>/// It's Glorantha so there can be mythical reasons : one of your cultural
>heroes died there a long time ago, it' got a crossroads of Ley Lines, whatever.
>It needn't be strategical or economical.
I'd argue that something like that would be a good reason to send a bunch of heroquesters there, or some magicians from the Lunar College of Magic escorted by a detachment of hoplites. But sure, if you really, really want Your Glorantha to have a Lunar Army of Occupation garrisoning Balazar, there are always reasons to be found. The original post was asking for reasons why they *haven't* conquered it.
>/// LOL. Sartar has a few smelly, muddy big villages and some twisting, no less
>muddy paths winding up the hills. But it's true it looks like Las Vegas next to
>Balazar.
Sure, a Dara Happan would doubtless say that about Sartarite towns. :-) But in truth - Boldhome has a population equal to mediaeval York or Norwich (the second and third largest cities in England before the Black Death). It has libraries and glass-blowers and blacksmiths. Its marketplace welcomes traders from Seshnela and Teshnos, and it's on the direct trade route between Peloria and the sea. Compare that to Trilus or Elkoi...
>/// True, but they were built by Giants who might have using some magic stones
>of great interest to a builders' cult such as Hwarin Dalthippa, which happen to
>operate next door. There's also nice magical stuff in the catacombs. There's
>even rumors of a local petty king who performed the Quest of Tholm and has
>incredible giant hawks at his orders. Think how motivated a rindiddi unit would
>be to get there.
Again, that seems to me like a reason for one of the Associations to outfit a party of adventurers - not for the Lunar Empire to spend the tens of thousands of silvers it would cost to send out an army consisting of multiple regiments and station them permanently in the middle of nowhere.
>/// That's why the 7M cult exists. To teach the natives the wonders of
>agriculture, coinage, literacy, indoor plumbing, the works. After one generation
>you might even start to get results, faster if you get into the natives' myths
>to align them with the lunar faith.
It's a question of population density. Scattered family groups of hunter-gatherers versus pre-existing villages and towns. The sort of project you're talking about would require centuries of time, not decades - and the Lunar Empire might have thought in that sort of timescale once, but not since Sheng Seleris ate the Emperor.
What they *might* do is ignore the Balazarings, treat the land as Terra Nullius, and settle it with good Pelorian farmers instead. But they're already doing that in the Redlands, and presumably the Empire doesn't have that much surplus population to start with. (The Bat gets hungry...)
Jeff's idea of trading with the natives and maybe arming them to raid Lunar rivals, on the other hand - that sounds highly likely to me.
Stephen
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