> This may be digest-fodder--but I assumed that even then, the Dara Happans
> were still advanced and civilized. They were ruled by barbarians, like China
> being ruled by Mongols--but they were still Dara Happans. (The Chinese
> didn't burn down all their cities and start drinking mare's milk when the
> Mongols conquered them.)
No, not at all.
Dara Happa was a wide land with a paltry population, som eof which were hiding
in the ruins of once-great cities. They were ruled over by a small pop�ulation
of mobile and fierce chariot-riding warlords.
> So at the dawn, weren't the Orlanthi a "barbarian people in the shadow of a
> civilized empire that was ruled by barbarians"?
No, absolutelynot.
The Heortlings were also paltry and weak, but they were in better shape than the
Dara Happans. The Heortlings were a minor group ofthe "Unity Council" of which
the Elder Races were the majority.
>And perhaps "shadow" is the
> wrong word. When the DHs were weak, they presumably didn't exert much
> influence over Dragon Pass, to say nothing of Heortland--but the Orlanthis
> would still be aware that there are all those snotty-nosed ponces way up
> north who have writing and money and silk robes and all of that.
Not really. They had had contact with the solar northern people several throusand years ago (before the Darkness). But they were pretty suprrised to find anyone there when the missionaries of the Dawn Council got into Dara Happa.
-Greg Stafford
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