How big is a division?

[zute]

I apologize for another lame-ass question, but in the story I'm writing now this actually has relevance. It's the difference between paranoia and reasonable concern.

When you rescue Riordan he tells you that Loghain had turned away 200 Grey Wardens and two dozen divisions of cavalry.  When I looked up division sizes I got utterly enormous numbers like 10,000 for single light infantry division, in the modern army. I'm sure that must be vastly larger than in middle ages terms.

Does anyone have a feel for how many actually people that would be? 

My thanks!

Zute

Comments

[prisoner_24601]

No I'm sorry, but I disagree.

It makes all sorts of sense for them to try and invade Ferelden, especially if, like you say, they thought the blight was for real. For one thing, if the Ferelden screws this up, then it makes things bad for Orlais in the long run. Better to go in there and take care of it yourself, then letting the noobs handle it and standing on the sidelines hoping for the best.

However, I think assuming that Orlais is somehow more appreciative of blights more so than Ferelden is quite a logical leap. Hasn't it been hundreds of years since the last blight? It's human nature for people to forget how bad things in the past were and not appreciate appreciate the danger. Look at the brutal Orlesian occupation as an example - it's still within living memory, and yet you already have the king of the next generation being dumb enough to consider marrying the Empress and handing over Ferelden without a fight. And that's within 30 years, not with a few hundred year gap between blights.

I mean, really, we don't know if Celene actually has taken the blight seriously or not. There's no real evidence for this in the game either way. And from Loghain's point of view, even if there has been no saber rattling from Orlais, with the brutal Orlesian occupation only 30 years prior, it makes a lot of sense to be wary of this huge occupational force that is there to "help." It is entirely possible that the Orlesians would come in with their much larger forces, fight the blight and then never actually leave. So really, it's entirely rational of him to keep the Orlesians out, especially in this circumstance.

Where he makes his mistake, I think, is that he doesn't take the blight seriously enough, which is unfortunate and gets people killed as he's busy sending assassins after the grey wardens, poisoning Eamon and whatnot.

[niniane]

Poisoning Eamon actually makes sense, though.

Even Eamon admits that other than Alistair, Loghain is the most logical person to lead the country. And that a divided country is screwed. Yet the first thing he does upon reviving (and what Teagan does for him when he's in a coma or whatever) is to lead a civil war against Loghain.

...which is really, really stupid.

Honestly, I'd poison the guy, too.

[zute]

That wasn't even the reason why he poisoned Eamon. His reasoning:

This was done in anticipation that Loghain and Cailan would have a showdown [ed: over Cailan relaxing policy toward Orlais], and Arl Eamon would always solidly be in Cailan's camp. Like I said, Loghain is the sort of man that will ensure his enemies are defeated before they're engaged.

I know this isn't spelled out, but Eamon was never supposed to actually die from the poison. It would keep him sick for a long time -- certainly long enough for Isolde to try all their options and send out knights looking for remedies -- and then, once the confrontation with Cailan was done, Eamon could be given the cure. The elf was sent to Redcliffe to keep an eye on things and watch for news of Eamon getting worse, and if that happened then Loghain could send the cure immediately. Or, at least, that was the intention. If Eamon died in the name of keeping Ferelden safe from Orlais, Loghain wouldn't shed too many tears over it.

I've got DG's feedback over here.

[niniane]

Oh, yeah, I totally agree that this wasn't the reason (seeing as it wasn't in the game yet), but the two men quite obviously did not see eye to eye, and neutralizing Eamon made a lot of sense from Loghain's POV.

...it's one of the few things that I'm totally in his camp over. Like, the guy was a problem. Tough luck that he had to be neutralized for a while. I mean, better to risk killing him than to risk a war with him and destroy many.

[elysium_fic]

It makes all sorts of sense for them to try and invade Ferelden, especially if, like you say, they thought the blight was for real.

No, it really doesn't.

[prisoner_24601]

Lol, okay. Obviously you're uninterested in having a discussion or conversation, which is sort of odd, as this is a discussion thread, but whatever.