They govern through a massive state and bureaucratic apparatus, including four armies, three navies, a state religion, a state controlled legal system, state monopolies, crucifixion of wrong doers. Its not an oppressive police state, but its definately a state.
I agree that the rulers of Kralorela are generally fairly benevolent, essentially as the mandarins generally obey their own laws and customs, forcing the rulers to be relatively caring and uncorrupt.
But they do, for example, sack cities for not paying their taxes on time. Perhaps they prefer to govern by goodwill, but they clearly don't get too hung up on it.
>The practitioners of the most hated of
>deviations, Immanent Mastery, can be found in any city and as a
>tolerated faith in the army.
Not THE most hated. Deluded fools would be more the mainstream Kralorelan opinion, I would think. Though supported by the NDR, the POIM did not commit atrocities or brutalise the populace themselves. Changes of ruler that accompany changes of religion do not always result in the demonisation of the previous religion.
>Furthermore the Kralori method of dealing with deviant faiths is
>encapsulated in the following statement from Troll Gods p29 "Whenever
>a priest of the Black Sun gains too much prominence, the Kralori
>rulers of the Kingdom of Ignorance act quickly, working to suppress,
>oust, or promote the priest to a position of impotence".
The Black Sun is not a banned religion, in the KOI anyway (it might be in Kralorela). The citizens of KOI are allowed to fall into perverse spiritual error. So just being a priest is not illegal, and I think the mandarins are supposed to obey their own laws. If you, say, killed a notable Kralori ruler and turned him into Black Sun soup for the parishioners - then you might be off to the ITC.
>>It doesn't contradict the published information at all. Why do you
>>think they allowed him to volunteer? Because they hated him, and it
>>was the worst thing they could think of.
>
>If they _really_ hated him then, surely they would have confined
>him to the instant torture camps without waiting for him to
>volunteer?
He was a foreign leader who had honourably surrendered to the Exarchs. And they didn't hate him that much, at this point - but they didn't like him much either, if he surrenders to the ITC because he has a problem with slavery its no skin off their nose.
>And the Kralori are waiting for a hated slave's permisson before
>they can do anything nasty to him?
The ITC are not just for every captured foreigner or petty criminal. Slavery will do perfectly well for most. But if you refuse common slavery, you are just asking for trouble.
>>But that doesn't mean the torture camps are a primarily mystic
>>institution - there are a brutal tool of repression and punishment
>>first.
>
>This contradicts massively what is known about Kralori government
>in general.
I'd say presuming that the Kralori government would never tolerate such a thing contradicts what we know about government in general. And presuming that all the people being hideously tortured are there because they seek mystic enlightenment, even though most of them just die in hideous pain (when there are easier paths to mystic power - most of the Zolathi sit around and meditate), is just bizarre.
Cheers David ------------------------------
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