Glamour, not the Tripolis, is the cultural, religious, and political center of the Lunar Empire. Now over four hundred years old, it was founded by a polyglot group of devotees of the Lunar Way and ruled by Moonson, even during that brief time that a Yelmic emperor ruled in allied Raibanth. Moonson then became co-emperor and then sole emperor – think Nerva and Trajan. Imagine it now like Antioch on the Orontes (founded by Seleucus) during the Roman Empire, or Baghdad under the Seljuks.
Furthest in many ways is the city most like Glamour. It was founded as a Lunar city about the same time as Boldhome was made Sartar’s city. It is was settled by folk from the Lunar Heartlands who followed Hon-eel to Dragon Pass. Furthest is not a Tarshite city so much as a Lunar city, and it operates somewhat outside the network of clans and traditional kinship groups that characterize most Orlanthi cities (although it has those too). A good real world point of comparison is Alexandria Eschate – aka “Alexandria the Furthest”. Between Furthest and Glamour are the Dara Happan Tripolis (well, two of the three – Alkoth and Raibanth), the beautiful artistic center that is Jillaro-on-the-Green with its Daughter’s Roads, and Saird. Mirin’s Cross by all accounts a city of administrative rather culture importance – like Mediolanum or Nicomedia under Diocletian.
Map of Antioch:
It is important not to think of the Lunar Empire as a monolithic thing. It is as much a network of cities and tribes, held together by Glamour and the Lunar Way (and the resources those two can muster) and by the position of the Red Emperor as both Dara Happan emperor and Carmanian shah.
The Red Emperor asserts to be more than merely the ruler of a place or peoples – many of his titles are universal in nature. He is Moonson, Lord of the Four Quarters, Staff and Pillar of God, Leader of the Egi, Shah of Shahs, and the Bright and Illustrious Emperor of Dara Happa.
Since the 5th Wane, the Lunar Empire has expanded to where it dominates all of Peloria (even the independent Orlanthi tribes need to accommodate the Lunar Empire’s wishes) and has even expanded to Dragon Pass and beyond, ruling (at least briefly) Prax (1610-1624) and much of the Holy Country (1619-1624).
But like any empire, expansion is not inevitable or inexorable. The Broken Council, the EWF, and the Middle Sea Empire all collapsed in a generation or two after reaching dizzying heights.
Was it inevitable that the Lunar Empire would come into a death lock with the Orlanthi of Dragon Pass? Many historians think not – and until the Sixth Wane, many would assume that a renewed threat from the Pentan tribes would have been the greater concern for the Red Emperor. But after the Nights of Horror that threat was ended. There simply were no Pentans left – or at least too few to worry about. For the next century, the Lunar Empire was able to put the traditional Pelorian fear of nomadic nations aside and went adventuring. Unfortunately, those adventures started awakening more dangerous adversaries right about the time that the Pentans had recovered their numbers and their fears had finally dissipated. (See that use of the past tense?)