Peasant Miniatures

Peasants are the lowest tier of feudal social hierarchies — agricultural labourers, serfs, and subsistence farmers who work land owned by nobles or religious institutions in exchange for protection and the right to retain a portion of what they produce. Their lives are defined by seasonal labour, legal obligation to their lord, and a vulnerability to the disruptions — war, plague, famine, and monster incursion — that more powerful members of society are better equipped to weather. Despite their low status, peasants constitute the majority of the population in most medieval fantasy settings and their collective discontent, when organised, represents a significant political force. In fantasy RPG settings, peasants appear as the human backdrop against which larger conflicts play out, as well as the direct victims whose suffering gives moral weight to the actions of adventurers. They feature in campaigns involving feudal oppression, peasant uprisings, the devastation of war on civilian populations, and stories that examine the vast distance between the powerful and the powerless in hierarchical fantasy societies.