>Crossbow as a
>purely professional weapon was much earlier, before the birth of Christ when
>the armies of Alexander had specialists armed with ancestoral crossbows
They can't have been 'ancestral crossbows considering that there is a gap between the bellybows of the Greeks and the rise of the Crossbows in Europe.
Sandy:
>1) THE LUNAR WAY OF WAR: I've often stated that the big lunar
>innovation was their use of massed journeyman-quality magicians.
>Graeme suggests, and I agree wholeheartedly, that it is likely that
>they learned this from Sheng Seleris.
>We don't know who came up with the
>massed firepower theory of the lunars, and yet we know that in their
>early (pre-Sheng) battles, the credit for their successes is always
>given to their use of Chaos.
Unfortunately there are references in the Zero Wane Battles to Lunars using massed spells (either the First Battle of Chaos or the Battle of the Four Arrows of Light). Furthermore the Carmanians are know to have used Chaos to drive of the Lunars at Carantes with the Hydra (Inference from Zero Wane Chronicle and the Lunar Emprie Write up: Carantes in G:CotHW). Furthermore the Lunars didn't rely solely upon Chaos in the Pre-Sheng Battles. The Moonburn and the Campaigns of the Conquering Daughter are examples of this.
But I like the idea of Sheng forcing the Lunars to scrape the barrel for their magical unit requirements after Cannae-style disasters against Sheng. And to save Sandy's and Graeme's thesis, one of the first cities sacked by Sheng was Yuthuppa, home of the Buserium, the Great Priestly Tradition of Dara Happa. Surely this was an unparalled diasaster. And to do anything to slow Sheng down, they remove the previously stringent requirements and throw in just about any magician they can pressgang.
As for the earlier mass magic regiments, I mentioned before: I don't think these were neophytes. The Seven Mothers gained immense powers through their acts in recreating the Red Goddess (Yanafal is spoken of as a Superhero - RQIIspeak). I'm pretty sure that the magicians set up a pyramid scheme of sorts (worship me!) so they gained effective magical power pretty quickly and then stabilized it after the Red Goddess ascended into the sky. By the time Sheng had come into Peloria the Lunar Matrix had become well explored to such an extent its mythic regions had been allocated and there was no longer any room for the spectacular increases in magical power that had marked the Zero Wane battles.
>2) KRALORELA VS. THE LUNAR PHILOSOPHY:
>The Kingdom of
>Ignorance is still steeped in weirdness, but this is not only
>tolerated, but the Exarch of this territory is _himself_ stark raving
>mad, and is not replaced! This would not happen among the Lunars.
You forget Pars Ilsigi, Mad Governer of Twice Blessed. I'm really of the theory now that most mad demented governers within the Lunar Empire generally lose some grip on reality to make them obliovious to the innate treachery of the dart competition thus causing their imminent demise within seconds.
>3) DRAGON MAGIC AND KRALORELA: Graeme suggests that the influx of
>Dragon Magic under Daruda may have actually been an invasion by
>dragonewts, their allies, and dragon hsunchen, this invasion's nature
>being later masked in the Kralorelan writings. I think this is not
>only possible, but probable, and wonder how many other pre-time
>emperors represent such "changings of the guard."
I'm really of the Theory that Daruda actually talked with Sh'hakazeel, the Mover of the Heavens and gained the Draconic powers from Him (cf the Well of Rising Dragons in Puchai G:CotHW Kralorela). Undoubtedly he could have brought back an army of dragonewts and then convinced the Exarchs (or whatever analogues there were then) to make him Emperor. Certainly Thalurzni looks like a foreigner...
In fact, I'm groking the theory that the Teachings of Aptanace the Sage really envisioned rule by a Council of Sages (ie like the Exarchs and the Mandarins).
Unfortunately Kralorela has become cursed in that a Draconic Force which embodies the Attributes of Rule infects one random person and making him All Powerful. Once he becomes enlightened the Force is expelled and finds somebody else to infect. Rather than spend their time perpetually battling this force (especially considering the SOB always comes back), the Exarchs deal with him by 'Plot by Adulation'. They make him Emperor, keep him secluded, pretend they obey his every wish and run the Country by themselves.
Certainly this explains how a nut like Shang-Hsa got made Emperor. And why the Exarchs were hunting so desperately for Godunya. And they're probably shitting themselves right now considering that Godunya is taking a bloody long time in becoming enlightened and he's beginning to master labyrinthine bureacracy (makes 'Yes Minister' look like an orderly chain of command) they've set up to keep him occupied and sooner or later he will be able to exercise real control of the Country in a way which has not been seen since Shang-hsa...
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