A terrible prediction (possible spoiler)

The local priests will know or can soon find out who from their parish went off to the Army and didn't come back. For the vast majority of the soldiers at any rate. But I think the bureaucrats will have good records of who went, just on general principle. It's their job to keep records, after all.

SYED wrote:Does harchong actually got the records of which serfs and slaves were press ganged into the army? They would have a complete record of every officer, but to those in power the enlisted men were just so many warm bodies.

They were so many warm bodies who were legally bound to the land -- and you can't enforce the second half without records indicating just who's bound to which noble's estate.

There are loads of surviving manorial records from medieval England that (among other things) keep track of which serfs married, died, took on additional land, or lost the rights to use a plot of land. The local noble had to keep track of that, lest a serf try to claim free status on the grounds that no one could prove his ancestors had ever performed servile duties. I'm willing to assume Harchong is at least as interested in keeping serfs as serfs.

Julia Minor wrote:

SYED wrote:Does harchong actually got the records of which serfs and slaves were press ganged into the army? They would have a complete record of every officer, but to those in power the enlisted men were just so many warm bodies.

They were so many warm bodies who were legally bound to the land -- and you can't enforce the second half without records indicating just who's bound to which noble's estate.

There are loads of surviving manorial records from medieval England that (among other things) keep track of which serfs married, died, took on additional land, or lost the rights to use a plot of land. The local noble had to keep track of that, lest a serf try to claim free status on the grounds that no one could prove his ancestors had ever performed servile duties. I'm willing to assume Harchong is at least as interested in keeping serfs as serfs.

Which is the reason that the very first place matches get dropped is ---?

Serfs may be functionally illiterate; doesn't mean they don't know where the records are kept.

And this whole notion of tracking down the relatives of the Mighty Host's serfs and holding them hostage or making examples of them requires two things:

(1) They have to know which serfs have come home and need deterring, unless someone thinks they have the manpower (remember that the Spears are getting hammered) to simply round up all the dependents of all the serfs in the 2,000,000-strong Mighty Host;

(2) They have to have sufficient time with a sufficiently intact national command authority to put a plan that complex into motion.

There is a reason the capital was the very first city to go up in flames. Anyone want to guess where the bonfire was hottest?

runsforcelery wrote:
There is a reason the capital was the very first city to go up in flames. Anyone want to guess where the bonfire was hottest?

Yeah, files make great kindling! Administration Buildings probably got put to the torch first, or possibly second behind any military buildings.

(To paraphrase the radio - long, LONG time reader, first time poster. )

Magistos wrote:

runsforcelery wrote:
There is a reason the capital was the very first city to go up in flames. Anyone want to guess where the bonfire was hottest?

Yeah, files make great kindling! Administration Buildings probably got put to the torch first, or possibly second behind any military buildings.

(To paraphrase the radio - long, LONG time reader, first time poster. )

Welcome aboard!

Abandon Hope All Ye Who Eneter Here

runsforcelery wrote:

Magistos wrote: SNIP

Yeah, files make great kindling! Administration Buildings probably got put to the torch first, or possibly second behind any military buildings.

(To paraphrase the radio - long, LONG time reader, first time poster. )

Welcome aboard!

Abandon Hope All Ye Who Eneter Here

ooooo - welcomed by RFC himself. we look for great things from you!!

BTW 'Eneter' - is that like an 'Enema'?

RFC with this quote i just had a thought of you writing a Lady Death story.

Ever consider writing a fantasy about a hero born in/condemned to hell(or hell like world/dimention) and conquring it and turning it into a paradise (by hells standards)

[/quote]


Welcome aboard!

Abandon Hope All Ye Who Eneter Here [/quote]