It wasn't dual characters that won Atamara. If it was that powerful someone else would have done it.
Superior strategy turned the tide.
I was there, many many moons ago when Tara was down to a single city and two other regions. I and a bunch of friends who play BattleTech were looking to play an internet computer game together and one of us suggested we come play BattleMaster. He told us about a nation on the verge of collapse that we could help save and we decided to try it out.
A whole bunch of us joined Tara at once and we did turn the tide. That and the fact that Cagil fought with us in almost every battle. Regstav was one of those first two characters. Yao Ling was the other. Yao Ling is now High Priestess of the largest religion on Beluaterra. And after going to Beluaterra and being deported by Daimons, Regstav came back to Tara...and was just recently elected to the Tyrancy of Tara.
Saying that dual characters won Atamara is just wrong. If it was that easy, anyone would have done it. What won Atamara is Cagil and Tara. After that fight for survival I took part in, Tara has been utterly and completely loyal to Cagil. Tara owed its life to Cagil, and every character I've ever had that played in Tara has always reminded every new generation of Taran of that debt. We owe them our life. They stood with us and so we stand with them. Period. End of Line.
That made a core of two realms that would never fight each other right in the heart of Atamara. And then Cagilan diplomacy brought in a series of other nations to support that core alliance in war after war until we slowly just marched across the entire continent. One diplomatic alliance after another, each predicated on the fact that everybody knew that Tara would never abandon Cagil, and that the two of us would fight like demons to protect the other.
That is what won Atamara. An alliance between nations based on a literal life debt that nothing would shake. And an amazing series of diplomatic successes by Cagil. I have watched them for years, and I've been amazed by what they have managed to pull off time and again over the years.
Diplomacy and loyalty were what did it.
Dual characters didn't do that. *snort* Like I said, if dual characters could do something like that, everybody would be doing it on every continent. And they aren't.
