From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@toppoint.de)
Date: Sat 06 Jul 1996 - 19:30:00 EEST
David Cake brought up the old "What have the Lunars ever brought us"
chestnut from Life of Brian again.
> Well, there is less trouble with clan feuding
Sartar's peace brought by the Lunars?
> And there's the new roads.
So the Lunars built the highways from Wilmskirk to Aldachur?
> And the soup kitchens
So Geo's is a subcult of Teelo Norri
> And the aqueducts...
In rainy Sartar...
Think of that. What _did_ the Lunars ever bring to _Sartar_, except the Bat,
high taxes, and unwanted troops?
They did bring all kind of good stuff to Tarsh, that much is true. But they
did so at the same time a certain Heortland nobleman introduced paved
highways, arching bridges, and numerous other advantages from civilized
life. The Quivini took their pick from the niceties of civilization, and let
the rest remain where they didn't need it.
The country invaded by the Lunar army in 1602 was as well developed as the
Lunar Provincial Kingdom of Tarsh wrt the niceties of civilization. The
rural people lived the old way out of their own choice, or went to the
cities when they chose otherwise, joining their tribesmen (and even
clansmen, in case of the majority of the tribes which formed city
confederations) there.
Ok, so the Irrippi Ontors have a different approach than the Lhankor Mhytes.
So Etyries deals a bit different from Issaries. But pray tell me, where did
the Lunars bring anything that wasn't there in a local form before?
>Lots of
>money floating around, new trade routes, old ones made safer, charitable
>institutions of various kinds (free resurrection for many of those the CAs
>refuse - and at a cheaper price)
Lots of money: maybe. Floating around? Redirected, rather. So the Lunars
heightened the importance of cash? If so, only to have a way of taking
taxes, really.
New trade routes: Which ones? Sartar had always traded with Peloria through
Tarsh...
Old ones made safer: I'll yield the Pavis "Road" to the Lunars, since they
managed to hire native Praxians (Sables) rather than more or less recent
immigrants (Pol Joni). Whether this was an improvement I'm not sure... The
Kethaelan river trade has been all but closed down after the unfortunate
1613 aftermath, and the Volsaxi trade route hasn't improved during the siege
of Whitewall either, except maybe for the smugglers providing the besieged city.
The charitable institutions are the Teelo Norri soup kitchens which don't
require initiation (as opposed to Geo's). They do their best to illuminate
you about the wisdom of the moon goddess, though, which Geo's doesn't.
Still, I'll yield that.
Free Resurrection: Wow! Every rebel is urged to make use of this service.
Beat the Lunars by using up their Resurrection pool! (Humakti excepted...)
Frankly, I don't believe this. The Lunars will be as picky about their
resurrectees as will be the Chalana Arroy healers, the only advantage being
a temporarily greater offer. This competition will wear off, though, and
sooner or later availability of Resurrection will drop to a normal level.
IMG the Lunar conquest of Sartar was performed for royal Tarshite
territorial craving and some quite far-fetched mythological identification
sold to the Dara Happan officials in order to support this materialist
conquest. What the Tarshites did not recognize was the seriousness with
which the Dara Happans pursued this mythological goal much more fervently
than expected. Instead of yielding control of the conquered territory to the
Provincial Government, which would have to act and control through the
Kingdom of Tarsh, they installed some Yelmic fanatic within the Lunar Army
in the key position of Gouvernor-General.
Instead of gaining their neighbouring kingdom's choice part as added
provinces, the Tarshites gained an imperial controlled independent province
as neighbour, with some autonomous imperial leaders.
I won't say that the Sartarites would have tolerated assimilation to the
Kingdom of Tarsh better than the status as an independently managed
province. Some things would have developed differently, and possibly there
would have been less resentment among some tribes. After all, the Tarshites
still were Orlanthi only a few generations earlier (Palashee Longaxe's
kingdom, for instance), and the descendents of Hon-eel seem to be accepted
by the vast majority of the half million Tarshites.
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