The Fellowship of the Fourth Age (Part 1): A New Beginning Discussion Thread

[Nogrod]

Yeah. Is Adnan "a man"?

Or some others sharing his stature?

A mod-decision here would be worthwhile as we close the action / meeting...

[Brinniel]

perhaps more men escaped because there are more male slaves working on the plantations?

Keeping in mind the patterns of the history of society in RL, I always thought that certain aspects of ME history would be similar. If I remember correctly, in real history the percentage of female slaves has always been much higher than males. Of course, you do have a point- it's more likely that the males were doing the most physical labor, working in the plantations.

Anyways, let me see if I can get to what I'm trying to say....

We could say there are 37 women and children, and 23 men. Out of the women and children, 9 women and 7 children can and are willing to fight.

I kind of have to disagree that there would be more women/children. Though there are more female slaves, few would be required to do the more physical tasks that the men must do. Most likely they'd do tasks that would fit the role of women- cooking, caring for children, etc (of course there are exceptions for the younger, stronger women such as Shae). Anyways, since their tasks are less exhausting, the women are probably more accepting of their position as slaves and less willing to risk their lives to escape. I would imagine very few children attempting escape. No mother would risk their child's life like that. All the children that have escaped are most likely orphans, who really don't have anyone to care for them, and they should be capable to escape on their own (even if barely). Though it is likely more men would die in the process of escape, I think there would be twice the amount of men than women escaping in the first place. And don't forget we're also including the fifteen experienced ex-slaves (14 men + Shae). My guess is that the numbers would be around (this is including the fifteen) 37 men, 21 women, and 7 children (children being 11-15 -I assume there wouldn't be children any younger than that). We do have 65 ex-slaves total, right?

Remember, these ex-slaves are the most radical of slaves. Slavery is a horrible lifestyle, but at least as long as a slave is obedient, they have a chance to survive. By escaping, all these ex-slaves put their lives on the line. Though few may be skilled in weaponry, because they managed to escape in the first place, almost all the slaves should be capable of fighting. Exceptions are but not limited to the oldest of the ex-slaves, the youngest, the injured, the mentally incapacitated, and of course, those who aren't willing to participate (which would most likely be more women than men).

Anyways, I apologize if I just rambled- it's a bit late, but hopefully I did make some sense. Just my thought on the matter....

[Regin Hardhammer]

Nogrod,

I made the change. Thanks.

___________________________

But at the same time it would leave open the question of the ex-slaves freedom in the first place: so just changing a bad lord to a good one - where is the freedom if you are under someone's orders anyhow, good or bad??

I don't think most slaves felt like that. Morodr isn't like the Shire. It's too dangerous. It's a place where protection is needed to survive. Most slaves would want to find a good leader and live under his protection. Of course, they'd still have a lot more personal freedom than on the plantation.

Yeah, there might be a few rebels who wanted to be totally on their own. But those people would probably choose to live a life of wandering.

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Originally Posted by Brinniel

- it's more likely that the males were doing the most physical labor, working in the plantations.

I don't know about this Brinniel. A woman's role is effected by the culture she lives in and her place in that society. I remember my utter astonishment to see road and construction crews in rural India, which were predominately female. For instance the men would mix cement and load it into pans that the women would carry up ladders and onto rooves etc. Another man or two would oversee and perform the more skilled part of the operation, but the women were definitely the grunt labor. On road crews the work was just as cruelling and the women would rig their infants in makesift hammocks by the side of the road while they 'manhandled' piles of gravel and stones. A lot of these women didn't seem very young or hardy to me, but they certainly had endurance!

It was an eye opener to me.

[Durelin]

Everyone has excellent points here, and I think the solution is simply to choose, since we determine what is appropriate for Mordor's inhabitants at this time in ME history.

Trust me, I can be quite the feminist, but I'm also often a stick-in-the-mud realist when it comes to roleplaying and storytelling in general - and right now I'm just trying to figure out what could be 'realistic' in the Fourth Age of ME Mordor.

At any rate, perhaps the wisest way to go is to say that all of the slaves will play a role, all will be armed with whatever they can find, but, the older slaves, the women who are not accustomed to fighting or would not like to fight (or who simply volunteer to look after and guard the children), and the younger children will be in charge of the traps and decoys we must plan. The men, women who are quite fine wielding a weapon, and the older children (which could range from even 13 or 14 on), will be taking up the 'better' weapons available, and being the core of the slave fighting force.

What those numbers are is relative, I think. But I think it is safe to assume that the majority of the slaves will be fighting. We could make it simple and approximate 40:20, or even 45:15, to get an idea.

Does anyone (or everyone) feel we need specific numbers? I don't know if that's quite important.

[Undómë]

Thanks for the answers to my question - I only wanted to get an approximate idea of the numbers of women and children who might be along.

So, I've filled my SAVE. And been vague about the numbers of women and children.

There are two characters I used/made up:

Gwenith - @ 11 y/o girl

and Nia who I see as @ 16, and so a 'woman', really.

Granny and the women and girls gathered about her will certainly able to offer some defence if attacked as you can read in the post.

Hope this serves.

~ U

[Nogrod]

This looks good Undome!

I hope you don't mind if I will make Hadith to call for the females so ready alredy... We need to have an organised defense for the the slave-escapees anyhow. They would be stupid indeed not to pay attention to any common effort...

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

They would be stupid indeed not to pay attention to any common effort...

I didn't want to sound anything like a chauvinist here... It was meant to cover all the slaves.

[Firefoot]

My save #195 is filled. I'm sorry it took so long; RL has really been catching up with me lately and writing time has been scarce this week. I promise my involvement will pick up after the next two weeks or so. A lot's happening right now and I really wish I could post more.

Concerning gender ratios: I don't think it's ultimately important. The same goes for age; unless it becomes important for some reason, I'm comfortable going for now with general guidelines such as about twice or three times as many men than women, and most of the people are probably between 15 and 35 years old. But that's me.