The Lunars have a number of options. 1) State their purpose ahead of time. (I.e., take hostages_before_ the crime occurs). For instance, "For every Lunar soldier killed on a tribe's lands, one of that tribe's steads will be burned with its inhabitants."
The result? Some of the members of that tribe will blame the Lunars for this evil, but some will blame the freedom fighters. "Those bastards. Knowing that our people would suffer, they ambushed a patrol anyway. Now we pay for it." Social pressure to diminish the raids would rise.
If rebels began to kill Lunars only on _other_ tribes' lands, the tribes shall become more divided and less able to resist the Lunars. A tribe might even go out of its way to start to protect Lunars on its lands.
2) Destroy the rebels' base of support. The English earls finally managed to conquer the Welsh by building a network of castles into the Welsh lands. The Welsh couldn't capture these castles, and as the castle-protected lands spread, the Welsh economic support dwindled. This took well over a century. The Lunars, not improbably, are looking at the same kind of long-term changeover. First step, occupy militarily. Second step, extend the Glowline. Third step, bring in Lunar settlers/convert locals/use the strong magic of the Glowline to root out all rebels -- I don't know what the third step is planned to be, but that is where they're going to incorporate Sartar into the territory. At the moment they are only toying with the Sartarites, and don't really care what the locals' opinion is like.
Sandy P.
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