Is Ilia dumb?

[AnonymousSpeed]

I mean, I know there have been nations/peoples who were pretty big into the whole "be mercenaries" thing, but I don't think any of them depended on that for the accumulation of baseline food. Can one of you history buffs help me out here with your ancient Celtic knowledge?

[Acacia Sgt]

I feel like they put too much emphasis on the "little arable land" angle to justify being a nation of mercenaries. Just because there's little arable land doesn't mean the nation can be lacking of other means to support themselves. Looking at this map:

Forests don't seem to be that rare and perhaps very plentiful, so there could be a timber industry. Fishing too, since they still have a coastline, and plenty of rivers too that aren't always freezed over as shown by that map.

Also, if they have so much snow and ice...

https://talknorway.no/ice-export-a-booming-business-for-more-than-a-century-norway/

They can legit export their ice.

Edited January 13, 2022 by Acacia Sgt

[vanguard333]

3 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I mean, I know there have been nations/peoples who were pretty big into the whole "be mercenaries" thing, but I don't think any of them depended on that for the accumulation of baseline food. Can one of you history buffs help me out here with your ancient Celtic knowledge?

Even cultures with a large amount of mercenaries didn't depend on it in place of agriculture. In pretty much any ancient culture, the majority of people in it would've been farmers, fishers, etc., so depending on it for accumulation of baseline food, unless there's a famine, is a somewhat silly notion. 

For example: some people believe viking raids were due to shortages of food; the opposite is closer to the truth. The Medieval Warm Period brought about an increase in arable farmland, which led to more people, which led to more people seeking to get rich quick via raids.

As for the ancient Celts, again; mercenary work was done to make money, not to provide food.

[Guill0]

Not to that extent but early-renaissance Switzerland has had some financial problems, where farming couldn't provide enough money to the people. That lead to the creation of mercenaries band which became the first economical income of the country. 

It's also when the Pontifical Swiss guard was created.

[henrymidfields]

Russia would be the closest in terms of geography and climate with Ilia, and it still didn't prevent them from spreading agriculture (and later industry) into Siberia. Russia's cold didn't prevent her being an Empire in the 19th Century, and a superpower in the 20th Century. Admittedly she had to rely on food imports from the USA in the 20th Century, but this was more a case of mismanagement by the Communists (poor staff management, and farming methods that were unsustainable), and World War 2 for the 1940s, than cold land per se.

[Cossack>Cavalier]

Thracia in Jugdral has a similar theme, so it seems to be a recurring one in FE games. That being said, it's really not realistic. There had to be baseline agriculture or hunter/gatherer activities to support the population there before they could become mercenaries. Indeed, that both of these nations use mounts for their mercenary work implies that there is domestic food production. The wyverns in Thracia and pegusai in Illia are by all indications domestic. So they have the resources for animal husbandry...of some variety. They also have towns of varying sizes and the various human endeavors that occur within them needed to support the creation of a mercenary force for export. 

I think the best explanation is that domestic production isn't non-existent, but it IS insufficient for large numbers of people who sell their services out as mercenaries to compliment domestic production. I also wouldn't be surprised if this exacerbates the issue in the long run. Maybe young men and women who would normally work the meager farm decide not to do so in pursuit of quick riches and glory as a mercenary, already reducing a limited food and resources supply. 

[Paper Jam]

All those forests and rivers suggest to me that Ilia's main source of food is probably hunting and fishing. The rest of what they need, they probably import.

[Jotari]

Ilia is just dead into mercenary work because the Etruria got the entire population addicted to strawberries and they can't grow them there. Facilitated by the Western Isles Strawberry Company of course.

(no, none of this is in the game, I'm trying to make a joke, I'm not sure it's working though, but I still like the premise)