Merchant Caste Puns

It's puzzling to me that a group of people that deal with commerce would not almost immediately become the most powerful class excluding royalty and the shogunate. I know that eventually merchants became powerful in Japanese society, especially during the 19th century. But what kept them down for so long? In many societies, 'merchants' are often at top of the social strata, and it's hard not to imagine them being at or near the top universally.

I think many non-Gujjus and even some Gujjus don't appreciate our history and why Narendrabhai is unshakeable in Gujarat. I will attempt to back up my claims with references to scholarly articles.

It begins with the land. Gujarat proper* is mostly semi-arid, incapable of the fertility and growth that the northern river-fed lands can support. It is also susceptible to drought. Agriculture, especially lucrative ground-nut and other cash crop cultivation, is water-greedy, and has not been as extensive as agriculture along the Ganga or Bengal Delta. It is really only in modern times that the land is finally being irrigated and cultivated to its full potential; one place where the Gujarat model is more fact than hype is in agriculture. Even Narendrabhai's critics concede that "agri-GDP registered an unprecedented growth of 8 per cent per annum during 2002-03 to 2013-14" (IndianExpress), mostly because of increased irrigation and good agricultural policy. It isn't an exaggeration to say that the water supply is an artery of the state, and that is why the Narmada dam issue was so emotive. Activists like Arundhati Roy and Mona G. Mehta criticized the dam, the latter stating: 'The plan to build the dam used the instruments and rhetoric of democracy to forge a popular consensus around a coercive Gujarati nativism marked by ideas of victimhood and an adversarial ‘Other’". But what Roy and other activists don't realize is that such rhetoric was deployed because the dam represented the potential salvation of millions and millions of people - and the victimhood complex existed because outsiders, non-Gujaratis, seemed to elevate the lives of some forty-thousand tribal peoples over that of forty million Gujaratis. When Narendrabhai alluded to "conspiracies to hold Gujarat back", he was simply voicing what the common Gujarati person felt. He earned no little goodwill for pressing the Gujarati case against this outside impositions: vikas marries asmita and begets vijaya.

Gujarat does have a long coastline, the longest in India. Its strategic location has meant that it has ever been a nexus of trade between Africa, the Middle East, South India, and Southeast Asia. One striking example of this is that genetic studies on the Sinhala peoples of Sri Lanka reveal a 12-15% Gujarati component; even the name Sinhala comes (according to the 5th century Lankan historical chronicle Mahavamsa) from Sinhapura, an ancient city in Gujarat. Likewise, Gujarati merchants maintained com

So I started a game (Iron Man) as the Yabguid nomad tribe, and spent the first hundred years or so burning and pillaging my way across Khiva, Afghanistan, the Khyber Pass, and down the Indus river valley.

I had a huge nation, maxed out my number of nomadic vassals, and wiped clean every single province I conquered. It was great, I ended up with like 22k gold.

So once I had everything in order to leave behind a stable realm, I settled as a Merchant Republic on the mouth of the Indus river. There's a six-holding province that's coastal, and on the silk road route, and I made that my capitol. With ~22k to blow, and an absolute shitton of tech points saved up, I turned my fledgling republic into a thriving trade power overnight. I own all four of the cities in my capitol province, and once the merchant houses were generated, I granted each of the houses one of the other four counties in the Duchy.

It was my hope that I could remain Turkish and Tengri. With a huge nomadic tengri ally to my north, I could hold out against the Abbasid Empire (which was really not doing very well - most of Iraq and western Persia had gained independence as scattershot counties and duchies), and the Kingdoms of India.

Well, not so much. Which brings me to my first question:

• Usually, when you're holy warred, you have the option of converting to the attacker's religion in order to make the hurting go away. Not so much with the holy wars I faced. Is it because I was a merchant republic? Or because I was being attacked by Hindus?

So, I was able to beat back one or two wars, with the help of my Tengri neighbor, but after not too long, the nomadic empire I created collapsed, and I was left alone. The next missionary that was sent my way, I accepted, and before too long I converted. So here's my other questions:

• As a merchant republic, shouldn't just about everyone be a part of the Merchants caste? Unfortunately, since we were outsiders who converted, we are all casteless. I tried bringing an outsider to marry one of my sons, but the kids just inherited his casteless status, not her caste.

• In a similar vein, I'm having trouble getting enough courtiers in the Warriors caste to fill out my commanders roster. Just like the merchants caste thing, none of my vassals are able to be assigned as my Marshal, so I'm usually stuck leaving one of the great houses off my council. I can invite commanders to my court, and they're all of the right caste, but that's started ge

I would like to know your opinion guys on what kind of holdings do you prefer? I know obvious that cities generate more money while castles generate more troops. The question is that when you are patrician and you are allowed to own both which do you find more useful? Are trade post enough for money and it's better to invest those slots in soldiers or other way around, that without many cities you are unable to perform well as a republic?

Thank you in advance for your help and time.

PS. Please consider the latest patch and that I also don't have legacy of rome, so no retinues. I am planing to get legacy of rome though. Can anyone also tell if I can activate DLC mid playthrough on ironman?

Cast On Use B-Gone is a mod that changes enchanted items that has cast on use effect to constant effect, however, there's a problem though, this mod breaks the Temple quest where you have to obtain the "Hair Shirt of St. Aralor," so when you return the item to the quest giver, she wears it and dies.

Does the option "Prevent merchants equipping" prevent this?

Beholder :

A beholder constantly fears for its safety, is wary of any creature that isn’t one of its minions, and is aggressive in dealing with perceived threats. It might react favorably toward creatures that humble themselves before it and present themselves as inferiors, but is easily provoked to attack creatures that brag about their accomplishments or claim to be mighty. Such creatures are seen as threats or fools, and are dealt with mercilessly. Each beholder thinks it is the epitome of its race, and therefore all other beholders are inferior to it — even though, at the same time, it considers other beholders to be its greatest rivals. A beholder might be willing to cooperate with adventurers who have news about another beholder’s lair or activities, and might be nonhostile toward adventurers who praise it for being a perfect example of a beholder.

Giants :

Fire giants on many occasions have ransomed captives back to their families or communities, once the giants determined that a slave had no particular talent they needed and others were willing to pay for its return. Affluent prisoners such as merchants and aristocrats are the most likely to win this sort of reprieve, for obvious reasons. The ransom demanded rarely involves baubles such as gold or gems: fire giants prefer payment in mithral, adamantine, or different slaves (ones with more useful talents or stronger backs).

Gnolls :

Gnolls have little variation in personality and outlook. They are collectively an elemental force, driven by a demon lord to spread death and destruction. The only real opportunity for interaction with gnolls is provided by the cultists that sometimes accompany a war band. This humanoid rabble might have information the characters need or could even be former friends corrupted to the worship of Yeenoghu. To portray a gnoll that is more intelligent or social than the usual, you can give it characteristics similar to Yeenoghu cultists.

Kobolds :

A kobold acknowledges its weakness in the face of a hostile world. It knows it is puny, bigger creatures will exploit it, it will probably die at a young age, and its life will be full of toil. Although this outlook seems bleak, a kobold finds satisfaction in its work, the survival of its tribe, and the knowledge that it shares a heritage with the mightiest of dragons. A kobold isn’t clever, but it isn’t as stupid as an orc. Someone can fool a kobold with smooth words or a quick wit, but when the kobold figures out it has

Context 1: We know very few about the DaOT anyways, but the few we do know only paint a very scary picture on what the DaOT can be about

From my previous post, here, that aimed to clarify what the Men of Gold and Stone were, as well as describing a potential Man of Stone, we now have an idea on what the populations of man were like in the original empire of the DaOT. However, the reality was that it was actually a pretty shitty time for a lot of people involved.

As a reminder, the DaOT's population consisted of 3 separate transhuman races of man, these races consist of the Men of Gold, a genetically engineered master race that arose due to certain levels of selective breedinng, the Men of Stone, a race of cybog intelligences specifically called "organic intelligence, created artificially", and the Men of Iron referred to the Abominable Intelligence so infamously known in the setting. But among these 3 baseline humans are assumed to still exist, and they weren't placed at the top of the totem pole. Instead, they were likely at the bottom, alongside the Men of Gold and Men of Iron, with the Men of Stone at the top. This was because of the fact that during the course of human history, the Men of Stone played the most important role in helping man spread across the galaxy and forming the Interstellar empire of the DaOT:

>JOURNAL OF KEEPER CRIPIAS
>
>Dated in the year of our Emperor 993.M41
>
>For seventy long years I have laboured as Master Finnias laboured before me, and Master Shadiel before him, through eight hundred and thirty six generations of Keepers of the Library Sanctus of Terra. It has been our endeavour, our life-long aim, to compile a history of the majesty of the Human Race from the archives which are our worship*. In his benevolent wisdom, the Emperor has granted me the singular and great honour and pleasure of completing this sacred task in my own lifespan.*
>
>Through copious notes and periods of cogitation I have pieced together the history and pre-history of Mankind into the greatest antiquities of time. *Here I have revealed my findings for the first time, for as it was in the time of the First Keeper, Solomon, our knowledge has passed by oratory and not written word. However, in thes

At this point I cannot think of it being anyone else

Exonyms exist.

There has been considerable efforts to spread misinformation in r/pakistan by a few individuals over the past couple of years. Generally they are pretty lazy but every once in a while these individuals put great effort to misrepresent facts. One of the most recurring theme in r/pakistan is that "India" actually referred to Pakistan historically until the British.

I won't link the reddit post directly but I'll post the medium article: https://medium.com/@ancientpakistan/is-pakistan-the-real-historic-india-3eba493e0886

The entire post starts with a misrepresentation of facts: > Unfortunately European colonialism played a big role in how the term “India” was misused and mislabeled. To discuss this more in detail, we first need to define some basic terms:

• > When “Republic of India” is mentioned, we are referring to Bharat or modern-day India (1947 to present).
• > When “India” is mentioned, we are referring to its historic definition (the Indus Valley in modern-day Pakistan) as cited in Vedic, Persian, Greek, Macedonian, Arab, Chinese and Roman sources

Here the author takes liberties with the historical usage of the term India. It's funny the author wrote an entire article to debate the term India but conveniently ignores the singular most prominent book about "India", Indica by Megathenes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indica_(Megasthenes)).

Here is except according from History of Antiquity: > After the army of Alexander of Macedon had encamped in the Panjab, the Greeks could give more accurate accounts of India. Megasthenes assures us that India reached in breadth, from west to east, an extent of from 15,000 to 16,000 stades (1940 to 2000 miles), while the length, from north to south, was 22,000 stades (2750 miles);[28] and in these distances he is not very greatly in error, for, measured in a direct line, the breadth is 13,600 stades (1720 miles), and the length 16,400 stades (2050 miles). To the north India was bounded by lofty mountains, which the Greeks called Caucasus, and the Indians Paropamisos (Paropanishadha[29]), and Emodos, or Imaos. Emodos, like Imaos,[Pg 22] is the Greek form of the old Indian name for the Himalayas, Haimavata (Himavat).[30] In India there were many great mountains, but still greater plains; and even the mountains were covered with fruit-trees, and contained in their bowels precious stones of various kinds—crystals, carbuncles, and others. Gold also and silver, metals and salt, could b

First of all, I want to stop all the racist crap right now. My point here is that the show ruined the story in part by paving over the many unique cultures in the books and replacing them with some weird faux-diversity. They also denied basic scientific realities in order to defend their destruction of those cultures, and their legions of Darkfans and Showsen rallied behind them.

Here's the background: There was a lot of debate about whether or not the Two Rivers could become homogenized. Guys like Daniel Greene came out with a thousand and one justifications for the show turning the diversity of the books into a corporate HR poster and generally ruining such a beautiful world rich with cultures and customs.

There are basically two arguments:

1.) The Two Rivers would be largely homogenized. Everyone would have a similar skin tone (regardless of what that skin tone was) due to inbreeding (in the genetic sense, not the pornhub sense) over thousands of years. Evidence for this is multitudinous, but includes the fact that Rand sticks out by his looks. This is incongruous with a society rife with people who are different. There are also many real-world examples of this, showing how even with globalization and modern-day technology you still see homogenized groups all over the globe. Homogenization happens, and influxes of genetic material tend to alter the aggregate not the specific in the long term.

2.) The Two Rivers would not be homogenized because merchant caravans and such would create an influx of new genetic material over the centuries large enough to outpace inbreeding. Evidence for this is Tam Al'Thor bringing Rand back. Even though it was remarked on as weird and kept a secret by the entire town the argument states this was common enough to influence the gene pool. Also, you're a racist if you disagree with this argument for some reason.

Anyways, I've been re-reading the books and here's a little more evidence that Daniel and his ilk are full of shit.

Quick Background for this bit: Alanna and Verin are stuck in the Two Rivers. Perin has just traveled the ways with Loial, Faile, Bain, Chiad, and Gaul and they have discovered Whitecloaks fuckin' around. Also it turns out a bunch of people Perrin cares about are being held by the Whitecloaks. Perrin won't stand for this shit so he decides to do something about it. That's when he runs into Verin and Alanna. They also run into Tam and Abell. Much planning ensues, and Verin goes off on a

I've read quite a few of the novels and they never really get into how the economy works in Clan society. The warriors just have whatever battlemechs are available, and technician and laborer castes that are bound to keep everything running. Then again, Clan Diamond Shark is the "Merchant Clan," and some clan mechs (Mad Cat Mk III) are specficially made to be sold for profit. And I'm pretty sure there's a merchant caste in there somewhere.

Do the Clans have some version of the C-bill to handle transactions? Do their warriors look down on trade and working for money as "unbecoming" or "dishonorable"? I'm specifically looking at the post-Tukayyid era, say around 3060-3070.

Thanks for any comments.

https://preview.redd.it/vcjcrzezlqh51.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c288ef031cafd617a24091be228e21ead2daddba

Has any one else noticed how the main activity on this sub has become the display of crappy castings by silver merchants trying to sell stuff, or silver hoarders crossposting zero talent “pouring” of ingots.

What is(?) special about this sub are the question posts, techniques and works in progress. Even those these posts still happen, I’ve started to tune out because the ratio of quality to shit post is falling.

I know this isn’t the busiest sub and I’m never in favour of banning stuff, but I hope more people here would vote to push out crap like this. Or at least be aware that many of the regular posters are just selling stuff.

[Rant over.]

Howdy I'm new to casting and I've been looking for a merchant that has crucibles, pre-made molds, tongs etc... for sale at good prices.

Where have yall purchased your equipment from in the past?

Simply put a wizard in my campaign decided to be an evocation wizard so they could sling spells everywhere and not nuke the party. No big deal I thought… then he started using fireball in literally every single situation.

Talking to an important but powerful NPC? ‘I don’t like his attitude I wanna cast fireball’

Merchant won’t give away items? ‘I’m gonna steal it, I cast fireball centered on the merchant’

Group of enemies? Guessed it, fireball. But oh shit, half of them survived and decided to all attack the wizard who just nuked their platoon? ‘That’s targeting! Why are all of the ranges guys shooting me?!’

Sleeping Hydra (though one head is awake because Hydra)? Casts fireball before anyone can stop them. ‘Why is the Hydra ignoring the others can charging me?!’ (Because they didn’t attack nor entered combat)

There is blood and gore in a hallway and the rogue says there are traps (duh?). Fireball casted and walks forwards, shocked the traps triggered by pressure plates go off anyway. ‘No way I burned all the triggers’

Giant unknown crystal golem just standing in a room and not moving? Fireball. Golem shoots back a lightning bolt from its head. ‘Why did it attack me?’

Technically yes, I’m targeting the wizard because he’s attacking everyone with obvious and flashy attacks. But am I an asshole for it?

Honestly the other players told me I should kill him off… I would but the cleric heals him as his character is like that even though the player wants to fucking kick the wizard’s ass IRL.

Edit: so the post got a bit bigger than I expected. I do thank you guys for the feedback. Yes the player has been spoken to a couple times out of character and their response was the dreaded ‘it’s what my character would do’. I’ll figure something out. If they won’t work with the party with this character I may try to get rid of it and see how things go with another. If that doesn’t work I may have to kick them out despite requests.

EDIT2: After some recommendations I'll be allowing the player one final session, they will be warned ahead of time that their actions have consequences and should they fail to head this warning the PC will be removed from the game either through death or capture. If they, the player, have a serious problem with this they will be asked to leave and not return.

As she stepped out of the docking tunnel into the main hall, Gree’sha was a bit overwhelmed by the mass of people in the brightly shining spaceport. For an empathic species like she was, it took significant focus to filter out all the raw emotional energy in a room this large and full of people. Getting her mental barriers up, she took a moment to get a look at the place.

This was, far and away, the nicest port she had seen since she left her home world. When the thought crossed her mind, she was hit with a sense of loss. The nuclear exchange of the previous century had destabilized the environment so badly only thin bands of land around the poles were able to sustain agriculture. Things had gotten particularly bad since her youth, so she decided to take her daughter, Jinya, and find somewhere they could make a better life for themselves.

Her journey had taken them over six months so far, and along with the whole gamut of negative reactions to her and her species, there was a danger unique to her people. Her species, the Deroli, were considered the most desirable slave species in the galaxy. Their innate ability to detect the emotions of others, combined with their physical attributes that almost all humanoids found highly desirable, meant they were prime targets for slavers of any stripe.

Her people were not without their countermeasures, however. Most of them had learned to use their skills to manipulate others and get what they needed, or wanted, from them. Some even took it as a sign of superiority and manipulated others as they wished. The results for their victims were at best a minor loss of credit slips, sometimes complete financial or emotional ruin, and at worst both.

The actions of those that acted such ways had cast a pall over her entire species. Everywhere she went she was met with distrust, suspicion, and oftentimes anger and revulsion. At the same time, however, underneath those surface emotions, there was almost always a smoldering attraction present if the other party was intimately compatible.

With so many of her people fleeing their planet, they quickly gained a reputation as homeless wanderers if the observers were being charitable, or thieves and con artists if they weren’t. Generally, she and Jinya were viewed with suspicion and distrust. Even when people tried to be polite on the outside, she could still tell how they felt about her on the inside. That was the part that hurt the most. Over the past six months, she had been cons

Beholder :

A beholder constantly fears for its safety, is wary of any creature that isn’t one of its minions, and is aggressive in dealing with perceived threats. It might react favorably toward creatures that humble themselves before it and present themselves as inferiors, but is easily provoked to attack creatures that brag about their accomplishments or claim to be mighty. Such creatures are seen as threats or fools, and are dealt with mercilessly. Each beholder thinks it is the epitome of its race, and therefore all other beholders are inferior to it — even though, at the same time, it considers other beholders to be its greatest rivals. A beholder might be willing to cooperate with adventurers who have news about another beholder’s lair or activities, and might be nonhostile toward adventurers who praise it for being a perfect example of a beholder.

Giants :

Fire giants on many occasions have ransomed captives back to their families or communities, once the giants determined that a slave had no particular talent they needed and others were willing to pay for its return. Affluent prisoners such as merchants and aristocrats are the most likely to win this sort of reprieve, for obvious reasons. The ransom demanded rarely involves baubles such as gold or gems: fire giants prefer payment in mithral, adamantine, or different slaves (ones with more useful talents or stronger backs).

Gnolls :

Gnolls have little variation in personality and outlook. They are collectively an elemental force, driven by a demon lord to spread death and destruction. The only real opportunity for interaction with gnolls is provided by the cultists that sometimes accompany a war band. This humanoid rabble might have information the characters need or could even be former friends corrupted to the worship of Yeenoghu. To portray a gnoll that is more intelligent or social than the usual, you can give it characteristics similar to Yeenoghu cultists.

Kobolds :

A kobold acknowledges its weakness in the face of a hostile world. It knows it is puny, bigger creatures will exploit it, it will probably die at a young age, and its life will be full of toil. Although this outlook seems bleak, a kobold finds satisfaction in its work, the survival of its tribe, and the knowledge that it shares a heritage with the mightiest of dragons. A kobold isn’t clever, but it isn’t as stupid as an orc. Someone can fool a kobold with smooth words or a quick wit, but when the kobold figures out it has