Hey I'm thinking about writing a fantasy novel and I would like it to feel authentic, so I would really appreciate if you could answer at least some of these questions.

Here's some information about the book: It takes place in fictional world, but it would resemble mostly the Europe in the 13th-14th centuries. It would take place in a country caught between a conflict of two large alliances: United kings of the north and the imperials of the south.

1. How would country like this prepare for a larger war that could endanger their freedom? For example would they somehow draft and train peasants or would they just go with what they already have on reserve.

2. In this world the northern kingdoms would be a bit poorer and they couldn't afford as good equipment as empire has, but they have high morale and the population is rather harsh and strong. So what kind of a tactics and weaponry would they use to fight well equipped imperial conquers?

3. How were the battles fought and what decided who won? Did they just clash each others until the the others felt like they can't win anymore?

4. How much morale would affect the outcome of a battle? In this world the northerners are mostly the defending side and they will do anything to protect themselves from the "big bad empire" and the imperial soldiers are far away from home fighting a war that they don't really care about. Does this give a significant advantage to north?

5. If a two armies of 10 thousand men would meet in battle how large would the casualties be on average? If I have understood right most of the casualties come when the others decide to retreat, so the losing side would face much larger casualties, right?

Ps. Sorry for possible spelling errors. English isn't my native language, but I tried to write as cleanly as possible. pss. Sorry for apologizing for bad English.

The Habsburg tendency to inbreeding is well-known and they did this over centuries. Given that they are from a very powerful and wealthy dynasty, did their inbreeding foster the development of specialized medicine to address the problems caused by inbreeding?

Thanks in advance for your answers!

The Dalai Lama is obviously often revered as a wise man of peace. If one hears him talk this seems rather obvious. However I have heard it said that when the Dalai Lama still were in Tibet before the Chinese came, it was actually a theocratic regime where the rulling religious class severely mistreated the population. Accusations of torture, starvation and gauging eyes have been made by people like Christopher Hitchens (who has an obvious anti religious sentiment which might influence what he says).

My question is, how did the religious class treat the Tibetan people before China? How common were these practices if there is any truth to them and what would a citizin of Tibet have to 'do' to suffer such a fate?

I know that so called Indian Wars were fought for over 300 years but when did the conquest and genocide ended? In 19th century, 20th century?

Would there be a difference between Ostrogothic rule in Ravenna and Byzantine rule in Ravenna?

By Vietnamese-American I mean any people of Vietnamese descent living in America during this time period.

During the 1300s, why didn't the Byzantine Empire conquer the numerous weak beyliks on their border? Wasn't this territory considered Byzantine by the Byzantines? What was going on that prevented them from doing so?

1. How far back does the act of splitting your tongue, at the tip, go? I imagine it could of been a powerful statement among tribes, as well as anybody I guess. Just wondering after seeing the process on a show. 2) What are the more unique body modifications that used to take place or still do?

I was looking for something on what the Romans who were surrounded at Cannae experienced and did, as the outer ranks were gradually destroyed, up until the end of the battle.

Any other pre-gunpowder battle where an army was trapped in a pocket, actually. I am curious if they built up impromptu HQs, collected wounded, planned breakthroughs, or generally acted in a manner similar to the massive encirclements on the WW2 eastern front.

I just bought this book for 20 USD. I find it very interesting so far, but it tends to wander a lot. However, I noticed he talked about the ring around the rosies rhyme. He mentions that it was made to help cope with the horrors of the 'pestilence', while I always heard it was about how people attempted to ward off the plague. Many others also say it is historically inaccurate. Especially on amazon, where most ratings are 1 star. Is it?

Where does that come from?

That is well before the Columbian Exchange, right? So how can they be growing maize in the Jin Dynasty? Is it some sort of old world maize or is this just an oversight by the author/editor? If it is some sort of old world maize, how does it compare to modern corn? Is it still around, who ate it etc.?

I'm somewhat suspicious of this book because I've found a handful of typos (one really funny one turned, "...people of Han." into, "...people of Ham.") and I'm wondering if there was just some bad editing going.

Was watching the opening sequence to Gangs of New York, the Irish immigrants coming off the boat, to the enlistment stations, to the returning coffins. I know this was done for dramatic affect, but it got me thinking. I've done quite a bit of research on Irish history, but little on the Irish involvement in the civil war. I know there were some prominent Irish regiments, but how much of a factor was the immigrant enlistment, if anything?