What makes a D'haran?

[Chenier]

GOD HIMSELF IS D'HARAN.

ALL HAIL D'HARA!

MASTERS OF THE INNER SEA!

The Might of the Dragons, the Ruthlessness of the Elements, and the Wisdom of the People Jealousy of the Lords!

[Samboji]

ALL HAIL D'HARA!

MASTERS OF THE INNER SEA!

The Might of the Dragons, the Ruthlessness of the Elements, and the Wisdom of the People Jealousy of the Lords!

Meh. LN scouted all sea-routes that were useful between D'hara, LV and the Falkirkian "thingy" very shortly after sea travel was changed. Truth be told, I shudder to think of someone attempting to take LN by sea once navies are implemented. LV as well shortly, considering the fortune of Luria will probably be carried through to all the coasts of their shores.

I will admit, the desert attack was somewhat a failure, but it held D'hara and LN up enough that the present circumstances seemed plausible to LV until 3 weeks ago. LN seemed pretty soft, now they're able to make an empire. D'hara turtled, then attacked pointlessly. It seems there may be a true Lurian empire soon. Or more of one (LN+LV will probably count as one if it lasts, with LN already in overdrive on most matters), with peaceful terms and spheres of influence with their bigger neighbours. If D'hara has any sense at all, they'll hold onto that desert victory quietly. If that half hearted, ill-prepared invasion was while they were weakest, I hope their suicidal charge from Shinnen wasn't when they were strongest. Because, it may be time for diplomacy with LN for them if that's the case.

LV may not be able to feed themselves, let alone swim in D'Haran gold for trading their foodstuffs to them soon.

My views on D'hara? I've always seen them as an early crusader-era middle-eastern empire in many ways. Not Persian, not European, a monarchy that is also controlled by an ogliarchy of traders and lords. Not weak, but not strong either, yet repelling the invaders surely. Not exactly through diplomacy, but that the invasion might just run out of steam, interest and finances. And D'hara will still be there, lauding every "victory".

Kind of funny considering the harem costume picture I decided Sha'shanti looked like.

[Chenier]

That failed assault from Shinnen... due to bad coordination with LV. Apparently, it was their INTENT to attack in two waves. Because that's obviously the smart thing to do, right? Especially when attacking a fortified location? To attack with part of the troops on one turn, parts of them on another? Yea...

As for turtling, we were just dealing with another front, reclaiming all of our lands in the West.

But yea, I've never seen our army as being that grandiose, and I'm always amazed by how they have successfully kept us whole.

[Samboji]

I wondered what that "strategy" was all about. It sounds more like "Let the D'harans soften them up while being wiped out, then we might roll in and claim a victory afterwards. Or we might just stay here under seige."

The unfortunate part was that had you attacked all at once, you would have done significant damage. At the time various armies were coming and going for refits, so LN were probably at their weakest right then. So, ummm, well done LV, your grand strategy of derpness has saved LN once again.

The end result would have probably been the same, but at least you would have caused some casualties and damage in the process. Now LN is in full swing, you probably couldn't even with co-ordinated assaults.

[D'Espana]

Hahahahahaha, I have had quite a bit of fun updating myself in this thread. Though I always loathe the piece you can find in every-single-topic where people start fighting against each other in a semi-serious manner, the overall is quite funny as a D'Haran.

Whenever I speak to a RL LV friend, I always portrait D'Hara as a realm full of greedy merchants, who think that every little event happening there is of utmost importance and that speak of tolerance meanwhile they curse LN for being Novans, LV for not coordinating, the 'Moot for not helping us (yes, I know it is ridiculous, but still happened), SA theocracies for being too powerful and never intervene in southern issues and Aurvandil for... you know... being the bad guy of the continent. Luckily Asylon and the Farronite Republic are not doing much right now, because if they did we would curse them as well.

Not that it is really accurate, though, as gold is shared when there is need regularly and the negative view of everyone else is starting to dissapear, at least the related to the 'Moot. What never will change is the lack of trust in the Novans, I look forward to the next excuse to resume hostilities 

[Samboji]

I personally didn't realize that you'd ceased hostilities. I've been scouting every damn turn expecting a D'haran army to show up so we could kick the be-(insert D'haran god here) out of them.

You sneaky D'harans. You're not only rich, but you've been making my scouts waste their time for a week or more.

Be nice to Markos as well. He likes D'haran women as much as the next adventurer........

[Chenier]

You never know what to expect from a D'Haran!

Unless you expect them to buy food. That's a pretty safe bet right there.

[Samboji]

Makes me wonder why gold hasn't ever overwhelmed the stubborn need for some sort of honour in D'hara. Your bitter enemies are about to have an absolute abundance of food. They'd no doubt sell it to you for the normal incredibly high profit margin if you asked really nicely.

Just another reason to get on I guess. Or commit hideous acts of war or treason. You know, the normal stuff.

[Chenier]

Makes me wonder why gold hasn't ever overwhelmed the stubborn need for some sort of honour in D'hara. Your bitter enemies are about to have an absolute abundance of food. They'd no doubt sell it to you for the normal incredibly high profit margin if you asked really nicely.

Just another reason to get on I guess. Or commit hideous acts of war or treason. You know, the normal stuff.

Luria has had such a context of absolute abundance of food before. They never wanted to sell much of it, and preferred to let it rot.

And D'Hara didn't spring out of nowhere. It wasn't always prosperous... indeed, it knew a hell of a lot more strife than it did prosperity. And strife is always looming on the horizon.

So really, our "honor" comes from two things: our great solidarity with deep roots in monarchism and strengthened by ages of strife (between D'Harans), and the knowledge that only our allies' help has allowed us to achieve our prosperity and that when things go bad again (as they inevitably will), only our allies' support can be relied upon to get back on our feet (honor among the 'moot).

Strife goes a long way to as far as building bonds and social cohesion go. And if starvation wasn't enough, chronic imperialistic threats from the Lurias and others have nicely sealed the deal.

[Penchant]

Makes me wonder why gold hasn't ever overwhelmed the stubborn need for some sort of honour in D'hara. Your bitter enemies are about to have an absolute abundance of food. They'd no doubt sell it to you for the normal incredibly high profit margin if you asked really nicely.

Just another reason to get on I guess. Or commit hideous acts of war or treason. You know, the normal stuff.

if you were doing high prices, I doubt we would buy much as there are several other sources for food though as we recover we would buy more of course.

[JeVondair]

I honestly can't remember when buying food was a major concern. Besides the friggan Long Winter, of course...

[Penchant]

I honestly can't remember when buying food was a major concern. Besides the friggan Long Winter, of course...

It once was a major concern before that it just was also being done so in the public eye it was no big deal.

[Samboji]

Even though my noble on Dwilight loves the idea of shopping, which of course requires gold, I can't honestly say she'd ever sell to the D'Harans. No matter the price.

Inner realm trade is a wonderful thing, and hopefully my noble finally does get a territory of her own one day (even if she's probably just messed up her chances of that, even with all the heart-on-her-sleeve goodness that it's for). But, yeah, like whatever......... She'll just become a trader or something again and not be able to kick the shizzlemozzle out of average monster groups.

Bloody Luria and their inablility to kick the shizzlemozzles out of stuff easily. We gave their damn treasurer their region back. Their treasurer. It's like trusting a grand-vizier to "not-do-anything-bad-what-so-ever".

At least D'hara knows what's going to happen with that kind of set-up. LN vs LV? Oh dear.... There's a disaffected banker in the mix. What could possibly go wrong?

[Tandaros]

I want to bump this thread with this question:

How would you think the Long Winter affected the character of the D'Haran peasantry?

[Chenier]

I want to bump this thread with this question:

How would you think the Long Winter affected the character of the D'Haran peasantry?

D'Haran peasantry has been ethnically nutritiously cleansed on multiple occasions. I guess it's to be expected that the poorer would die first.