The Hollow Man (Page 2 of 3)

How much work do you want to do, and how much do you need to tell your story or show the world as you mean it to be?  The Potterverse wouldn't be the same without the coinage whose names echo cups, pence, and swords, leaving only wands/rods--the four old suits that survive in the tarot.

But even Rowling didn't redefine the calendar.  That took the Rationalists of French Revolution.

Oh, your calendar will probably be Julian rather than Gregorian.  But you might not even need the actual months.

Gotta' run now.

Pick your own terms, but you don't have to be very specific.  I use year and season.  Decide on the length of your week (I kept it standard and made seven days per week.  Weekends are called Endweek.  Wednesday is midweek)  Time of day is determined by the sun.  Morning, high noon, afternoon, evening, and dusk.  In my world, there are two moons that move in synchrony and similar orbits.  People keep time based on where Estril and Farrah are in the sky.  Every now and then, there is a conjunction and they change order in their rise/ fall (about every hundred years)

Coin is based on copper, silver, and gold.  Platinum is rarer and not used for money exchange.  You could use 'bits' or 'shavings' for lesser coinage.  Just use whatever works for now and decide later.  Don't let it slow your writing because you can do a word search later and switch to whatever terms you want. 

Just don't copy the distinctive ones.  Anne McCaffery had 'marks'.  Rowling had her own names for coins.  Find something generic and run with it.

Here's a funny thought.  How many goats is a woman worth?

OK, Figure that a sack of grain (once ground) becomes...I dunno...call it fifteen pounds of flour?  (I'm just guessing.  It seems about right since a large part of the weight of flour is the chafe and I'm figuring that a sack might weigh 40-50 lbs)  If a pound of flour makes bread for a family of four for a day...take away 2 pounds for the miller and a pound for the baker, that leaves about 12 pounds of flour (or a week and a half of good/ hearty eating). 

Does this help any in your tabulation?  I think a miler would use chits to exchange bagged-grain-for-flour.  That way, everyone isn't carrying around dry flour and having it ruined in the rain.

The wheat won't be bagged until after threshing, so chaff won't be an issue.  Before threshing it will be tied up, and the grain will be at risk of falling away, so it will be threshed pretty much as soon as practical.

Actually the goat thing makes me wonder, prices of courtesans as well, wine food, wagons, etc.  That would depend on how many pounds a sack of grain holds.

As the great Yahtzee once said, "I've been sitting here jamming skittles up my nose trying to figure out what to do when I got an idea so brilliant it caused skittles to explode from my nose."  But I digress, by figuring out the economy and just what the meaning of price was.  Not only that I gave the Rebels without a cause, well, cause.  Well then without further ado behold THE ECONOMY *Guitar solo and fireworks*

There are Two coins for each of the three metals, those being Gold, Silver, and Copper *Note Slaves use pieces of iron to trade within their lords keep, also slaves are a thing

A 60gram gold coin is called a Talon.  One Talon is the price of keeping a single Knight for a season.  (Food, drink, shelter, care for horse, squire, etc)

A 30gram gold coin is called a Horn.  One Horn is the price of keeping a Priest for a Season (Priests/monks serve different Gods or Goddesses and therefore are used for a variety of things, healing, tutoring, figures.  All the way to assassination, and singing, sometimes both at once.)

A 30gram silver coin is called a Chain.  One chain is enough to feed one slave for a year

A 15gram silver coin is called a Hoof.  Buys you an Aurauch (Think of a mix between a rhino and a cow, with the temperament of a turtle) and the food and people to care for it for two seasons.

A 15gram copper coin is Called a Bit one Bit will get you Food, Drink, and a place on the floor of an inn for a night and a morning.

A 5gram copper coin is Called a Penny.  As to what it will get you depends entirely who you are dealing with, a Fishmonger will tell you it buys you half a cod, but fishmongers are known to be greedy. 

The better news is now the rebellion is more of a slave revolt backed by power hungry lesser houses, and our main character is murdering the freedom fighters.....HOORAY

Save that thought for a later review.  He needs to quit talkin' and start writin'.  For now, he's established the prices in the current market.

Oh, I would call the piece of iron for slaves....(drumroll)...a nail.  It goes in line with the talon/ hoof theme.
(I'm quite proud of myself for this one)

A

Now, how big is that bag or sack or whatever?

ps - what a waste of good skittles *not impressed* but it works quite well!  *impressed again*

Amy - you've nailed it! 

A nail, perfect! And I'm almost done writing chapter two, sadly I find it a bit dull after the first chapter

And note that KH once turned his greatest protagonist into a kitten and now has a murderous protagonist who's just bet her freedom (against her husband's kingdom) on a duel her husband must fight -- all while her husband lays sleeping.

He's a heartless one where stories and characters are concerned!  You can read it in these threads.  So if you go to take it with the grain of salt, be sure there's no arsenic in it!

An acre is 43,560 foot*foot.  A standard 100' lot is 100 * 100 foot*foot, or 10,000 square feet, thus a bit under a quarter acre.

Generally, you don't know how much you already know until you move the bits around in your head.  The mathematical art of moving the bits around is called algebra