Despite the Warm Water Port mission being clearly suggested in various sources, it's always seemed a bit suspicious to me -- either some of the Lunar policy-makers have gone ape over the idea without thinking it through, it's a front for something else, or Greg really *does* have some weird unconscious Russian parallel floating at the back of his brain. All possible, of course.
The advantage for the Lunars to having access to the sea is for cheaper transportation, and while you're dead-on straight that it'd be much cheaper to haul goods down the Oslir, portage to the Creek-Stream and then ship overseas than it is to go through Corflu, it still really seems to me like a pretty limited trade (Corflu being *insanely* limited - -- they must subsidize the hell out of trade there). I can't see bulk goods like grain ever being worth the cost of shipment, or possibly even things like most pre-industrial produced goods. They're not gonna compete with locally-finished goods in the anticipated markets -- even things like large-scale cloth sales in Sartar would be troublesome.
(The other big advantages of sea access are for lines of communications and holding an empire together, but my mind *really* boggles at the thought of the Lunars trying to run a sea empire from Glamour. There may be a big Mythic reason for this I'm missing, of course -- being able to muck about in bringing Magasta's pantheon into Lunar Harmony or something. Though after Jrustela, this seems like a Bad Idea.)
>From what I recall of ancient/medieval trade, the distances here are
pretty prohibitive just about everything but luxury items and magical
things, so it's a pretty small trade advantage they'd be getting. This
*could* be the reason for expansion, but it seems a bit odd for me. I
personally get the sense (given that the Loonies are also trying to
expand on several other fronts) that the Sartar Mess is something that's
being pushed by a faction with interests in the south and the Sea Port
thing is a thinly veiled excuse. It doesn't seem to make much economic
sense (especially if you have to pacify the Holy Country and Sartar and
Prax and possibly Dagori Inkarth to do it). I bow to the sources, of
course, if I'm misrepresenting them/forgetting Something Obvious.
(Possibly, there might be some interest in obtaining Kralorelan or
overseas goods -- if existing Pent-crossing caravans have shifted to
sea-trade, this'd explain one possible reason for Lunar advances).
I suspect we're mirroring debate that's taking place in the Empire, amusingly. ;)
>As an empire, they need sea power to survive and thrive.
As a Lunar subjective opinion, probably is being bantered about, yeah.
Objectively, there's plenty of counter-examples, of course.
The White Sea nonsense *does* make a lot more sense in terms that it'd be easier and better for shipping goods out -- that extra distance at sea is, I'm guessing, still cheaper than trying to portage goods from the end of one navigatable river to the other. And you'd be able to run out stuff without portage. It might actually be cost-effective to export then, while Sartar is a financial sinkhole, IMO.
A nice port on the White Sea would be far better than anything Sartar is going to offer -- granted, you'd have to melt a chunk of the glacier, kill off the million trolls in Boztakang's/Betakang's Land and generally do sundry other difficult things so as you note, it's sorta out of reach right now. The "starting capital" costs are a bit higher... ;)
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