Kit
Maester
Thinking of having some of my characters rebel against the political powers that be, and become hunted fugitives. It then occurred to me....
If we assume pre-printing-press technology, how the heck does one become infamous to the point of being hunted through the streets? Even if I'm not aiming for the general populace to be turning on the fugitives, even the reigning power's beaurocracy and soldiers would have little to go on. Only the (probably relatively limited) number of people who had actually witnessed the act of rebellion up close would even know what the fugitives looked like. "All right now soldiers: Fan out across the countryside and apprehend this guy; we're told he's about 6'0, brown hair, no distinguishing marks... uh...."
Of course the easy out would be to give each of the fugitives a disfiguring facial scar or something, and have the army search for them and question the locals about them that way.... but it's an interesting dilemma. Thoughts, ideas, musings?
I'm thinking I'm gonna *have* to put the printing press in there (which I'd rather not), and have a witness sketch the fugitives for leaflets/posters- unless I can come up with a better idea to identify/publicize them. Non-magical, please (I'm trying to avoid a lot of gratuitous random magic).
If we assume pre-printing-press technology, how the heck does one become infamous to the point of being hunted through the streets? Even if I'm not aiming for the general populace to be turning on the fugitives, even the reigning power's beaurocracy and soldiers would have little to go on. Only the (probably relatively limited) number of people who had actually witnessed the act of rebellion up close would even know what the fugitives looked like. "All right now soldiers: Fan out across the countryside and apprehend this guy; we're told he's about 6'0, brown hair, no distinguishing marks... uh...."
Of course the easy out would be to give each of the fugitives a disfiguring facial scar or something, and have the army search for them and question the locals about them that way.... but it's an interesting dilemma. Thoughts, ideas, musings?
I'm thinking I'm gonna *have* to put the printing press in there (which I'd rather not), and have a witness sketch the fugitives for leaflets/posters- unless I can come up with a better idea to identify/publicize them. Non-magical, please (I'm trying to avoid a lot of gratuitous random magic).
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