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

[klarabella]

Ferelden nobility comes from the warlords of the Alamarri tribes, that's what the titles bann and arl are based on.

If they care for bloodlines than this probably something that they adopted from the neighbouring country Orlais, where bloodlines matter a great deal.

You could indeed say that concluding the Landsmeet with duel with winner having a say in who's going to lead from now on is a much older tradition than bloodlines. :D

Makes sense to me. Ferelden is one bad day away from barbarism. ;-)

Who you put on the throne depends entirely if you are willing to believe the claims that Anora is an adept ruler. I am willing but there is very little evidence for this in the game, especially with Anora wringing her hands and acting like a helpless daughter, intimidated by Daddy's presence.

I put her on the throne but I don't expect that to be free from troubles. I'm very fond of the hints in Witch Hunt about Redcliffe becoming a potential antagonist to Denerim. Very interesting.

[niniane]

I have no idea as to why the Fereldans would care about bloodlines. But Eamon sure seems to. Anora and Loghain also seem to think that they're an issue. Again, what the history is, I'm not sure. But in game, at least three of the characters we speak to seem fairly convinced that they're a bit deal.

Like, Eamon says at one point, "Teagan and I have a claim through marriage, but we would seem opportunists, no better than Loghain. Alistair's claim is by blood." which makes me think that at least Eamon is pretty damned sure that the whole "related to Maric" thing is a big deal. Maybe he's deluded. I have no idea. But I've been going with the assumption that he's not, as the bloodline issue is also commented on by Anora and Loghain.

As far as adept ruler goes (on Anora's part), we have Loghain claiming that she's great, Eamon claiming that she's great, Celene semi-in awe of her, and random other NPC's claiming that she's great. (And Eamon wants her gone badly, so I'm inclined to think that he's not all about the flattery.) There are a lot of people who seem to think that she's a great ruler, and no one who claims that she's crap. I'll admit that we don't see her working her magic, but how would one do this? Cut to scenes of her administering trade disputes? Have mini-balance the budget games? TBH, most of making a kingdom work has to be incredibly dull, so likely the game skipped all of that in favor of the "make everyone, even her enemies, talk about how awesome she is" approach. Because, really, does anyone want to see Anora bickering with merchants about the taxes that need to be levied for different types of leather? Probably not.

I don't see it as at all improbable that Redcliffe becomes antagonistic towards Denerim. Considering that RtO makes it pretty clear that Eamon wanted to get rid of Anora (as she lacked royal blood/might be infertile), I'd imagine that both Anora and Eamon spend most of the epilogue plotting how to rid the world of one another. (I crack up every time they're about to go off and "talk". I keep imagining one of them coming back going "well...Eamon just died. Funny that...") Honestly, the game sets it up so that all endings are going to be a bit crappy.

I mean:

Grey Warden + Anyone = probably no heir
Anora alone = probably no heir (as refuses to remarry)
Grey Warden + Alistair = definitely no heir (as odds of conception are close to zero)

Alistair alone = fairly easy to walk all over puppet king
Anora alone = ruthless Machievellian Queen (although she does balance the budget...)
Alistair + Cousland = still easy to walk over king
Anora + Cousland = still ruthless Queen who probably spends 95% of her time fighting with her husband
Hardened Alistair + Anora = golden age (OK, so maybe not horrible...although still probably no heirs)

The game really wants you to be screwed, IMHO. Although you can get a "golden age" if you either marry a hardened Alistair to Anora, or marry a m!Cousland to Anora and "get along". (Either of which, I suppose, supports the idea that Anora's a pretty good ruler if her personality is tempered by someone who is a bit more compassionate.)

[zute]

Right-o! And if heredity wasn't so important in Ferelden then why would they bother to hide Alistair from the public eye? Why would Alistair reject having Elissa as a Queen (potentially) because they might not be able to reproduce? There's sure a lot of fanfic out there where begatting a royal heir is a major plot element.

I can't recall where Celene is in awe of Anora? Is that in the RtO letters?

[niniane]

Anora's codex entry has a quote by Celene about her being "the rose among the brambles". I'm probably stretching a bit, but I've always interpreted it as "out of all of you barbarians, there is only one I think much of".

...although maybe it was just a prelude to f!slash, which would be more amusing. ;) Or an allusion to Anora's Princess Leia hairdo. Or an inside joke...