Tell me about the peasants of your setting

They have more civil rights, freedom of expression, bountiful opportunities, can hold land and marginally smell better.

Isn't a peasant just an occupation, and not a societal status? If so I don't see how these two categories are incompatible.

Peasants usually couldn't hold land and were practically property of their lords under feudalism

I think those are serfs.

The majority of peasants were serfs. There were also several types of serf with varying levels of freedom. You could be a freeman which essentially meant you just rented land from the lord and nothing else. Then you could be a villein, which is what most people were and technically were not slaves. Then you had the actual slaves.

Either conscripted as meat shields, or in their villages failing to defend them

How the hell does the people in the setting not starve to death?

What sort of ludicrisly valuable crop do this first example of peasant produce to be able to keep afloat while having to give away half of the harvest in taxes?

Being a peasant was often legally distinct from being a city dweller in europe during the middle ages.

This is retarded. In a setting like this, either no one would be willing to grow food, the food prices would be so high, non-farmers would be starving and rioting all the time like they were in Venezuela, or people would strive to make urban farming sustainable. 2/10, wouldn't play in

How does this society not collapse? Or better yet, how did society even evolve far enough to get to the current stage?

All of them? Why?

>All of them? Why?
Because nobles treated them that bad.

Farming is probably magically-aided in his setting and more similar to modern farming in terms of efficiency but with a much smaller population. So you only need a few brave souls to be actually in the farm

Society does not collapse, and prices are not too high, because farming is relatively modern and efficient. There is irrigation, high-yield seed, widespread knowledge, and the like.

Society evolved to its current stage gradually. The world was not always as bad as it is: it became that way as more and more monsters crept in through portals and thinning barriers between worlds. Since the current version of civilization built on the bones of the previous one that fell the last time this happened, the strongholds were already there.

Most of them are small scale peasants who either lease land to farm or own a small plot themselves. However in areas such as the Nualtan peninsula, Eastern Unam, and the fertile lands between Gastram and Vynt, the land is continously centralised in the form of ever expanding latifundias tended to by slaves. As such commoners are increasingly flocking to the cities in the hope of finding work. This ofcourse leads to ever-expanding slum areas and gangs of volitile unemployed dregs who are looking for entertainment roaming the streets.
On the upside the army is never lacking in personal as that dangerous lifestyle atleast offers somewhat steady pay, a purpose in life and respect aswell as the opportunity to advance ones societal position.

You know you have to maintain modern farming infrastructure to maintain the sort of efficiency there is today? You need constant upkeep and industry to do things like that, which means a couple of brave farmers would be able to keep it going for about a generation before everything went to shit.

Now you're saying that there are monsters and shit too? Unless they're helping till the land and dig irrigation canals, your society is fucked.

I guess with magic, you can automate a lot of stuff and but then that begs the point that why isn't that powerful magic being used to be construct bigger fortresses and defenses and shit.

How is that even possible?
Are the nobility too inbreed to realise that one shoud shear the sheep, not kill it? Even if that is the case how the hell haven't one of the previous revolts managed to achieve enough societal change to atleast somewhat ease the burdens of peasant life? Also, how haven't any of the foreign powers exploited this gigantic civil unrest to carve off large enough chunks of the state for it to realise that they might want to treat commoners better?

>Are the nobility too inbreed to realise that one shoud shear the sheep, not kill it?
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
>Even if that is the case how the hell haven't one of the previous revolts managed to achieve enough societal change to atleast somewhat ease the burdens of peasant life?
Because the revolt that's going to do it is this one.
> Also, how haven't any of the foreign powers exploited this gigantic civil unrest to carve off large enough chunks of the state for it to realise that they might want to treat commoners better?
Who says they haven't?

I'm not even the initial user.

Extremely political.

>Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
All it would take is one somewhat charismatic hat wearing mongoloid to pull to topple that whole government and replace it with his/hers own.
>Because the revolt that's going to do it is this one.
That makes no sense what so ever. People don't wait for everybody to join their side before taking action nor is that even required to have sucess. We don't even have to take into consideration the impossibility of having every peasant revolt in a society. You couldn't even get every slave on Haiti to revolt during the Haitian revolution and that system was hell on earth for alot of the field slaves.
>Who says they haven't?
The original poster did in between the lies of his/her comment.

*lines not lies

Oh hell yeah. I love peasants, serfs, commoners, villagers, and just about all of the small folk of farmers of fantasy alt-medieval settings. I think they are great.

Here's how I like them.
>Uneducated- But not stupid
One myth I hate about peasants and people of ancient times in general is that they were dumb. They were dumb about things they couldn't see or know about in any way, and things they couldn't understand. Things like disease and how metal chemically changed in a forge are unknowable to these people, so they chalk them up to magic or spirits- but are very crafty when it comes to anything else. Peasants are extremely clever about that sort of thing. Every part of their harvest would be used in some way, arts and crafts with food. In setting we'd see peasants as being very ignorant about things like magic and other races then their own, but extremely crafty with what they have and living in what are essentially self-sufficient towns.

>Folk Magick
Peasants in real life had all sorts of superstitions, rituals, and little magical things they tried to do to protect themselves or improve their luck somehow. I represent this in my game setting by having this type of magic, things like voodoo dolls and lucky charms, absolutely work, but mostly in the background as small and subtle bonuses to dice rolls. It's always a question if these magical charms actually did anything.

But since my setting is high fantasy every village probably has a wise man and an apprentice or two that knows some actual magic and spells. The serfs in the village go to them for things like love potions, or ways to exorcise nearby spirits, or any number of other minor tasks they may need. While doing shit like this is demeaning for a really powerful mage, it's also one of the only ways to get the villagers to stop lynching and witch hunting anyone with a funny hat.

(Note; Witch hunting was not very common in real life, but in a game where it is real it should be more common.)

In my GM's setting all peasants are cunts, well, all NPC are actually cunts. Arrogant, pricks, ungrateful, mean, envious bastards.

>You need constant upkeep and industry to do things like that, which means a couple of brave farmers would be able to keep it going for about a generation before everything went to shit.
Did you think there were two farmers in the world, user? Of course there's enough of them to keep it going.

The Iron Drones of the Republic are genetically engineered to be more resilient to physical toil and abuse, radiation and toxic environments of Othrys, and skulljacked for compliance protocols in relation to the other casts (Bronze, Silver and Gold). The simple pleasures of wine, dramas and festivals keep them satisfied, but without these things they will frequently riot.

>greek city states sword & planet setting

>All it would take is one somewhat charismatic hat wearing mongoloid to pull to topple that whole government and replace it with his/hers own.
He's currently leading the revolt.
>That makes no sense what so ever. People don't wait for everybody to join their side before taking action nor is that even required to have sucess. We don't even have to take into consideration the impossibility of having every peasant revolt in a society.
They didn't revolt simultaneously, it just snowballed from there.

>The original poster did in between the lies of his/her comment.

>They're revolting
No, not seeing it.

They're fine. They live in a noble bright setting.

They're like, peasants, man. They're weak. They're dumb. They're not good for much except tilling fields and doing simple tasks. Occasionally they produce legendary heroes.

When user said they were revolting it's actually an old joke implying they're ugly.

They mostly sell themselves into slavery so they don't have to worry about paying for three squares a day and a roof overhead, and by and large they don't think they'll ever be rich enough to actually afford owning land, nor are they politically savvy enough to understand how being able to vote benefits them in the first place. The pitiful wages they are legally obligated to receive as slaves is usually converted into the cheapest wine and defrutum available, which goes a long way towards suppressing slave rebellions before they can even start.

Ave imperator, I guess.

You said it, they stink on ice!

Just normal people trying to live their lives, have children, then die at the old age of 45.

Except for one town, but mostly because they were the "test group" for the BBEG's plan to turn the world into copies of himself, so the village is basically all clones of the BBEG, ready to fight to the death to defend him.

I need to get around to finishing the setting.

They're elves, living like humans. There aren't any humans left really.

>so the village is basically all clones of the BBEG
Excellent.

Technically clones, but not really. They're basically linked to him via some sort of hivemind, and he can basically turn them into duplicates of himself and hijack their bodies at any time.

He's planning on doing the same thing everywhere else, and is secretly sending ornate swords as gifts to the other world leaders with the magic enchantment to slowly convert them into mental copies of himself. If they refuse, he'll find the next heir to the throne, send the sword to them, then incite one of his other mind-cloned world leaders to go to war with the refusing leader. Once defeated, he'd be either killed and replaced with the, by now converted, heir or forcibly converted.

Once the ruler has been compromised, similar but weaker swords that do the same thing would then be sent that the ruler would outfit his military with, and then they would move on to the next area. Once all the world leaders and their military is under control, he would then started forcibly converting everyone else.

By the time of the hypothetical game's plot, he would already have 2/9 of the setting's kings taken, and is in the process of taking over a third

No, dumbass, but you need an interconnect population with more than just a nuclear family per farm to keep an agricultural system that feeds towns and small fortresses going. There would be no reason to sustain a class like that when the alternatives, like moving farms to urban settings or just expanding defenses, would make things infinitely more easy.

Who cares? They're just peasants.

They are freemen. Having a god of travelers and commerce does wonders to abolish ideas of "landlocked" people like serfs.

>Life can be hard and my sausages have way too many bone bits on them, but at least I'm not a slave.

Life is usually pretty good for the peasantry in the towns that posses the sacred fires that ward of the various fae creatures that make up the setting's bad guys. Basically, the idea is that if you live a regimented life and make sure to pull your weight and fill your niche, nothing bad will happen. However, if somebody has deviated from the norm they're usually accused of being enthralled to the fae, or even of being a changeling (With mixed degrees of accuracy). They produce food to feed the constantly standing army that protects against potential fae incursion and keep the traveling groups of mercenaries from leaving their town, which would leave some of the more remote villages nearly defenseless

Of course, if you're unlucky enough to live in a village /without/ a sacred fire, have fun suffering from constant mental incursions as you wait for the clusterfuck of bureaucracy to light you a beacon and transport it to wherever you may be.

Mostly unwashed trolls that work the land for the human bourgeois and elven royalty who at his time tries his best to take control from the royalty.

>A society without even one somewhat intellectually functioning individual up untill this point have managed to even get started.
Seems legit.

>It takes the uprising of the whole class that makes up the vast majority of the population to even change one single thing in society.
Nigga please.

>No, not seeing it.
The society is ruled by people dumb enough not to take precautions against the whole peasantry rising up in arms against them.

Is surrounded by states who know how to take geopolitical advantage of that,

Yet somehow this state is still existing while maintaining utterly retarded societal politics.

I don't get it. Care to explain?

nvm, I just got it.

KEK

Depending on the species and region
>slaves to the owners of a homestead. Ranges from fairly comfy to shit.
>typical feudal peasantry
>angry trolls
>Miners who have a good amount of rock in their diet
>non existent due to the largely solitary life style of the culture
>failed mutations

>Falling for the old forgetting to take into consideration the extremely high childhood mortality rate, when coming up with a life expectancy for your historical fantasy setting.

>The peasantry are literally trolls.

I like it!

why would you not build walls around your food source if things are that dangerous?

kekked

Mostly living in small farming communities. Some are independent after the whole empire thing died out.

Also, there's "the turnip woman"
She's a woman who carries a basket of turnips. She can be found in every town. Whenever my players say that they ask one of the townsfolk where X, Y, or Z is, I say that they find a woman carrying turnips. She knows all. I have considered making a lesser spirit of convenience.

Pic related, turnips sold separately.

There are walls. They aren't the walls of THE FORTRESS, however, and they aren't manned, so most people consider it just a "fence", even if it is covered with razor wire, spikes, and poisonous/carnivorous plants.

>every game is fantasy

Most people are peasants. The non-peasant communities were to a great extent smited by the last Pantokrator at the end of the God Wars. The peasants are perhaps not quite happily peasanting, but they are at least contentedly peasanting with smug satisfaction that that uppity wizard in his tower got his turn to eat a lightning bolt.