Actually, the Emperor doesn't forbid armies (as you point out, they have numerous uses outside Dart Competitions, including suppressing rebellion, police actions, etc), just certain uses of armies. So the conversation ends more like Noble: Oh, that army. No, they weren't here to use against my enemies, they were just here to help set up the spring harvest festival.
OK, Martin, it seems like your Clauzewitzian model is just your idiosyncratic way of understanding Glorantha. Johns 'ritual is everything' approach is another. I'm convinced that both are probably missing out an understanding of important aspects of Glorantha - (the strategic approach, for example, is often not very good at telling you why people choose the objectives they do, which the mythic understanding can often tell you, while the mythic approach is often not very good on the numbers), but the people espousing these ways of understanding Glorantha are able to transcend these limitations. You are both talking about what you would like to see more of, as am I (as it happens, I like politics and myths and the wonderful tension between the cynical and mythic understandings of the world that you see in people like the high Lunars).
Cheers David ------------------------------
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