I think you are forgetting that the Sartarites end up with many allies. There are forces from Prax, allies and mercenaries from Heortland (both the Heortlings and the aellians), no doubt some forces from Esrolia, the remaining Tarshite rebels, and then as they make progress new recruits from Tarsh and eventually other Lunar provinces.
Even given all of that, the empire probably could put more troops in the field briefly, but they can't keep that many down there, especially once resistance in the general population starts rising again. It is just too hard to feed and house them when you have long and insecure supply chains....meanwhile the rebels can melt into the hills and wait until things are better. My reading of King of Sartar suggested to me that there were periods of imperial resurgence that were glossed over, but that once the rebels had a heroic rallying point and had shown that the empire could be defeated, they couldn't be eliminated. Dispersed yes, but their heroes could then reassemble them.
That is just my reading of it, mind you.
>
> But again, I'm willing to admit up front that those hunches are
> most likely wildly misinformed.
>
> I just somehow got the impression that there should be more
> Heortlings running around in that area than 200K, give or take...
>
Sartar is surprisingly small, and not much of it suited to high
population density. Think of it a little like Wales.
--Bryan
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