Moraides Death

From: Peter Metcalfe <P.Metcalfe_at_student.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 22:00:16 +1300


Joerg Baumgartner:

On Argrath's conquest of Tarsh:

>(Note that the Northern text, read alone on p.28, fails to make sense.
>Whom did Mularik kill "in the manner of his homeland"?)

Pharandros and Estal Donge, I would have thought. The place to which they were supposedly exiled (the City of Wonders) vanished of the face of the earth in 1624 when Harrek sacked it. Saying they had been exiled there seems to me a polite fiction to cover up their brutal murder at the hands of Mularik because Estal 'had once helped out some friends of Argrath'. I don't think Moraides is still alive when Tarsh is conquered for the Sartarite King list also says that Pharandros is King at this time and doesn't mention his death during the conquest of Tarsh. It doesn't subscribe to 'Moraides dies in 1610' that is found in the Tarsh King List for 'Moraides Generals' are mentioned as commanding the Lunar Army at the battle of Queens in 1627.

Moreover, the Grazer List of Jandetin the Avenger which Joerg cites 'killed the evil king', has no evidence firmly linking him to the invasion of Tarsh other than the Saga whereas I would have expected the Sartar king List to have mentioned this.

I think that since Moraides death takes place in 1631 (according to the thesis that he ruled for 52 years), his death sparks the beginning of the Third Tarshite Civil War. The Sartar King List places Argrath as invading Tarsh in '1631 and 1632' and the 'Events of my Life' notes that in "1632 ...[Argrath] Leads attack on Tarsh" and "1634 Siege of Furthest. Mularik storms the walls".

My proposal is this: Moraides was killed in a raid lead by Jandetin the Killer in 1631. Tarsh then fell into a protracted civil war which was excerbated by repeated raids by the Sartarites. The war was not concluded by Argrath's raids to support the Fazzurites (despite CHDP's apparent say-so). With the aid of Mularik's Troops, Argrath led an army into Tarsh a couple of years later and besieged Furthest. Mularik managed to storm the walls of Furthest capturing and then killing King Pharandros and Estal Donge after some debate with his fellows. This prompted the Empire to take notice of the situation in Tarsh and kick Argrath's ass at the Battle of Yoran.

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