Re: Jorkandros, lunar command, etc...

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_...>
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 02:34:15 +0000

On Sat, Mar 06, 2004 at 01:31:07PM -0000, dzo01 wrote:
> Well, this gives us an insight to the structure of the initial
> forces investing Whitewall. I particularly like the fact he comes
> from Yuthuppa as we can bring in all sorts of astrological aspects
> to the siege. If we postulate that Jorkandros, as an inhabitant of
> the city of Star towers and centre of the Buserian cult is a strong
> supporter of doing things the correct (i.e. ancient and defined by
> the stars) way then we have an excellent excuse for the use of the
> bat so late. Initially he is resitant to the idea as it isn't
> prescribed in the ancient manuals and, when he finally acceeds to
> the neccesity (after fruitlessly trying all the traditional methods)
> he has to wait for the stars, etc to be in the correct orientation
> before he commits.

I thought the bat was deployed straight away? Getting a tad confused here...

You do describe the 'type' rather evocatively, certainly. I wonder what exactly the 'astrological aspects' are? The hard-core Buseri approach would be to sit in a fabric-free yurt for a few years divining the correct celestiological moment for the attack, which might be taking things a tad far... Another thought is to take the Polaris magical metaphor ultra-literally. Magically identify each component of your army, and if at all possible, each element of the defenders as a stellar body. Turn the whole battle into one giant celestial ritual... Nice trick if you can do it.

> I also think that there just has to be a Shargashi who just wants to
> crush the city asap without the log prolonged siege and to hell with
> the casualties - they all end up in the enclosure anyway.

Not only does this seem dramatically inevitable, but it's probably one of the occupational hazards of being a celestially-oriented general. Can hardly ignore that big, bright red planet with all those nice subtle "WAR", "DEATH", and "DESTROY" associations, but oh my, must its worshippers be so _terribly_ uncouth?

Cheers.