>First. IMO, the Rathori were already mercenaries before the Ban. They
>formed the backbone of Black Hralf's army, and many veterans of those wars
>still live. Remember that the Ban did not happen for the rathori, they just
>woke up in the future.
I'm not so sure about this. Fral Angor, the greatest Rathori warrior around, is said to have fought _against_ Black Hralf and lived. Hence I do not believe that Rathori were the backbone of his army, although undoubtedly some would have fought in his army. To support this, Harrek the Berserk was anathema to the Rathori for having slain the White Bear. Yet he was capable of mustering an army to sack Sog City not so long ago.
Furthermore there are other sources for mercenaries in Fronela: Oranor, Tastolar and Jonatela (cf the box 'The Hero Wars begin' on p16 of the Genertela book).
>Second. The Rathori, although stronger in Rathorela (that borders
>the upper Janube, anyway) are also present in Tastolar, so in both cases you
>don't need to go too far to meet possible customers. The nomadic nature of
>the rathori makes stable alliances impractical, but short term mercenary
>terms are perfect.
In Tastolar, the Uncolings would be better mercenaries as they don't need to be equipped with metal weapons. Furthermore come Winter and the Rathori are sluggish and go to sleep. So they are not as versatile in short term contracts as other hsunchen.
>Fourth. Concerning the advanced nature of the rathori, besides
>their advanced religion, I just believed the Player's Book: Rathorela "Note
>that this culture is (sic) developed a culture more complex than the usual
>Hsunchen, approaching the level of the barbarian cultures". And they are
>called barbarians instead pf primitives all over the Fronela chapter.
The Fronela chapter also calls the Uncolings and other hsunchen barbarians. Furthermore the players book gives the Tastolar and the Shanshan hsunchen somewhat similar cultural complexity from the occupation charts! You are perfectly correct about the quote but it does not actually say why they are 'approaching the level of barbarians' and several criteria that could apply are explicitly denied a few sentences further on. IMO the 'complexity' comes about because the Rathori have to winter in permanent shelters and thus would have developed a sense of land ownership or something similar. That would be unusual in other Hsunchen tribes.
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