I doubt we're going to be seeing Great Britain levels of Sheep Farming, given the lack of an Industrial Revolution to harvest it.
Hmmm...
The problems with the sheep now is the quality of wool and that they can not eat the vegetation. Now Mathilde's fief is a large safe place that when the sheep project goes through will allow her new sheep to survive and provide better quality of wool. Sheep can breed fast and with none of the major problems of Malus that is a large area that can be populated with sheep. The population of the empire is not really equal to what medieval Europe has. Now while industrial textile will not reach medieval England it can definitely reach a level in the empire that will be worth a lot of money.
I really doubt that Mathilde's fief is going to be the epicenter of a Sheep Revolution.
She has actually invested quite a bit in it. One of her early windfall was entirely earmarked for the fief.
...please don't inflict the Spider Silk curse on this...
Point of order, it kind of is? At least in DL. Boney said he modeled the Empire's population based on what the 17th century HRE had when calculating college numbers.
Looking forward to the next time we visit the fief and Rolf is planning an expedition to Ind to steal their legendary spiced sheep.
Ah yes, Boney, enchantment concept:
That still puts the Old World as a whole with a smaller population than 1600s Europe. The Empire seems to be about half the population, the HRE wasn't. Either way, the Empire alone definitely has no where near the European population of the time.
I cannot help but feel this is more evidence that the world was built rather than shaped by random forces. A single river system providing neat and even coverage to 70-80% of the subcontinent, all flowing into a single outlet into the ocean? Seems unlikely.
The Amazon manages 40ish % of all South America.
The Mississippi does about 40% of the continental US.
Surprisingly the Yangtze and Yellow rivers only do 26% of china together.
Apparently the Ganges does about 25% of India on its own.
I thought I was joking about Phoenician's suggestion.
I read that as comparing the Empire to its counterpart in medieval Europe, not all of medieval Europe—emphasis on 'what Medieval Europe has' instead of 'what Medieval Europe has.' I wouldn't expect the Empire to be equal to Europe either.
Since it's spawned an argument, I should note that the reference to the missile is really meant as humor in phrasing to condense the idea down to a joke. If I were laying out the actual rationale for a teleporting ship and the wind of confusion I'd say that a ship is guided by the sun and the stars, and that when the clouds or (worse) fog obscures those bodies they the crew has lost their most reliable means of determining their location. Hence why we have foghorns and lighthouses to ensure they can at least not run aground in bad weather. Meanwhile, a wizard of the magical wind of fog and confusion could likely make a spell to put that effect and theme to more practical use. Especially if that wind of magic is already known for teleportation.
Inertial dead reckoning is neat, but it's not really magic.
Maybe, although I don't really see how you can read that that way, but sure. The Old World as a whole still has a smaller population than 1650s Europe though, which I also mentioned in that same post.
Man'o'War notes that the Grey College is tied with the Blues in terms of how in-demand they are by the Admiralty. Mostly for their weather-based services. Though it does have some odd ideas about the typical uniform:
