Caught Between

Neither empire regards the Gar — the native peoples of the valley, your own tribe among them — as equals.

To Arken you are pagans, heretics and barbarians: potential converts, and failing that, potential slaves. Should peaceful subjugation fail, the Empire counts brutal conquest entirely justified.

To Teshari you are an untapped market, a labour source, a strategic foothold, future customers or debtors, and a buffer against rivals. When cooperation stops turning a profit, the Teshari back a rival, hire assassins, or simply reshapes local politics to suit it.

The gulf between them is the gulf between fear and dependence: Arken rules through fear, Teshari through debt; one conquers armies, the other buys governments; one demands obedience, the other usefulness; one converts populations, the other absorbs economies; chains against contracts.

Arken says: "You will obey because order demands it." Teshari says: "You will comply because resistance is expensive." You stand between two faces of the same hunger — the empire that comes with soldiers and priests, and the federation that comes with merchants and contracts.