler temel bir zorlamaya dayanırdı. Fethedilen topraklar egemen istediği zaman belli sayıda askeri beslemek amacıyla seçkinlere bağışlanacaktı. İlk başlarda bu bağışlar egemen tarafından alınarak başkasına verilebiliyordu, mirasla bırakılamıyordu. İlk egemenler öldüğünde toprakları başkalarına verebilecek kadar güçlü olabiliyorlardı. Fakat genel eğilim toprakların soydan soya geçmeye başlamasıydı. Bir kez gerçekleştikten sonra egemenler kendi güç merkezlerini oluşturdu ve kendi askerlerini kontrol eden yerel seçkinler üzerinden daha az kontrol sahibi oldu.

Bu durum egemenleri ve seçkinleri destek konusunda pazarlık yapmak durumunda bıraktı. Egemen yerel seçkinleri kontrol etmesi için taşralı ve yerel valiler tayin etti. Sorun, egemenin bu görevi verebileceği az sayıda kişi olmasıydı. Bu nedenle devlet birkaç büyük valiliğe ayrıldı. Dikkatli bir egemen söz konusu olduğunda, sistem işledi. Fakat taht verasetine karşı çıkıldığında egemene yakın olanların yararlanacağı büyük güç merkezlerinin oluşmasına neden oldu. Taht veraseti sorunlarından kaçınabilinirse, devlet istikrarlı yönetildi. Fakat yine de iç sorunlar birikti. Seçkinler soydan soya geçen mülklerine iyice yerleşiyor ve topraklarını, ya yoksul köylüden satın alıyor, ya da doğrudan köylülerin topraklarına el koyuyordu. Yürürlüğe konan vergi sistemleri giderek dağılım dışına çıktı ve verimliliğini kaybetti. Seçkinler vergi vermekten kaçındıkça, vergi ödemeyen kurumlara, özellikle dini gruplara, daha fazla toprak bağışlandı ve sorun büyüdü. Egemenin elde edeceği zenginlik, yetersiz ulaşım nedeniyle denetlenmesi zor olan taşra seçkinlerinin yükselişine paralel olarak azaldı. Her iki durum da orduyu beslemenin zorlaşması anlamına geliyordu. Genellikle dayanıksız olan egemen, yeni egemen tarafından yerine başka bir yetke getirilerek kaldırılıyordu. Fakat serfler için çok az şey değişiyordu. Mülk sahibi seçkinlerin gelmesi, egemenleriyle çoğu zaman az temasları olduğu için pek bir şeyi değiştirmiyordu. Egemenler bir iç savaş veya fetih sürecinin ardından çok az istikrar sağlardı. Fakat bu etkili bir vergilendirme ve bir miktar yiyecek fazlasına el konulması demekti. Manoryalizm, egemenliği kendine yeterli duruma getirmeye dayanıyordu. Toprak, korunanlar ve koruyanlar arasında bölündüğünde, efendiler köylülere bir toprak parçasında yaşamaya ve işleyim yapmaya izin verdiler. Efendiye ait olan topraklarda yaşamanın bir sonucu olarak, köylüler, efendiye ürünler sağladı, evlerinde onlarla ilgilendi ve istedikleri her şeyi yaparak hizmet etti. Bu köylüler serfti. Bu özel korunana ait tüm toprak, rabbin malikanesinin etrafında dönüyordu. Böylelikle manoryalizm ortaya çıktı. Bu ekonomik bir sistemdi. Bireysel olarak varlığını sürdürdü ve serf ile rab arasındaki ilişkiyi ele aldı. Feodalizmin doruğu manoryalizmde, birçok kırsal ekonominin yerini malikane ekonomisi aldı. Manoryalizm, seçkin toprak sahiplerinin köylülerle holdingleri arasında ilişki sistemidir.

Serflerin her açıdan yargı yetkisi altında oldukları efendilerine karşı sorumlulukları vardı. Malikane toprak mülküydü, ekonominin merkezi ve bu toprak seçkinlerinin yanı sıra din adamlarının organizasyonuydu. Din adamları yönettikleri manorlara "rabbin malikanesi" dediler. Bu malikanenin merkezinde büyük bir ev vardı. Bu ev malikanenin efendisinin yaşadığı yer, ayrıca malikane mahkemesinde yapılan davaların yeriydi. Malikane ve toprak sahibinin mülkleri büyüdükçe, diğer soyluların gelip gidebilme amacıyla daireler ev üzerine yapıldı. Efendinin birçok malikanesi olduğunda, her malikaneye bir denetçi atardı. Burası aynı zamanda askeri gücün merkeziydi ve kale kadar güçlü olmasa da malikaneyi çevreleyen duvarlar, evin duvarlarının içine kadar girerdi. Korunan bu evin etrafında küçük kiracı evler, tarım arazileri ve tüm topluluk tarafından kullanılan ortak alanlar vardı.

Kiralık topraklar, efendinin ekonomik çıkarı için köleler veya kötü adamlar olarak bilinen kiracılar tarafından işlendi. Bu kiracılar kalıtsaldı, tek bir ailenin birkaç nesli aynı alanlarda çalışabilir ve yaşayabilirdi. Buna karşılık, serf ailesi yasal olarak efendiyle varılan hizmet anlaşmasını sağlamakla yükümlüydü. Son olarak, serbest köylü toprağı yaygın değildi. Ancak bazı küçük işletmelerde serbest toprak vardı; köylüler burada serf komşularının aksine özgürce ve hala malikanenin yetki alanına giren kiralanan ve yetiştirilen toprakta üretebilirdi. Serfler ve kötü adamlar genellikle özgür değildi ama köle de değildi. Onlar ve aileleri sözleşmeli olarak malikanenin efendisinin yargısı altına girdiler. Adaletin sisteminin merkezi, malikane mahkemesiydi ve davaları düzenledi. Hırsızlık, saldırı vb. diğer suçlamalar kiracılar arasında anlaşmazlık olarak görüldü. Malikaneye karşı işlenen suçlar sosyal düzeni bozduğu gerekçesiyle ciddiye alındı. Örneğin efendinin ormanından bir şey alıp yiyen daha şiddetli cezalandırıldı. Daha büyük görülen suçlar daha büyük bir mahkeme ile egemene veya temsilcisine gönderildi. Sözleşmeler, kiracılık, çeyizler ve diğer yasal anlaşmazlıklar, malikane mahkemesinin baskın işi idi. Çoğu durumda efendi kendisi karar vermez ve on iki seçilmiş erkekten oluşan bir jüri karar verirdi. Köleci sürece göre ilerici olan feodalizm artık gericileşti. Birikim yapamaz duruma geldi. Tarım ve ticari sermaye grupları arasında çekişmeler başladı. Ülkeler, toprağın sermaye olduğu bir piyasadan, ticarete dayalı bir piyasaya geçtiğinde malikane sistemi geriledi. Daha sonra çoğu malikane, para temelli bir ekonomiye geçti. Avrupa da para temelli bir ekonomiye geçtiğinde, malikane sistemi sonunda yok olmaya başladı. Fief sahibi korunanların sunduğu hizmetler, daha etkili ve daha az sorun çıkaran kişiler tarafından görülmeye başlandı. Merkezi devlet yetkesinin güçlenmesi ve yetkinin artık gerçekten egemenlerde toplanması, diğer taraftan şehirlerin zenginleşerek kendi güvenlik birimlerini oluşturması, feodalizmi zayıflattı. Feodal egemen sınıfın gelir sağladığı ve bu gelirini artırabileceği tek kaynak, serfin kendi geçimini sağlamak için gerekli olanın ötesinde emek vermesidir. O süreçteki emek üretkenliği koşullarında ürünün arttırılması için çok az boşluk vardı. Artı ürünü çoğaltma yolundaki girişimler, yetersiz toprak parçasını işlemeye yönelik zamanın azaltılmasıydı. Bu durum insanın direncini aşan bir noktaya geliyordu, ya da yaşam koşullarını insanca yaşamanın altına düşürüyordu. Emek üzerinde baskının artması, sistem için yıkıcı sonuçları beraberinde getirdi. Sistemi besleyen emeğin üzerinde artan baskı, manorlarda sadece umutsuzluktan kaynaklanan yasa dışı göçlere yol açmadı, aynı zamanda feodal ekonominin boğuşacağı bir dizi bunalımı beraberinde getirdi. Orta çağın başlangıcındaki feodal ekonomide para için fazla yer yoktu. Fakat şimdi şehir burjuvazisi, feodalizme karşı "para" silahına sahipti. Feodal, gereksinimi olan her şeyi, ya çalışma biçimi ya da ürün biçimi olarak kendi serflerinden sağlıyordu. Tüm feodal egemenlik, kendi kendine yeterken savaş yükümleri bile ürün olarak isteniyordu, ticaret, değişim yoktu, para önemsizdi. Genellikle yağma yoluyla kazanılan para vergilerin ödenmesine yarıyor, toplumsal işlevden çok siyasal işlev görmeye hazırlanıyordu. Artık her şey değişmişti. Para, yeni baştan, evrensel değişim aracı durumuna geldi ve bunun sonucu olarak niceliği oldukça arttı. Artık soyluluk bile paradan vazgeçemiyordu. Ve satacak çok az şeyi olduğu, ya da hiç olmadığı, yağma da artık kolay olmadığı için, burjuva-tefeciden ödünç alıyordu. Feodaller, yeni toplar tarafından şatoları saldırıya uğramadan önce para tarafından çoktan esir alınmıştı. Eski kaba ekonomi çoğunlukla varlığını sürdürse de, birçok ülkede köylüler feodale ücretsiz ekonomi sunmak yerine para verdiler. Kırda bile feodal kurumlar toplumsal tabanlarını yitirdi.

Bu çağda, ülkeleri saran para hırsı, 15.yy sonunda feodalizmin para tarafından içten çökertileceğine işaret eder. Bu yüzyılda feodalizm çöküş durumundaydı. Feodalizm karşıtı çıkarlara sahip şehirler, her yerde feodal toprakların içlerine sokulmuşlardı. İsteklerini gerçekleştirmek için kendi başlarına güçsüz olan burjuvazi, tüm feodalizmin başı olan egemenin ta kendisinde, güçlü bir dayanak buldu. Burjuvazinin toplumsal ilişkiler düşüncesinin devlet ilişkileri düşüncesine vardığı, ekonomiden siyasete geçme noktası tam da buraya dayanmakta. Bu noktadan diyebiliriz ki, modern uluslar da, sınıf mücadelesinin ürünleridirler. Ulus devletin gelişiminde egemenin buyruğu vardır. Ticaretle uğraşan burjuvazi monarşiyi desteklemiş ve Papalığın kan kaybetmesi ile monarşiler ciddi güç kazanmıştır. Bu genel karışıklık içerisinde, ulus devletçi egemenlikler ilerleme aracı oldu.

Çünkü egemenlik, düzensizlik içerisinde düzeni, ufalanma karşısında oluşma durumundaki ulusu temsil ediyordu. Bundan dolayı, feodalizmin bağrında oluşan tüm devrimci oluşumlar, egemenlik ne kadar onlara dayanmak zorundaysa, o kadar egemenliğe dayanmak zorundaydı. Gelişme, devamında Roma hukukunda kaldıraç buldu. Feodal koşulları kesinlikle tanımayan ve modern özel mülkiyeti (kendinden önceki koşullara göre iyidir) tamamen önceleyen bir hukukun yürürlüğe girmesi büyük bir ilerleme idi. Feodal soyluluk artık Orta çağda ekonomik anlamda egemenleri ve burjuvaziyi sıkmaya başladı. Çünkü şehirlerin ve o çağda yalnızca egemenlik biçimi altında olanaklı olan ulus devletin gelişmesi için de engeldi. Bu durumda evrenselleşen kültür hareketi feodalizme karşı savaşta burjuvazi ve egemenliğin işini kolaylaştırdı. Egemenler, burjuvazinin ve ticaretin gelişmesine paralel olarak aldığı vergiler nedeniyle merkezi bir ordu kurma ve soylular üzerinde denetim kurma fırsatını yeniden buldular. Gücünü burjuvaziden alan egemenlerin yetkesi arttıkça, soyluların ekonomik üstünlüğü sona erdi. Sonunda merkezi devlet yetkesi kendini soylulara kabul ettirdi ve feodalizmin egemenliği zayıflamaya başladı. Vergilerin artması ve ekonomik duraklamayla birlikte soyluların maliyesi tam bir darbe yedi. Bu noktaya kadar feodal soyluluk, aynı zamanda silahları kullanma tekeli olduğu için her şeye karşın ayakta kaldı. Fakat egemenler bu feodal ordudan kurtulmak ve kendi öz ordularını kurmak için çaba gösterdiler. Bu çağdan sonra, askere alınmışlar ya da kiralanmışlardan oluşan birlikler oranı durmadan arttı. Başlangıçta şehirlerin işgalinde ve kuşatmalarda kullanılan piyadeler söz konusuydu. Ama çağın sonuna doğru kendilerini yabancı prenslerin hizmetine kiralayan ve feodalizmin yıkılışını müjdeleyen şövalyeleri de görüyoruz. Aynı zamanda, şehirlerde özgür köylüler arasında savaşkan bir piyadenin koşulları oluşuyordu. O zamana kadar, alt görevdekiler ile birlikte şövalyelik, ordunun temelinden çok, ordunun kendisiydi. Şövalyeler bir süre bütün savaşlara katıldı ve sonuçları belirledi. Fakat durum birçok noktada birden değişti. İlk olarak İngiltere'de toprak köleliğinin yavaş yavaş ortadan kalkışıyla, yeoman (ordu olarak yetiştirilen özgür doğmuş) ve toprak sahiplerinden oluşan kalabalık bir özgür köylüler gurubu oluştu. Aynı zamanda soyluların veraset çatışmaları ve korunanların özgürlüklüklerini elde etmeleriyle feodalizmin çöküşü hızlandı. Feodallerin son kozları şatolarıydı. Şato arkasına saklanan soyluların egemenlere bağlanmaktan başka seçeneği kalmadı. Zenginlik ölçütü topraktan paraya geçtiğinde sınıflar arasında değişiklikler oldu. Önceden yönetme gücü soylularda ve din adamlarındayken artık yönetme gücüne burjuvazi de ortak oldu. Ticaretle birlikte ortaya çıkan lonca sistemi, faiz, tefecilik gibi yeni oluşumlara sertçe karşı çıkan kilise artık sistemden yararlanmaya başladı. Kitapta yazgısını benimsemiş köylü özgürlüğü tattı. Ürün satışındaki artış, ticaretin yayılmasına yol açtı. Piyasa ekonomosi gelişti. Etkili bir burjuvazi vardı. Burjuvalar çıkarlarını korumak için loncalarda birleşmeye başladılar. Zanaatkarlar şehir atölyeleri kurdular. Sanatkarların feodallerden bağımsız kalmalarına izin verdiler. Bununla birlikte Orta çağın sonunda bilimsel ilerlemenin hızlanmasıyla atölyeler geçmişte kalmıştır. Kapitalistler modern üretim ve ticaret büyüdükçe feodalizmle çatıştı. Feodalizme karşı açılan savaşın ilk başlarda çok iyi sonuçları olmadı. Feodaller, toprak çevirme hareketiyle köylüyü tekrar egemenlikleri altına almak istedi. Bu durum, topraklarından sürülmüş, aç kalmış köylülerin satacak iş gücünden başka bir şey kalmaması sonucunda kapitalizmin ihtiyaç duyduğu işleyim işçilerini hazır hale getirdi. Feodalizm, yalnızca bunlarla değişmedi. Köylü isyanları günlük bir olay halini aldı. Hepsi acımasızca bastırıldı. Sıradan katılımcılar işkence görürken elçiler idam edildi. Bunlarla birlikte köylüler özgürleşti ve şehirler özgür nüfusun kalesine dönüştü. Feodalizmin son kalıntısı ise sanayi devrimi ile yok oldu.

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archangelween · 5 months ago

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>The God in the S1 narration to me seems very much into people making their own choices and not at all down for any Ineffable Plan.

God is the one who tells us that she's playing an ineffable game of her own devising. She calls herself a dealer who won't tell you the rules, etc. That's called horror. And she's clearly amused by it. God is an actual demon by nature, as opposed to the other demons who are forced into terrorizing people.

>What if anything that's happening is the fault of The Metatron-- an evil angel telling everyone that he speaks for God when he really can do no such thing?

I think the Metatron is indeed Lucifer, but that's because Jesus is a horror just like god herself, and he and Lucy swapped places after the fall. Just like A&C have been swapping places, playing for the other team. Literally and figuratively. Because Jesus is a horror who loves running hell and Lucifer is the "good guy". Lucifer played Jesus on earth, he's the one who died on the cross. The Satan we saw in s1 was Jesus putting on airs.

>God can do nothing about any of it because if She intervenes, She's robbing all of Her creations of free will. If even one of them doesn't have it, none of them do.

This is the problem of evil. We have seen that standing by and doing nothing is treated as immoral. Futzing around worrying about the consequences to yourself or burbling about how to justify it does not excuse inaction. If the worst of the demons would intervene to help people, and god would not, then the worst of the demons is infinitely morally superior to god.

>She's cheering on our main characters as they fight the system.

Much as any other game we ourselves play, much as any other fictional story we tell about serial killers and chainsaw murderers....she set up the rules. She set up the game. Fictionally enjoying a chainsaw massacre is fine, because it's not real. As we have explicitly been told, these are real people and you can't treat them like blorbos. Which circles back around to the nature vs nurture, the "rules are reality"....

>Or, God didn't actually program anybody. What if God loves Her creations and gave them free will and dominion over their universe?

I said "program" specifically because that's what rules=reality is. Does it matter if you innately create someone who is unable to obey, vs telling a completely naive person that they can't disobey? It's what we do to children: expect them to obey, hit them when they don't, regardless of who's in the right because children have zero ability to judge for themselves or to fight back. Indeed, "fighting back" is punished by being hit more. Simply "talking back", even when the child is in the right, is punished. You cannot question anything, because that's called disobedience, disloyalty, treason--that's the fall.

Might does not make right. Rules are not reality. But that's what we teach, and that's what people do not question....because questioning reality is treason. Change is not possible. Might makes right means that what the mightiest wants, she gets, and that's what makes reality. You can't change that until.....you have your own house and make your own rules, which isn't actually changing the status quo at all because now you're the embodiment of might makes right.

Tons of feudal fiefs mean you are the king in your domain, and you don't change a single thing about how stuff works that makes you king. Because the rules were already established, that nobody can question those above them.....so as much as you tell yourself you created Eden for your underlings, if they can't leave, if they believe they aren't allowed to question anything---that's not all the different than every other fief lord. How are your underlings to know you won't hurt them just like everyone else would for being treasonous? That's literally what "god is testing me" means. None of them respond with "she's evil and this is wrong". Because loyalty tests, shit tests, are considered perfectly fine, because might makes right and we can't question her. So....obviously.....anything god does is the highest of morality and she deserves to be abusive, because dontchasee it's not actually abuse, you deserve it. Just like Job.

>She's cheering on our main characters as they fight the system.

That's the ineffable game. Will anyone throw caution to the wind and break the system? It's great entertainment. Tell people it's impossible, because you made the rules like that, and then see if people will cause an apocalypse--that's what upending the system IS--to.....just to talk to you.

So yeah, god is cheering on her own chainsaw massacre victims. She's got the chainsaw. Just like we cheer on fictional people in horror movies, but listen, they're not real, and we created that story. We are the fictional serial killer. God did the same thing....except with real people. She created a horror game with real people, she's the one chasing them down to kill them. She will not stop, she will go ahead and kill them. She's the knife at Issac's throat, but this time she does not tell Abraham to stop.

Under might makes right and the rules are reality, that means everything that happens to you because you can't stop god--and no one can stop her--is your fault and you deserve it. Like Job said. If you do not fight back, if you do not win, you deserve it, and it's not abuse, it's "edification", suffering makes you a saint. If you're not a saint, then clearly you just need to suffer more.

>God never says there's an Ineffable Plan-- She says there's an Ineffable Game. A game means everyone has free will & is making their own choices. It's Heaven that's trying to tell everyone that they're doing the will of God but God herself is saying go live free so that's why I trust Her more than The Metatron. :) I know, there's so many theories-- it's great fun!

But rules are reality, might makes right, and so anything god says is treated as immutable reality. We see this a lot in Star Trek with the "vulcans never lie/you lied/no, I implied or made an error". Except god does lie, because she told everyone she doesn't--that's what "don't question me" means: she is never wrong. Which is a lie.

God wrote the Great Plan. With the intent that it be carried out. To see how people act--again, she's the chainsaw serial killer. It is not mercy if she does not kill you, it's just serial killer behavior. Mercy requires that you believe you deserve to die, that she's right to torture people. She told people that the plan is reality, deliberately deceiving people.

Who has free will when you're told something is immutable reality? When the rules say it's not, and rules are reality? Unless you want to die--and nobody ever chooses death, do they? so predictable--you cannot fight. Nothing changes. You can't do anything. Because you will get caught, god will know because she said she has omniscience, you can't get away with it, you can't overthrow god under might makes right. Fighting immutable reality means you die, means you deserved eternal torture. Means you were wrong to do it.

And again, if everyone has free will and these are real people, what does it say about god that she sits back and allows all this? Deliberately deceives them and does not correct them? Is she just too stupid to understand that's what she's doing? We don't even tolerate that from toddlers. She cannot be both that stupid and omniscient. She also cannot be called benevolent. It's outright neglect. Toddlers also have "free will" but if your parents go "oh well, he's drinking bleach, freeeee willllll" that is called abuse through neglect and you lose custody. If god is lord our father, then at the very least hold her to the standards we expect of even the most incompetent parents.

>The Fly is… I think it's like… think of his mind like a computer and The Fly as a flash drive containing all the files he backed up onto it. The files are also still in his mind itself [...] Throughout the week, he exhibits behavior that is like what someone who has suffered trauma they can't recall is like.

It is a depiction of trauma, yes, but the reason isn't "this is ptsd" in universe. If you take files off a computer, you can still access them if you go get the external drive. The fly is a container, storage, and he can access that with great effort. But his head isn't built for that anymore--you can't just plug in any drive and expect it to work, a floppy disk doesn't fit into modern computers. You can still get the info off it with great effort, but it'll be corrupt. You have to access it correctly or you lose everything. Doing it with great effort results in partial or corrupt access.

He could have also chosen which memories to keep, which to shunt to the fly. He didn't keep "all the angels shouting for joy", he seems to have only kept his song. Factory reset, with a few exceptions. Wipe the drive. Except the fly isn't actually a computer so having "leaks", or the fly/aka Gabriel choosing to back port some more info can happen.

Gabriel is a stand in for Christ this season (the role swaps around, but mostly it's him). In the bookshop attack, it's the harrowing of hell; when Christ died, his body didn't go to hell but his spirit did. That's the split: it's why the demons reject Gabriel (not literally, metaphorically) and it's why Crowley is the one who saves the people and goes up to heaven. Jim is the body, the fly/Gabriel is the soul, and Crowley is the divinity.

I think that's also why Jim tries to kill the fly. They are not completely separate things; what your body does affects your soul, vice versa. If you kill your soul, you get to live free of sin when it goes to hell and you stay behind. But giving that up means you don't know who you are, you live in ignorance. Ignorance is bliss only if what you don't know doesn't affect you. What you don't know can still kill you, as with the dealer won't tell you the rules or even let you see at all.

>And FYI-- I'm really excited to find someone else who also thinks that Gabriel knew Aziraphale was lying in the Job minisode and went along with it because he could get away with it since Crowley and Aziraphale had given him a way out of killing the kids. 😊

:D Gabriel is the one who "suggests" to Aziraphale that there is a way to save the kids at all. Idk if he knew Az was rogue already; he could have, given what we suspect about him and the Ark, but I think Gabriel just takes every opportunity to plausibly deny there's other ways to do things. Gabriel was playing the "wiggle room" interpretative dance long before Az ever tried to bend the rules. His idiot persona is cover for that.

if the fly was outside the box when aziraphale went to pick it up. and the fly is his "him". do you think the fly lead him to aziraphale? from where ever he was before?

#good omens #god #the fly

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tanoraqui · 3 years ago

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Outline of a Guide to the Lord of the Rings Movies if you Can't Watch Them With a Books Fan (Chronological Order)

Before we start: quick primer on the existential difference between Men (gender-neutral) and Elves (also gender-neutral, I suppose); VERY simplified rundown of the difference between Valar, Maiar, and etc. races.

Leaving the Shire: this is actually pretty smoothly adapted BUT in the books it all happens over a much longer period of time and Sam, Merry, Pippin, and another hobbit named "Fatty" Bolger all put together Frodo's actual plan (leaving the Shire) and the gist of his mission (the danger of the Ring) and inform him that except for Fatty, they're coming too. The scene where they tell him this is hilarious.

Wizard Fight: this is not how wizards fight

Nobody minds that they left this out but FYI for worldbuilding: the Barrowdowns, Tom Bombadil (GALOSHES!; swords of Westernesse for the hobbits)

Arwen vs. Glorfindel (we actually do support Arwen)

Council of Elrond: actually Sam was noticed halfway through and they just let him stay because he refused to leave; stubborn icons only

Everyone Elrond Loves Not Just Dies but Actively Chooses To Leave Him: A Tragedy in Three Ages (but still this characterization is bad)

Corrollary: Aragorn Had No Hesitation Toward Kingship

Saruman's Storm: this also is far too explicit magic, but it fucks so I'll allow it

Moria: that's Balin from The Hobbit! Also several other dwarves from The Hobbit! If you didn't yet, this is where you're supposed to realize that this will not be an overall happy romp like Bilbo's book

[Optional: The Creation of Dwarves (And Ents BTW)]

The Origin of Balrogs (ft. reprise of What Are Maiar (and Istari))

Why Galadriel's Gift to Gimli Makes Me Shriek Softly: a frantic attempt to explain the entirety of The Silmarillion as fast as physically possible before I'm cut off by loving but tired friends

Aragorn Had No Hesitation Toward Kingship (Reprise: And Boromir's Death Scene Does ALL the Work In It) [delivered through tears] [can be delivered after the movie ends]

[break for snacks]

Geopolitics are More Complex: Saruman is properly his own faction, not subservient to Mordor, and also Gondor has fiefs and allied states.

Brief primer on the historical difference between Men of Rohan and Gondor, and why this matters thematically

Viggo Mortensen's Toe

[Reminder: Ents and Dwarves, Yavanna and Aulë]

Treebeard is based on CS Lewis, bc Tolkien liked trolling his friends

The flag just happened to blow off right then! Movie MAGIC!

Again, this wizard magic is far too dramatic

This orcs&wargs fight didn't happen in the books either but whatever

FARAMIR IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS

Elrond Deserves Better (In Multiple Ways) (Reprise) and Geopolitics are More Complex (Dunedain, Not Galadhrim, in Helm's Deep Reprise) [can be delivered after the movie ends]

FARAMIR IS STILL MUCH BETTER THAN THIS (Osgiliath Remix)

[break for snacks, maybe a short walk]

Saruman didn't die here, nor did Wormtongue, but we'll get back to that later

Faramir is being alright now; I'm just still angry about how he is in the 2nd movie

Gollum didn't frame Sam to separate them like this in the books but whatever. Frodo's projection and deteriorating mental state and Sam's caring incomprehension are compelling

Pippin got shown around Minas Tirith by a ten-year-old, casually downplayed the fact that he is the closest thing the Shire has to real aristocracy, and it was great

Tired reminder that neither Elrond Nor Aragorn Should Need These Character Arcs

Gandalf Knocking Out Denethor: It's Funny Because He's Probably Not Supposed To Do That

The terrifying, despair-inducing screams of the Nazgul and their mounts maybe-not-deliberately evoke Luftwaffen shrieks and air raid sirens!

ARAGORN ARRIVES WITH THE LIVING, NOT THE DEAD. He only leads the dead to take the ships; he sails them and arrives at Minas Tirith with a small army gathered from the no-longer-corsair-besieged southern fiefs, as well as the Dunedain (his people! including Elrond's sons!) who've been with him since Helm's Deep [optional: reading aloud this passage in the book, bc it's Epic]

The books make it explicit over and over that Isildur's heir will be known not just by sword or countenance but by having "THE HANDS OF A HEALER", and this is where it culminates

[Optional: quick discussion of Eowyn and feminism, ft. the themes of the work, the general presence of women in the work, etc]

Tolkien specifically described Sam defending Frodo from Shelob as "No onslaught more fierce was ever seen in the savage world of beasts; where some desperate small creature armed with little teeth alone, will spring upon a tower of horn and hide that stands above its fallen mate"!

Sam took the Ring, Sting, and Galadriel's star-glass and accidentally convinced all the orcs that he was some great and terrible Elven warrior

Orcs WERE Whipped (And Haradrim Have Loved Ones): Tolkien was deliberately writing about he horrors of fighting a faceless enemy, a la his days in the trenches, but didn't say the average soldier had no face, merely that our heroes cannot see them

Only Pippin went to the Battle at the Black Gates; Merry was still recovering from hamstringing the Witch-King

The giant eagles are servants of Manwë, king of the Valar, and so basically the most official divine intervention one can get

Needless to say, Eowyn and Faramir's Recovery Romance was more than 1 scene in the books

The Scouring of the Shire

This Wasn't Actually The LAST Ship: Sam; Legolas&Gimli; other Fellowship deaths; other elven (and half-elven) characters

"Into The West" was inspired by a young filmmaker who died of cancer!

#lotr #lord of the rings #i wrote this instead of working yes #feel free to point out if i missed anything it's vitally important to pause the movies to explain to ones trapped friends #this is 50% callout post for myself and every other slightly feral book fan #50% genuine admonishment and lesson unto the world

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warsofasoiaf · 2 years ago

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Following on Robert’s generosity and what he could have done with a third brother (or Tommen had he lived long enough and cared): is resurrecting the princeship or lordship of Summerhall a possibility or did the tragedy made it completely valueless ? I find it odd that Harrenhall is still something valuable and Summerhall completely disappeared.

I think any incomes that Summerhall would have had would have been relatively small in comparison to the vast incomes of Harrenhal, so in terms of Harrenhal vs. Summerhall, having Harrenhal still being around makes sense. We don't know exactly how much of the land surrounding Summerhall was destroyed, or if Jaehaerys II or Aerys invested any money or effort into rebuilding the fief that would make it a worthwhile grant to a supernumerary son. It's also possible that Summerhall was completely destroyed and never rebuilt, whereas Harrenhal was still livable in the bottoms of the great towers.

However, Robert wouldn't resurrect Summerhall, given how closely it factored into hated Rhaegar's psychology.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

#summerhall #feudalism

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lalunanymph · 3 years ago

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“The Lord of the house and fief is the pillar onto which his people cling to, Naoya,” his father had said in a low tone, the vassal’s heir lighting the end of the wooden stave before setting the body aflame. “He has to be worthy of the titles and perceptions and should always stand tall; to never bow and break from outside pressure. He kneels to no one.”

vs.

Barely affording you the space to refuse him, Naoya turned you to face him and sank to his knees, his cheek pressed to your stomach. “You are all I desire. I can barely go through my day, eat or even sleep without the thought of you constantly on my mind.”

#as you can tell i love dramatic irony lmao #y/n is the only person in his life naoya ever willingly got on his knees for :’))#missing the bw!universe a bit more today:(((#also;;; i have a fic planned for naoya #just thought y’all would like to know <3 #dawn.txt

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generation1point5 · 1 year ago

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tagged by @ashacadence

What are some difficulties you had/have when coming up with designs and lore for your character vs now that you find yourself may or may not be struggling on? Could be personality to design traits/style to progression in story. Anything. Coming up with back stories, aesthetics, personal quirks and tics and making it all fit together in an organic way can be a little tough. Most of these challenges have presented themselves with my fantasy project, and its slew of protagonists: it has three separate systems of magic, a wealth of principalities, fiefdoms and other complicated socioeconomic dialectics that is difficult to encapsulate into a coherent narrative. These things must be considered even before attempting to express them through the lens of ultimately unreliable character perspectives, which inevitably color reader’s view of world events that in turn further alter this entire dynamic. It is oftentimes difficult to contextualize their lives and understand their place in the world when considering all the factors that affect their lives and each other, and how their decisions would affect each other. It can quickly become a paralyzing prospect.

Favorite junk food oc of yours you like to indulge in. Why? Koter Modalius, having spent years in the Hierarchy Navy as a pilot, has developed a taste for tupari. It has virtually replaced his water intake.

Least favorite/most difficult? I haven’t really created anything that I would say I rank as a least favorite. As far as the characters that I have most difficulty writing, it’d be the minor characters I develop chiefly for plot-related reasons, whom I’ve not given the time to flesh out with a particularly distinct voice and perspective. One such example would be Darc, a high-ranking knight of considerable authority over many fiefs.

What gets your creative juices bubbling? Creative media I consume that compels me to create in turn. Can be anything, really: books, shows and movies, and of course videogames. Can even just be conversations with friends equally invested in the same interests I have, as many would probably attest.

Introduce an oc. How and when were they created? Aeos was someone I had originally created as a Jedi character for Star Wars back in my high school days, who had stuck through multiple subsequent iterations of other sci fi settings until he had become something of a moniker for a period of my life. While I still retain his Jedi persona, he is better known by how I've written him in Mass Effect, owing to the online presence that I had garnered at the time. For the purposes of this prompt, I'll be describing his Mass Effect rendition.

If said oc above was given a difficult situation, how do they handle it? Aeos is best known for being cool under pressure, and can quickly and violently resolve issues when they start going south. He exhibits a tremendous capacity for composure under unfavorable situations, and often uses it to conceal his intentions to suddenly and violently escalate matters in his favor.

What’s the most notable feature about your oc? His piercing and hard gaze is probably the only standout trait to an appearance that is otherwise intentionally kept subdued and normal. Even when he isn't feeling that way, Aeos almost always comes off as unhappy to some degree.

How would you like your oc to be perceived? Above all, I want Aeos to be as best as I can enbody my understanding of the human condition. I want him to be seen as human and all the baggage that is attached to the word, no more, no less. He is a man possessed by both good and evil; a man who cannot escape his own conscience.

What’s a flaw of theirs? His cynicism often limits his perspective. He is apt to see the worst in others and himself, and often limits his ability to avoid the situations he'd rather not find himself caught up in.

And finally…just tag people. And come up with a random number ten question. What does your OC do in their spare time? Aeos catches up on news and galactic events, and on longer breaks, might catch up on his reading list. I'll tag @bioticplaneswalker @sektoth and @bootytron. No pressure. And anyone else who's interested feel free to say I tagged you too.

Thought I’d try a little something but also just answer or reblog and/or store and such. Thought I’d start a oc questionnaire and world building train.

Favorite junk food oc of yours you like to indulge in. Why?

Least favorite/most difficult?

What gets your creativity juices bubbling?

Introduce an oc. How and when were they created?

If said oc above was given a difficult situation how do they handle it?

What’s the most notable feature about your oc?

How would you like your oc to be perceived?

What’s a flaw of theirs?

And finally…just tag people. And come up with a random number ten question.

That’s the skeleton above.

#writing

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collapsedsquid · 5 years ago

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Once citizenship was equated with human dignity, its extension to all classes, professions, both sexes, all races, creeds, and locations was only a matter of time. Universal franchise, the national service, and state education for all had to follow. Moreover, once all human beings were supposed to be able to accede to the high rank of a citizen, national solidarity within the newly egalitarian political community demanded the relief of the estate of Man, a dignified material existence for all, and the eradication of the remnants of personal servitude. The state, putatively representing everybody, was prevailed upon to grant not only a modicum of wealth for most people, but also a minimum of leisure, once the exclusive temporal fief of gentlemen only, in order to enable us all to play and enjoy the benefits of culture.

For the liberal, social-democratic, and other assorted progressive heirs of the Enlightenment, then, progress meant universal citizenship—that is, a virtual equality of political condition, a virtually equal say for all in the common affairs of any given community—together with a social condition and a model of rationality that could make it possible. For some, socialism seemed to be the straightforward continuation and enlargement of the Enlightenment project; for some, like Karl Marx, the completion of the project required a revolution (doing away with the appropriation of surplus value and an end to the social division of labor). But for all of them it appeared fairly obvious that the merger of the human and the political condition was, simply, moral necessity.2

The savage nineteenth-century condemnations of bourgeois society—the common basis, for a time, of the culturally avant-garde and politically radical—stemmed from the conviction that the process, as it was, was fraudulent, and that individual liberty was not all it was cracked up to be, but not from the view, represented only by a few solitary figures, that the endeavor was worthless. It was not only Nietzsche and Dostoevsky who feared that increasing equality might transform everybody above and under the middle classes into bourgeois philistines. Progressive revolutionaries, too, wanted a New Man and a New Woman, bereft of the inner demons of repression and domination: a civic community that was at the same time the human community needed a new morality grounded in respect for the hitherto excluded.

This adventure ended in the debacle of 1914. Fascism offered the most determined response to the collapse of the Enlightenment, especially of democratic socialism and progressive social reform. Fascism, on the whole, was not conservative, even if it was counter-revolutionary: it did not re-establish hereditary aristocracy or the monarchy, despite some romantic-reactionary verbiage. But it was able to undo the key regulative (or liminal) notion of modern society, that of universal citizenship. By then, governments were thought to represent and protect everybody. National or state borders defined the difference between friend and foe; foreigners could be foes, fellow citizens could not. Pace Carl Schmitt, the legal theorist of fascism and the political theologian of the Third Reich, the sovereign could not simply decide by fiat who would be friend and who would be foe. But Schmitt was right on one fundamental point: the idea of universal citizenship contains an inherent contradiction in that the dominant institution of modern society, the nation-state, is both a universalistic and a parochial (since territorial) institution. Liberal nationalism, unlike ethnicism and fascism, is limited—if you wish, tempered—universalism. Fascism put an end to this shilly-shallying: the sovereign was judge of who does and does not belong to the civic community, and citizenship became a function of his (or its) trenchant decree.

[...]

The perilous differentiation between citizen and non-citizen is not, of course, a fascist invention. As Michael Mann points out in a pathbreaking study3, the classical expression "we the People" did not include black slaves and "red Indians" (Native Americans), and the ethnic, regional, class, and denominational definitions of "the people" have led to genocide both "out there" (in settler colonies) and within nation states (see the Armenian massacre perpetrated by modernizing Turkish nationalists) under democratic, semi-democratic, or authoritarian (but not "totalitarian") governments. If sovereignty is vested in the people, the territorial or demographic definition of what and who the people are becomes decisive. Moreover, the withdrawal of legitimacy from state socialist (communist) and revolutionary nationalist ("Third World") regimes with their mock-Enlightenment definitions of nationhood left only racial, ethnic, and confessional (or denominational) bases for a legitimate claim or title for "state-formation" (as in Yugoslavia, Czecho-Slovakia, the ex-Soviet Union, Ethiopia-Eritrea, Sudan, etc.)

Everywhere, then, from Lithuania to California, immigrant and even autochthonous minorities have become the enemy and are expected to put up with the diminution and suspension of their civic and human rights. The propensity of the European Union to weaken the nation-state and strengthen regionalism (which, by extension, might prop up the power of the center at Brussels and Strasbourg) manages to ethnicize rivalry and territorial inequality (see Northern vs. Southern Italy, Catalonia vs. Andalusia, English South East vs. Scotland, Fleming vs. Walloon Belgium, Brittany vs. Normandy). Class conflict, too, is being ethnicized and racialized, between the established and secure working class and lower middle class of the metropolis and the new immigrant of the periphery, also construed as a problem of security and crime.4 Hungarian and Serbian ethnicists pretend that the nation is wherever persons of Hungarian or Serbian origin happen to live, regardless of their citizenship, with the corollary that citizens of their nation-state who are ethnically, racially, denominationally, or culturally "alien" do not really belong to the nation.

The growing de-politicization of the concept of a nation (the shift to a cultural definition) leads to the acceptance of discrimination as "natural." This is the discourse the right intones quite openly in the parliaments and street rallies in eastern and Central Europe, in Asia, and, increasingly, in "the West." It cannot be denied that attacks against egalitarian welfare systems and affirmative action techniques everywhere have a dark racial undertone, accompanied by racist police brutality and vigilantism in many places. The link, once regarded as necessary and logical, between citizenship, equality, and territory may disappear in what the theorist of the Third Way, the formerly Marxissant sociologist Anthony Giddens, calls a society of responsible risk-takers.

[...]

Citizenship in a functional nation-state is the one safe meal ticket in the contemporary world. But such citizenship is now a privilege of the very few. The Enlightenment assimilation of citizenship to the necessary and "natural" political condition of all human beings has been reversed. Citizenship was once upon a time a privilege within nations. It is now a privilege to most persons in some nations. Citizenship is today the very exceptional privilege of the inhabitants of flourishing capitalist nation-states, while the majority of the world’s population cannot even begin to aspire to the civic condition, and has also lost the relative security of pre-state (tribe, kinship) protection.

The scission of citizenship and sub-political humanity is now complete, the work of Enlightenment irretrievably lost. Post-fascism does not need to put non-citizens into freight trains to take them into death; instead, it need only prevent the new non-citizens from boarding any trains that might take them into the happy world of overflowing rubbish bins that could feed them. Post-fascist movements everywhere, but especially in Europe, are anti-immigration movements, grounded in the "homogeneous" world-view of productive usefulness. They are not simply protecting racial and class privileges within the nation-state (although they are doing that, too) but protecting universal citizenship within the rich nation-state against the virtual-universal citizenship of all human beings, regardless of geography, language, race, denomination, and habits. The current notion of "human rights" might defend people from the lawlessness of tyrants, but it is no defense against the lawlessness of no rule.

Believe I posted this before but it’s interesting enough to post again

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suninks-moved · 6 years ago

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worldbuilding: geography

geography is one of the more underappreciated aspects of worldbuilding, but no less important! it plays a part in escape plans, war tactics, lifestyle, and can make for great obstcales for your protagonist. here’s how to flesh out the geography of your world.

ask questions

if you’ve read any of my other worldbuilding posts, you’d know that the way to figure out your world is to find the answers to questions. but if you don’t have questions, how do you find answers? here are some helpful questions you can ask yourself:

what significant landmarks are there? do these landmarks help or hinder the people of the country? do they invite tourists into the area?

how big/small is your country? how big/small is it relative to surrounding countries?

what is the soil like? do they mine the coal from mountains or grow crops from fertile soil?

is your country connected to other countries, or isolated? is it surrounded on all sides by other countries, or on the very tip of the landmass? how does this affect the country? (ex. european countries are connected and therefore wars can involve multiple countries, conversely japan is an island and was never affected by british rule)

are there natural barriers that can protect/isolate the country?

is the area a mix of different types of geography? (ex. America has desert, fertile soil, mountains, lakes, the whole shebang)

any wildlife? how do they effect the area?

how big is the population? is this a good thing or a bad thing? does it rise steadily, or look like it’s about to become extinct?

what’s the capitol of your country? why?

how is your country divided? (ie. states, provinces, fiefs, districts etc.)

is your country safe? why or why not? are some places safe, but others not?

what is the climate like? how does this affect everyday life?

are there sacred places? historic landmarks? man-made landmarks? (ex. mount rushmore)

is travel between countries easy? what mode of transportantion is used?

what seasons are there? (ex. rainy vs. dry, winter, summer, spring, fall, no seasons etc.)

is there a famous industry of your country based off of the environment? (ex. Wakanda mines vibranium and it is their principle industry)

alternative ideas:

make your life easier and cheat!

have your world be based off of the real Earth (ex. in Ranger’s Apprentice, Araluen = England, Skandia = Scandinavia, Nihon-Ja = Japan)

have your world actually be the Earth, but underground (ex. in Harry Potter, wizards coexist with non-magic people, but hide)

your world exists after this era has ended (ex. in The Hunger Games, Panem lies in the ashes of North America)

Earth, but scrambled up (ie. Asia is where North America once was and consists almost entirely of jungle, Hawaii, England, Japan, and the Philipines are just a weird clump of islands in the corner and make up one continent, Africa is a tundra on the western side but has nothing but pine forests on the east)

the earth is flat

mix and match these ideas, and you have just made a throughly weird, unique world. voila

#writing #worldbuilding tips #worldbuilding #writing tips #writers #reading #captain america #geography #worldbuilding geography #writer #books #stories #writer's block

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racefortheironthrone · 6 years ago

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How do taxes work in subinfeudation? Do the lords of the Reach collect from their tenant knights and their own immediate lands, pay up to the Tyrells, who then passes a portion on to the king, or do tax farmers go to each individual land to extract the king's tithe and their own profit separate from the actual landholder? Something in between that? How much percentage wise would go to each level? Does living directly under a LP mean you pay less tax, or does/can the LP just tax the difference?

Did some research on JSTOR to check I was right about this, b/c the terminology can get really jargony. Subinfeudation does indeed involve landlords/liege lords collecting taxes (as well as military service) from their tenants/vassals and then passing it up the chain. Thus, the higher up you are, the more tax-collecting you do.

Subinfeudation and tax-farming are distinct methods of fiscal organization, and not really compatible. After all, what is the purpose of sub-infeuding if some pesky royal tax farmer can show up on your fief and start collecting the taxes that are supposed to belong to you, especially since you need that money to pay your own taxes.

As to how much goes up vs. sticks at each level, it’s hard to find solid data on this. Anglo-Saxon earls had the right to the “third penny” (i.e, one third of royal revenue collected in their earldoms), but that system didn’t survive the Conquest.

#historical analysis #feudalism #medieval taxation #subinfeudation #tax-farming

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lesbiansforboromir · 2 years ago

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The 9000 number is specifically referring to just the troops that generally make their home in Minas Tirith and whom defended the city and Osgiliath before the multiple catastrophic attacks that reduced that number and before they are reinforced by the southern fiefs and Lossarnach etc which numbered 3000ish, called a 'tithe' of their total forces so about a tenth of their at-home number. So for example Imrahil arrives with 700 men and 'a company of knights', which makes for a guesstimate of the usual total force in Dol Amroth to be about 7500ish including the swan knights. But Dol Amroth is far from the wars and not only is Minas Tirith Gondor's capitol, it's major purpose is to remain militaristically dominant in order to protect all the southern fiefs behind it. It was built as a fortress city with a mind to support a large army, which Dol Amroth was not, though it is the other major city apart from Minas Tirith and Pelargir. Anyway so the first basic ballpark for the number of troops in Minas Tirith on it's own is 'more than 7500'.

Admittedly I was very angy and not particularly focused last night so there is definitely more wiggle room in terms of numbers than I was ranting about, 50,000 is a rounded up number for ease and we could be talking 45,000 if rounded down, I was also being hyperbolic about the 'can't see a 1500 foot tall tower from half a mile away' ( @quo-nunc and @just-evo-now ) for comedic effect, but the distance you'd need to see the pinnacle of the tower of ecthelion from (which is 1000ft up) in order to reach the highest density estimate of Minas Tirith's population (10,000 people per square kilometre, the density of the densest parts of london) is about 0.75mi away which is technically possible but- here,

Assuming the Pelennor is basically flat, and considering it's floodplain farmlands and orchards with only one mentioned hill I think that's a fairly safe assumption, the eiffel tower is what a 1000ft tower looks like from 0.75mi away (not accounting for cameras and different lenses vs actually seeing with your eyes, admittedly I actually haven't been to a city with skyscrapers for a while so it's plausible I'm getting something wrong there). However the Tower of Ecthelion isn't 1000ft tall in itself, the whole city is 700ft tall, each tier being 100ft up and having an encircling wall of it's own, with the tower being about 300ft tall, and most importantly the whole thing is surrounded by a defending wall of black stone that would have had to have been taller than the buildings in this image. How far away would Pippin have had to have been in order to see over this wall and spy the tower's pinnacle? I actually don't know but visually I feel like it would have had to have been so far away that once again the issue of the earth's curvature comes into play! And this is all when we're talking about the 1.5mi diameter I've been estimating for the higher end density of population achievable by modern building standards.

If we're talking Istanbul's population density then you'd be talking 1.9mi away, which would be a little further away than this image shows but there were too many things in the way to get a more accurate image. So again, the issue of walls and tiers and buildings is only exacerbated.

But anyway back to the garrison question, but yes there is wiggle room ofc none of this is definitive (said in the comments but some men could come from the Harlond as well as some of the northern farming settlements, though that's all very rural and doesn't really make much of a dent in the estimates) But here was the further essential logic after the 'more than 7500' number which is very subject to wiggling; Minas Tirith's garrison had already gone through one bottle neck the year before when 'sudden war' came upon them and all their forces but the Rangers were routed from Ithilien's ruins by a large force lead by a ring wraith and driven back to the western side of Osgiliath. Boromir blows up the bridge behind him and many of his men in order to stop the enemy from crossing the river, notably all but four of those defending the bridge (Boromir, Faramir and two others who manage to swim the river) are killed. This bridge is no small thing, it spans the whole width of the Anduin which could be between 1 and 3 miles wide and is large and strong enough to allow Mumakil to pass over it, so this force Boromir used to hold the bridge was not a small company.

However even after the losses of both the initial attack and routing and this total loss, Faramir still has forces enough to garrison the western side of Osgiliath, leave a garrison of men in Minas Tirith, supply troops to help rebuild the Rammas, and return to Ithilien to harry the coming armies from south, north and east for an entire year. And then, even after a year of this, Faramir had enough men to go back to Osgiliath, hold the enemy at bay for three days, retreat to the causeway forts and hold there, and then conduct an ordered retreat across the Pelennor, which was supported by a sortie of knights from both Dol Amroth and Minas Tirith's garrison itself. 9000 honestly seems like a small number when considering how much loss Minas Tirith has managed to tank and still remain functional as an army.

Essentially 9000 is not the number of soldiers I'm counting from the siege of Minas Tirith, it's the estimate of it's usual capacity at the end of the third age before all the losses it suffers reduce that number and it has to call for the 3000 'tithe' from the south and western fiefs.

And remember we're talking about a city built by arrived Numenoreans and which has been drastically reduced in both strength and population since it's original founding after plagues and wars brought Gondor to it's knees. In reality Minas Tirith should be de-populated in comparison to the actual capacity of soldiers and people it should hold. Although admittedly it probably was flushed by the last of Osgiliath's population, which was a far larger and more civilian city during it's habitation, but that happened more than 1300 years ago. Obviously this is all very up in the air and the specifics are debatable, but the issues I think are still true even within that spectrum.

category 14 autism event 23 dead 1400 wounded at last count but that number continues to rise as reports come in

#chats #comparativelysuperlative

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