From: Martin Crim (CRIMMARTI@urvax.urich.edu)
Date: Sun 22 Sep 1991 - 09:56:33 EEST
The Domesday Book presents a surprisingly clear view of English culture in 1086. In Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England, Michael Wood has written an accessible overview of Domesday and the scholarship which has interpreted it. This gives us a realistic historical model for so-called civilized cultures in RuneQuest. With some modification, this model will fit societies on the border between civilized and barbarian cultures.
Domesday surveyed a society that was still coping with the effect of a devastating conquest. At the same time, it had an established bureaucracy that could collect enormous tax revenues efficiently. Tax revenues, in fact, motivated the compilation of Domesday.
The table below gives a mixture of actual and projected population figures. The figures for rural laymen are actual; the numbers for the others are scholarly estimates. Each percentage point counts approximately 3250 men. Because Domesday only counted men, the numbers should be applied to total population figures with care. Scholars have suggested an average family size of 4.68, based on a survey from around A.D. 1200.
The discussion after the table provides some interpretation to the meaning of the various social class terms, and sets forth possible bases for land tenure in a magical landscape.
Class/City Percent D100 Comment villeins 33 01-33 unfree peasant landholders bordars 25 34-58 like villeins, with less land cottars 2 59-60 ditto, with even less slaves 9 61-69 chattel property of landlords freemen 4 70-73 relatively free landholders sokemen 7 74-80 similar to freemen noblemen 2 81-82 baronial and knightly classes clergy 5 83-87 priests and monks miscellaneous rural workers 2 88-89 craftsmen, day laborers, etc. London 2 90-91 population about 25,000* Winchester/York 1 92 population about 6000* each 4 next cities 1 93 population 4000-5000* each 20 next cities 4 94-97 population 2000-4000* each 25 towns 1 98 population 500-2000* each 80 villages 2 99-00 population less than 500* each
*counts men, women, and children
Land is much more than property. That was true in the middle ages, and is still true today. Land in the middle ages defined social class, living conditions, and almost every other aspect of life. An understanding of land customs deepens any depiction of medieval or pseudo-medieval culture.
Villeins, bordars, and cottars owned land, but owed rent in some combination of kind, money, and labor. The usual pattern involved duties of "boon-work" on the lord's land a given number of days per week: usually two or three. The distinctions between the unfree classes were based on amount of land held. Villeins normally held between 30 and 100 acres of plow land. (At the time of the Conquest, an acre was a fairly loose measure of land, equal to a day's plowing.) Bordars held between 4 and 30 acres of plow land. Cottars held 4 acres or less, sometimes as little as a garden plot. All peasants kept sheep, and many kept pigs and cattle. Pairs of oxen provided the energy for plowing.
Unfree peasants could not sell their land without their lord's permission. In practice, unfree peasants could not sell their land at all. However, they still owned it, that is, had property rights in it. If his landlord or a stranger dispossessed him, a peasant could seek redress in court. England's jury system ensured a relatively fair hearing.
Freemen and sokemen differed from unfree peasants in being able to sell or give away their land if they wished. They led much the same way of life as unfree peasants: performing duties for a landlord, including plowing, herding, and cutting wood. Being a freeholder or sokeman implied nothing about the size of one's holding. Some freeholders held less than an acre.
Noblemen and clergy formed the landlord classes. The greatest noblemen of William's time were almost all Normans, but many of the lower noblemen were Saxons or Scandinavian English. Eleven hundred "chief tenants" held large grants of land directly from the king. These included dukes, earls, barons, and royal office holders. They owed feudal duties directly to the king, the most important being loyalty and knight-service (sixty days military service per year). Six thousand "sub-tenants" held land from the chief tenants. Sub-tenants held at least enough land for a manor. They owed loyalty and knight-service to their lords. Slaves and unfree peasants worked the landlords' lands.
Under William's laws, every man had to have a lord. Thus, all the peasants held their lands from a chief tenant, sub- tenant, or some church or monastery. This feudal hierarchy ensured that every man could be brought to justice, and every man paid his share of the taxes.
Bishops and abbots administered most of the church's lands. They collected rents and administered justice over about a third of the land in England.
The closest modern parallel to feudal land customs arises in certain planned communities. When you buy a new house or condominium, you incur both positive and negative obligations. Negative obligations include complying with restrictions on the height of your house, the placement of fences, and so on. Positive obligations often include paying a certain amount of money each year to your property owner's association. When you sell your land, the buyer has to pay the annual dues and comply with all the restrictions contained in your deed.
Similarly, one who inherited land from a villein held it in villenage (that is, owed villein duties to the landlord). If the villein managed to grow rich enough to buy a freehold, he was a freeholder only as to that land and its lord, and remained a villein as to his original land. The obligations stayed with the land until a cataclysm like the Black Death remolded society.
Anyone convicted of felony forfeited his lands to his lord. The lord could thus hold lands in villenage, but he would hold them from himself, and thus not owe any villein duties. When the lord transfered the land to someone else, that person would owe villein duties to the lord.
Note that the above table does not break down society by trade or profession. Tradesmen were rare. Cottage industry produced most worked goods. Lowland peasants did not specialize in plowing, herding, or fishing, but practiced a little of each. In the highlands, some specialized in herding because farming was impossible. The only professionals were the clergy, who monopolized all the learning available.
Unfortunately, little historical evidence guides us to an understanding of city dwellers of the time. Domesday did not record city dwellers.
To adapt these concepts to a fantasy setting, one needs to imagine a society molded by all the forces that make ours, with the additional factor of demonstrable magic. Let us start with the lowest level of daily life and move up.
The peasant still has to work his land to make it bear. Magical blessings may eliminate some of the risks, but the vast majority of laborers must plow their fields using oxen. By what units would Gloranthans measure land?
The acre is a natural measurement of land. However, the amount of land a man can plow in one day varies with the type of plow and condition of the soil. Furthermore, the Romans used a standard measure different from the acre, and we can expect Roman analogues in fantasy worlds to use standard measures also.
The most obvious standard measure of land requires only the possession of a spell like Light, which can create an effect anywhere. A square 50 meters on a side--the range of a spirit spell--contains approximately .62 standard acre or 1/4 hectare. If you have visible spell effects in your game, you can use any spell to measure off a spell square. If you do not, appropriate spells include Darkwall, Detect Magic, Detect (Substance), Ignite, Lantern, Light, Lightwall, and Second Sight. With the darkness and light spells, the caster simply throws the spell as far as he can. With the detects and Second Sight, a confederate starts well beyond spell range and walks forward until the user can see his aura.
Nearly all farmer women belong to Ernalda, Dendara, or a Grain Goddess cult. Thus, they have access to Second Sight. The square is the sacred Earth symbol, so square fields 50 x 50 meters must predominate at least in Esrolia. We will call this unit an earth square.
The Lodril spell Earthwarm affects one earth square. Thus, Pelorians usually lay out their frost-sensitive crops, like orchards and vineyards, in earth squares.
The Bless Crops spell obliquely refers to the acre ("an area of ground equivalent to that which a farmer can plow in a day"). If we assume that farmers cheat a little when the priestess gives them a Bless Crops, they should be able to plow two earth squares in a day. Techniques of cheating include casting Endurance, Strength, or Vigor on the oxen, with Endurance being the most effective. Mobility does not work, because it does not affect the plow. Perhaps the Barntar cult teaches Endurance. Lodril, another male farmer cult, teaches it. Thus, a Gloranthan standard acre would equal two earth squares.
In Yelmic lands, another measure of land is the Sunripen circle. This is a variable area, because the spell affects a circle with radius of 10 meters per point of spell. Each circle must have a different priest cast the spell. Old priests who have specialized in this spell might have a 100 meter radius circle. Most priests will have only a 10 or 20 meter radius circle. Because this spell affects a relatively small area, priests would probably cast it on only the most valuable crops, like fruit trees or grape vines. It thus conflicts with, or at least overlaps in purpose with, the Lodrili earth squares.
Malkioni, with their sorcery, have a greater flexibility than polytheists in measuring land. Their spells have the potential for greater ranges, but only apprentices and higher can use these greater ranges. Common folk can only cast 10 meter range spells. They could cast five successive 10 meters spells to trace out one side of an earth square. A specialist, however, could more simply delineate a field using a higher range spell. A field 160 meters by 20 meters (or 320 x 10) contains .82 standard acre, and could serve as a unit of measurement in the densely-populated West. Spells with visible effects include Animate (Substance), Fly, Form/Set (Substance), Glow, Mystic Vision (used much like Second Sight), Phantom (Sight, Touch), Sight Projection, and Sense (Substance). Note that Malkioni cities, towns, and castles tend to be circular, to take advantage of the Protective Circle spell.
Anyone running a Kralorelan campaign should research Chinese geomancy, an art and science readily transferable to Glorantha.
Magic affects landholders' duties in pagan society by strengthening the policy toward religious involvement. Societies in general, and noblemen and priests in particular, will pressure peasants to maintain good standing in their temples. Good standing maintains the temple size, which governs spell availability. Some lords might require membership in their favored cult as a duty incident to holding land. Temple landlords could also require membership.
Malkioni lords would care less about such matters, being content so long as they receive their feudal dues. This enables the lower classes to persist in paganism.
Magical rituals bind and unbind men from the soil. To transfer a plot, the giver and receiver must travel to it. There, the giver symbolically presents the land to the receiver by handing over a clod of earth and a tree branch or stalk of grain. By properly evoking the right gods, spirits, or saints, they can create or end rights and duties in the land. (The two most common transfers are subinfeudation, where the receiver becomes the vassal of the giver, and a simple land sale.) Someone must make a successful Ceremony roll, so priests often officiate. A failed roll forces the participants to wait for another auspicious date. Fumbles and Criticals have no special effect. Modifiers for the magical influence of a date follow the table below.
TYPE OF DAY MODIFIER Extremely auspicious (e.g., Clayday/Mobility/Earth) +25 Auspicious (e.g., Clayday/any/Earth) +10 Normal none Inauspicious (e.g., Windsday, or Storm Season) -10 Extremely inauspicious (e.g., Windsday/any/Storm) -25 Anyone who takes land without a ceremony is a mere tenant atwill, subject to dispossession by anyone. However, someone who takes previously unowned land can establish his rights by proper sacrifices to the guardian spirit or saint.
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