> Well, I was thinking of the way Christian missionaries operated;
even
> those with quite explicit sympathies for the British Empire, say,
> might still preach about peace for all men including the heathen;
That would be the Pax Britanica, or course!
> this puts them in nominal conflict with the state on an incident to
> incident basis, even if they think that the world would be a beetr
> place if everyone converted.
They would deplore the fact that british... er, lunar troops were unfortunately required to maintain order.
> ...But if the 7M is a deliberate an overt
> tool of the imperial structure, then why would any non-Lunar
tolerate
> their presence - they advertise the fact that they're only here to
> bring you under the Empire's heel and are a direct tool of the
state.
Presumably you are talking about missionaries operating beyond the Empire's borders. Within them they have the protection afforded to all law abiding folk.
Why should they not be tolerated? They have broken no local laws, threaten no-one and preach peace. What possible excuse would anyone have for attackign them outright? The of course there's the fact that massacring missionaries is exactly the kind of behaviour that brings down Imperial expeditionary forces down on you like a ton of bricks. Foreign kingdoms allowing Imperial citizens to be misstreated is exactly the kind of excuse the Imperial Army needs to embark on a punitive attack.
Finaly, what about your people who travell to Imperial lands for trade, or religious pilgrimage, or to visit relatives? If you give lunars a hard time in your land, you can hardly expect your peple to be well treated in return.
Finaly, what about your own customes of hospitality, fairness and justice? What happened to them?
> > The Lunars do not have a policy of destroying temples. They are
> > hostile to Orlanth but his worshippers do not rely upon temples
> > and idols to worship him.
>
> Hmm. So why does anyone convert to the Lunar way, then? I mean if
> you can continue to worship your own gods, without let or hindrance
> from Lunar authorities, then surely the whole idea of "being a
Lunar"
> falls by the wayside; you get a Lunar state taking taxes instead of
> the old state, but for most people this is a rather nominal change.
On the other hand if it's so painless, why not convert to the lunar way? You can make lots of influential friends in the new order, and the tax breaks for citizens are definitely worth having. Why, your children maight one day even learn how to read and write!
Simon Hibbs
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