[GZG] [SILLY] Sheepish Superpowers

Sheep, despite being infamous on this list, are an
animal that I know very little about. I decided to do
some background reading, but quickly discovered that
while the shelves of bookstores and libraries are
overloaded with books about horses, dogs, and cats,
there's nothing about sheep. Even poisonous snakes
get more coverage.

Eventually I bought a second hand copy of "The Great
Arc of the Wild Sheep" by James L Clark, a hunter
and museum specimen collector. In his own words:
"This book has come into being through my long
standing interest in and deep respect for the sturdy,
power-packed wild sheep."

The book has lots of hunting stories, photos, and
names for many different breeds of sheep. And while
reading it, I realized that the distribution of wild
sheep (not the half-wit domestic ones) perfectly
explains the power ranking of nations in the GZG
universe.

The wild sheep are only found north of the equator,
which is why none of the southern hemisphere nations
appear in Fleet Book 1. You can't aspire to Great
Power status with llamas or wildebeeste.

The largest populations of wild sheep are in the cold
mountain chains of northern Asia and America. Thus
the ESU can draw on numerous different breeds, from
the long horned Marco Polo to the mighty Siberian.
The NAC can match the ESU with its own range of sheep
from the Alaskan Whites to Rocky Mountain Bighorns.

The countries that make up the FSE and NSL have only
small scattered populations of Mouflons, enough to
give them the edge over smaller nations but not
the equal of the NAC or ESU. The CalTex republic has
the Desert Bighorns, few in number but irresistable
in hot and dry conditions.

The Islamic Emirates have Anatolian, Armenian, and
Isfahani sheep, but vicious infighting weakens
them compared to the other powers. And if India
ever tries to break free from the ESU, they have
the Kashmiri and Punjabi sheep.

Further investigation is needed into the settlement
sheep in space during the 22nd century :-)

	cheers,
	Hugh

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