Paul Anderson recently questioned:
> Cults Of Prax implies that a major attraction of the Lunars to their
> subjects is that they offer freedom from narrow tribal ways. What
> freedoms or abilities does joining offer to, say, the average Sartarite?
At the risk of tempting the Great Nick Brooke to strike me down as the poor Heortling-sympathizer I am, I'd like to suggest that Cults of Prax has it backwards. The attraction of the "Lunar Way" is not the freedom it offers to their subjects, but rather, the freedom it offers to their subjects' leaders.
The Lunar Way offers freedom from tradition and great wealth to the leaders of the subject peoples of the Empire. A Heortling tribal king is generally bound by traditions that make it quite difficult for him to act outside of a narrow range of precedents - generally he lacks an ability to "tax" the clans so that he might increase his own authority and glory (say with a standing army); further, he lacks the resources to establish a "state" or even an administrative household. It took the heroquests of Alakoring for the tribal king to establish his independent primacy over the godi and priests, no such heroquest has broken the power of the clans. In essence, Heortling tradition hampers the ambitious king, constraining him by intermeddling lawspeakers, tribal moots, and a constant need to maintain the support of the clan chiefs if anything is to be done.
The Lunar Way offers freedom from these constraints. First, the Cult of the Seven Mothers is likely to be quite supportive of convert kings, and will bless his actions even if the godi of Orlanth oppose them. Second, the Lunar Way offers the resources of Empire to supportive kings. Provincial troops can be used to alter the balance of power between the king and the chiefs - to the king's advantage - and grant the king the power to extract tribute from the clans (with a portion going to the Empire, of course). Finally, the Lunar Religion itself places no constraining traditional limitations on the ambitions of a tribal king.
David commented:
>I'll bet the ability to travel is one of them. Sure, Orlanthi can travel
>wherever there's Hospitality, but they also have to beware of a network of
>feuds. Under Pax Lunara, a citizen can travel freely anywhere. (And
>probably have a better chance of being able to talk to the natives.)
Remember David, the overwhelming majority of both the Empire's population and the outlying tribes is poor and agrarian. They enjoy (or suffer) roughly the same level of agricultural productivity and the same level of blessings from the goddesses of the harvest. If anything, the average Heortling farmer has a slightly higher amount of surplus wealth compared to his Imperial counterpart - simply because the Heortling isn't supporting a vast, nonproductive elite. Most Heortlings and most Pelorians have never travelled more than several days away from their hearths. Freedom of travel is hardly relevant.
Yours truly,
Jeff Richard
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