what am I saying about war?

[marycatelli]

There are characters in this world -- one of them my heroine -- who walk about a lot.  From town to village to village to village to the hunting lodge to the next village and maybe a city about. . . .

Which, it occurs to me, is saying something about the world.  During the Dark Ages they kept their nice schematic of men who pray, men who fight, and men who work because there were no rich merchants to clutter it up by having clout through their cash, because travel was too difficult.  For a lone traveler, it would have been even worse.

So, is this really compatible with a heavily fighting nobility?  With a number of battles in the book?

To be sure the High Middle Ages saw a lot of fighting, too.

Or maybe I should just endow this group of people with magic that lets them sneak about when faced with brigands or men-at-arms.  There's certainly plentiful enough magic IF I can work out a way to ensure that no one else gets a hand on it.  Conditions, I think, conditions, since their social power is limited.

Comments

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

"big sky" theory applies to the ground as well. If you're in a region loosely populated enough for brigands to operate, then you're also in a region loosely populated enough that a person walking from A to B need not do so on the roads.

Roads are a requirement for wide wheeled transports, they're very helpful for troops of soldiers marching abreast. But they're the next best thing to pointless for a single walker with local knowledge.

[marycatelli]

hmmm -- another factor.

OTOH, if reaching the location is your bread-and-butter, there are certain efficiencies in going on roads -- trails, paths, even tracks.

Especially if the terrain can be hostile.

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

Yes, although that depends to some degree on the state of civil engineering. The frontier "corduroy roads" would have been less pleasant to walk than any given forest. However, swampland, can be next to impossible without some form of improved path.

However, if there's a significant risk of brigandage, then those considerations would have to be weighed against each other. It does you little good to get to your destination a day earlier if you get there minus your valuable dispatches.

I'm having a little trouble thinking of a circumstance where a person would be walking from A to B and back as a job though. If he's carrying letters or other lightweight, high value deliverables, then it seems like he'd have a horse, whereas if he's carrying larger or bulky trade goods, it'd seem like a wagon would be appropriate.

[marycatelli]

Ah, well, they don't walk from A to B and back. They walk about in a long circuit because what they are carrying is certain skills.

Or perhaps it's easier to hide yourself by magic without horses.

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

Ah. The itinerant expert. Gotcha.

[marycatelli]

Wasn't thinking of the travel side when I made her that, but it's useful

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a spectacular opportunity for world-building!

[marycatelli]

World bludgeoning more like, at this point. When your story requires X, Y, and Z it's always fun to try to fit them together in a functional world.