I meant in TFL. And when you have only 2000 or so soldiers going against half a million you'd do anything you can to get more troops.
Now I'm not saying that Gower is abandoned pernamantely, I'm saying that people, during Balors 50 year reign, were either partly killed off and left or just plain left.
There was nothing to hold them to Gower. Gower is a barren waste it says so in the Manual:
GOWER
A human territory nestled within harsh lands. The clansmen of Gower brave the humid summers and the freezing winters. It is an inhospitable environment.
The only reason they stayed there was because no one elso wanted it and there was no where else to run and during the Wind age it was just as good as anywhere else. The Trow had no interest, the Myrks just wanted food, and the Ghols little threat with no leader. For all we know maybe Gower was abandoned for lusher terrotories during the Wolf Age.
But when one of the most powerful Mages comes along crushes the capital sity in a single blow, sterilises the lush and fertile Downs, I think its a good reason to get out of there to the much safer Province.
Also Balor wasn't some warlord , he was the Leveller, he saught death and destruction:
"Balor before him, seeks not to conquer but to destroy; to be master of the unthinking dead and their blasted lands."
To destroy, 50 years he would have spent DESTROYING every thing East of the Cloudspine. What do you think he spent 33 years in the East, not building an Army, he already had a fairly BIG one. 33 years is the sort of time you'd spend looking in every cave in Gower.
Also stratigically Gower is more vital than you think, Gower is the only southern pass to the East. The the Gjol blocks the North, and the Ghol hills slow if not block from the South. And its not a good idea to have Guerilla warriors ambushing armies coing from Nemcrancers temples in the Untamed Lands. We know Soulblighter went to the East, I doubt he went alone.
-zeph
