Ktuvok economics

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So Haleza Grise
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Ktuvok economics

Post by So Haleza Grise »

In honour of the impending release of Munkhâshi (and maybe other materials around Munkhâsh?) it seems as good a time as any to go through this stuff.

So as I understand it the ktuvok population was around 20,000 in Munkhâsh (compared to a modern global total of 200,000). I assume this is around the number that the local ecosystem can support, so there would be around the same numbers in modern Dhekhnam. My question is: does the population fluctuate much? When the empire enters into an expansionary phase, I assume that means that the average size of an estate, and the ratio of human slaves:ktuvoks rises. They don't strike me as the kind of species that could increase reproductive rates easily to take advantages of more slaves - the existing estateholders would be too jealous and too resourceful to allow for the introduction of upstart newcomers. Or does the number of estates (and/or ktuvoks) actually increase in response to the increase in (human) resources?

I'm thinking that, given their limited habitat (and pre-modern transportation technology) there is a practical limit to how far spaced apart an estate's territories could be. Conquered territories in the Plain, for example, would be rather difficult to administer from the swamps, unless the ruling ktuvok just lived in some small-scale local wetlands - I'm guessing marginal habitats would become more enticing to live in if slaves were abundant and there was a high probability of controlling a good estate, just as mining hard-to-reach ore seams becomes profitable after a period of high demand.

That would mean they would be much more reliant on human emissaries and human communications systems as an Empire grew (and conversely the ktuvoks would have more of the whip hand when it was shrinking/retreating; although individuals would lose their own estates, the species as a whole would be able to rule within a more compact power structure). Is that right?
Duxirti petivevoumu tinaya to tiei šuniš muruvax ulivatimi naya to šizeni.

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Re: Ktuvok economics

Post by zompist »

To be precise, what I said in the other thread was that there were 20,000 adult ktuvoks and an equal number of estate-less young. That makes 40,000, or about 2/5 of the global population, about what one would expect from this map.

So, yeah, the adult ktuvok population stays at about the same level, except in the case of exceptional events such as the conquest of Munkhâsh.

Ktuvoks do rely heavily on human intermediaries, especially Demoshi— non-Demoshi were not likely to be individually blessed by their nampálh as Shikhar was. Ktuvoks do oversee military operations in person, but probably won't travel a thousand km just to supervise daily life— undoubtedly one reason the empire was hard to stop when on the attack, but could be whittled back over a long period of time. (Munkhâshi social structure was good at preventing rebellions, but in general didn't adapt well to periods of decline.)

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So Haleza Grise
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Re: Ktuvok economics

Post by So Haleza Grise »

Okay, so an increase in the human population would be soaked up by a reduction in the number of estateless ktuvoks?
Duxirti petivevoumu tinaya to tiei šuniš muruvax ulivatimi naya to šizeni.

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