>I'm wondering about the balance here. Fazzur is Tarshite, and his
>forces, at least during Starbrow, were based around his Tarshite
>clan. According to CHDP Pharandros (the text says Moriades, but he's
>dead by then) "ordered his troops and generals to help Fazzur". Note
>the imperative
The Imperative isn't what you think it is. Fazzur does not have direct command over the levying of those troops and is reliant on the good grace of the King of Tarsh and the Emperor (among others) to lend him the troops. His office is similar in a way to the Secretary-General of the UN begging individual countries to send troops on peace-keeping missions.
>- there's already a lot of jealousy over Fazzur's ride
>to glory during Starbrow.
No. Fazzur is related to the King through marriage and so is the natural choice for any Tarshite general. Any opposition to Fazzur comes about as the result of his growing estrangement with the Tarshite crown.
>Now core Tarsh has been part of the Empire for over a century.
No, it's not. It's not part of the Heartlands whom the Emperor rules directly, it's one of the Lunar Provinces, comparable to the client kingdoms of rome or even the Warsaw Pact states. Like other provinces, Tarsh could become part of the Empire but there's a lot of politics involved. For example the Satrap of Sylila received a large amount of tribute from the provinces as part of the daughter's conquest. If the provinces are converted to satrapies, Sylila loses the tribute.
For this reason, the provinces have more independence in the troops they raise and where they send them to than the comparable Satrap.
> My
>thought is that most of the initial troops, even if organised and
>trained along Heartland lines, would be Tarshite, with the exception
>of the Emperor's 'gift'.
The Army of the Provinces is a mixture of provincial troops and heartland corps. Participation in a successful campaign means kudos and plunder for the commanders and their troops so there's a lot of politicking about what troops gets involved. Not everybody can join and if the Heartland troops don't get their fair share, they become upset and whine to the Emperor. So I think Fazzur has adopted a policy of splitting the composition of lucrative campaigns between the Tarshite troops and the Heartland troops. Other provincial troops get crap jobs like garrison duty at Corflu. Those provinces can complain but the relevant authority is Fazzur himself who would only be too pleased to give them the finger. They could appeal to the Provincial Overseer but he's gormless.
> I agree with this, with a proviso - **assuming** Fazzur can persuade
>the imperial commanders to take on Broyan. The country was weakened
>by civil war, and CHDP tells us Fazzur was welcomed as a liberator at
>Karse.
Karse is the decadent city (and so whatever welcome Fazzur receives there isn't representative of Heortland as a whole. It may be that the Baron of Karse was a puritan appointed by King Rikard.
--Peter Metcalfe
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