Greetings, Hallifax. Thank you for coming to this lecture. I have come here to expound on the history of the shards of Loboshi and their historical settlement patterns. I realize that it is a narrow topic, but history is a noble field and understanding other cultures, and their history, is key to interacting with them.

Now, when I speak of historical settlement patterns, I mean those that vastly predate the modern period, namely those that were in place before the coming of the taint. Modern loboshigaru are of course spread throughout the various cities and communes, along with a significant population in the Tosha Monastery. There may well be other populations in the world. Indeed, I expect that there are. Nonetheless, they are not known to the Basin at large at present.

So, how do we come to understand these ancient settlement patterns? Observation, historical records, and inference. We can observe that there is a modern population of loboshigaru located in the Tosha Monastery. Given that institution's long history and the significance of Toshan practices to the loboshigaru, it is reasonable to presume that it has an ancient precedent. We may also observe that modern loboshigaru dwell primarily in the mountains, and presume that their ancestors lived in similar ways. Their lifestyle and settlements were necessarily adapted to that environment. We may also consult the archaeological record. Those sources, combined with a working knowledge of loboshigaru dietary preferences and other such inclinations, allow us to draw conclusions.

That having been said, those conclusions are conclusions, not observations. The archaeological record has gaps. One must always remember two rules of thumb. The first is that incomplete data leads to incomplete conclusions. There may have been entire populations with radically divergent lifestyles that have long since been lost to history. Secondly, we can only be as confident in our conclusions as our sources allow us to be. I would not come before you if I thought that I was wrong, but it is distinctly possible that we are missing crucial data and have strayed from accuracy.

My conclusions are fairly simple. I put forward the notion that the ancient loboshigaru combined two radically divergent lifestyles. The combination seems to have been a harmonious one which allowed their civilization to survive. What were those two lifestyles? The monastic and the pastoral. I shall deal with each of them in turn.

The monastic lifestyle should be at least superficially familiar to most of us. It is a fully settled lifestyle centered around the monastery. The modern Tosha Monastery is one such place, but I doubt that it is the only one in the race's history. It seems far more likely that there were many such institutions of various sizes scattered throughout the race's range. The monks spend a portion of their time in spiritual pursuits, such as meditation and exercise. They also devote some of their time to practical labor in the fields. That provides the monastery with an economic base to support itself, and likely for trade with other loboshigaru populations.

Here I should note the possibility of a third lifestyle, one that is both secular and settled. A monastery is a stable institution, one which can naturally serve as the nucleus for a large village or even a city. It is possible that loboshigaru who did not wish to engage in a fully monastic lifestyle but wished to remain in one place could have settled around those institutions. Such individuals may have had some sort of association with their monastery, perhaps as lay monks, or retained an independent sense of identity. Indeed, that strikes me as the most likely root of any sort of organized and primarily loboshigaru civilization. That having been said, there is precious little evidence for or against it at this time. It is something to investigate, I suppose.

The other primary lifestyle appears to have been that of the pastoral pack. These populations were fundamentally nomadic, but I do not believe that they wandered purely at random. Pastoralism is of course known among many populations, at least to some degree. It is a natural response to limited resources. To be brief, pastoral populations rely on herd animals, such as sheep or cattle, that they bring from one pasture to the next. They usually follow a traditional schedule, one which allows their herds to survive without overgrazing any single pasture. Mountain pastoralists, as I suppose that the bulk of ancient loboshigaru were, tend to lead their herds up towards the tops of the mountains during the summer and down into valleys during the winter. Others follow the water supply from seasonal rivers, or even travel according to the whims of diviners. A variety of patterns are possible and I expect that the packs varied depending on their traditions and their environments.

So, how could these two patterns interact? The monastic populations would have remained in place at all times, more or less. The mobile packs would spend a part of the year in the general vicinity of the nearest monastery. I expect that it would have been the winter, when it is most difficult to travel in the mountains. Those periods are a natural time for interaction between the groups! The wandering packs would naturally take the opportunity to interact through trade, marriages, and other such agreements. They would likewise trade, or possibly pay tribute, to the monastery. Some individuals may even have abandoned a pack to join a monastery. Perhaps the reverse happened as well. 

I believe that temporary initiation to the monasteries may also have been common. Meditation and other such practices are highly beneficial to the mental state of most loboshigaru. That sort of initiation would have made it much easier for the traveling packs to remain in a state of good mental health. 

Thus, we can picture a system of settlement with the monastery as a hub, possibly surrounded by a secular settlement. Loboshigaru packs, probably with their herds, travel the areas around the monastery, but come back to it on a regular basis. If we were to trace their routes in broad strokes, the map would likely resemble a wheel with a pastoral exterior, a monastic hub, and traditional routes between the two that resemble spokes. It is a versatile system, highly adaptable, and marvelously suited for the environment.

Thank you for coming. I do hope that you have learned something from this lecture, and that it stirs you to reach out towards virtuous foreign populations with curiosity and understanding.