Chris:
>> BTW, did the Pol Joni ride against the Lunars at Moonbroth? I
>> assume they did...
Peter:
> Suprisingly they are not listed in Borderlands as having done so...
> I'm not suprised about their no-show as circa 1607:
> "The Pol Joni, unsupported by Sartar help, were mauled > in a battle against combined Praxian forces."
This is the line I've taken in developing the local history of Moonbroth. Prior to 1607, the Pol Joni are dominant in the Good Place (around Moonbroth) and Better Place (around Jaldon's Rest); from 1607 to 1610, they're clinging onto power at both Oases but have lost their grip and are suffering increased Animal Nomad pressure; in 1610 they're evicted from Moonbroth by the Lunar advance (or sensibly flee ahead of it) and Moonbroth and the Good Place become solidly held by the Sables; over time thereafter, the tribe consolidates again around Jaldon's Rest.
> Wonder what the Pol Joni did to earn such treatment, if the
> Praxians didn't already hate them so much?
I've guessed that the Pol Joni were *always* hated to some extent, but with the defeated Kingdom of Sartar no longer supporting its horse-riding allies on the Plaines, the Animal Nomads saw a great window of opportunity to drive them off forever. The "mauling" in 1607 left a pitiful remnant clinging onto Moonbroth Oasis and its immediate surrounds; they were then chucked out of the oasis by the Lunar invasion in 1610.
The "good news" for the Pol Joni was that the new Lunar/Sable dominance in north-western Prax prevented aggrieved Animal Nomads from wiping out the remnant stragglers. (Normal Praxian "ecology" would usually have prevented this in any case -- cf. Drastic: Prax p.15 for the best explanation. But with the precedent of Alavan Argary and the extermination or banishment of the Pure Horse Tribe, there's all kinds of unpleasant possibilities for defeated horse clans in Prax).
Below is a fragment I was writing to present this in trooper-speak. "The General" is Fazzur, who I assume planned the invasion of Prax; "The Commander" is Sor-Eel the Short, who led the 1607 incursion. Note that this mission is generally seen as a military defeat and politico-religious victory for the Lunars - the speaker here was in on the "victory" part at the Paps, and knows that his comrades on the Plaines were bled white by the nomads.
"Now, the General knew we could handle that, but didn't need the extra complications, thank you, and besides, the last thing he wanted was another costly battle so soon after the Building Wall, and a strong alliance of nomads under a Great Khan. Nobody needs another Sheng, especially given his plans for Pavis and the Valley...
"So, the Commander gets the independent duty he's been chasing after all this time. Not an ideal mix of troops, maybe - that's the campaign where we learned not to use horse soldiers in Prax, and nobody's too keen to send hoplites unsupported through the high chapparal again.
"Still, the plan worked all right - enough skirmishes to show the nomads we could bite, some neat combined-arms tricks they'd not seen before, and while our outriders were skirling around the Plaines, the Commander marched overland to the Paps, this ancient Green Age temple in the middle of Prax which all the nomad tribes hold sacred, and cut a deal with the priestesses there.
"We recognised the neutrality of all the oasis temples in Prax; they accepted our protection and stopped working to bring all the tribes together against us. The Goddess knows the whole story, mind - and everyone says that's when the Sable Conversion began.
"So, three years later when we move in on this Oasis, three of the biggest Praxian tribes are gathering all their braves to settle our hash. Except that one of them's the Sable Tribe, and the night before battle they all up sticks and join our army instead. Goddess, how the Bison and Impala khans must have fumed at that!"
BTW, a historic trivia question: who was the commanding Lunar general at the Battle of Moonbroth? I can't see any case for Sor-Eel *not* taking this role; Fazzur is said to have been second-in-command when the Lunar Army invaded Prax ("He had proposed the invasion plan which worked so easily, but became embroiled in an argument about how to handle the occupied city" -- WF#12 p.17).
I'm guessing that between 1607 (March on the Paps) and 1610 (Invasion of Prax), the Glorious Sor-Eel overtook the Provincial Fazzur in the army seniority stakes. The Battle of Moonbroth was executed to Fazzur's strategy but under Sor-Eel's command; their subsequent falling-out at Pavis (and Fazzur's demotion to impatient militia-training in Tarsh) was perhaps a cunning and underhanded political ploy by Sor-Eel.
Maybe the 1607 invasion was all Sor-Eel's idea, after all? Finding out for certain who planned that military fiasco could be a fun revenge motive ("My daddy was killed in the Dead Place, so that fat-headed fool could become Count of Prax...").
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Nick
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End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #56
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