How do we attract settlers?
The king promised us all the land from our castle to the river uinac. Ripe for settling, fishing, farming, etc - and yet the land lies still and silent, nary a hoe or net to be seen. Our target is to make the castle self-sufficient by extracting tax or other value from the surrounding land, but how do we do that?
Well, one possible solution is robots - Xorn is working on a golemancy spell that, with a significant overhead, could possibly result in enough profits to keep the castle afloat. However, this could possibly get us all burnt at the stake.
The more traditional answer would be to have humans farm the land, and to tax them in return. The question being, who would want to uproot their lives and come farm our land for us?
The previous answer - Caurwaith refugees - is no longer viable, since Ydhrdroc has made his position on their citizenship abundantly clear. Slaves? Expensive overhead and immoral/objectionable, particularly since one of the fort's owners is a former slave himself.
So, the remaining answer is freemen - but what kind of freemen would want to live here? What do we have to offer? Is the simple promise of a hide of land enough to draw a young man seeking to make his way in the world? Would we need a bribe of silver, an ox and a chicken, a bag of seed?
I'm looking for input - what's a traditional answer to this question, and what would be appropriate in these circumstances?
Posted Apr 1, 2017, 1:09 AM UTC · edited
Personally I'm thinking about the ~600 Draugwaith slaves currently held prisoner by the Covenant - many of them will have been prisoners since before the march of bones and the predations of the remains of Aegodroc's army, potentially leaving them with nowhere to go. Many of them will have formed ties and families within their bondage, and may seek to start a new life together. Some will find themselves forever changed by their experience, and seek to remain in the company of those who experienced it also, or in the company of those who freed them. Some may simply agree to stay with us out of a profound sense of gratitude.
Again, for every reason you've listed as to why they would stay, there is a reason they wouldn't. We can't assume more than half of them will settle for us, I'd imagine.
That's true, but a portion of 600 is still a significant number - once we actually have an established settlement, I imagine it will be easier to attract further settlers.
if you, wish I could send you some of the relevant information from ACKS
I think I can get my hands on a copy of ACKS - if you could tell me the page number I'd apprecaite it, though.
I'd appreciate that, though I will point out that the DM may not be using it unmodified.