Re: Tatius

From: donald_at_...
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 13:21:48 GMT

In message <000201c4ab8c$6e0aa8e0$0302a8c0_at_master> "Jane Williams" writes:
>
>>> So why does the Empire want to bring back the Darkness, again?
>>> I'm less interested in its inner mystic Chaotic nature here,
>>> than what this will do for pragmatic Lunar generals like Tatius.
>>
>> What makes you think that Tatius is a pragmatic general?
>
>Sounds like we have several different views of Tatius, and it might not
>be a bad idea to get them ironed out for the purposes of this joint
>project.
>
>We know he's more intelligent than his cousin Euglyptus. And Euglyptus
>ran Dragon Pass quite effectively for over ten years, so he wasn't a
>complete loser.
>
>The impression I get is that Tatius is primarily a politician, and
>secondarily a magician. His military knowledge has up till now been
>theoretical. But then if a very bright guy spends a few weeks reading
>through the world's best military library with the intention of learning
>strategy as fast as possible, you may well end up with a competent
>strategist.

I'm not convinced Tatius is particularly competent as a military leader. I think he's a "keep throwing more stuff at the enemy until they're overwhelmed" type of leader. It works because the Lunar Empire has the resources and he has the political clout to get them. Equally it's why Kallyr is successful against him, she uses limited resources to best effect while waiting for something to happen which will defeat him.

>As a magician, do we see him as concentrating on the mythical
>manipulation - Compromise, god-killing, etc? Or on the more "technical"
>side - my fireball's bigger than your fireball, and look what happens
>when I combine this number of sorcerors in this configuration, sort of
>thing?

I think he's more of an administrator than a magician, he pinches ideas and takes the credit if they work. His contribution is organising the resources to try them out. He must have some sort of Lunar magic but it's probably to do with getting magicians of various styles to co-operate with each other - the magicians equivelent of the YT ability to get soldiers of different traditions to operate together.

>As a politician and administrator, I tend to see him as being a lot like
>the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. Always knows more than you think he does.
>No apparent vices. Seems to get by on a negative amount of sleep.
>Sarcasm 10W3.

Yes.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/