spear of ice | Glowfic Constellation

I'll come up with tasks for them, you can see if there's anything you find interesting.

purposeful_glory

Don't gum up your logistics on their account; I didn't ask because I wanted help patronizing them.

The summary will include an account of what resources are needed to support them in accomplishing things, and how those resources would otherwise be spent.

Back in Valinor it was a real and intractable political problem that you needed a hundred years' experience at anything to be good enough at it that it was faster for the really good people to tell you what they needed than for them to just do it themselves. We no longer have the problem to the same degree, here, but if I had a solution to the expertise gap in my pocket I'd have used it long ago.

purposeful_glory

I will see if I think of anything.

I will send you information that might aid you in that.

purposeful_glory

Thank you.

And two hours later someone arrives at a run along the rooftops and drops a letter at her door that contains a description of things Men could do with their time, how much supervision or what resources he expects it to require, and how those resources would otherwise be deployed. In no cases except cleaning the streets and the palace would the Men be producing something more valuable than the resources (counting Elf time) used, though he doesn't draw attention to this.

purposeful_glory

She thanks the courier.

And then she gathers some interested Men and explains that the city was designed to be run entirely by Elves, all of whom have known each other a really long time and don't need as much rest as she/Men do and have not for the most part picked up the Men's language. Any work done in groups is going to be hard to fold Men into, especially since they probably aren't going to stay long by slow Elf standards. The only thing Maitimo could come up with that wouldn't have this problem is cleaning. Everybody likes having clean streets and somebody's gotta do it, but this is not the variety of options she was hoping to have to offer.

They could focus on being useful to each other - babysitting each other's children, making sure there's no conflict escalation when people get into fights, making clothes that suit their own styles better than whatever the Elves have lying around - and she's going to try to think of other things they can do without requiring Elf attention or cooperation and maybe they can think of things too. She might ask some Dwarves for advice too because Dwarves think a lot about problems to do with how to make sure sources of value aren't just sort of sitting around.

Meanwhile, anybody want to study Quenya? It was never very useful when there were only twenty Elves around, but now there's loads.

They are all eager to study Quenya, and this seems to satisfy the urge not to be idling.

purposeful_glory

Okay! She doesn't speak it herself, but here's the alphabet, and the reverse of the phrasebook she gave Maitimo, and their versions of numerals because the Men have been using the Doriath ones, and their Elf friends will surely be happy to help.

The Elf friends are delighted to.

purposeful_glory

Do they have any ideas about the skill gap problem themselves?

Making Men useful to Elves isn't really a good goal anyway, and it's ridiculous if the Feanorians are trying to hold the Men to that standard. Childhood is a time for learning and exploring, not creating more value than you consume. Has she considered that Maitimo is not a very honest or trustworthy person and probably has ulterior motives?

purposeful_glory

She's not sure his trustworthiness is at issue here at all, and the point isn't to make them useful to Elves per se, it's to make them useful to the city they're living in because except for the ones who are yea high they are not actually children and will not be perpetually comfortable as dependents.

They could be taught any skill that Elves wouldn't have known before coming here, and not be at much of a disadvantage. Making weapons? Or arrows? It's hard to imagine they'd be bad at washing clothes? They could be personal attendants to soldiers and help them put on their armor?

purposeful_glory

That last has a language barrier problem. Loki knows how to make bows and arrows, though. She goes and finds the nearest Elven archer to see if there's anything about the bow design that would make the kind she knows incorrect for the local style.

There are minor differences, but nothing such that she doesn't know what she's doing.

purposeful_glory

Cool. She'll just go gather up an armful of sticks and whatnot from the wilderness and pop them back and teach some Men to make bows and arrows to the point where they can teach others. Target practice is to be approached very cautiously, please, she doesn't want to have to come deal with somebody's arrow wound.

This makes a nice break from learning Quenya, and they take to it with zeal.

purposeful_glory

Good.

She works a bit and then she does go ask Dwarves for advice. (And to see if they want to let her accumulate a bankroll with quick courier and small cargo transport work.)

That is appealing but they need to send a messenger at conventional speeds to the other Dwarven kingdoms to ask if they're okay with their locations being given to someone who can teleport. Also, good for her on the teleporting, what a clever idea. Have Elves heard of comparative advantage?

purposeful_glory

The Elves may or may not have heard of comparative advantage! She considered explaining it but it seemed like a transaction cost problem to her as much as anything.

Just like Elves to build institutions with ridiculously high barriers to entry and then end up wasting a significant part of their labor force. Can Men copy books? Copying books should be about as time consuming for a Man as an Elf, and doesn't require much expertise. If Men's books are sloppier and sell for less there'd probably still be a buyer.

purposeful_glory

Ooh, that's a great idea, Men scribes. Some of them are learning the Quenya alphabet anyway already!