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Argrath-Alexander the Great analogy

Posted on October 4, 2021

This is something I find very useful in thinking about Sartar in the Hero Wars. Think of Classical Greece during the rise of Philip and Alexander. At first things aren’t too different from what they have been for the last century or so. We have our polis, and it is always the same major players – Thebes, Spartar, and Athens. And the Persian Empire is on the eastern shore and playing everyone off each other, a constant threat.But within a generation, there is a Macedonian Empire, with generals who have made themselves kings, a a king who has made himself a god.

And the polis are left making statues and obeisances to generals who rule armies, not lands.A similar dynamic happens in Sartar and Dragon Pass. Here’s a little snippet from Sartar:

ARGRATH’S MILITARY REFORMS

During the Hero Wars period the army of Sartar underwent many changes. The general evolution of inexperienced tribal militia to veterans to exhausted and semi-rebellious mercenaries was probably inevitable. But the power and charisma of the prince kept him supplied with armies and warriors to fight his long war with Lunar Empire.Since the return of Argrath, not yet Prince, to the hills of Sartar, the decisive arm of his army has been cavalry, not footmen. Ancient documents, from before the Lunar invasion, made great importance of Sartar’s shining ranks of spearmen, but the traditions which Argrath resurrected did not include footmen.

The reasons for this are several:

  1. The existing warrior structure of Sartar had evolved to become rich, mounted noblemen (called “thanes”) leading armed mobs of freemen;
  2. Dragon Pass, and especially the traditional friendship between the House of Sartar and the Grazelanders, was rich in horses;
  3. Argrath’s own life and training was among the animal-riding nomads of Prax (except for the three years he spent as a Wolf Pirate) and he made brilliant use of the cavalry at his disposal (however, Argrath’s generalship always made excellent use of the forces he had at hand, even second rate infantry);
  4. The magical powers which Argrath summoned to his aid were closely bound with wild rampages and shock tactics.

Argrath began assembling his army soon after he was driven from his home on Starfire Ridge when he took refuge among the nomads of Prax. Most tribes there had strict laws and customs restricting any foreigner from holding a position of authority or power, but there were several secret societies whose membership crossed all social or political boundaries. Incredibly, Argrath worked his way to supremacy among three of them. These units, the Twin Spears, Sword Brothers, and Bullocks, formed the kernel of his Free Army. After he received the gift of the Dragon’s Teeth, Argrath returned to Dragon Pass.The native Sartar tribal militia and the first initial units of the Sartar Free Army and the Sartar Magical Union, reinforced by Praxian nomads and some Holy Country volunteers, carried the weight of the early fighting. Argrath’s successes and personal achievements led his people to become a unified and armed state at the pinnacle of their rush to power. During this time many local peoples were allied to him as well, like the Grazelanders and the Tarsh Exiles.

However, despite his decided bias for cavalry as the decisive arm, Argrath was not ignorant of the value of a solid infantry center. Whenever he did need infantry for some specific campaign, he hired mercenaries from the Sun Dome Temples, the Holy Country, Dragonewts, or his own tribesmen. Sieges were usually left to specialists which were organized and led by the famous engineer, Haraspac, rumored to be of dwarf blood.

Argrath’s friendship with the dragonewts extended to wyrms and even dream dragons. Such draconic allies were increasingly common in his later campaigns.

Argrath concept sketches by Anna Orlova

Of course, the analogy is has many flaw and limitations, but it gives you an idea of a lot of change over a fairly short period of time.

Jeff Richard

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Anna Orlova (artist), Argrath (White Bull 1616-1627), Bullocks, Dragon’s Teeth, Sartar Free Army, Sartar Magical Union, Sword Brothers, Twin Spears

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