part six, page ten

One thing in the equation here is: what kind of empire is the Boka?

If the Boka are a semi-modern empire, like 17th century Sweden or early 19th century Russia, with a relatively developed bureacracy, then Dalakhra shouldn’t ally himself with the Boka. If the empire has bureaucracy, it can rule without a local despot in charge. At the most, it will need a large amount of local nobles as intermediaries, but it will not need a local leader. Thus, becoming a satrap for such an empire would be a temporary relationship, ending with the empire replacing the satrap after they have consolidated power and established a more developed bureacratical system in Al-Rashad.

On the other hand, if the Boka are an old-school despotic empire, like the ancient Persia, being their local satrap is not a bad deal at all. Such an empire is essentially incapable of wielding any influence in the internal affairs of its provinces. Beyond the line of sight from the god-king, he has no real power, only vassals who have sworn him fealty. The most such an empire can demand is an annual tribute of money and handicrafts. The satraps are independent rulers, as long as they are more than 20 miles from the capital. And any empire worth its salt knows that the satrap must be a local. Otherwise he won’t last long and the province will rebel. The satrap will remain in power as long as he can get rid of any internal opposition inside his satrapy.

Reading Xenophon’s Anabasis and the Chapters III and IV of Herodotos’s Histories gives you quite a good idea how satraps got power, wielded power and lost power. They also give you a very good idea about how much independence the satraps had.

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One question worth asking: how evil is Ra-Boka? We’ve already seen that they have undead soldiers, and they’re happily expanding everywhere and subverting anyone they can. What if they’re not just another expanding empire, but a genuine power of darkness. Dalakhra’s not a nice man, but I think even he would hesitate at making a deal with actual devils.

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@Canukistani John: There is a manga version of the Belgariad actually…

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@Murc – It’s a nostalgia thing for me – it’s formulaic, but it was fun as hell when I was 14 or so, so it has a place on the guilty pleasures shelf that holds up my RPG books. Like second hand John Ringo.

@Lurker – That’s interesting, who makes it?

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