12-15-2017, 11:21 PM | #71 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: "Medieval" fantasy with tech 2?
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The chieftains of the twelve great families probably have a degree of Status available as an inheritance.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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12-16-2017, 04:50 AM | #72 | ||||||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: "Medieval" fantasy with tech 2?
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Actually, it's rural England, c. 1900, with no full-sized stately homes present, so the squire is gentry rather than aristocracy. Quote:
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The Edwardian aristocracy were (partly) descended from a warrior class, yes, though by that time the position was a function of old money, not military service.
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12-16-2017, 05:34 AM | #73 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
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Re: "Medieval" fantasy with tech 2?
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I mean, the dusting and changing the lights alone would be a full-time job, let alone maintaining the walled park.
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12-16-2017, 05:58 AM | #74 | |
Join Date: Jan 2014
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Re: "Medieval" fantasy with tech 2?
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Because I was looking through Adventures in Middle-Earth, the 5e D&D version of The One Ring RPG, and it listed the Dwarves as "Rich" and the Hobbits, Men of Bree, Men of Lake Town, & Men of Minas Tirith as "Prosperous", a step below "Rich" which is the highest starting point for wealth. |
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12-16-2017, 09:03 AM | #75 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: "Medieval" fantasy with tech 2?
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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12-16-2017, 12:27 PM | #76 |
Join Date: Jan 2014
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Re: "Medieval" fantasy with tech 2?
Since Middle-Earth gear is generally of Dark Ages-era/Early Middle Ages-era Europe, would that count as TL2 generally?
And what about stuff like longhouses and all that? |
12-16-2017, 01:01 PM | #77 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: "Medieval" fantasy with tech 2?
Dark-/Early Middle-Ages is generally TL 3, not 2. The 4th Edition timeline for TL 3 suggests it starts in 600 A.D., around the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and there's arguments to be made that it should start earlier than that. I'd call Middle Earth tech pretty much solidly TL 3, barring weird exceptions like the Shire having Edwardian conveniences. Numenorean construction techniques might be TL 4 or even 5, but I don't think the Dunedain of the War of the Ring period could replicate those, so things like Orthanc or Minas Tirith are effectively un-duplicable wonders.
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12-16-2017, 01:16 PM | #78 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: "Medieval" fantasy with tech 2?
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Frodo, had he not gotten all tangled up in the affairs of the outside world might have shown more interest. Samwise, a lower-class boy and local hero, did, once he'd come home.
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12-16-2017, 02:35 PM | #79 | ||||
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: "Medieval" fantasy with tech 2?
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2. We see implausibly little of servants in The House of Elrond, Galadriel's grand flet, Meduseld, the palace in Minas Tirith, or Orthanc, too. Quote:
Middle-earth is a world without running water inside, without gas or electric heating, cooking, and light, without washing-machines or dishwashers, without vacuum cleaners or floor-buffers, without mixing machines or modern cleaning agents. Bilbo's home with its "whole rooms devoted to clothes", its larders stuffed with everything from beer and seed-cake to tea, coffee, wine, ale, pork-pies, cold chicken, and pickles, and its multiple rooms with clean floors and dusted furniture is not possible without a great deal of work. Wood chopped, water fetched, lamps cleaned and filled with oil, rugs swept, floors mopped, furniture dusted and polished, clothes washed, dried, ironed, and mended, elaborate dishes prepared and cooked, pots and dishes washed, kitchens and bathrooms scrubbed — all by hand. It's a great deal of work, and I don't believe the wealthy Mr Baggins did it all himself. Tolkien was a middle-class man of his time: oblivious to the work of women and servants. He had no idea of how much work was being done for his convenience in his home and his college. No social historian, he was equally unaware how much housework had been saved when water and fuel (gas) became available at the turning of a tap, light at the flicking of a switch. The servants in Middle-earth are left out by an error of the author. I see two options. One is to say that the servants are there, and possibly that the Shire is so peaceful that they don't have to live in, but that they just aren't mentioned much in the stories. The other is to say that for reasons best not explored there is drastically less housework to do in Middle-earth. As for the Status of the Mr Baggins of Bag End, I think it is demonstrated best by the reaction to Frodo's return by the people of Hobbiton and Bywater. Without his leadership they grumble about the tyranny of Lotho Pimple, Sharky, and the Men, but do nothing about it. But on his giving the order they effect an uprising and revolution within twelve hours. Frodo is immensely influential in that area. Though untitled, he is plainly an aristocrat. Last edited by Agemegos; 03-29-2018 at 02:02 AM. |
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12-16-2017, 03:02 PM | #80 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
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Re: "Medieval" fantasy with tech 2?
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Wasn't Lotho Baggins from that branch? He became the puppet ruler of the Shire under Saruman, which suggests his bloodline gave an appearance of legitimacy to Saruman's rule.
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