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Fantasy Arms Race, Round Two
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<blockquote data-quote="s/LaSH" data-source="post: 678614" data-attributes="member: 6929"><p>There are two tactics that the Cresians should pursue. (Well, they might not, but then they'd die horribly later on.)</p><p></p><p>The first tactic is to embrace military technology. To boot:</p><p>- Develop formations to meet the enemy on equal ground.</p><p>- Develop shields.</p><p>- As a diversion, they've always been a spear-oriented people, right? To actively improve upon formation tactics, they can employ long spears either from behind the front row, or from the front row itself. Spears like this created the tank of the antique world, the Spartan Tortoise - it worked.</p><p>- Possibly embrace bronze technology, IF they can figure it out, and IF they don't have major qualms with that use of fire.</p><p>- Set loose the dogs of war. Basically, train the Beastmen in the arts of stealth and subterfuge, and have them hang out in the wilderness behind enemy lines. When the moon turns, the men turn too. (You have to trust them to report to a moonwell cell if they're not under attack, however.)</p><p>- Fortify their villages and towns. At this tech level, grand Babylon-style walls are completely out of the question, but moats (using abundant available moisture) and fairly impressive mud brick walls are quite possible. (They have the tech to build impressive temples and moonwell cells, so they can definitely build big, thick walls.)</p><p>- Levy a militia or introduce conscription. If every able-bodied man (possibly women too, if infant mortality isn't high - basically, you want to sustain your population) can poke with a spear (or swing a reverse-engineered sword), invaders suddenly look less scary. A standing militia in every town is also a good idea, and a rich river delta is fertile enough to avoid the food shortage you might otherwise incur.</p><p>- Communication is important. If the enemy returns, they will do so in force and probably wipe out an entire village; one local militia could never stop them, so a system is required to quickly summon reinforcements in large numbers. As a result, signal fires, runners, or messenger canoes will very likely be developed. If bronze is reverse-engineered, a heliograph could be developed (big shiney mirrors). If they have enough time, the Cresians could even construct proper roads and bridges through the delta, or at least clear wide paths through any thick growth.</p><p>- Tame horses (if available; might also use deer or cattle, but even without being bred for captivity for millenia, they're not the first choice) to carry messengers. Horses are fast, and have great endurance - something hunters would know about. This is no guarantee that the Cresians would develop cavalry any time soon, however; mounts would probably be quite rare, perhaps two to the village.</p><p>- Coastal patrols. Whether this is in the form of fishing ships, guard posts, or a full-fledged navy depends on how much wood is available. You can patrol the coast in boats made of rushes, but you can't have a long-range strike force unless you have certain types of wood.</p><p>- Get control of wood! There are forests nearby, especially in a world without civilised despoilment. Settlements to acquire wood would allow the construction of long-range boats, perhaps to seek out their enemies first. The added benefits include the development of superhot fires using coke, but that's not necessarily an advantage until they discover high-level metals that need smelting (centuries off yet, of course). You can also build nice scaffolding, houses that don't require huge numbers of bricks or rushes, and a great number of useful wooden artifacts like towers and fences.</p><p></p><p>The second tactic is to embrace magical power. To boot:</p><p>- With control over animals and plants, druids can turn the environment against their enemy. Entangling spells and animal companions become commonplace, and every village has at least one pair of priest/priestess who can use plants and animals against their enemies.</p><p>- More priests and priestesses are needed. The option of convents and monastaries arises, not as places of retreat but as places of intense training.</p><p>- To use these advantages, your terrain has to be broken. Actively letting outlying fields or certain 'buffer' areas grow out of control would create areas where entanglement would be of maximum effectiveness. For bonus points, they start cultivating roses or brambles in these areas. Male priests become associated with the rose.</p><p>- With a codified presence in each village, but with very little to do when not being invaded, the priestesses start helping with the fields. Tame animals can improve productivity a great amount. Imagine if the oxen pull their plows of their own will...</p><p>- The increased productivity from this frees villagers for other pursuits... this could be the catalyst needed to get large numbers of holy people into training. In addition, arts would become more developed and a faster pace of technology might be achieved as people have more time on their hands to avoid their lot.</p><p>- Religion, once merely important, becomes an overwhelming force in Cresia. Everyone knows a priest and priestess, and sees them patrolling every day with horrible beasts following them around. The power of religion is clearly cemented.</p><p>- As a slighter consequence, the separation of man and woman might become more pronounced, but not in an "I'm better" kind of way; the priests have different talents, and this could be recognised.</p><p>- Disease, fairly common in low, wet terrain, would be lessened because of the availability of curing magics. I don't think it could be stopped, however, and the likeliest scenario for an outbreak of malaria or what have you is that the priest and priestess would be found the only ones alive in a village full of dead people, having saved themselves first.</p><p>- Meanwhile, back in the main temple, more powerful magics are developed. Planar binding, while extraordinarily powerful, might be developed as a way of calling super soldiers from beyond. If that's beyond their grasp, the high priests and priestesses still discover fresh summons and maybe figure out the basis of where these creatures are coming from. Planar theory is born.</p><p>- Barkskin, Heat Metal, Chill Metal, Summon Swarm... these become commonly known spells.</p><p>- More powerful spells are created. Call Lightning and various forms of weather manipulation (because ships are vulnerable to inclement weather) become known to the elite casters. IF they can get over their aversion, there are a good number of fire spells that druids can acquire (and druids seem to be the order of the day around Cresia).</p><p>- The possibility of contacting more deities is distinct. Some of them may be hostile! Others may give gifts, but deities are unpredictable and the only thing I can think of that's fairly certain is bronze... or iron. Shudder.</p><p></p><p>That said, there are potentials for schism in the ranks of the Cresians.</p><p>- If bronze becomes prevalent, the firing process could well cause a minority to break off and declare themselves independant. Whether that's the magic-users or the metal-users is unknown. If this schism occurs, both groups will hate each other for being (a) sacreligious or (b) stupid and stuck in the past.</p><p>- If fire spells become prevalent, the minority that can cast them may become outcasts. A society of powerful casters that can throw fire at you goes off into the wilderness, and creates their own little temple. Perhaps they discover a fire deity or elementals... either way, they're a mysterious bunch of evil people in the wilderness as far as the common Cresian is concerned, but elementals... that's an interesting idea.</p><p>- If the Cresians discover new gods and don't adopt them smoothly or ignore them outright, their ranks could split in several ways. First, they could split into a monotheistic camp (the Dog God) and a polytheistic camp (all known gods, possibly excluding the Dog or casting it in an evil role). Or, they could split into a whole bunch of monotheistic sects, all proclaiming that they've got the One True God on their side. Lastly, they could have a minor schism and reshape society into a number of castes, each with its own god, all under some Head God (probably the Dog); a religious caste system creates an interesting society, where the job you have shapes your religion and your entire outlook on life.</p><p>- If the warriors and the priests find themselves at loggerheads, perhaps arguing over who should get <em>all</em> the resources behind them, not just a half share, then you split Cresia into the priests and the warriors, and each go their separate ways. You have bramble-ringed villages belonging to the priests, and mud-brick-walled villages belonging to the warriors.</p><p></p><p>So there's my thoughts. I just like the idea of male priests wandering around under the sign of the Rose; I think that's incredibly cool, but maybe that's just me.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="s/LaSH, post: 678614, member: 6929"] There are two tactics that the Cresians should pursue. (Well, they might not, but then they'd die horribly later on.) The first tactic is to embrace military technology. To boot: - Develop formations to meet the enemy on equal ground. - Develop shields. - As a diversion, they've always been a spear-oriented people, right? To actively improve upon formation tactics, they can employ long spears either from behind the front row, or from the front row itself. Spears like this created the tank of the antique world, the Spartan Tortoise - it worked. - Possibly embrace bronze technology, IF they can figure it out, and IF they don't have major qualms with that use of fire. - Set loose the dogs of war. Basically, train the Beastmen in the arts of stealth and subterfuge, and have them hang out in the wilderness behind enemy lines. When the moon turns, the men turn too. (You have to trust them to report to a moonwell cell if they're not under attack, however.) - Fortify their villages and towns. At this tech level, grand Babylon-style walls are completely out of the question, but moats (using abundant available moisture) and fairly impressive mud brick walls are quite possible. (They have the tech to build impressive temples and moonwell cells, so they can definitely build big, thick walls.) - Levy a militia or introduce conscription. If every able-bodied man (possibly women too, if infant mortality isn't high - basically, you want to sustain your population) can poke with a spear (or swing a reverse-engineered sword), invaders suddenly look less scary. A standing militia in every town is also a good idea, and a rich river delta is fertile enough to avoid the food shortage you might otherwise incur. - Communication is important. If the enemy returns, they will do so in force and probably wipe out an entire village; one local militia could never stop them, so a system is required to quickly summon reinforcements in large numbers. As a result, signal fires, runners, or messenger canoes will very likely be developed. If bronze is reverse-engineered, a heliograph could be developed (big shiney mirrors). If they have enough time, the Cresians could even construct proper roads and bridges through the delta, or at least clear wide paths through any thick growth. - Tame horses (if available; might also use deer or cattle, but even without being bred for captivity for millenia, they're not the first choice) to carry messengers. Horses are fast, and have great endurance - something hunters would know about. This is no guarantee that the Cresians would develop cavalry any time soon, however; mounts would probably be quite rare, perhaps two to the village. - Coastal patrols. Whether this is in the form of fishing ships, guard posts, or a full-fledged navy depends on how much wood is available. You can patrol the coast in boats made of rushes, but you can't have a long-range strike force unless you have certain types of wood. - Get control of wood! There are forests nearby, especially in a world without civilised despoilment. Settlements to acquire wood would allow the construction of long-range boats, perhaps to seek out their enemies first. The added benefits include the development of superhot fires using coke, but that's not necessarily an advantage until they discover high-level metals that need smelting (centuries off yet, of course). You can also build nice scaffolding, houses that don't require huge numbers of bricks or rushes, and a great number of useful wooden artifacts like towers and fences. The second tactic is to embrace magical power. To boot: - With control over animals and plants, druids can turn the environment against their enemy. Entangling spells and animal companions become commonplace, and every village has at least one pair of priest/priestess who can use plants and animals against their enemies. - More priests and priestesses are needed. The option of convents and monastaries arises, not as places of retreat but as places of intense training. - To use these advantages, your terrain has to be broken. Actively letting outlying fields or certain 'buffer' areas grow out of control would create areas where entanglement would be of maximum effectiveness. For bonus points, they start cultivating roses or brambles in these areas. Male priests become associated with the rose. - With a codified presence in each village, but with very little to do when not being invaded, the priestesses start helping with the fields. Tame animals can improve productivity a great amount. Imagine if the oxen pull their plows of their own will... - The increased productivity from this frees villagers for other pursuits... this could be the catalyst needed to get large numbers of holy people into training. In addition, arts would become more developed and a faster pace of technology might be achieved as people have more time on their hands to avoid their lot. - Religion, once merely important, becomes an overwhelming force in Cresia. Everyone knows a priest and priestess, and sees them patrolling every day with horrible beasts following them around. The power of religion is clearly cemented. - As a slighter consequence, the separation of man and woman might become more pronounced, but not in an "I'm better" kind of way; the priests have different talents, and this could be recognised. - Disease, fairly common in low, wet terrain, would be lessened because of the availability of curing magics. I don't think it could be stopped, however, and the likeliest scenario for an outbreak of malaria or what have you is that the priest and priestess would be found the only ones alive in a village full of dead people, having saved themselves first. - Meanwhile, back in the main temple, more powerful magics are developed. Planar binding, while extraordinarily powerful, might be developed as a way of calling super soldiers from beyond. If that's beyond their grasp, the high priests and priestesses still discover fresh summons and maybe figure out the basis of where these creatures are coming from. Planar theory is born. - Barkskin, Heat Metal, Chill Metal, Summon Swarm... these become commonly known spells. - More powerful spells are created. Call Lightning and various forms of weather manipulation (because ships are vulnerable to inclement weather) become known to the elite casters. IF they can get over their aversion, there are a good number of fire spells that druids can acquire (and druids seem to be the order of the day around Cresia). - The possibility of contacting more deities is distinct. Some of them may be hostile! Others may give gifts, but deities are unpredictable and the only thing I can think of that's fairly certain is bronze... or iron. Shudder. That said, there are potentials for schism in the ranks of the Cresians. - If bronze becomes prevalent, the firing process could well cause a minority to break off and declare themselves independant. Whether that's the magic-users or the metal-users is unknown. If this schism occurs, both groups will hate each other for being (a) sacreligious or (b) stupid and stuck in the past. - If fire spells become prevalent, the minority that can cast them may become outcasts. A society of powerful casters that can throw fire at you goes off into the wilderness, and creates their own little temple. Perhaps they discover a fire deity or elementals... either way, they're a mysterious bunch of evil people in the wilderness as far as the common Cresian is concerned, but elementals... that's an interesting idea. - If the Cresians discover new gods and don't adopt them smoothly or ignore them outright, their ranks could split in several ways. First, they could split into a monotheistic camp (the Dog God) and a polytheistic camp (all known gods, possibly excluding the Dog or casting it in an evil role). Or, they could split into a whole bunch of monotheistic sects, all proclaiming that they've got the One True God on their side. Lastly, they could have a minor schism and reshape society into a number of castes, each with its own god, all under some Head God (probably the Dog); a religious caste system creates an interesting society, where the job you have shapes your religion and your entire outlook on life. - If the warriors and the priests find themselves at loggerheads, perhaps arguing over who should get [i]all[/i] the resources behind them, not just a half share, then you split Cresia into the priests and the warriors, and each go their separate ways. You have bramble-ringed villages belonging to the priests, and mud-brick-walled villages belonging to the warriors. So there's my thoughts. I just like the idea of male priests wandering around under the sign of the Rose; I think that's incredibly cool, but maybe that's just me. [/QUOTE]
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