Source: Mark Galeotti, re: the Lunar Occupation of Sartar
Individual units are rarely any more effective than their commanders allow them to be, and this holds true all the way up the system. Having a fair number of units able to operate in (Counter Insurgency operations) matters very little if their commanders won't use them appropriately or the overall strategy in-theatre is inappropriate. Fazzur, a Tarshite, understands Dragon Pass and Orlanth and, in my opinion, uses these assets pretty well. 'Tatius the Bright', on the other hand, is a very different type of commander. Not for him the slow hearts-and-minds, divide-and-rule accretional political-military strategy of a Fazzur, with a textured and nuanced understanding of local conditions (including developing Ironfist as a powerful local proxy who also draws the venom of Far Point in his direction rather than the empire's!). Instead, Tatius, with all the grandiosity and disregard for local conditions of a good Heartlander, goes for an all-or-nothing massive magical operation to pacify the whole region in one move.
This doesn't make Tatius stupid. To be fair, he almost makes it: from his calculations he had no reason to expect such a potent response from the Orlanthi. (It's not exactly a usual mission parameter: 'OK, this look as if it would work, but what if a hitherto-unknown dragon appears beneath us?') But it does meant that, beyond disrupting major rebel operations, his use of conventional forces is quite defensive, they are there primarily to protect the ritual and the construction of the Temple of the Reaching Moon. This proves a waste of his political and military assets. Above all, it allows Argrath to do what Kallyr could not: build up a complex and sizeable military and magical force, and also the political infrastructure that will turn individual herobands into an army. In a way, this allows Argrath to go beyond Michael Collins and head towards the Ho Chi Minh direction! <Nick>
'Lunar Doctrine and Tatius' (from the HeroQuest-RPG list, July 2002)
Martin Laurie: Where the Lunar Army does have issues is when for political rather than military reasons command is given to those ill suited to that kind of war. Such as Tatius. Tatius being a Dara Happan would see the march of the phalanx and the gleaming ranks of battle as being the ultimate form of war and though he might be flexible in some ways, he cannot concieve of a more perfect way of fighting and will always strive to force his enemies into his own decision cycle rather than determine the best way of defeating them.
Nick Brooke: If Tatius were a sufficiently powerful heroquester, of course, this would be an excellent strategy. Unfortunately for him (and -- more particularly -- for his army), he ain't. I guess he's just over-ambitious: trying to achieve by himself what the godlike heroes and emperors of the past were capable of. That's the downside of an Empire encouraging people to develop their potential to the max, I suppose. Back in the good old Dara Happan days, even nobles like Tatius would have known their limits. Not so any more.
Mark Galeotti: To be fair to Tatius - however an unlikeable character he is - he almost succeeded. Unlike Fazzur's rather more comprehensible and familiar pacification programme - a little divide and rule here, some targeted impressive violence there, some tax breaks and benefits in between, in short the usual array of carrots and sticks, effectively employed - Tatius adopted an all-or-nothing strategy. He came very close to establishing his Temple of the Reaching Moon, and if he had done so, then it would have torn the magical, mythical and moral heart out of the Sartari resistance. Orlanth would have been definitely killed or chained, and the bulk of Heortling magic would be gone. The entire field of operations would have been under the Glowline. This would no doubt also have begun to have bleed-over effects into other magical and natural realms. Kolat's winds calmed. Integration of Ernalda into the Lunar Way, Tarsh-style.
Of course, Tatius makes many errors. He is ultimately a Dara Happan bigot, his prejudices and arrogances magnified as you say by a permissive Lunar doctrine which encourages him to over-reach himself. Had, for example, he been able to retain Fazzur or someone with similar military-political acuities and local knowledge to handle field ops while he concentrated on the temple, things may well have gone diferently. But he still came close...
Email from Jeff to the group, added here by Jane:
This is what we know of the guy frp, CHDP:
pg. 148:
"At Whitewall the commander Jorkandros the Blinder ordered the Crimson Bat to assault the city and exterminate the defenders, whom he called
"the last Orlanthi?". Astonishingly, the Bat was repelled, though at
great cost to the defenders. Jorkandros Blinder was replaced by Tatius
the Bright, dean of the Lunar Field School of Magic...
Whitewall was more important religiously than it was militarily, hence Tatius the Bright had been given command. This stronghold was believed to be the last city of Orlanth, the god who was rival to the Red Goddess of the empire. To take it would end the worship of Orlanth in all cities: a great victory. Tatius spared no preparation for the assault and naturally got special magicians from the emperor. Fazzur, Tatius' nominal commander, had no part in this battle."
pg. 150:
"Tatius the Bright was a Priest of Yelm, and also the dean of the Lunar Field School of Magic. He was responsible for maintaining the remarkable Lunar field magicians as the weapons which they could be. He
was no lazy administrator, but a skilled strategist and tactician, and a
skilled fighter in personal combat. He was highly placed and regarded
in the Church of the Sun, and traced his own lineage to the Emperor
Yelm.
Tatius was also a member of the powerful Assiday family, of Raibanth. He had assisted his incompetent cousin Euglyptus? for years - some say he was the real power behind the fat man. Tatius considered the loss of command of the army to be a deep shame for his family."
So our man Tatius is an energetic and skilled leader, descended from Yelm (and presumably can name numerous DH Emperors amongst his ancestors) and a member of the powerful Assiday family (or league or whatever we are calling these Lunar networks) of Raibanth, Tatius is part of and maybe the leader of the Lunar faction that seeks to rid the world of Orlanth. I suspect that he is the single most connected imperial figure in Dragon Pass and considers Fazzur, Pharandros and Moraides to be beneath him. I do not get a feel for how old he is - maybe in his early 40s? That would make him a nice parallel to Broyan.
From some discussions I've had with Jane I've built up a bit of a picture of what Tatius is like:
He is an autocrat, used to taking decisions and doing things his own way. What's more he's nearly always right so his competence isn't questioned. He has contempt for those he considers soft and regards legalities particularly in a war zone as an irrelevance. He's also one of those twenty hour working day people, he's pretty much got to be, given the responsibilites he has to his family, the warlord in charge of the invasion and Dean of the College of Magic. Even with a good Lunar Staff he has a lot on his plate particularly as he's up to his eyeballs in Lunar Politics. This scheming extends to the way he operates the military campaign. Everyone, on whatever side, is a tool for achieving his objectives and he has no hesitation in using them as required. As far as age goes he's certainly not under forty, maybe as old as fifty.
<Donald>
FWIW, I see Tatius as being quite similar to Terry Pratchett's Patrician.
<Jane>
Minus the little white dog, though.
<Joerg>
Donald? Take note for the next write-up. Tatius just acquired a little white dog. (Dog? What animals do Dara Happans keep as pets? An albino canary?)
<Jane>