> At the battle of Moonbroth the Sables fought with the Lunars and only
> the Bison and Impala of all the large tribes fought against the Lunars.
It's funnier than that: the original plan was for the Bison, Impala *and* Sable to fight the Lunars together. The Sables "defected" to the Lunar side just before the battle, helping to scupper their fellow Praxians. All of whom had confidently expected a walk-over.
But it's important to remember that the Praxians didn't (and don't) see the Lunars as some vast evil overpowering enemy to be defeated at all costs. Most Praxians have never met a Lunar: they live out in the Wastes, only coming to Sacred Prax every few decades to visit the Paps and the Block, make new Khans in the Devil's Marsh, etc. The Praxian tribe which knows the Lunars best has in fact *allied* itself with them. The Orlanthi "Foul Slime of Chaos" rhetoric doesn't strike many chords out on the Plaines, whose natives are more familiar with "real" Chaos and don't seem to agree that the Lunars fit this mold.
Parallel: killing random Lunars (even Lunar soldiers) because "the Empire is in league with Chaos" would be like killing random Americans (or American policemen) because "the US government is in league with the Grays". Even if it *were* true (and I stress that I, personally, have seen no evidence that Clinton plans to let aliens in flying saucers take over the world), might it not seem a teensy-weensy bit of an over-reaction? Sure, if you want to play the kind of fanatical cultist who unquestioningly does whatever his lunatic cult leader tells him (inc. murder, sabotage, terrorism), fair play to you: but I'd hope most Gloranthans are more reasonable than this.
A plea to freeformers playing Orlanthi characters: don't just kill "enemy" Lunars. Confront them, denounce them, tell them why you're going to kill them, and *then* kill them. It takes a teeny bit longer, but it's *much* more satisfying for the recipient to know that you actually have something personal against them, and aren't just playing out a knee-jerk reaction based on your scanty background knowledge. For the record, I've been the target of assassination attempts by barbarians in two freeforms: both times, I'd never spoken to or met the would-be killers before they chose to attack me. (And, as a warning, both times the attacks were thwarted: so much for cowardly random acts of senseless violence as a freeforming strategy!).
> The Red Moon is visible everywhere. It is always full within the
Glowline,
> that's all. Cyclical magic is affected only outside of the Glowline
Refining this, I'd say that the Red Moon is always *effectively* full within the Glowline, though it still visibly goes through its phases. Otherwise the vast majority of Lunar worshippers (those within the Glowline) would have no idea whatsoever of what the "phases", "lunar cycle", "death and rebirth", etc. that their priests kept going on about actually looked like!
Previous posts to this list have suggested that even the Red Moon's "dark" phases (Dying and Black Moons) are visible within the Glowline, due to a moon-ring, red halo, corona-like effect around the dark moon in the sky. This didn't exist before the creation of the Glowline at the end of the Third Wane.
There was also a *fine* suggestion that, by enhancing the strength of Lunar cyclical magic *within* its sphere of effect, the Glowline has actually *weakened* cyclical magic beyond its bounds (compared to when there was no Glowline). And, perhaps, that the Glowline effects formerly applied to magics cast within the Silver Shadow. All rather irrelevant except for historical campaigns, but they could be quite good fun...
NB: relying on old RQ2 sources would have the Red Moon not visible outside the Glowline (CoP) and always full within it (Griffin Mountain) ... doh!
There were some good quotes by Joerg Baumgartner relating to the dark side of the moon etc. on the back cover of Codex #2.
And there's a map and description of the Red Moon by Greg Stafford in Tales #16, which should be mailing out in the UK very soon now...
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