Me:
>> 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.
> I'll grant that Nick may be right that the Praxians don't hate the Lunars
> just because they're dupes of Chaos... The fact that they worship a vile
> Chaos demon and employ cavalry units made up of PENTISH HORSE RIDING SCUM
> is just icing on the cake.
OK, Robert, we'll do this your way. "An army of three thousand Chaos Fiends (you say) is living in Sacred Prax. So: whaddayadoinaboudit?"
The fact that the Lunars have been in situ for a decade *without* serious problems suggests (to me) that the Praxians *don't* regard them all as vilely tainted by Chaos. Would an army of Broos or (overtly recognised) Chaotics be tolerated this way?
And remember: who was it that defeated and tortured the biggest, baddest, Pentan Horse Riding Scumbag of them all? And the Lunars can prove this to the Praxians, just like they did to Hofstaring Treeleaper.
> "They walk and ride horses. They live in cities. They are weak. And
> when the White Bull comes, we will kill them."
One of the fascinating things we learned at the German RQ-Con is that Jaldon Toothmaker has a Fixed INT (thanks, Daniel!). Now I see what that meant... Still, two out of four is pretty good for a nomad.
BTW, the Lunars don't seem to use horse cavalry in Prax, at least not since the conquest. They get by fine with Hungry Plateau and native Sable Riders. (Why stir up enmity and hatred needlessly, through silly tribal prejudices?)
> Don't forget, the average Praxian would love to kill the average
civilized
> Lunar just for fun (and to steal his stuff). Hell, they kill each other
> just for fun and to steal each others stuff. And at least other Praxians
> are brothers in Waha. Everyone else is just meat for the slaughter.
Yep, true. They'd love to attack the average [non-Praxian] *anybody*. Tho' again this suggests their "hatred" of Lunars ain't that extreme: if, given the chance, a Praxian would kill *anyone* for fun (and to steal his stuff), how can you demonstrate to me that they dislike Lunars any more than they dislike (say) Orlanthi, or Morocanth, or Pavisites?
Presumably we'd be looking for a disproportionate number of "Praxian kills Lunar" incidents, but that doesn't seem to be the case (e.g: no significant battles in Prax since Moonbroth in 1610). Maybe they're all waiting for Argrath's White Bullshit to materialise? Or perhaps we're just saying that, statistically speaking, the number of Lunars killed by Praxians has gone up *astronomically* in the ten years that it's been possible, compared to all previous records... :-)
I'll grant you your last take on "fanatical cultists": I was drifting into the Orlanthi vs. Lunar conflict for that part, where I *do* have a vested interest in presenting average Orlanthi as nice home-loving folk ('cos I'm one of them myself).
If the Soviet Union had invaded Ireland (North and South), using nukes to suppress armed resistance in an overwhelming first strike, does *anyone* seriously think that the Protestants would lie down with the Fenians en masse, the RUC and IRA forswearing past enmities to unite against their common foe ("Gee, just like Independence Day!")? Might they not instead *continue* the ancestral feuds of centuries past, adapting to the new context provided by the unwanted outside invasion, using the invaders to further their own agendas (by sucking up to them, siding with them, shopping foes to them, etc.)?
I guess that's the difference between the "all Orlanthi hate all Lunars always" version and my own vision of Sartar. And at least mine makes sense in human terms, nastily practical/pragmatic though they can be. Look at other invasions of already strife-torn lands, then tell me that historic feuds go down the toilet, just because someone else with an even bigger stick is standing over both you and your hated foe.
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