Guilds in the Shine Cycle

As the Shine Cycle is set in a world that is basically medieval for about the first half of its history, it’s reasonable to ask the question: What is the role of guilds in Imperial society? Today I’d like to take some time to explore that question.

First of all, what is a guild? For our purposes, a guild is a group of craftsmen that is granted a monopoly on their craft in return for undertaking the training of the next generation in the craft, guaranteeing the quality of the craft’s production, settling disputes between practitioners of the craft, and so on.

Calendar Confusion

One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

If I ever brought up even the most minor proper observance of the Christian liturgical year in my decidedly (and increasingly, to our detriment) anti-liturgical church (even though every church has a liturgy, whether it wants one or calls it that or not), I’m sure that these verses (Romans 14:5-8) would get flung in my face.

And if my church—or any church, or any Christian—were simply deciding for whatever Christ-centered reason to not celebrate any “holiday” as more special than any other, or (in a Messianic Jewish church, for example) to celebrate the Jewish feasts commanded in the Law rather than the festivals instituted in the Church more recently, or to only celebrate Christmas and Easter, or (conversely) to not celebrate Christmas or Easter because of their pagan origins, or (I could go on), I would have no objection. In fact, I would cite this passage in the church’s or individual’s defense. Whether to celebrate “holidays”, and which to celebrate, and how to celebrate them, is a tangled web of issues about which many Godly people have (and I think have beeen given) different (and mutually exclusive) convictions, with strong arguments on all sides, so Paul’s instruction here to let each one be guided by the firm convictions of his or her conscience is, in addition to being God’s command, especially wise and practical.

However, my church doesn’t take any of these principled stands. Instead, the two most important Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter, get extensive but uninformed and haphazard celebration, and any number of civil holidays are marked each year. Memorial Day, Independence Day, Fathers Day, Mothers Day, Thanksgiving, and so on are in and of themselves either neutral or somewhat good … but this leaves one pressing issue that no one seems to have noticed:

When one complete set of God-ordained festivals and holidays has been laid out in Scripture, and the Church (and I use the capital letter there advisedly) has developed another to help us worship God aright as each year and each season of each year rolls past, why does a church only mark holidays designated by the secular State—in fact, only holidays that the increasingly anti-religious public schools also celebrate? If we celebrate some special days on the calendar, or if we treat every day alike, we are righgt to do so in either case, Paul says, becaus we do so to the Lord. But our Lord also says to “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Entirely aside from Kuyper’s accurate quip that “There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not [I add, rightfully and rightly] cry out, ‘This is mine! This belongs to me!’”, Paul is telling us in this passage from his letter to the church at Rome that the calendar is God’s. So why are we giving the calendar to Caesar?

“Sicut Cervus”

As the hart pants for cooling streams with thirst
So my flesh longs for God and his now-glorious Image.
And as for sleep objecting eyebrows bow and bend,
So my arms long to anchor me on her—
On her who holds my heart, for whom I pray.

This is an old poem; it’s been sitting in my archive for several years, long enough that I don’t remember when I wrote it. I’d been postponing posting it because it didn’t seem long enough, but this week I finally decided to post it, and so with a few tweaks to improve the meter and flow, here it is. I’m not entirely pleased with the title I’ve given it here; unlike “Nunc dimittis”, there’s no good reason for this poem to use the Latin of the verse that initially prompted it as its title, but I coudn’t think of a better one.

As always, I earnestly welcome your comments, suggestions, questions, critique, or other feedback about this or any other part of my work. (In other words, if you liked this poem, or you didn’t like it, or it made you think of something, or … please leave a comment to let me know.) If you liked this, you can also read other poems I’ve written here on my blog (starting with yesterday’s archive installment, since the full archive is by now, at over a hundred poems, somewhat daunting); I’d especially like to know which poems you think are my best.

This poem is also posted on WEbook and Google Docs.

Poetry Archive: Volume I Issue 8

Since until very recently I’ve had minimal response to my pleas for feedback (though I do thank those of you who have commented so far—the recent response has been quite gratifying) and, more to the point, my archive of poetry I’ve posted here has grown to daunting size, each Thursday I present you with (links to) a smaller selection of my poems. Please read each poem and tell me which poem or poems you liked best (and if possible why).

• “And oh! for some sweet leisure”
• A Vision of the City
• On Time
• “After so many tears”

Again, please comment and tell me which poem or poems of these you liked best, and if possible why. And any other comments you care to give.

Strategic Primer: 2000-2001 Campaign Log: Part 2

Today I’m continuing the annotated log of the first campaign of Strategic Primer, which I began last month.

Player Name	Date	Unit	Attempted Action	Result of Action
Edward Campau	2/15/01	Catapult 1	Move north until finding something, then attack the something.	Bogged down, Bogged down, Bogged down, Moves correctly for 1/2 hr (5 mi), Bogged down, Bogged down, moves correctly but out of step for 1 hr (10 mi), Bogged down, Bogged down, moves correctly for 1 hr (10 mi), Bogged down, moves correctly but out of step for 1 hr (10 mi), bogged down, moves correctly for 2 hrs (20 mi), moves correctly but out of step for 2 hrs (20 mi), bogged down, bogged down, bogged down, moves correctly for 2 hrs (20 mi), moves correctly for 2 hrs (20 mi), moves correctly but out of step for 1/2 hr (5 mi). Total distance: 120 mi north.

Because my notion of a unit was a large number of men, and because I was drawing inspiration from second- and third-hand descriptions of wargames, I made a big deal in the game design about whether infantry units were “in step,” by which I mostly meant “in formation.” That has for now vanished from the design—for one thing, the very idea of “being in step” or “being in formation” is a relatively modern invention, something players have to teach their soldiers. And even if it comes back, in the current design I won’t note it unless it becomes relevant because the unit encountered something and had to react.

Edward Campau	2/15/01	None	None	Currently building Rabble, with 2 turns left
Arthur Pendragon	2/15/01	None	None	Invented gunpowder and put it in balls with flint and steel so as to explode on impact. Equipped catapults with this.

And here we have the first example of someone taking advantage of the instant-discovery mechanic. As this was before we started using email for the game, and before Wikipedia, this involved writing formulae down, drawing diagrams, and handing this in on paper with the strategy. How times have changed! But note that I still encourage inventions taking technology in directions that our history didn’t go.

Another point about this is that in that campaign, I was a great deal laxer about prerequisites. I didn’t pay the slightest attention to details like what a gunpowder ball like this would be made of, where the materials to make the gunpowder would come from, and where the flint and steel came from—and, most egregiously in retrospect, whether simply putting “flint and steel” inside would even work. (It might, or might not, depending on the design.)

Arthur Pendragon	2/15/01	Crossbowmen 1	Move as far south as possible	Bogged down, moves correctly but out of step for 1 hr (14 mi), moves correctly for 1 hr (14 mi), bogged down, moves correctly but out of step for 2 hrs (28 mi), moves correctly for 2 hrs (28 mi), bogged down, bogged down, moves correctly for 2 hrs (28 mi), moves correctly for 2 hrs (28 mi), moves correctly for 2 hrs (28 mi), moves correctly for 2 hrs (28 mi). Total distance: 196 mi
Arthur Pendragon	2/15/01	None	None	Currently building Rabble, 2 turns remaining.
Pywll pen Annwn	2/15/01	None	None	None. Currently building Rabble, 2 turns remaining.
Theodore Roosevelt	2/15/01	None	None	Currently producing Rabble, 2 turns remaining.
Theodore Roosevelt	2/15/01	Rabble 1 & 2	Move east as far as possible or until enemy sighted.	Cannot move east, as is on an island.

This was an oversight&mdash:I didn’t even set up the game, really, beyond what units everyone started with, until after I’d gotten the first strategies. And even what the measurement units for the map were, and whether it was tiled, and so on, was in flux for a long time at the beginning while I tried to figure out what would work.

And we’ll end this segment of the log here. More will follow shortly.

Shine Cycle Précis: The Dragon Wars

The Dragon Wars (tentative title) is the planned second book (by internal chronology) in the Shine Cycle, following Vayna. Today’s post is a brief introduction to it.

Best Books: The Return of the Native

The next work on my list of books everyone should read is Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy.

This is probably one of the least certain entries on the list. Many of the books (such as last month’s Pride and Prejudice, and The Lord of the Rings) are both edifying and so enjoyable that I can hardly imagine not reading them enough times for the stories and lessons to become imbedded if not quite memorized. But The Return of the Native is on the list for a different reason.

For the purposes of this discussion, I am taking for granted that Thomas Hardy is one of the (many) “giants” on whose shoulders the greats of subsequent literature rest, and so something by him certainly belongs on the list. If you disagree with this point, please speak up; that’s the “sentence” or “teaching” half of our two criteria for membership in the list of Best Books. But I haven’t read Return of the Native recently enough, or enough times, to argue coherently that it specifically belongs on those grounds.

On the grounds of “delight”, however, I can argue somewhat better, though still only by anecdote. From eighth grade (at the latest) through the end of high school, I had to read many novels for my various English classes. These novels—that is, the ones that were required, not the ones where I had to read something of my choice from a list—were, until the last days of my high school career, variously depressing, boring, unpleasant, dull, badly written (Gatsby), or otherwise objectionable. While I later came to appreciate having read many of them, I would not even consider putting one on a list of books that “everyone should read” without some explanation of the conditions under which it should be read to make it enjoyable.

The sole exception to that apparent rule that required-reading novels must be unpleasant was Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native. I do not remember it very well, and I suspect from what I’ve read since that the subject matter was much the same as the earlier ugly fiction, but Hardy’s descriptions of the heath, and his writing style in general, were often sheer pleasure to read. It’s because of the great enjoyment I got out of this book alone from that list of books that others thought “everyone should read” that I include it in mine.

“Autumn Remembrance”

Once, when autumn chills fell on the earth
And shadows lengthened earlier each eve,
I came each afternoon to such delight
That I did not discern the joy I felt
Until that happy season passed away.
What fellowship enfolded me in warmth
As days grew cool and winter’s cold drew near;
What unveiled glory glittered in my sight—
Though subtly, so I did not know its power
Until that sun had, for the winter, set—
As endless clouds drew curtains on the sky.

But now, as autumn breezes threaten frost,
And twilight glimmers closer every day,
Our fellowship has scattered, like sown seeds,
Across the land, and each leads separate life,
And those on whom the glory richly dwelt
Have since departed, each to such remove
That memories to shadows fade away
And written words have all but failed—Alas!
How happiness receded as years passed,
And melancholy humor has crept in.

The beginning of this poem came to me (with the memories it describes) while I was working outside earlier this month, and once I was inside and able to write it down (having repeated the first few lines over and over to myself to remember them) the rest of the poem essentially “wrote itself”.

I always welcome your comments, critique, suggestions, or any other feedback on this poem or any other part of my work. (In other words, if you like it, if you don’t like it, if something “works”, if something “doesn’t work”, if it makes you think of something or someone, etc., please comment and say so!) If you like this, you can subscribe to this blog, which includes one of my poems every Friday; you can also read other poems I’ve written here on my blog (or if that list is too intimidating, I’m posting more manageable subsets, like yesterday’s installment), so you can just start with those); I’d particularly like to know which poems you think are my best.

This poem is also posted on Google Docs and WEbook.

Poetry Archive: Volume I Issue 7

Since I’ve had minimal response to my pleas for feedback (though I do thank those of you who have commented so far) and my archive of poetry I’ve posted here has grown to daunting size, each Thursday I present you with (links to) a smaller selection of my poems. Please read each poem and tell me which poem or poems you liked best (and if possible why).

• “The snow this morning”
• Untitled Metaphor #7
• Numbered Sonnet Opus 2 #2
• Untitled Metaphor #1

Again, please comment and tell me which poem or poems of these you liked best, and if possible why. And any other comments you care to give.

Strategic Primer: Tenth turn summary

The current campaign of Strategic Primer recently finished its tenth turn.

There were two notable changes this turn that, as they happened to all the players, are safe to tell you. First, just like I started using a more detailed and (I hope) realistic model for hunting and fishing last turn, this turn I started modeling the food output of herders properly. I’d previously given a nominal amount of food for each worker assigned to herding; by contrast, I now model how much milk (or, I guess, eggs or whatever&mash;but no-one’s yet domesticated any food animal that isn’t also a dairy animal) the herd produces, and how much of the herders’ time this takes. As you might expect, this is far more than the previous amount.

And second, I’ve gone back over the last several turns and given the players advances based on what their Gatherers have brought in and their explorers have discovered—when a Food Gatherer brings in food from an abandoned grain field, some of that can be used to seed another farm, and when an explorer comes upon a grove of fruit trees, he would probably take cuttings. And so now the players can use those.

Populations keep rising. For most of the players, I’m about to abandon my use of PCGen for generating newcomers, as some populations are on their way past sixty workers, a “party” size that PCGen is entirely unsuitable for. Now, that size is rather unwieldy even for players, so before we begin the next turn I’m working on updates to the viewer that will include helpful unit management capabilities. (Read more about that in my development progress report earlier this month.)

Speaking of population, this is as good a place as any to give fair warning: in a few turns—maybe at the end of the game-year, after the fourteenth turn—I’m going to start tracking other constraints (direct and indirect) on population besides food more strictly. These will include living space, morale, clothing (though each new worker does come with his or her own first set of clothes), resource storage space (including barrels), tools, and the like.

Players continue building, or at least preparing (several of those in forest are constrained by the surrounding trees until those have been cleared), as their still somewhat limited labor supply allows. And they continue to investigate the hints their explorers have reported, which is forcing me to develop ways of determining what an abandoned fortress, for example, would contain, and what might still be found there.

As I keep repeating, this campaign is becoming more exciting by the turn, so I’m constantly looking forward to seeing what the players come up with next. If you’d like to join this campaign, we still desperately need more players, so please contact me.