[Dragaera] No traffic since February?

[Jon Lincicum]

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu>
> 
> 
> On Mon, 17 Mar 2008, Steve Rapaport wrote:
> 
> > On 17/03/2008, Philip Hart <philiph at slac.stanford.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >> Background question: Is there anything keeping Easterners from joining
> >> House Teckla and coming under the equal protection of the law, such as
> >> it is?
> >
> >
> > Miklos apparently did it in "Brokedown Palace"....
> 
> I should perhaps have specified, "en masse".
> 
> Is there for example a fee?  An entrance screening test?  A loyalty oath
> to some lord or other - would the prospective Teckla have to find a lord
> willing to sign him or her on?

The way it's been described, you just take an oath, and you're in. This does kind of imply that you have to find a lord willing to take you--though, with the Interregnum just ending, this is unlikely to be a major hurdle. There's bound to be a massive labor shortage after all the plagues.

To the left, the oath states that you are basically the property of your lord, and owe him the best half of your crop, or an equal value in service. Oh, and you can't ever move away. And if there's a war, you have to go fight in a front-line rabble unit that'll get slaughtered in the first 10 minutes. And, as an Easterner, even the other Teckla will look down on you. 

What's not to like about that?

At the same time, there have been many hints that there ARE quite a few Easterners who take this route. They just all live out in the country farming dirt. The ones in the city are the ones who remained independent. (Mostly. Note some comments that Vlad's friend Ricard made, that he's apparently worked land for nearby nobles in years past. Until the work dried up.)

These are the ones who, like Vlad's father, are trying to up their status in life on their own terms. Life in poverty is in some measure better than life as a (virtual) slave. 

In any case "Equal protection under the law" in a feudal society means "The noble always wins", so this doesn't really help their state of affairs, in any case.  

Majikjon