> I do not own WBRM, unfortunately...
I could probably find you a copy of the background information if you're interested (and send me a snail-mail address - I only have hard-copy)
> I own Pavis & Big Rubble and Borderlands (original edition) and apart from names finishing
> with 'us' (Raus?) and the Iron Centurion, I find little 'roman' references. Not more, anyway,
> than I find persian or greek or western (country) references.
I don't know about Persian, since I probably wouldn't recognise one if it bit me, but I'd agree that Lunars there are pretty "generic" "Evil Empire". They have uniformed regular soldiers, they have paperwork.
> *Probably* in the fifteen or so years between Borderlands and Imperial Lunar Handbook 1
> many enthusiastic fans put more 'roman' flavour in the scarce information that was provided for the Lunars
Make that "people" rather than the derisory "fans" and I'll agree with you.
> than it was intended by the original authors and Greg in particular.
Quite possibly, but who cares what they "intended"? It didn't get out to the gaming public, a lot of other good stuff did. The fact what what came out was Roman in nature possibly confirms that Romans are what people recognise. Greek influence seems to have attached itself to the SunDomers, giving us a nice recognisable distinction between the two.
> But the Lunars were always intended as a mix.
I still don't care what was "intended", but yes, one of the major things Lunars and Romans have in common is taking recruits from every area they conquer, and doing a superficial homogenisation. Same uniform, an attempt at a common language, but keep their "native" ways of doing things if they're better.
I have no idea if the Persians did the same thing, nor who their conquered areas would have been: anyone want to enlighten me?
> The Romans, certainly, were: they absorbed armies, tactics and weapons from every people
> they conquered and were very flexible and pragmatic in using armed forces.
Hence the introduction of the "spatha", borrowed from the Celts: lovely sword! It didn't work in the close-formation legions, the gladius was better there, but using it on horseback was a great idea. (OK, the resident sword-geek will shut up now).
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