> Donald makes very good points about the probable
>legal set-up in Sartar, Heortland and other occupied
>territories. Nevertheless (and I instantly concede
>the fact that soldiers would face military justice),
>armies of occupation that are in for the long haul
>need to act with some tokens of fairness towards the
>locals. The Lunars are there with the explicit intent
>to colonise, civilise and convert. This is harder to
>do if they won't punish their own when necessary.
I think there's a Lunar faction with the objective of civilising, colonising and converting but I'm not sure that represents an official policy. I suppose the RW analogy would be the Spanish colonisation of Central America where some priests were arguing for recognition of converted natives as people with rights but others were arguing that they couldn't be truly christian or human so they could be enslaved.
Even in the modern world very few complaints are upheld against the soldiers of an occupying army and I can't imagine the Lunars having a standard of justice as good as the modern world.
> It depends heavily on the character of the guy in
>charge. If the military governor only thinks of the
>conquered as incipient rebels looking for a chance, so
>that the locals are always wrong in his opinion, then
>constant repression is likely to be his answer to any
>dilemma. OTOH, if the governor has a halfway decent
>sense of diplomacy, then he'll know that the more he
>lets the injustices pile up, the more trouble he'll
>have in the long run.
>
> My conception of the Lunar civilian/military split
>would lead me to make the average general somewhat
>wary of bad reports from the civilian religious powers
>charged with the thankless task of bringing the
>Heortlings over to the Goddess. While the military is
>responsible for security, they are in some sense
>principally there to allow the safe proselytisation of
>the region.
>
> Even though they have the strength to quash any
>rebellion, it's a sign of poor leadership to have
>these happen. Too many insurrections, and superiors
>who've never even been to this heathen place will
>decide that you're incompetent and need to be
>replaced, with a protege of their own, naturally.
>From other discussions about the Lunar leadership competance
seems optional, connections to the Emperor and similar political
considerations determine appointments. Tatius's competance, for
example, seems to be based on using a sledgehammer to crack a
nut and there are less capable commanders.
The priorities seem to be supress rebels, keep order, collect taxes and convert the locals - very much in that order.
> I like the complication of trying to find a Lunar
>citizen to bring the case forward. I'd look for a
>Deezola or Teelo Norri priestess (as likely to be
>sympathetic) to push their case. Their complaints may
>stand a chance of being heard. A genuinely good and
>compassionate Lunar priestess who tries to take care
>of her flock is always a nice shock to the
>Lunar-hating system. An introduction to the
>intricacies of Lunar politics is also useful.
A Yanafal Tarnils officer could well support a proper investigation into crimes commited by troops. Another possibility would be a PC who becomes a Lunar citizen to seek justice.....
> Nevertheless, I would expect the Orlanthi to assume
>that they'd get short shrift in a Lunar court, as
>Donald says. After all, the Solar traditions of the
>Heartlands (Yelm never admitted when he was wrong),
>plus the usual impulse to protect one's own, will be
>assumed. So it may be a mug's game to attempt this,
>but if the alternative is out-of-hand indiscriminate
>retributional killings, then there's not a hell of a
>lot to lose, either. And who knows, they might win...
Yelm cannot be wrong, he is the source of all truth and justice. The Lunars are rather more flexible.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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