I had envisioned things a bit differently than you describe, though.
>So why does Peloria and Dara Happa look a lot more like classical Greece
these days?
Does it? Do we know this for sure? Are there snapshots down at Chaosium that the rest of us haven't seen?
I was thinking that it was the Pelandans who came up with the Greek style archetecture. (David Dunham thought of that one, I think.) Therefore, in areas of the empire where the Ancient Stomping Grounds of the Goddess have wide popular appeal, the new buildings that go up are in the Pelandan style.
Therefore, you'd find much Pelandan-style architecture in Torang, Pelanda, Jillaro, and provincial capitals. Probably even some in Dara Happa, (especially Red Fish, buiilt by HD), because it's, well, _fasionable_. Lets face it - soaring white pillars of marble are a heck of a lot more etherial than stalwart mounds of brick and stone sporting scenes of big-beared, squareish guys waving dead things.
(Think of Washington DC - the architects chose Greek style monuments to honor democracy, not because they'd forgotten how to build anything else.)
> The reason Dara Happa no longer looks like Assyria/Persia is that
Sheng Seleris came in and
destroyed most anything he found standing.
I don't agree. It seems to me that Sheng had a thing for the Red Moon in particular. He _really_ persecuted Torang and maybe Naveria, so there may have been a lot of physical destruction there. But although Sheng sat on top of DH, I think the mythic path of greatest power for him would have been to rule it, not destroy it. Milk it for POW, money, slaves, whatever, but I just don't see him levelling the place.
Even if he did, I also don't see the Dara Happans completely forgetting what their archicture used to look like - not in a mere 70 years, especially since they have literate priests who consider the past sacred.
Besides, if the entire empire switched to the Pelandan style, what would happen to the 500,000 Lodrilli with "Craft Brick" skill? And what if they're unionized?
Pam
PS. I would like to point out that neither GRoY, FS, or Entekosiad ever mentioned Ducks, let alone anything about Yelm righteously smiting them. Perhaps Ducks were actually wounded in a mythic near escape from an attack by the Praxian SunHawk? How about: "Sun Hawk's talons grabbed Duck by the wing, but Duck tore away and plummeted down into the water to escape." Attributing this action to Yelm is yet another example of the Sartarites' pathetic attempts to thwart Justice! (OtOH, if the first Yelmies arriving in Dragon Pass mistook Ducks for those evil, lewd, Herons....)
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