Re: Magic to aid farming in space

I have a question or two about commanding undead:

How long do commands last?
If a Cleric commands some skeletons to transport water from a pond to
a field, how
long will they do that?

Could a Cleric give each skeleton a different command:
Skeleton 1:  With scythe, cut all grain in that field
Skeleton 2-4:  Gather grain, carry it to wagon/grain storage silo
Skeleton 5-6:  Thresh the grain
etc...

Could the Cleric then go to a different field, with a different set
of skeletons, and
give them commands?



In general, there are only a few circumstances where a city will be
dramatically
larger than its local food supply:

1)  It is a political capital, and it taxes surrounding areas to pay
for grain in
exchange for the useful service of being the Boss.

2)  The city is ideally positioned on trade routes such that trade
must go through
that city.  A classic example is Amsterdam, which sat on a river mouth and an
excellent harbor, and so was a prime cargo transfer point between river
transport and ocean transport.

Take a look at the big US cities, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles.
Harbors, lakes
and rail junctions.

If Bral sat right on top of a Portal in the Shell, the situation
would be analogous.
Or if it orbited a planet that required ships of a particular type in order to
land safely, a type that was very different from ships that were good for
long haul trade, then it could grow very big, because it was a major cargo
transfer point.

Also, why is Bral on the Rock of Bral?  Why is the city _there_ and not on
some other rock?  Most rocks will be initially settled for raw materials,
food, timber, ore, fibers, meat, etc...  It can't become a manufacturing
center unless it has some advantages in terms of raw material.

Reasons why a city might be there and not somewhere else:

Natural fortification

Vital resource.  (My bet, potable water.  In the Mediterranean, galley
warfare made islands which had good water very strategically important.
You can't base a fleet somewhere that does not have potable water).
The size of the city will definitely be limited by the amount of that
vital resource it has.

Bral may have more fresh water than any asteroid its size that isn't a
water world, water that is guardable.

Strategic position.  If Bral is the best natural fortification in a cluster of
asteroids, then it can dominate those asteroids.  In a war, the population
of those asteroids could take refuge on Bral, and Bral would always be
in position to retake them.  If a Castle dominates a village, raiders could
attack the village and steal some minor stuff, but they couldn't hold
the village, and most of the valuable stuff would be in the Castle.
Whenever the invaders left, the Castle would dominate the village
again.

Bral might be important because it has water, air and food, along a
major trading route.  So ships based there could have much larger
crews than long haulers, and therefore could dominate at least
merchant ships for a days travel.  Dominating mean either raiding
them, in which case most merchant ships would just go around,
or protecting them for a fee.  But there is only a limited sized city
that you could support with that kind of arrangement.

Bral might be special because it is mobile.  Perhaps the masts of its great
sails are old trees stripped of their branches, and maintained by
special magics.  There might be very few asteroids which could be
made mobile at all.

Michael Sandy