Peter Metcalfe wrote:
>
> Mikko Rintasaari.
>
> > > [The Bat] devoured the fort of Runegate after putting the army
> > > of Salinarg to flight.
>
> >That's true. But it seemed that Salinargs army did not know of the bat.
>
> How do you work this out? The Bat's hardly something that could
> be kept secret since it was first used in the zero wane. Even
> the Malkioni know about it.
>
> >So what keeps the bat from being the deciding factor of every war the
> >Empire faces?
(good reasons snipped)
> Professional rivalry by the Yanafali who like to win clean and
> honorable victories without the excessive devastation caused
> by the Bat (and also by the Lunar College of Magic). Not using
> the Bat is like not playing in God Mode in Doom/Quake/Duke Nukem
> etc. It's riskier but people respect you for it.
Its a terror weapon -- pure and simple. Fazzur used it initially to demonstrate how nasty the Empire COULD be and then used other, softer methods to get his points across.
Tatius, in love with his own magical skills, regards the bat as a useful toy and HIS methods as superior. (for which we can all be happy)
> The High Priest of the Bat has more important things to do right
> now (re-enact the bat's spiritual enlightenment, punish nobles
> who slighted him, clip his toenails) than to stoop to petty
> mundane conquests. Should messengers attempt to command the Bat
> to obey the orders of the Emperor, the Bat will digest the
> implications of the messenger at length before informing the
> High Priest of her desires.
Sorry, the message never arrived. Could you resend it? Yours respectfully, etc, etc.
> The Bat is hired by Buserian astronomers as a vessel to visit
> the dark planet Artia and won't be back for many years.
>
> --Peter Metcalfe
Heh! I like that last one -- similar to 'visiting Cragspider' in KODP.
But I think the main reason about the bat's non-appearance is that there is only one. And it spends a lot of time moving from crisis to crisis (if it is, indeed, deployed) and a huge nomad horde in the Redlands is a greater threat than rumblings in Sartar. The Dara Happans have always had the nomads as their cultural nightmare.
Jeff
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