Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-Poll: Why I didn’t participate in Postfest:

Sat Aug 26, 2006 8:23 am Peasant knowledge and customs of the WoG

Hello Everyone,

I was thinking about the average person in the WoG and realized that they may be astonishingly ignorant. Now I use the term "ignorant" in its literal sense and not as a derogatory term. The World of Greyhawk has, admittedly, suffered from the advancement and withdrawl of the Scarlet Brotherhood, the war with Iuz, various imperial advancements of other nations and the fracture of other nations. With that being said, in a fantasy world such as WoG, with no widespread educational system for the masses, what does the average peasant or craftsman know of the world?

How has the terrific wars that have spread across the continent affected the average man? Figuring that most men don't go farther than 5 miles from their native village and the average merchant may not go further than the next major city (pure speculation on my part), what has changed for the average man? What does he know other than what is in the immediate area or what his lord tells him?

Finally, does the average community, being isolated, have local customs? What do your npc's do that is different from any other npc from anywhere else in the world? If you take the bearded leatherworker in Westkeep and set him next to a leatherworker from Ket and one from
the Pale, do they act similar? Could you (minus language) tell which one came from where? I was curious simply because I have played games where one set of players can't wrap their minds around the peasants not knowing anything and having their own customs versus my current players who enjoy seeing the customs of other peoples. For instance, does every inn the characters visit have a selection of pig, deer and beef?
Does every country drink beer and ale as it's primary beverage or do some places value wine more? How is slavery, on a small scale, viewed? All the wizards cut and ran during the Greyhawk Wars, so how do people view wizards now? These are just a few of the questions I'm curious about and how do you think the average npc in the WoG deals with them....if at all. I look forward to reading your thoughts.

I Miss the Wild Coast,
Dwarf from Nyrond

Sat Aug 26, 2006 2:52 pm

My long answer can be found in the "What Everyone Knows About Keoland" appendix to Kirt Wackford's article in the OJ a few issues back.

Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:39 am

As I've said many times already, I really like the Song of Ice and Fire. I think it gets across the concerns and lives of the smallfolk of Westeros very well.

Peasents are generally fairly ignorant of big picture concepts. The local is all and then things start to fade into the distance very quickly after that. Every peasent would know his lord by sight and reputation. Then there's the lord's lord, the great lords of the realm and the king - they'd be known only by story and reputation (which would be a mix of the reputation of the present incumbants and their predecessors) and possibly been only by title ("the duke of Hendrenn Halgood's people have always been fair and just lords, or so it's said"). Beyond that knowledge falls off sharply except for extremely prominent characters - such as Iuz, for example(and he, in any case, is a demi-god).

A peasent's knowledge of anything beyond what he's seen himself is going to be hearsay and the farther the subject is from him, the more distorted and outlandish it's likely to be.