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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr. Harry" data-source="post: 2157467" data-attributes="member: 5468">What I was trying to address is a highly militaristic society that hasn't actually gone to war in several generations.  This could be like Frederick of Prussia who loved his army so much he never thought of gettinmg it shot at, but that seems inconsistant with the setting background.House Zhal (and perhaps a couple others) takes pride in its military service, but if even in House Zhal this is confined to those with room for real prestige, the ones in the middle could still see the army as a backwater (no chance for glory after all, no wars) to throw lesser children into to get them "out of the House" so to speak.  Plus, if the other houses begin overusing exmeption by senatorial privilege, then the officer cadre of the army would wither.I would think that it would be a rare "commoner" who could rise through the ranks on something as paltry as ability, particularly during an extended peacetime.To clarify, I was not thinking of the pillars as generating their own additional armies, but landowners who are not part of the great houses or who are at best minor members.  I am not thinking that these forces dominate areas on the scale of provinces, but on the scale of neighborhoods and small towns, with a system of minor fiefdoms evolving beneath the Great House system.If the armies were not quartered near the borders (at the very least to sabre-rattle) then where would you put these large groups of boisterous, carousing, damaging to the civil peace individuals?The Praes Thanatos would be looking at the Great Houses, especially as there is little to no magic in the villa/estate/town security forces.Contribution:  The features on the moon that appear as fast-growing forests can shrink as quickly.  Starting two days after the features shrink dramatically, and lasts for 2-8 days after it begins, there is a time period in which necromantic magic is substantially more difficult and less effective.  This effect on its own has led the Praes Thanatos to hire sages and astronomers to try a find a way to predict this, and to alert them when a fade occurs.</blockquote>

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