: 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.
::On the contrary, when you have 2000 soldiers going against
:: half a million, getting troops is pointless. Are 3,000,
::or 10,000, or 50,000 going to do much better against half
::a million? Plus pretty much all the surviving Trow?
Better to light a weak candle than to curse the darkness
::Alric's entire plan focused on getting a small force into
::the fortress--a force small enough that Balor would
::confront them directly. A hundred lucky soldiers went with
:: Alric; everyone else was fodder. They'd still be fodder ::if there were a hundred times as many soldiers. Is Alric
::going to gamble on Gower's having a million-strong army ::just waiting for him? If he wanted more troops, he'd be
::better off heading back West and recruiting Province
::survivors, rather than spending months crossing the
::Dark-controlled Barrier where he'd already been captured
::once.
What do you mean crossing the Barrier? Look at the Map, he passed right next to Gower
: 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.
::There is such a thing as love of one's homeland. :-) I'm
::sure many of us wouldn't want to live in the Twelve Duns
::either.
Yea, but when push comes to shove its better to not live in Gower than not live, full stop.
::If Gower was just as good as anywhere else in the Wind
::Age, it'd be just as good as anywhere else in the Wolf
::Age. All those Dark threats are gone or vastly reduced,
:: and now the population in more hospitable regions is
::climbing and making immigration more difficult. And
::without the threat of the Myrks, there's less reason to
::move to the large human cities, which are particularly
::good at defending against them. If the Gowermen didn't run
:: to the protection of Muirthemne or the Western cities
::when they were being eaten by Myrks, why would they
::afterwards?
I said the main reason to move in the Wolf Age was to fresher pastures.
: 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.
::You mean, across the hideous wasteland he just created and
:: toward where his army just went? :-) When a powerful mage
:: with an army of undead has devastated the Cath Bruig
::Empire and now heads west...well, I wouldn't be thinking
::that the Province was exactly safe at that point. And if I
:: was looking for safety, I wouldn't be following Balor
::west. :-) Better to stay in the backwater areas that don't
:: currently have his attention.
Okay you have in one hand the Province, a vast area, fertile, loads of strong cities, plenty of space to run, and naturally walled by a massive mountain range with only 3 passes. OR Gower, a small, sterile land, no cities, no natural, or un-natural protection, completely surrounded by evil.
Jeez think about, who in their right mind would stay there.
: 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."
::We've known for quite some time that the narrator was
::wrong here, though. Balor nuked the Cath Bruig. Why didn't
::he touch the Province or the Twelve Duns or anywhere else
:: with his own magic? Soulblighter tried to shatter the
::Cloudspine; Balor could certainly have done so with the
::Fallen Lords backing him. Why didn't he? Perhaps because
::Balor's real motive was conquest or population control; in
:: any event, he clearly wasn't as committed to total
::destruction as the narrator thought. Soulblighter was, but
:: that to my mind is another illustration as to why he
::wasn't the Leveller.
One word, bodies. He wanted to be ruler of the unthinking dead. The only reason he "nuked" Muirthemne was that he knew it was the only way to kill them. Granted he'd have no bodies but it was the only way to get rid of such a powerful army. Bodies is another reason to invade Gower. He wanted everything to be under his control, he bound the Fallen Lords to him so as they wouldn't turn against him, all undead were bound to him. And whichever way you look at it its the same. If he wanted Power over everything, I think Gower is included in everything. If he wanted destruction, Gower works there too.
: 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.
::We know what he did for 33 years. He crushed the remaining
:: inhabitants of the Cath Bruig empire (we know from the
::Myth II manual that they were "scattered" but not
::instantly wiped out by his nuke spell). He fought the
::armies of the West, and Avatara such as Maeldun, and tried
:: to break through the Cloudspine passes. He liberated the
::Trow. He probably destroyed non-Bruig human settlements
::like those around Forest Heart. And yes, he enlarged his
::army with the dead he created. It's not like he was
::racking his brain for something evil to do all that time.
33 years, to do that, look at your life, are you even 33 years (rehetorical question). 33 is a long time if you think about.
: 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.
::Perhaps, but surely he didn't go with a large retinue.
::Soulblighter can outdistance almost any of his minions,
::and he was operating under the Light radar at the time. An
:: army would have gotten him killed before he could make
::his preparations.
::As for Gower being a pass to the East--the Gjol's easy to
::cross, as we saw, and Ghol-haunted hills are only a
::barrier if you're Light.
I didn't mean the ghols were a problem. Have you ever gone hillwalking. Now Ireland doesn't have very big mountains, but ive climbed a few, and aint easy. Try marching an entire army over a mountain.
::And why would the Light want to go to the East anyway?
I menat the Darks passage to the East
::It's all Dark over there. And any sizable Dark army coming
:: through isn't going to care whether a few Gowermen are
::sniping at them or not, although I'm sure they'll pick the
:: humans off if they have the opportunity.
You may not have noticed, but Gower is right next to Dwarf country. Now if Gower was still inhabitated when the Dwarves fled, then they might have fled to Gower. So now ambushes are a lot more potent when you use a satchel laden valley. I think thats a problem worth taking notice of.
::More Thrall probably get killed by walking off cliffs and ::things.
Guerrila fighting can be more effective than you think.
Another stratigical point. Gower is right below Avernus, his fortress. Now if the resistance there was to join together and attack that might be a problem. Now this would be a small problem. But he had one big reason to kill off Gower. One word, Experience. He knew, being from there, that the people of Gower were a resiliant bunch, and if left out of the Leveller's sluaghter plans, in the future they can cause problems, eg WOLF AGE. He knows himself, he did it. All they need is a little backing from the Province, find a few World knots, and you've got an invasion force on your doorstep, Stoooopid idea.
-zeph
