Esrolia, Community Spell Economics

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From: Carlson, Pam (carlsonp@wdni.com)
Date: Wed 02 Nov 1994 - 01:24:00 EET

ESROLIA I've been following all the Esrolia discussion with great interest. Two points come to my mind.

  1. I picture Esrolia as clannish, because female primates on earth are very concerned with kinship. Within a kin-group, they are usually more co-operative than competative. Erik's (or Mike's?) clan system sounds good

Erik notes: - but as you say later, we can't just swap male and female roles.

That's it! That's what's been bugging me. I think a female dominated society would be extraordinarily different - if you could even get a bunch of women *interested* in dominating anything.

Consider marraige: (pump up those flame-throwers...) Marraige performs two roles in (most) societies: it ensures males that they have sole access to their wives, and that the children are their own. It also ensures females that they will have committed economic help raising their offspring. But if you eliminate male dominance and increase females' economic productivity (by giving them a monopoly on land ownership and control of the energy sources - male manual labor, cult magics), the need for marraige disappears.

Esrolians might have a large, all-female family, living with their mothers and sisters for their whole lives. Men would be affiliated with their households, and hold different ranks: slaves (rare, due to Orlanthi influences), indentured men, free hired men, blood family members (sons, brothers, uncles), and even a few husbands. A noble woman might marry a much-trusted man to give him esteem and more legal rights, so he can handle business affairs in her absence, or have some legal influence over his children if she dies. A poor woman might marry as a way of keeping a man around indefinately, for free. (And, heck, a woman might even fall for a guy...) Many women might never marry at all, preferring temporary sexual partners. (After all, Ernalda never seemed to limit her opportunities.)  Women might even share men. I'm not sure the phrase "no shortage of single women" has much meaning in Esrolia.

Multiple husbands would be rare, I think, and would be as terrible a punishment as having multiple wives in Dara Happa! She can still have only one child at a time, so more husbands don't increase her number of children.  (Lending her husband to her unmarried sister would, though.) More husbands would provide more labor, but so would more servants, and servants are far more flexible.

Marraige would still be important for forming political alliances, because powerful women would try to marry their sons to other clans. Legally a husband, her son might then have some ability to influence things for the good of his mother's clan.

Of all the ideas posted, I like Nick's the best: men aren't really oppressed, they just work hard, as do the women, and the women run most business, because Esrolia is a theocracy inspired by a very female goddess.  The women don't feel the need to oppress men, because the cult ensures that women already control the means of production, (and reproduction).  Esrolia is actually a fairly egalitarian society, but it looks oppressive to foreign men, who are used to doing only 35% of their society's work....

There. Now you've all had Gloria Steinhem's View of Esrolia. But being RQ scholars, I figured y'all could handle it.

LUNAR SOLDIERS I imagine the Emporer cleverly posts foreign troops everywhere - Dara Happans in Tarsh, Carmanians in Kostaddi - so they won't have to fight their relatives when quashing a rebellion.

RISKLAND SPELL ECONOMICS
David Dunham mentioned I should describe how the Ernalda acolyte in my Riskland campaign uses and keeps track of Bless Crops for local ecomic benefit.

Answer: I ceased keeping track months ago. (Don't tell Loren...) I just chalk up all those Bless Crops, Spell Teaching and Sanctify spells Loren keeps sacrificing for as increasing piety. They raise Rhitpa's chances of being ordained to full priestess-hood by the temple at Oxhead. Then I worry about finding something interesting which won't kill everybody in three rounds.

BTW - Rhitpa's first baby (the last pre-req to preiestess-hood) is due exactly on Ernalda's HHD. (I rolled it, but the player doesn't know it).  Any ideas on what sort of special blessing such a birthday might bestow on a child?

GIANT BABIES What do the Lunars do with the baby giants? (Horrible thoughts come to mind...)

Later -

Pam

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