Starve to death, sally out and combat the enemy army or just give up

you can't eat people it will make you sick

They usually had some animals inside the castle, wheat stocks stored as well as other things. Rats and horses would be eaten first most likely if there was no other option, they might have resorted to cannibalism possibly.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Shedding Light:

you can't eat people it will make you sick

You can just not the brain, you get a disease from ingesting prions that is a enzyme in the brain.

Edit: They aren't enzymes sorry they are infectious proteins and are resistant to enzymes if i am remembering correctly they cause abnormal folding of normal proteins causing neurodegenerative diseases

Oprindeligt skrevet af Shedding Light:

you can't eat people it will make you sick

get hungry enough and you wont really have a say in it

Oprindeligt skrevet af DOOMGIRL69:

They usually had some animals inside the castle, wheat stocks stored as well as other things. Rats and horses would be eaten first most likely if there was no other option, they might have resorted to cannibalism possibly.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Shedding Light:

you can't eat people it will make you sick

You can just not the brain, you get a disease from ingesting prions that is a enzyme in the brain :bluerune::luv:

depends prion disease isnt that wide spread so unlikely to get prion disease but we also wont know who has the prion and not due to how slow acting its but in modern day its unlikely and in past most didnt live long enough for prion to kill

they try to smuggle in food first
if they can't do that, well
all kinds of stuff might happen,
including but not limited to holding as much as they can, eating the animals, each other,
surrender to the attacker or even perform a heroic 'exodus' that might be suicide.

Surrender
Cannibalism
Suicide attack
And in some case just hold out until invaders run out of food.

But usually cities back then have some means of producing food within its border so they can hold out for years or indefinitely unless other tactics are used.
There are many examples in history.

ive just been googling it and found this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIiIkjcImzA

they ate around 20000 to 30000 people in that siege. crazy.

Soylent greens for everybody!

Oprindeligt skrevet af lailaamell:

Oprindeligt skrevet af DOOMGIRL69:

They usually had some animals inside the castle, wheat stocks stored as well as other things. Rats and horses would be eaten first most likely if there was no other option, they might have resorted to cannibalism possibly.


You can just not the brain, you get a disease from ingesting prions that is a enzyme in the brain

depends prion disease isnt that wide spread so unlikely to get prion disease but we also wont know who has the prion and not due to how slow acting its but in modern day its unlikely and in past most didnt live long enough for prion to kill

Its not very common no, its a really sad disease though, i have seen videos online of people suffering from it

Oprindeligt skrevet af DOOMGIRL69:

Oprindeligt skrevet af lailaamell:

depends prion disease isnt that wide spread so unlikely to get prion disease but we also wont know who has the prion and not due to how slow acting its but in modern day its unlikely and in past most didnt live long enough for prion to kill

Its not very common no, its a really sad disease though, i have seen videos online of people suffering from it :bluerune::luv:

prions take pretty long to show its luckily not as common a problem for yeah we cant do crap against prion disease except preventing it

Eating human flesh is extremely unsafe and can transmit fatal infectious diseases, including incurable brain conditions. The practice is taboo in most human cultures for good biological and social reasons.
Risk of infectious prion diseases
The most severe and definitive risk of cannibalism is contracting a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), which is an incurable, fatal, neurodegenerative disease. These are caused by prions, which are abnormally folded proteins that cause normal proteins in the brain to also misfold.
Kuru: An epidemic of this disease occurred among the Fore people of Papua New Guinea due to their ritualistic practice of consuming the brains of deceased relatives.
Cause: Kuru is caused by prions found in human brain tissue. Women and children, who traditionally ate the brains, were the most affected.
Symptoms: These include muscle jerks, coordination problems, emotional instability, and dementia. It is also called "the laughing sickness" due to pathological bursts of laughter.
Outcome: The disease has a long incubation period, but once symptoms appear, death usually occurs within one to two years.
Insusceptible to cooking: Prions are not destroyed by cooking, so infected human tissue cannot be made safe by applying heat.
Other health risks
Beyond prions, cannibalism exposes a person to other dangerous pathogens.
Blood-borne diseases: Eating human flesh or coming into contact with a corpse's blood can transmit blood-borne diseases like hepatitis, Ebola, and HIV.
Bacterial and parasitic infections: Poorly handled human flesh can lead to bacterial contamination, including from E. coli or other gut pathogens.
Concentrated hormones and toxins: Certain human organs contain high concentrations of hormones that can disrupt your body's systems. This is a common reason for avoiding certain organs when consuming animal flesh, and the risk is even higher with a closely related species like humans.
Limited nutritional value
Even without the risk of disease, human flesh is not a highly nutritious food source, especially when compared to wild game. A 2017 study found that human bodies offer significantly less caloric value than other animals that were hunted by Paleolithic humans. In a dire survival situation, the energy gained would be minimal compared to the extreme risks involved.

again prions are inhumane

Oprindeligt skrevet af 󠀡󠀡:

Eating human flesh is extremely unsafe and can transmit fatal infectious diseases, including incurable brain conditions. The practice is taboo in most human cultures for good biological and social reasons.

What do you think happened to the bodies of all the fallen people at Waterloo?

The city of Madaya — which has been described as “an open-air prison” — has been under siege for months, its inhabitants reduced to eating grass.

https://www.justsecurity.org/29157/siege-warfare-starvation-civilians-war-crime/

The siege of Leningrad was a military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 to 1944. Leningrad, the country's second largest city, was besieged by Germany and Finland for 872 days, but never captured. The siege was the most destructive in history and possibly the most deadly, causing an estimated 1.5 million deaths, from a prewar population of 3.2 million.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Leningrad#Background

Oprindeligt skrevet af BigBadBug:

i read that some sieges lasted years and even decades. what happens when they eventually run out of food? do they start eating the people? like women and children first since they are useless in war then the elderly and then eventually everyone else until they are all eaten?

War isn't pretty and people do what they gotta do. Sometimes they allow civilians to escape the city but that's not always the case. In a desperate attempt, some armies sally out for a breakthrough.

For example when the French attempted to starve out the English army in 1415. The English moved their camp slightly forward to hit the French army with their longbowmen and crazy enough even won the battle.