All Things Vargr

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

G. What are riches to a Vargr?

H. Which is not the same as what a Vargr values.

I. Individual freedom of movement, seems to be one.

J. Since the implication is that it's individual dissatisfaction with a situation, that causes it.

K. Which means, not so much a great opportunity for divorce lawyers, rather instruments that prevent movement, or creates friction slowing it down.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

L. Loot would be one thing that attracts Vargr to a corsair career.

M. Which, taken at face value, means that corsairs don't have the means to participate in a consumer society.

N. Or, their industrial base doesn't supply consumer products.

O. Popular imagination would have corsairs stealing everything that isn't nailed down.

P. Sometimes, even stuff that is nailed down.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Anything that's not nailed down is mine.

If I can pry it loose, it wasn't nailed down.

 

[Condottiere]

There's a really funny not safe for workplace (western) comic short, that sort of addresses this.

The visiting royal guest was cursed with a dog penis, and the running gag was that anything that it urinated on, was hers.

So, property rights might be somewhat nebulous, in the Vargr point of view.

 

[Vargas]

I don't know if this has been covered in the previous 25 pages but this has been on my mind for a little while.

Is it possible that the rate of change of Vargr groups has been overstated? I'm not saying significantly, simply less than people tend to assert. Too much leadership churn impacts organizational stability and we've got interstellar polities lasting years in the setting. Admittedly, leaders may come and go which hold to the same basic policies so effectively there's less churn but I don't think that would hold in something like a pirate band.

Clearly the Vargr are not wolves but how often do wolf pack leaders get challenged? (I honestly don't know).

Just some thoughts.

 

[Condottiere]

Let's take it at face value.

Human society has many purposes, one of which is to spare members from their own worst impulses, those potentially affected, and then mitigate the damage.

That's why I think that Vargr society tries to slow down that nomadism, and challenge to the status quo.

If you become a citizen of a polity, there would be a sunken cost, lost if the Vargr left it.

Also, by formalizing leadership challenges, it doesn't prevent them, but does require publicly demonstrating adequate cause.

 

[Condottiere]

If you think about it, a leadership challenge isn't really necessary, since, in theory, a Vargr could leave a pack at any time, and poach like minded packmates, setting up his own pack.

So, the possibility exists there's some coercive aspect that prevents this, or that, like a corporation, tangible, maybe intangible assets, are somehow tied to the existing pack itself, not to the pack leader.

 

[kilemall]

Canines are den oriented so I'm a bit skeptical about this nomad thing.

 

[Condottiere]

As I said, friction is likely baked in as a social construct.

And just because you leave your construction pack, doesn't mean you leave your family pack.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

Q. Vikings can build their own longships, if only communally.

R. That's a little tougher, if you need to keep it vacuum proof, and include a jump drive.

S. Certainly motivation to space out, and hijack spacecraft and starships.

T. What the corsairs can't use themselves, they have a vibrant secondary market to dispose of the hijacked craft.

U. Better still, not too far away, there are unwary, fat, and rich Impies that are easy meat.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

V. That would be why if Vargr corsairs capture a spacecraft, it disappears.

W. As an unofficial industrial policy, supplementing supply, by involuntary importation.

X. So, what happens to the surviving human crew and passengers?

Y. Could be ransomed back, if that wasn't too much of a hassle.

Z. Or, slavery.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

1. Do Vargr take prisoners?

2. Or, have the Vargr facilities to detain convicted criminals long term?

3. It would seem, given their social and nomadic behaviours, the worst punishment you could subject a Vargr to, would be solitary confinement.

4. If the Vargr take prisoners, what would they do with them?

5. If they just hijacked a spacecraft, they could space the survivors, since they won't want witnesses.

6. Or, thrown into the onboard fusion reactor, eliminating evidence, two birds with one stone.

7. What type of prisoner might be worth the trouble of negotiating with the family for a ransom?

8. Or, a representative from their polity?

9. And, you'd need to feed them, in the meantime.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

A. Why would Vargr need slaves?

B. One thing about slaves is, they're not allowed to wander off.

C. In that sense, you have a steady workforce, if somewhat unmotivated.

D. Though slavery does imply some form of compulsion.

E. You can employ slaves in occupations that Vargr are reluctant to pursue.

F. For example, with their keen sense of smell, like garbage collection, and sewage engineering.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

G. In fact, the traditional punishment for space pirates would be to, well, space them.

H. Pretty sure that Vargr are allergic to vacuum.

I. Assuming an occasional razzia by the Imperium Navy through the Vargr Extents, witness accounts would allow identification.

J. If not of the actual participants, certainly the systems they operate in.

K. So, too much of a risk to return the survivors.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Standard dilemma: Kill pirates without mercy to discourage the others, or back off of pirates who don't kill hostages to encourage them to eventually free their hostages?

Yes, the OTU holds that life is cheap. But still...

 

[kilemall]

Ransom is a profit center if you catch the right prey.

Hence 6G getaway craft for yachts.

 

[Condottiere]

Corsairs is a rather particular connotation of the Barbary Coast, and they took captives, which were either ransomed back, or enslaved.

In Vance's Killing Machine, you had a neutral planet that acted as penitentiary, and negotiator.

The Imperium Navy is large and powerful enough, to turn up with a battleship squadron.

Which would likely be rather indiscriminate, as it slices through the Vargr held systems inbetween.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

L. Odds are, Vargr are great animal herders.

M. Certainly, hunters.

N. But I don't see them as farmers.

O. Farming being a profession that takes commitment.

P. You'll want a captive labour force for that.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Organization

Q. On the other hand, some forms of farming require only a seasonal workforce.

R. That might appeal to a Vargr's wanderlust.

S. Though, general experience indicates a rather strenuous regime, and long hours, during that window of employment.

T. Which may make corsairing rather more appealling.

U. You know, raid the neighbouring warehouse, after harvest.

 

[King Midas]

Standard dilemma: Kill pirates without mercy to discourage the others, or back off of pirates who don't kill hostages to encourage them to eventually free their hostages?

Yes, the OTU holds that life is cheap. But still...

Both, based on pirate MO.
If the pirates show up, empty the cargo hold, grab the occasional ransom target, and leave the crew and passengers with a vivid story to tell, the Imperium doesn't chase anybody down. They arrest the fool who shows up at an Impy port in a known pirate ship, but otherwise no action is taken.
If ships start disappearing with only a rare ransom telling a tale of horror, the Impies get all "proportional". (

).
Also this is encouragement for the pirates to go with the first MO, and police themselves.