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<p>Posted by <b><!--poster-->Ian Samuels</b>
on <!--date-->13:21 1/15/02
<p>In reply to: (none)
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Hi there:
<p>Kudos on the completed Almean Historical Atlas -- it's brilliant stuff. I
have a couple of questions about the ktuvok empires; I've been browsing the
various Almean materials and there are a couple of things that don't quite
make sense to me just yet:
<p>1. Establishment: In the Historical Atlas, you write that the ktuvoki first
"tempted" the Eynleyni into forming the empire of Munkhash with superior
technology (like wheat and bronze weapons). Elsewhere, though, you've
written that the ktuvoki are relatively uninventive and that their societies
tend to be technologically similar to the surrounding human societies. So
where did the ktuvoki of Munkhash get this superior technology?
<p>1b. For that matter, how did such uninventive creatures manage to hold off
the prodigiously advanced and determined ilii through thousands of years of
war, and survive to form empires of their own? Surely not through mere
physical prowess -- by Attafei and Ervea's time, they're not even that good
in a fight, and to add to all their other faults they're also, relatively
speaking, physical cowards. Correct?
<p>2. Longevity. You mention repeatedly that ktuvok statecraft required a
constantly expanding empire in order to be viable. Yet it seems to me that
Munkhash, in particular, is a long-lived that goes through long periods of
territorial stagnation. How, then, did the ktuvoki manage to keep it
together through the long centuries where no new peoples or territories were
being added to the empire?
<p>3. Administration. I'm still a little fuzzy on how day-to-day administration
would work, either in Munkhash or Dhekhnam. Do the ktuvoki periodically
leave their marshes to tour their empire and enforce loyalty? Do they leaveadministration totally to the humans, and spend their time manoeuvring with
each other in the marshes? And if the latter is true, then what's to keep
the ambitious humans from simply taking over control from their absentee
masters, making the ktuvoki rulers in name only? From what you've said
elsewhere, it wouldn't seem that the ktuvok hypnotic powers are impressive
enough to be influential in their absence...
<p>Cheers,
<br>Ian
<hr><i>Mark responds:
<p>Hello and welcome to the board, Ian! Glad you liked the Atlas!
<p>1. They had these technologies from the iliu-ktuvok wars of the previous
age. (There is no history of these-- not before I can decipher that
tricky Eteodäole-- but there's a distorted mythological account
in <a href="http://www.zompist.com/pagan.htm#Second">the account of Cadhinorian paganism</a>.)
<p>1b. They're not so much cowards as bullies: they try not to choose losing
battles. They also disdain humans as mere slaves. For both reasons,
they were highly discomfited when Ervëa and Attafei started winning.
<p>They're not as smart as the ilii, but wiliness and unscrupled violence
go a long way. Slave armies, sorcery, and the support of darker powers
helped as well. The ilii consider them respectable enemies.
<p>2. If the empire isn't expanding, or is contracting, about all they can do
is rely on repression of the most recently absorbed people. E.g., while they
occupied half of Eretald, most of the people would dogpile on the
Cadhinorians; that largely kept the former happy and the latter helpless.
<p>I think I should also emphasize that the ktuvok empires are not necessarily
hellish places to live in, by local standards. In medieval times, for
instance, you had to worship the demon-masters, but you were safe from the
nomads, who might, if they didn't simply turn you off your land, steal
your crops, burn down your house, and steal your daughters.
And the ktuvoki are not empowered madmen like
Nero, Stalin, or Hitler. They wouldn't massacre their own citizens any
more than a farmer would kill off his own livestock for sport.
<p>3. The ktuvoki will tour their estates just often enough to remind
stewards that it's a possibility. They also rely on inspectors and spies,
and heavily reward anyone who brings (true) news of rebellion.
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