I know it simplifies things programming-wise, but are there hidden pumps somewhere off the map or a giant boat lift for those river merchants like you find in Disneyland? Exactly how DO they get back to the top of the river without paddling back upstream?
Outlandish theories accepted and giggled at by all!
This is an effect of the long earth. They all come from a close by reality and exit to yet an other with your wares. When there is turtles all the way down these things are to be taken in stride.
Quote from: Chon Waen on March 09, 2015, 11:58:24 AM
I know it simplifies things programming-wise, but are there hidden pumps somewhere off the map or a giant boat lift for those river merchants like you find in Disneyland? Exactly how DO they get back to the top of the river without paddling back upstream?
Outlandish theories accepted and giggled at by all!
I'm pretty sure it would have to be worm holes. They exit into a parallel universe, trade there, and find another work hole that takes them to the head of the river.
Seriously, it has always seemed odd to me that the merchants seem to becoming from further upstream which, one would assume, would be even further out in the middle of nowhere. You can get two-way boat traffic, but only on one of those unique "wrong-way merchant" maps where they leave, go upstream almost to the entrance, then turn around and head for the exit.
Or perhaps the world banished occupies is similar to, but not exactly like the world of Phillip Jose Farmer's Riverworld. I have yet to observe rapids on this river. Perhaps the "sea level" of the entire realm is exactly that of the main river. Hidden hydrojets and ion exchangers hidden beneath the surface keeps the river flowing and fresh. All settlement areas seem to be nearly universally surrounded by near impassable mountains (how the nomads do manage it, i have no idea). These "settlement zones" are grouped in a subset of 4-6 linked by a common river that flows in a loop. There could be literally millions of these "seeded" settlements just waiting to be explored! This would also lend support to a belief in the bannie god "RNG". Major mechanical implements are not to be interfered with, as they tend to prove invariably fatal when tampered with. Chapels are truly the repository of tech trinkets and bits found and brought there for storage and/or disposal depending on how intricate the tech looks. A cleric isn't there to preach, he's there to guard the door! Populations gain happiness from this, but a chapel can only handle the needs of 200 banishim. This explains the very basic technology used by all banishim.
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a holy temple decree
"Where Alph, the sacred river ran down to a sunless sea."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
And having visited this venue the merchants rise again to the new day.
Gentlemen. My ladies. It is of the utmost importance to the society that you take on board what I am about to reveal: I am currently trading with the fay. If you hear a strange knocking from the ground, please let me out. There's probably a deal gone sour.
That explains why those boat merchants live centuries!!!!!
It's very simple. Your world is flat. It has edges and corners. You get to the edge, you fall off.
But even a flat world has another side. What's on the other side? My world.
The merchants bringing you stuff? They just came from my TPs, on the other side of your flat world, bringing you the stuff the stuff that I just traded away. Enjoy!
Oh, and please be sure to send good stuff back, okay? ;)
Quote from: kee on March 09, 2015, 03:29:06 PM
Gentlemen. My ladies. It is of the utmost importance to the society that you take on board what I am about to reveal: I am currently trading with the fay. If you hear a strange knocking from the ground, please let me out. There's probably a deal gone sour.
Definitely an X-File. Watch out for Krycek....
lollll
by the way, in winter like that , with so many snow falling to the ground, i am sure it was santa clause :)
@irrelevant Interesting theory but why does it take 'em a full year?
Besides, I doubt yours is opposite mine, else all you would ever get would be firewood, ale, and leather I trade for wool!!!
Kee's demonstration of the Fae being responsible for all commerce makes a lot of sense. Immortal merchants, some of these fae must come from a summer realm where food is overly abundant, and the summer queen has decreed that no tree be felled in her lands, so he makes a great living trading firewood and leather. He may end up trading some of his ale there as well. If he's a food merch, he tends to party with his profits for a few months, then load up a bunch of food, and return to my realm, where the cycle begins anew. Those raw material merchants seem to take my firewood, leather and ale off to a subterranean winter realm. This is where all the stone, iron, and coal come from. Firewood is very popular due to the sweeter smoke it makes. Face it, ale is popular anywhere. Ale from an entirely different realm is more popular still due to the exotic mystique regardless of whether or not its actually better (ever drink a Corona?)
Quote from: Chon Waen on March 09, 2015, 06:19:56 PM
@irrelevant Interesting theory but why does it take 'em a full year?
Have you ever checked how many taverns I build? ;) ;D
Hmm... If your main industry is import fruit/export ale and mine is the same, there HAS to be some places they go in-btween, otherwise neither of us get what we need!
The reason the fae bit works so well is cause it gets covered by PFM.
Quote from: Chon Waen on March 09, 2015, 06:38:59 PM
The reason the fae bit works so well is cause it gets covered by PFM.
Participatory Forestry Management? Packet Forwarding Module? Port Filtering Mode? Public Financial Management? Plan For Maintenance? Prison Fellowship Ministries? Porcelain Fused to Metal? Preventive Fleet Maintenance? Polyurethane Fiberglass Mat? Parts Forecasting Model? Personnel Files Maintenance? Precision Flight Mode? Pink Floyd Meddle? Printer Font Metrics? Probabilistic Forecast Model? Planning and Financial Management (my field)? Please Forgive Me?
Ah. Pure Freaking Magic.
The Invisible Hand of the Market plucks the merchant up just after they get offscreen and takes a year or so to carry them back to the start.
@irrelevant Yeah, all of that. But mostly the last.
It is much more likely that the river is a Moebius strip. At the edge of the map, the boats enter the twist and emerge from it upstream.
Now it's clear -- the Bannies are Greek. Early Greek mythology held that Ocean was a stream that flowed around the edge of the world. The sun would sink into the Ocean stream in the west, be carried around the north edge of the world, and re-emerge in the east.
Traders have learned the same trick ... or maybe they're gods.
Quote from: irrelevant on March 09, 2015, 04:30:35 PM
It's very simple. Your world is flat. It has edges and corners. You get to the edge, you fall off.
But even a flat world has another side. What's on the other side? My world.
The merchants bringing you stuff? They just came from my TPs, on the other side of your flat world, bringing you the stuff the stuff that I just traded away. Enjoy!
Oh, and please be sure to send good stuff back, okay? ;)
I would say that
@irrelevant is partially right. The Banished world is, in all likelihood, a cube which appears flat to each side of the cube. He and
@Chon Waen inhabit opposite sides of the cube. When the merchants exit
@irrelevant's world they enter an alternative Banished world in which people import ale and export fruit. The merchants then exit that world and enter
@Chon Waen's world where they trade the fruit for ale. Etc., etc., etc. There are two sides of the cube that are just there to hold it all together and produce neither fruit nor ale so are--actually--irrelevant.
Let imagination know no bounds.
Maybe Banished exists on the event horizon of a black hole. The merchants can't be lost due to the preservation of information, so when they transit the no-time, no-space they have to come out near the headwaters of the river.