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Although, I think carrying 12 fish pasties is not a great logistical feat. I bet the main goal is for the knight to perform a token act of service for their lord. A good-natured way to signal obedience.

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I seem to remember that a big concern in feudalism was whether your underling lords would actually show up when you needed them. This kind of “bring me 12 pasties” thing is as you say most likely a token that he will show up in court and bring the pasties.

So it's like a service health check periodically run by the load balancer :-D

$ ping -c 12 -p fishpasty king.gov

Well, it is feudalism so really the line between .gov, .org, and .name is probably a little blurry.

Or more like removing only the brown m&ms from the bowl.

I assume that many of these tasks are symbolic / used to socially bind folks together. Similar to that friend who orders the first round of beers for everyone or something. He has his place and everyone knows it and enjoys it. Not unlike any kind of ritual, etc.

Many roles I know had physical symbols you carried or wore. Jim the beer buyer would be proud to his staff of beer buying, value it, and so on just as much as the fish guy.

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