Since I’m a bit fascinated by the ancient mediterranean cultures and Mouse Guard is quite medevial I will try make an hack for a more ancient times based Mouse Guard. I will test and flesh this out in our upcoming Mouse Guard campaign and if it’s fruitful make a few PDF:s along the way. At least for now it’s called SPQM - Senatus PopulusQue Muris.
This is a first brainstorming and I will fill out the text along the way:
It’s the Age of Silver and in the Mouse Territories a loose alliance of mouse cities dreams of the Golden Age wneh heroes battled predators in single combat and the poets sang about the deeds with voices fairer than the birds.
A SHORT HISTORY:
NN plants and harvest the first seed.
Hasta founds the city of Asylum by the river of Aesflumen.
Asylum dominates the surrounding city with it’s Guard called praetorians. They form the Asylum Alliance and patrol the areas between the cities and hunt down bandits and mice who try to dominate the often defenseless farmers. They also offers membership to other cities. For taxation and guards they get organized protection.
NN of Sapientium discovers the recipe for the scent border.
A long time of disputes and skirmishes between the eastern cities led by Asylum and the western cities led by Sapientium. In the end the western cities bows for the eastern cities and Asylum becomes the leader of all civilized mice. In a short time trade start to flourish and long trade routes is established. Sometimes mice criticize the taxes and say that the publicanus, the mice responsible for tax collection, is corrupt. On the other hand they like the organized guard of the praetorians and also like the help in city building that Asylum provides.
A continuous scent border is created.
Asylum unites the cities in the war against the weasels. After the war is won by small mariginals few mice raise their voices about how Asylum is governing the alliance. Without Asylum and the alliance the weasels would have overrun the mice totally and no mice wants to think about what kind of life they would have led if that had been the outcome. Before the war MM the elder was heckled because his constant cries for war against the weasels. Now he sometimes even get credit for the mice not taken totally by surprise when the weasels started the hostilities. Still he is wearing a black toga of mourning to symbolize the degeneration of the mice culture (at least the degeneration he think there is)i.
SOCIETY:
The cities of The Mice Territories is slave cultures although not as extreme as the late republic Rome. The cities has not waged any big wars against other mice like humans in Rome did against other human cities. Since prisons is a very ineffective and expensive the usual sentence for a criminal is a longer or shorter, usually longer, salvelike work (or for some, banishment from the Territories). Also a mouse that has unpayable debts can give himself up to slavery to pay for the debts or parts of the debt.
A common reason for mice in debt are groups of merciless rich mice who take advantage of not better knowing mice in trouble and buying their land for just a small part of the value. The poor mice then move to the city to find a job and finds it quite overpopulated and stands without income. Many of these mice become slaves for the rich.
Since a child mouse born of a slave mouse also becomes a slave the Territories has accumulated a small salve population. Some say the slaves consists of about a fifth of the population.
The alliance is governed by Asylum wich is governed by two consuls. These two consuls are elected by the mice, the citizens, of Asylum every year.
The consuls are helped by aedils, praetors and quaestors and get advice from the senate who also vote on some desicions.
There are six praetors and these are elected by the citizens every year. A praetor is responsible for high level juridicial matters. He or she also has the right to lead armed forces if the consuls already are busy doing so.
The aedils are elected by the citizens for four years and are responsible for maintainace of the city of Asylum (official parts), precautions against fire, inspect and punish misuse of aeger publicus, the state land open for any mice, the city weights and measures (correct measures kept in Asylum and guranteed by the State (in mice speech res publica), the city’s provisions, giving the poorest mice some food to keep them alive, care of the public games (some a bit likle the olympic games of ancient Greece (including theater plays) and some fights (usually not to the death).
The quaestors handle the city’s finacial matters and are elected every year.
The people of Asylum is divided into proletarians (who own nothing more than their kids), plebeians (the usual working mice) and nobiles (the noble mice who govern the city)
The most noble of nobiles, the ones who can trace their ancestors to the founding of Asylum, is called patricians. Theoretically a nobiles or evan a patrcian can be realtivly poor since the membership of these grups are not based on riches. Most of them though belongs to the senatorial class wich means that they are yet even richer than the equites (the knight class). To hold a certain office there is usually one or more specifications on class and other belongings. For some offices one has to be a plebeian and for others a nobiles. Sometimes someone who has done great things for res publica get a large piece of land, enough to be counted as an equites, and since they have enough riches they besome equites.
The different cities and towns are independent in internal matters as long as they provide taxes and guards and their internal structure varies.
MOUSE GUARDS RPG STUFF
GUARD RANK
Tenderpaw
Praetorian
Veteran
Centurion
Equites
SEASONS
SKILLS
TRAITS
PLACES TO BE BORN
LIFE EXPERIANCE
