(SNIP)
>Purely military changes would presumably have been retained
>by the Pentans even after the Nights of Horror. But after all their
>shamans were killed, the idea of massed shamans would be a tough one
>to come up with again (after all, for a century or two, the shamans
>were thinly spread to administer to all the population -- it simply
>wasn't possible to mass them).
Just tossing in my two Clacks herex.I would think the idea of massed shamans would be tough in more ways than one. Each shaman works with a different set of individual spirits (with the exception of a few like Horned Man), doesn't he/she? What I'm getting at is that while one could easily picture a regiment of Yelm priests throwing the Mother of All Sunspears, shamans strike me as rather more individualistic in outlook and mode.
Additionally, perhaps there's a bit of revisionism involved in this account (if the term is applicable). By this I mean that the Lunars could use this theory to make their victory over Pent seem more difficult/less inevitable (thus more impressive) than was actually the case; anti-lunars chalk the Lunar victory up to a "magic scam," so to speak. Certainly it works, but it's simply not according to Hoyle, don't y'know?
Regiments of massed magicians would seem to be one element of a more highly civilized (as such things are reckoned) culture compared to the horse nomads.
A more advanced "military culture," at any rate; the Lunars were more unified than the Europeans who faced the Mongols. I would advance the theory that the Lunar superiority in magical tactics probably was an adjunct to superior grasp of the operational art, equippage of the individual fighter (hoplite), and logistical train.
Unfortunately so, in my view; I've been a confirmed Lightbringer (Lhankor Mhy) since I first played RQ back in '81 or '82. If I am in error, than I am in error. I hope I don't offend Sandy or anyone else.
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