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Magnapocryphe
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Animals, food, and zoology

Sat 23 Feb 2019, 09:01

Let's consider the Mist period (900-1160).

The Mist rose suddenly. People weren't prepared.
Then they didn't had time to collect goods and resource to survive for a long Time.

On an other hand, we Can assume that animals were in small herds in villages : cow, sheeps, horses, dogs, Cats, etc. For no village lives on it's own by rising livestock. They buy when the herd is low, sell when it's high, etc. And dogs, Cats, and so on are on their own.
Then during the Mist, as these animals were immune to it, they grew free and wild on the Land.

I consider that they are plenty horses, dogs, cows, etc. In ravenland, but most are wild and untamed.

This tells us that during the Mist, many people certainly grew vegetarian by need, if they hadn't chicken or fish to catch.
For example, in the Hollows, they hadn't any animal to grow. Maybe some horses, but not to be eaten, more to be mounted. Then not enough to make them give birth to other in order to make sustainable way of life... During 300 years.

That's an interesting fact about the culture of the people right now in ravenland, and how the Mist did influence it.

Some comments? :-)
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9littlebees
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Re: Animals, food, and zoology

Sat 23 Feb 2019, 18:42

Interesting... I'd think there would be plenty of hunting, trapping and fishing to keep meat in the pot, but I would agree animal husbandry probably became quite rare (though I wouldn't rule it out as impossible). I think it's within reason to suggest that most villages resorted to hunting and small scale (land) farming for their needs.

Perhaps there are a very small number of villages with large herds of a single variety of livestock (cows, sheep, pigs, etc) that were able to weather the onset of the blood mist and somehow ensure their herd survived through careful management. Perhaps in those villages, those herd animals are treated almost as sacred, and any time one is butchered for the village, there is a huge ceremony to mark how important the occasion is...?
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Röteborgaren
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Re: Animals, food, and zoology

Sat 23 Feb 2019, 19:33

From the PC generator booklet it seems growing up as an animal herder is common for several of the kins. Since the bloodmist didn't affect animals or children, it makes sense that kids would be handed herding duty.
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Magnapocryphe
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Re: Animals, food, and zoology

Sun 24 Feb 2019, 09:25

To me, children are immune to the while they Bear no risponsibility. Because responsibilty leads to fear (loss, fail, etc.) And if they handle thé herd, they Can grow such a feeling, then feel unsafe outside (regarding their parents) then being preyed on by thé bloodlings.
For me children is "too young to fear".

Then i don't think it Can be so common for people to Rise herd. I'm mostly with 9littlebees (what a nickname!), Considering more hunting, and fishing, except for some rare settlement that were bigger, or luckier, or more skilled to manage the herd. With only one kind of animal (cow, sheep, etc.).

But Alderlanders are farmers, then before the Mist people in Ravenland knew how to do too. Now they share skill and try to develop herd. It's common, as a practice, but rare in thé facts.
That's only m'y point of view... ;-)
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Re: Animals, food, and zoology

Sun 24 Feb 2019, 10:10

Responsibility seems to have no bearing on whether or not the mist gets you. Of course it's up to you to decide how it works in your campaign.

Wolfkin were immune while they stayed in their forests, elves weren't affected at all, they probably had responsibilities.

If you go by what's written in the books, the blood mist feeds on people away from "home". No other reasons are given. Why children lack a sense of home can be debated. I feel like we kind of have to accept that the particulars of how the mist works aren't clear and take the uncertainty as part of what makes it scary.
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lupex
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Re: Animals, food, and zoology

Sun 24 Feb 2019, 12:03

I don't see a problem with villages raising herds of animals, as the animals would probably also be immune to he bloodmist but these would likely have been villages that had herds of sheep/cows/pigs etc before the mist came and continued to cultivate thier livestock but perhaps rashioned the slaughter to ensure the survival of the herds, which is how most small isolated villages would have survived in our world centuries ago.

I agree that diets would have been supplemented with locally grown produce, and fishing/hunting where possible.
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Rasmus
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Re: Animals, food, and zoology

Sun 24 Feb 2019, 13:05

Fun topic.

I would say that the strength with a setting like the Forbidden Lands is that you can apply one line of thought to one adventure site (village) and then choose a completely different approach when introducing the next one. Things like local dishes add flavor and differentiate between villages.

I find it fun to play with ”what if-questions”. Like, what if this village had no livestock, or what if they only had poultry. That said, I still want to tie different villages together with enough similarities to make the Forbidden lands feel coherent. So, I might use smoked vegetables and hardtack as recurring staple food (last a long time if stored properly).

On another note, since the blood mist only kept people from staying away from home at night I assume smaler settlements had access to enough productive land to provide provisions for villagers and their livestock. Personally I use the blood mist as an explanation for why communities max out on 400 (in the size of the village table). Larger communites simply had a hard time sustaining themselves.

For example, I could argue that peasants who farmed their own land yielded the best crop return during the medieval period (compared to larger common fields managed by feudal landlords). Now, you could also argue the opposite position - but I think its fun to try to find explanations that support the setting as it is presented in the books.

For instance, if I ever felt the need to explain how livestock breeding was managed when the settlements where isolated, I would probably use the Rust broders and introduce a tradition where they travelled from village to village with breeding bulls and such.
 
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9littlebees
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Re: Animals, food, and zoology

Sun 24 Feb 2019, 16:17

Fun topic.

I would say that the strength with a setting like the Forbidden Lands is that you can apply one line of thought to one adventure site (village) and then choose a completely different approach when introducing the next one. Things like local dishes add flavor and differentiate between villages.

I find it fun to play with ”what if-questions”. Like, what if this village had no livestock, or what if they only had poultry. That said, I still want to tie different villages together with enough similarities to make the Forbidden lands feel coherent. So, I might use smoked vegetables and hardtack as recurring staple food (last a long time if stored properly).

On another note, since the blood mist only kept people from staying away from home at night I assume smaler settlements had access to enough productive land to provide provisions for villagers and their livestock. Personally I use the blood mist as an explanation for why communities max out on 400 (in the size of the village table). Larger communites simply had a hard time sustaining themselves.

For example, I could argue that peasants who farmed their own land yielded the best crop return during the medieval period (compared to larger common fields managed by feudal landlords). Now, you could also argue the opposite position - but I think its fun to try to find explanations that support the setting as it is presented in the books.

For instance, if I ever felt the need to explain how livestock breeding was managed when the settlements where isolated, I would probably use the Rust broders and introduce a tradition where they travelled from village to village with breeding bulls and such.
This explanation is great!
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Magnapocryphe
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Re: Animals, food, and zoology

Tue 26 Feb 2019, 15:39

On another note, since the blood mist only kept people from staying away from home at night I assume smaler settlements had access to enough productive land to provide provisions for villagers and their livestock. Personally I use the blood mist as an explanation for why communities max out on 400 (in the size of the village table). Larger communites simply had a hard time sustaining themselves.
You're right !  That's a strong thing for another topic I tried to answer ;-) Thanks!
and the Rust Brothers care for people is something like interesting! You may have solved some of my questions! ^^
About herd, I keep the idea that they stayed small and stronlgy regulated for it was to hard to grow them securly.
And I keep the idea (that was my prime idea) of many wild, roaming and untamed animals live through the land, and are no more used to live with human. :-)
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xedric
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Re: Animals, food, and zoology

Tue 12 Mar 2019, 11:08

The Mist rose suddenly. People weren't prepared.
Then they didn't had time to collect goods and resource to survive for a long Time.
Im not sure I agree. People were prepared. Life was centered around the home or settlement and you were self-sustaining. The Mist only rose at night so you had the entire day to work the farm, hunt or fish. I think life in the villages worked just fine, the only thing you could not do was travel far. 

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