Transportation Limitations: Animals

Dimanagul · Sep 19, 2012

So. Lets talk about Travel.

I'm fishing for reasons a iron age culture would be mostly limited to using their own two feet for transportation.

Besides the lack of vehicles, of course. If a world lacked horses or an equivalent would it be outlandish to say that people would just walk everywhere? In my WIP I have two kinds of large beasts that are reasonably used for transportation.

Bulls: Large plain striding cattle. They aren't particularly fast and have dreadfully low intelligence. These are domesticated and are used to carry merchant carts or lug supplies through cities. Dairy supplies are acquired from them as well. Riding one is impractical outside of carrying wounded.

Drakes: Effectively small wingless dragons. About the size of a Clydesdale horse. They are smarter, stronger and faster than Bulls. It is almost unheard of anyone domesticating one, they are raised at birth to behave; wild ones are vicious and prideful. Getting more of them involves breeding raised ones or stealing eggs. (Their natural habitat is very remote.) They can generate magic of their appropriate affiliation (There are drakes of every element) in the form of breath.

In terms of transportation, these two are the only viable choices. Animals like wolves, boars, and large cats exist. Animals are infrequently corrupted and may be larger (random mutations). Those could plausibly be used as mounts as well... but you would have to domesticate it.

Corrupted Dread-Bulls are fairly common, but are too large and ill-tempered for domestic use. They are either hunted for food or used for military use.

Is there any gaps I should worry about? Cultural reliance? What sort of domesticate beasties do you have in your WIPs?

Saanen · Sep 19, 2012

People who couldn't afford horses (most people, everywhere) walked all the time until inexpensive cars became common in many areas. Terrain could probably play a big role in how your people travel, too.

veinglory · Sep 19, 2012

If they had cows, I suspect they would think of riding them. Plenty of current cultures ride cattle, water buffalo etc. I assume the no longer have the wheels as you mention carts in the past only? Cattle are great draft animals.

frimble3 · Sep 19, 2012

Of course it's not 'outlandish'. That's the way it was. Animals are expensive to obtain, shelter and feed, and take time and effort to care for.
Before the advent of modern transport (trains and cars), people chiefly walked where they needed to go, and didn't just casually wander over the landscape.

Look at maps of areas that were settled before cars: note how many little villages there were, close together.
Even big city neighbourhoods were originally little towns that melded together over the years, compact places that had everything you'd need in one place.
No sprawling suburbs with one mega-mall away at the edge. More like a market at the center of town that you'd attend once a week.
Merchants (the peddler with his pack) and pilgrims - two categories of people who went long distances on foot, but not casually.

ClareGreen · Sep 19, 2012

If you look at the history of humanity, there are a lot of animals used for transportation, not just horses. Over time, just about anything big enough to stick a saddle of some sort on and bright enough to accept it has been ridden. Elephants, llamas, donkeys, cattle, camels, yaks - the list goes on. With rudimentary vehicles of some sort you can add dogs and probably sheep to that list, too. Dog-carts actually went out of use relatively recently in the grand scheme of things, however outlandish they might seem now.

Saanen is right about the terrain, though - and about most people having walked all the time anyway. One of the theories about why wheels didn't get invented in the Andes, despite advanced civilisation in a lot of other respects, is because the (mostly vertical) terrain just didn't lend itself to rolling things being useful.

It may be worth noting that the bicycle predated the car for the poor being able to get about. Before that, yes, you walked. A bicycle meant freedom for my grandma - her father had had to saddle the farm's heavy horse to get anywhere further or faster than his own feet could take him. There were more horses in general in that era, though, since the tractor hadn't fully taken over yet, and a decade before that there were horses on each and every farm.

A lot of iron age cultures preferred water for transportation over animals. You could carry lots of heavy stuff quickly on a boat, and most settlements were on a river.

veinglory · Sep 19, 2012

How expensive it is to keep a cow or two depends on climate and whether it is safe to graze them on common land. Many cultures have a staple animal that subsistence households would still have,

thothguard51 · Sep 19, 2012

You can't get dairy products from a Bull...

veinglory · Sep 19, 2012

thothguard51 said:
You can't get dairy products from a Bull...

LOL, I refrained from commenting on that one.

Xelebes · Sep 19, 2012

frimble3 said:
Merchants (the peddler with his pack) and pilgrims - two categories of people who went long distances on foot, but not casually.

There is also the page who would typically run between the sender and the recipient. Running was often faster than using a horse, and is the basis for the story of Marathon.

Dimanagul · Sep 19, 2012

thothguard51 said:
You can't get dairy products from a Bull...

They're called bulls but they obviously have male and female counterparts.

To avoid confusion I'll come up with a female name as well or rename them in general.

Dimanagul · Sep 19, 2012

ClareGreen said:
A lot of iron age cultures preferred water for transportation over animals. You could carry lots of heavy stuff quickly on a boat, and most settlements were on a river.

I didn't think about that. Gelbans have limited control over water, but the country is Landlocked. Their magic allows them to never have a want for it in terms of sustenance but with the City of Water, it could potentially have aqueducts used for transport...

Agellas is a city with a portal above and below it that acts as a spigot of seawater above it and washes it away below. If it's not already applied, it could be a project planned by the king for future development.

I'll play with it.

Tezzirax · Sep 19, 2012

Leffin slammed his saddle down behind the mountbeast's high shoulders, earning him a bloodthirsty glare. "Oh go on with your bad self, Mattie. I spent half the morning chasing your six legs around the pasture."

He reached under her forechest and grabbed the tie-strap with wary eye to her clawed feet, they weren't sharp, but driven with her weight they could snap a bone in his leg. Leffin had her secured to the fence as his father had shown him, so she couldn't lurch side to side.

"There we go, girl," he slapped her midshoulder to insure he had her attention before he hauled himself into the saddle and threw a leg over her broad back. She chuffed loudly and inhaled deeply, her midchest expanding between his knees; he paused before leaning toward the fence to untie her reigns- if she was going to throw him, it would be in this moment.

Mattie let the breath out in an even blow and he relaxed, though he kept one eye on her head while he slipped the knot free and tugged her a step back, bringing her tailstrap into reach. "Good girl," he crooned, lifting the last securing loop off the fencepost.

She darted her long head forward, yanking the traces out of his hands and bolted. Leffin clung with his knees and managed to get one hand on the saddlehorn before her undulating gait flipped him to the turf.

There was a chorus of laughter from the twins on the other side of the fence making his cheeks flush. Mattie thundered through the gate and down the path toward Rickert's Field. "Fine, you lumper," Leffin gasped between hard bounces. "Run yourself out, I'm not going anywhere."

benbenberi · Sep 19, 2012

There were no riding animals in the Americas till the Spanish brought horses.

In North America there weren't even pack animals in most places except where dogs were harnessed to pull sleds or sledges.

In South America llamas were used as pack animals, but their backs are not strong enough for heavy loads, not nearly strong enough to carry an adult human.

Wheels? Were used in a few places for children's pull-toys.

What did people do? They walked, and carried their own stuff.

(The introduction of the horse revolutionized life on the Great Plains.)

thothguard51 · Sep 19, 2012

Dimanagul said:
They're called bulls but they obviously have male and female counterparts. To avoid confusion I'll come up with a female name as well or rename them in general.

I understood that, but the point being, the name is understood to denote male cows. Bull is too simplistic and limiting to the reader without you the writer having to go into great detail why your term of Bull is different from what the reader understands the term to mean. Give this species their own name and separate gender identifiers, like you could still call the males, bulls, and females, cows. You will have to do less explaining.

Also, as a side note, not all female cows produce milk on a regular basis like dairy cattle do. Dairy cattle would not be used as common beast of burden for plowing or riding unless you want low yields or sour milk. A dairy cows job is to eat and give milk...period.

Saanen · Sep 19, 2012

I was on the way out the door earlier when I posted, so I'm back to say that I think your idea of drakes is cool. Lots of story potential there.

And I was confused too by your talk about bulls--I thought you meant the males only were used as beasts of burden. I'd second that you should probably rename the species. Wisents and aurochs were both types of large/wild cattle, if I'm remembering right (wisents may have been a type of bison).

I'm not sure why you'd come up with a large, strong, stupid, domesticated variety of cattle but say they're not practical for riding. Why not? I've seen pictures of cattle (as opposed to water buffalo and other related species) being ridden by people in parts of South America. I suspect that oxen (castrated bulls) are the ones ridden since they're more tractable than bulls and cows are needed to make new cattle and give milk. The pictures I've seen show the reins strung through nose rings. If you need them unrideable for story purposes, just give your local cultures a taboo of some kind against riding the cattle, which might lead you to lots of other cultural "discoveries" that enrich your world.

Then again, maybe the cattle in your world are more like elephants. The males are too dangerous to work with, so only females are used as beasts of burden. If the females of your cattle are temperamental, maybe they're too dangerous to ride but safe enough for carrying a load.

rwm4768 · Sep 19, 2012

I've written a fantasy where a particular region doesn't have any animals like horses, so people have to walk everywhere.

kuwisdelu · Sep 19, 2012

Dimanagul said:
I'm fishing for reasons a iron age culture would be mostly limited to using their own two feet for transportation.

Besides the lack of vehicles, of course. If a world lacked horses or an equivalent would it be outlandish to say that people would just walk everywhere?

I'm trying to figure out why you would think it would be outlandish.

As mentioned:

benbenberi said:
There were no riding animals in the Americas till the Spanish brought horses.

In North America there weren't even pack animals in most places except where dogs were harnessed to pull sleds or sledges.

Although lots of native tribes took to horses quite quickly when they were introduced, for thousands of years, we walked or ran. Well, lots of tribes canoed, too.

Rhubix · Sep 21, 2012

I think a religious or cultural stigma would be a good work around.
Like Hindu people not eating cows, or Halal and Kosher not eating pigs.
The idea of riding an animal instead of using your own legs could just be taboo - considered filthy or lazy.

Xelebes · Sep 21, 2012

Rhubix said:
The idea of riding an animal instead of using your own legs could just be taboo - considered filthy or lazy.

Or simply greedy. An ox (bull) is a draught animal. Using it for riding is considered greedy because the animal is best used hauling carts and plows.

little_e · Sep 22, 2012

My brother was riding cows when he was five.

Transportation Limitations: Animals

Dimanagul

Will Food for Write

Saanen

veinglory

volitare nequeo

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

ClareGreen

Onwards, ever onwards

veinglory

volitare nequeo

thothguard51

A Gentleman of a refined age...

veinglory

volitare nequeo

Xelebes

Delerium ex Ennui

Dimanagul

Will Food for Write

Dimanagul

Will Food for Write

Tezzirax

benbenberi

practical experience, FTW

thothguard51

A Gentleman of a refined age...

Saanen

rwm4768

practical experience, FTW

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

Rhubix

New kid, critique harshly!

Xelebes

Delerium ex Ennui

little_e

Trust: that most precious coin.