mayapuppies Posted January 5, 2008 Report Share Posted January 5, 2008 So I'm trying to find a reason why explorer merchants from one culture would subjugate a more primitive culture from another. The arrangement is currently similar to the British Viceroys over colonial India, but are geared towards independant merchant princes rather than political ties to the homeland. The subjucated culture in question lives in an extremely large sub arctic wetland/marsh and I can't, for the life of me, come up with a resource that would be valuable enough there. I'd like to keep it somewhat based in reality but I'm willing to explore the fantastic should a real world resource be unavailable. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thia Halmades Posted January 5, 2008 Report Share Posted January 5, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea Sure. Your version of tobacco. Cotton. Any rare spice unavailable anywhere else. India wasn't subjugated for the weather; it was knocked over for tea and curry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted January 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea Let me smack my forehead a bit. Lesson: Take any resource and ignore the climate it is found in the real world. There are times when I really need to realize that I don't HAVE to stick with reality to make things plausible. Thanks Thia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thia Halmades Posted January 5, 2008 Report Share Posted January 5, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea Let me smack my forehead a bit. Lesson: Take any resource and ignore the climate it is found in the real world. There are times when I really need to realize that I don't HAVE to stick with reality to make things plausible. Thanks Thia. They don't pay me in Benjamins for my good looks. No problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bygoneyrs Posted January 5, 2008 Report Share Posted January 5, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea I would also advice maybe the local know of a certain plain that if one digs up root base of this plant that is a certain age durring the full moon, that the roots seem to fibrate/move and if boiled and then crushed/dryed and made into a powder that this if sprinked into a open wound has a effect of closing the wound, and stopping bleeding and stopping infections. Plus the person's wound will heal faster. The identity of the plant/roots and whole processes to gain the power is a guarded secret and only know to these people. Penn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azato Posted January 5, 2008 Report Share Posted January 5, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea Perhaps that is the most convenient place to put a port. The subjugation of the people has nothing to do with the value of the land but the people's labor. Perhaps this is a convenient place to raise a crop or livestock that is perhaps not indigenous to the area. For instance elk. Maybe these people produce some fine cloth and rope from the weeds that grow in the marsh. Maybe these people produce paper from the plants that grow in the marsh. Perhaps the subjugation of the people has more to do with filling in the marsh to make the place more convenient to live. So I'm trying to find a reason why explorer merchants from one culture would subjugate a more primitive culture from another. The arrangement is currently similar to the British Viceroys over colonial India, but are geared towards independant merchant princes rather than political ties to the homeland. The subjucated culture in question lives in an extremely large sub arctic wetland/marsh and I can't, for the life of me, come up with a resource that would be valuable enough there. I'd like to keep it somewhat based in reality but I'm willing to explore the fantastic should a real world resource be unavailable. Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted January 5, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea All great ideas thank you very much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Querysphinx Posted January 5, 2008 Report Share Posted January 5, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea If it's a subarctic place, the major resource could be based in the sea. Whales or some species of fish that the conquerors see the need to harvest Also consider the Spanish invasion of the new world. Cortez got lucky and conquered the Aztecs who had a lot of gold. (He took the gold back to Spain where all that influx of cash eventually devalued gold and crashed the economy.) He was followed up by hundreds of other conquistadors, all of whom were following the LEGEND of gold. The new world was overrun by adventure capitalists who kept trying to rob the same bank Cortez had already looted. The really valuable products of the new world--corn, potatoes, tomatoes, vanilla, etc. etc.-- weren't "discovered" as trade goods until much later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted January 6, 2008 Report Share Posted January 6, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea Fur. If Hudson and Astor had had an easier time forcing Indians to trap beaver than they did trading them iron and glass goods, the original premise of this thread would be Canadian (and to a lesser extent, US) history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted January 6, 2008 Report Share Posted January 6, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea Swamp suggest botanicals to me. Probably pharmaceuticals. How about a plant that makes several very-difficult -to-synthesize compounds that are the precursers of an anti-aging drug? The fountain of youth. Need to do all the processing on site, both to save on shipping cost and to prevent a viable specimen of the plant from being smuggled to someone who could gene-splice it to grow in a more convienent location, thereby destroying the merchant-prince's monopoly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Shrike Posted January 6, 2008 Report Share Posted January 6, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea Take a page from Dune, just replace spice w/ something mildly magical. The natives, due to long term multi-generational exposure to the whatever have some innate mystical abilities. Drama of oppression, collaboration, and resistance ensues. Also, read A Blue Sword by Robin McKinley and extrapolate -- it was just reprinted so you can even get a shiny new version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheQuestionMan Posted January 6, 2008 Report Share Posted January 6, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea Guide to the Lands of Einhemur - Dune-ish http://www3.telus.net/drwalrus/Einhemur/Magic/intro.htm Cheers QM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted January 6, 2008 Report Share Posted January 6, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea Or, look at the reason that real colonials put ports in pestilential swamps and then subjugated the locals. Off the top of my head: gold, slaves, wood, spices or because it was a handy (and defensible) staging post for either protecting or attacking shipping going somewhere important. cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted January 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea Well, with it being sub-arctic wetlands, there really won't be too much disease to worry about. More like freezing in place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted January 7, 2008 Report Share Posted January 7, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea If it's a subarctic place' date=' the major resource could be based in the sea. Whales or some species of fish that the conquerors see the need to harvest[/quote'] Don't overlook walrus ivory, and high-end quality furs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Posted January 7, 2008 Report Share Posted January 7, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea There are those who claim, not with too much exaggeration, that the British Empire was founded in large part to create customers. This applies to both the "natives" and to the colonists (who often were undersupplied at the time of the founding of the colony). I doubt that would work as the sole, or the primary, justification, but it could well be a secondary one. There's also the idea of a penal colony. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Serpent Posted January 7, 2008 Report Share Posted January 7, 2008 Re: Need a resource idea Peat and bog iron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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