Reply To: Some questions about the Burrows and Badgers world

[oathsworn 6528xp 5]

One of the problems I had when writing the book was the 30,000 word limit that Osprey set… combine that with the fact that they don’t like a lot of background material, preferring to leave as much as possible open to player interpretation, meant that most of my fluff got cut from the final draft.

 

So, basically, people are free to assume whatever they like about the world! But if you want to know how Northymbra looks in my head, here’s a few pointers…

Sentient / Non-sentient animals.  All mammals, lizards, birds and amphibians are human-level sentient. Things like insects, worms, arthropods and fish are not.

Sizes. Badger / Beaver size is as big as they get. Bigger beasts existed in the past, and there are constant rumours of wolves and bears still existing in the Deep Woods (basically filling the role of ogres and giants). Insects etc are scaled to the animals; so only the Stag Beetle is big enough to ride, and then only by shrews!

Diet. A lot of the beasts are vegetarian, and in civilised settings, most omnivores / some carnivores will eat a lot of invertebrates like worms, crickets, caterpillars, grasshoppers, beetles and crayfish, all of which are probably ‘farmed’ in some way.
They’ll also eat fruits, berries and grasses. So it would be fairly easy to avoid eating each other in polite society. I expect a lot comes down to relationships – friends are not food! Plus, even for uncaring predator types, a hireling or associate my well have other abilities that make them worth more than a snack. In addition, the law comes into it – so, when in a particular town, a total ban on violence or even the sale/consumption of ‘sentient’ food might be enforced by the town guard.

But I expect out in Wildcat country, there’s a good reason travelers hire protection…

The Royal Family. The current royals are Otters; this wasn’t explicitly stated in the rulebook, but the family name is Othyr – which is an archaic English/Saxon form of ‘otter’, but also translates from Norse as ‘dread army’. I spend way too much time on this stuff… The stamp used on this letter also shows the King as an otter:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ldco1638oov6jgs/Snook-letter.pdf

The previous royal family were Hounds – the Lupines, who claim descent from Wolves.

 

Beasts of burden. Labour is done by the animals themselves. I reckon probably hand carts, or maybe larger carts pulled by teams of labourers or slaves. I’m sure there’d be plenty of indentured or slave labour, although I tend to think of labour in Northymbra more as being done by paid workers, or those serving criminal sentences, or paying off debts etc rather than full-on slaves as a general thing.

But generally a local area will be supported by small-scale industry, supplemented by travelling peddlars and such. Larger quantities of stuff could be moved by boat, or canal barges pulled by badgers. Most towns would be coastal or on rivers I’d expect, so lots of boats…

I reckon some of the stronger / hardier beasts could make a good living transporting goods and people in rickshaws and palanquins, in much the same way that humans have had to in various times and places.

For big, valuable or time-sensitive shipments, I’m imagining a Guild entirely composed of Noble Magic practioners, with
several offices / warehouses around the country, who can perform an overpowered multi-caster version of the Transpose Spell to rapidly move large consignments of goods from place to place… for a fee, of course!

Incidentally, if you haven’t seen it, there’s some more background material in Sternpaw’s Almanack here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/bwhpqw316tpfm7t/Sternpaw%27s%20Almanack.pdf

Hope that helps!

Michael