I thought you were looking for imperial Earth to quiet the barbarian Storm - and he's an Earthy guy to the Imperials.
There's also the Ernalda and Ernalda-Equivalents among the imperial Storm Barbarians.
If you're looking for barbarian Earth, then you're pretty much stuck with the Gals and their magic (not that it's anything to sneer at!)
>> Which is why I was advocating that Broyan try something devious, not a
>> head-on power-on-power attack. See, I'm trying to give the Sartarites a
>> chance of defeating the Bat, whether the Lunar commanders are idiots or
>> not.
>
> So you are looking for desperate cunning plans?
Broyan certainly should be.
> Put all people inside Whitewall into the Otherworld Hide-out while the Bat
> is in town (there won't be any Lunar regulars there at the time), and let
> it go starve-crazy? Or import some of those Far Point Roof Sharpeners to
> cushion the landing?
Roof Sharpeners might work :-), I doubt that removing a few hundred lives would make it go starve crazy - the cult could just drive it over to another town and feed there.
> I agree that dealing with the Bat ought to be major "There's always
> another way" juju. But it shouldn't be expected from the
> ultra-traditionalist king of the Volsaxar.
Where did Broyan get that reputation? I can't find it among the various books I (quickly) scanned. And "Traditionalist" for a god of Change and Movement who has cunnng as a big component of his makeup. The idea of Orlanthi as Back-wood Conservative Rednecks is just plain *wrong*. They are probably the second most accepting people (after the Lunars) in Genertela. They just won't accept Chaos, or anything that stinks of it - and that includes the Lunars. But conservative (in the "if we didn't think of it at the dawn it's bad" sort of way) isn't part of their makeup.
>> While there are differences between Alakoring and Heortling Orlanthi,
>> there's still a *lot* of correspondences between them. The Lunars have
>> been
>> dealing with Orlanthi for a few years by now, they know more than just
>> the
>> Star Bear.
>
> From the Tarsh campaigns, they know to be wary of earthquake magics. From
> the Sartar campaigns, they know to be wary of wyter-forming magics and the
> ensuing discipline, but also have learned that if you meet them at a place
> where they cannot move much, in a set battle, mere brute force will crush
> them, even if led by a hero like Tarkalor. From the advance to Boldhome,
> they learned that a single traitor can do in an entire rearguard. From
> Boldhome itself, they learned not to expose their leaders to native magic.
>
> While they have learned to quell uprisings and suppress the Orlanthi, I
> doubt very much that the Imperial Lunars understand the Orlanthi. Hwarin's
> cult may still come closest, besides the Tarshite rustics.
They have had Lunarised Orlanthi to talk to since the time of Hwarin's married Ingkot. Sylilia and all the lands south of it are (were) Alakoring Orlanthi. If they haven't managed to get a good idea idea of what Orlanthi are all about in the last 300 years...
I don't think I am projecting too much on the Imperials to have some clue to the Orlanthi. Their contact has not been all War. There are converts from Storm to Moon that were, I'm sure, happy to tell all they knew.
>> But that's not *just* because of the bat, but defensive magics and
>> precautions *as well as* the bat's natural defenses. Or at least, that's
>> how *I* would run it as a narrator. Use Solar Magics to ensure a clear
>> day, etc.
>
> That would mean that you have to send your people into tac-nuke radius.
> And, to boot, the valuable (Dara Happan) ones rather than expendable
> Provincials.
Not really - Support from home is an imporatnt part of Imperial magic. Most Sun priests will be far behind the lines, deep inside the Glowline and far from the bat. Use a Provincial sunworshipper to act as the on-site focus for the ritual. Or an unpopular-with-the-hierarchy priest.
RR
He was born with the gift of laughter and the sense that the world was mad
R. Sabatini, Scaramouche
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