On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 08:58:38 -0800, Scott Schultz <scott at cjhunter.com> wrote: > >> Do Dragaera and the East compete economically? What kind of >> relationship >> do they have with each other economically? > > The question isn't entirely valid because "the East" doesn't really > exist. Sure it exists. > The Dragaeran Empire is a large cohesive nation similar to the U.S. or > perhaps Great Britain of 200 years ago or so ago. The East appears to be > a > conglomerate of smaller nations that are loosely aligned with each other > when it's convenient or when a strong leader appears (e.g. Fenar), akin > to Europe or the Middle East. But it's seen as something worth conquering. And there are colonists from the East in Dragaera. Are there "elf" colonies in the East? > (We actually know precious little about The East > beyond what we learn in Brokedown Palace, and that story is as much fairy > tale/allegory as it is factual reporting.) There appears to be lots that isn't known by both sides here. Although besides Brokedown Palace, we are familiar with Morollan's youth. > Additionally, the Eastern Mountains that separate the two bodies allow > for > limited communication and travel between them. You either go north to the > pepper fields or south to roughly where Morrolan's domain begins. > (Someone > correct me if I'm wrong here.) There may be other paths through the > mountains but so far none (that we've heard of) that would be usable by > an army or caravan. > Bottom line is that for the two to "compete" there would have to be some > sort of common market they both wanted or some common resource that they > both desire. They don't appear to have any common market at all and the > pepper fields are as close as we've gotten to a resource worth competing > for. Since each side pretty much desires the pepper fields for their > intrinsic value rather than for their economic value (and since Khavren > worked out the truce which, for lack of any report to the contrary, I > assume > is still in place despite the Interregnum) it's difficult to view the > pepper fields as some kind of economic battle ground. So do they really have reason to go to war other than glory? Or do the gods have their own interests in this? > Overall, I'd say that they don't compete at all and that the trade > relationships are rudimentary. As mentioned by others, primarily unique > or > highly regarded commodities like horses and spices. If you imagine > Dragaera > as a unified version of Rennaisance Europe and The East as a sort of > decentralized version of China of the same period, I think that you would > have a reasonable picture of the situation vis-a-vis economic relations > between the two. Or switch them around. The East is the decentralized, discounted Europe, while Dragaera is the strong, important China. Nobody in China expected Europe to dominate anything, even after they started creating colonies. > This is also one of the reasons that invasions from one side of the > mountains to the other are rare in reality. With no real economic > advantage > to an invasion, they mainly happen when population pressures on one side > or > the other cause a "spillover" grab for territory or when a charismatic > leader attempts to increase his or her own power base. Sethra the Younger > epitomizes this latter general, as well as the general Dragaeran > attitude in > Vlad's time of prosperity within the Empire. The East is not truly an > enemy. Are the gods comfortable with this? Or do they have other goals. > They're just "those guys over there that we're going to teach a lesson to > someday". Even in the absence of powerful Dragaerans with pro-Eastern > leanings (Norathar, Morollan, Zerika, etc...) Sethra would likely have > some > problems raising an army to invade the East simply because there's no > mileage in doing so. Everybody's fat and happy, in a manner of speaking, > so why go pick a fight where none exists? Sounds like China before Europe took things in their own hands. For a while, China closed its borders saying Europe had nothing it needed. Britain's response was to fight a war in order to force China to buy its opium (from poppies grown in conquered India). Opium created a market despite what its rulers wanted. > Even Verra, when attempting to start > a war, strikes much closer to home at the Elde Island/Greenaere targets > rather than at the more nebulous and less immediate target of "The East". > > On a tangential note (which no doubt led me to the China analogy rather > than > a more appropriate analogy involving Austro-Hungarian geography) I find > it > interesting that Brust's writings about The East all involve this magical > fairy land angle. Brokedown Palace is a classical fairy tale written as a > novel. Paarfi writes of The East as a place where the unusual happens as > a > matter of no great note. Coachmen are eternal. Witches perform exotic > rituals to mysterious ends. A young man embarks on a kind of dreamquest > and > those around him nod knowingly and help him find his true name. Sorcery > is > really just a kind of technology to a Dragaeran. The East, in contrast, > is a > place where "magic" is in the air. It takes very little effort to > imagine a > Dragaeran visiting The East as a kind of Marco Polo visiting 18th century > India and China. Or visa versa. Remember, Dragaera is populated by elves with a permament mist, sorcery, long lives, etc. Steve is twisting things around from standard Western images. > The ironic thing is that the East looks upon "Faerie" as a place of > exotic > magic and strange customs. While I'm not sure that I really want Vlad's > objective (or so I imagine it in relation to Paarfi and others) > viewpoint to > de-mystify The East, I'd be very interested in finding out just what the > impact of sorcery (via Miklos, Sandor, and others who have gone West and > returned) and other Dragaeran imports have had on Eastern culture. I suspect we will find out. -- Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/