(1). Argrath never actually conquered the Heartlands. I don't think he made it far past Saird to be honest. There are many reasons for this:
(A). Argraths army was severely damaged by Sheng and those were the men
most likely to support a prolonged campaign against the Heartlands.
(B). All the Provincial (mostly Theyalan) Kingdoms had fallen and any
further advances would be against a part of the Empire with no sympathy for the
Orlanthi cause (Dara Happa) and considerable military and defensive strength
(Alkoth and the strategic uses of the Oslir).
(C). The Horse Nomads were heavily employed by the Empire at that point
and had probably made up any deficiencies in the Lunar battle array and don't
forget to advance meant advancing into the Glowline and the Heartland defences
would only grow stronger as Glamour was neared.
Therefore I think that the last few years of the war were ones of raid an counter raid but no real military progress.
(2). Did Argrath destroy the Red Moon using his Dragon Powers? I think he didn't but I think it would be easy for people to think he did for several reasons:
(A). Where did he get the ability to summon two Dragons of such
stupendous size? Even the EWF in its heyday with decades to prepare and many
centuries of knowledge couldn't produce such power. Even the rise of the Brown
Dragon was only achieved by redirecting the massive _Lunar_ energies in their
Reaching Moon Temple ceremony not from any resources intrinsic to Argrath.
(B). Argrath was known to have Dragon powers and in Dragon Pass it was
very common to attribute strange events and great happenings to the Dragons for
nobody had forgotten the Dragon kill. I think that the Red Moon was destroyed
by something else which probably shocked Argrath as much as anyone (maybe) but
being a smart politician or simply through assumption he took credit for it all.
Therefore I think that the Red Moon was destroyed by something elese leaving the White Moon in its place. Who could do this? Well some possible groups spring to mind:
(A). The Lodrili (ie the Empires people) influenced and led by the White
Moonies. Gregs new stats on the Empire indicate that most worship in the
Heartlands is Lodrili and one power of the peasants is to focus that tremdous
strength inherent in them into a force of rebellion. If this force was linked
to the cult of the White Moon who wanted the Red Moon removed then the direction
of this force becomes clearer for it should be remembered the the Red Moon _came
from the Earth_, it is a physical object and it had to be destroyed before the
White Moon (which is _not_ a physical object) could appear. It may be that the
Lodrili caused the crater to erupt or the Moon to be pulled back to its element
or (as its is still of the earth) to actually schism the Moon where it hung!!
(B). The Red Moon fell due to a clash of the stars. Its possible that
the shifting of Tolat (Shargash) or the movement of Orlanths Ring broke the
celestial balance and broke the Moon. This may have been caused by Argrath but
where did such power come from?
There is more than one explanation for the disaster but Shargash's involvement seems likely given his role in the Goddesses rebirths. Its also feasible that the evil of the Monster Empire was such that its power counter-increased the power of the White Moon to the point that she could finally muster all the forces of war unto her skin and then discard it. In other words the White Moon sucked the terrors of war into a discardable object then threw it away!
Martin Laurie
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