Well, ARE they from a civilised state? I mean, they do not appear to be from a state at all - they appear to be a federation of states rather than "a state".
The difference between Rome and the Lunar Empire, as I currently see it, is that one is a state with allied states, the other is socio-religious layer atop a functional federacy. It occurs to me that I never meant that ALL Lunar troops would be identically equipped - the Char-Un, frex. But Rome per se does have a signature, central military unit around which the combined arms army is sculpted - - the legion. The legion serves as the reliable core of the Roman military machine. The best analogy for the Legion is the Dara Happan phalanx, and I had previously made the error of treating Dara Happa as the geographic home of the Empire - but this is false. Dara Happa does not appear to fulfill the same role vis a vis the Lunar Empire that Rome filled for the Roman empire.
HW says that each unit is raised locally, outfitted and trained locally, worships local gods and practices local techniques. I find it very difficult, under these circumstances, to understand what is "imperial" about the army. It has no Lunar units proper; it has muliple and various loyalties; all it appears to have are an officer class with a unified strategy and ideology. The magical colleges are much more empire-like, in that they have a clear shared sense of purpose. The army appears to lack this ideological unity - indeed, one would expect most members of a Lunar army NOT to be Lunar citizens!
The analogy with Victorian Britain is interesting, but flawed I think. The British Empire was MUCH more centralised than the Lunar Empire. Although they certainly maintained regimental distinctions, I feel this is much more about esprit de corps than independance of unit type and equipment. I think the difference is that Britain, or more accurately England, had enough clout to enforce obedience from any vassal state all by itself. The Lunar elements of the LE have no independant military arm - their units are on loan from satrapies, and enculurated locally. There appears to be no central authority willing or able to crack down on renegades or separatists - especially not if they take their army with them. OK, so the LE has a powerful asset that is not historical, real working magic, but still.
Secondly, such separatism appears much more likely under the LE than under Rome, and thats in the light of the fact that Rome suffered continual switches of allied, even subject, allegiance. But as mentioned previously, Rome has a powerful army all of its own, which is and remains the dominant striking power of the Empire - until the might of the Legions is SO profound that they become the arbiters of the imperial purple. In the LE by contrast, there is no powerful central core to the Lunar empire to encourage consistancy, but merely the factionalism of territorial armies. It is not hard to imagine the Lunar armies, in effect, deciding who the Red Emperor should be, or supporting their pretender to the throne. All you need is a sufficiently juicy heresy as rationale, and you're away.
Hmm, I am reminded of the fact the the LE is meant to be a kind of parody of the USSR. There again, Russia as the central and dominant member had enough force to crush any opposition by an individual client state - unlike the LE.
Anyway, perhaps this is an overly strong presentation of the point. I find that I am vacillating - at first I thought Dara Happa = Rome and this Lunar empire business was just the Dara Happan gloss of internationalism, so to speak. But frankly Dara Happa does not have enough of a position to make this plausible, it seems - and what with posters on this list stressing the LACK of consistency in the LE, I have now perhaps veered the other way and am considering it as a federation. But that does not feel right either.
End of The Glorantha Digest V8 #203
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