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extermination, he could not help but side with the position of the
military Their understanding proved to be correct, and once again
the military won out over the shrill protests of the priesthood. It must
be conceded, however, that Torak's motives may have been more
complex. There can be no doubt that the Dragon God, even at that
early date, was fully aware that ultimately there would be a
confrontation with the West. The fact that he almost continually sided with
the military in their disputes with the Grolims is mute evidence that
the God of Angarak placed supreme importance upon the growing
army. If the Karandese could be converted to the Worship of Torak, at
one stroke he would nearly double the size of his army and his
position
in the coming conflict would be all the more secure.
Thus it was that the Mallorean Grolims were given a new
commandment. They were to strive above all else to convert the
Godless Karandese to the worship of the God of Angarak. 'I will
have them all,' Torak told his assembled priests. 'Any man who
liveth in all of boundless Mallorea shall bow down to me, and if any
of ye shirk in this stern responsibility ye shall feel my displeasure
most keenly.' And with that awesome threat still ringing in their
ears, the Grolims went forth to convert the heathen.
The conquest of the seven kingdoms of Karanda absorbed the
attention of both the military and the priesthood for several centuries.
While the Angarak army, better equipped and better trained, could
in all probability have accomplished a purely military victory in a
few decades, the necessity of conversion slowed their march to
the east to a virtual snail's pace. The Grolims, moving always in
advance of the army, preached at every cross-road and settlement,
offering the Karands the care of a loving God if they would but
submit. Karandese society' essentially unreligious, took some time
to absorb this notion; but ultimately, swayed by Grolim
persuasiveness and by the ever-present threat of the Angarak army poised just
to the west, resistance crumbled.
The military victory in Karanda proved to be not only over the
Karandese but in some measure over the Grolims as well. The army
established puppet-governments in each of the seven kingdoms of
Karanda and maintained only a token force in each capital. The
Grolims, however, were compelled to be widely dispersed in their
ecclesiastical duties in the Karandese kingdoms, and the power of
the priesthood was greatly diminished.
In the typical Angarak view, the subject kingdoms of Karanda
and their inhabitants were never in a position of equality with
Angaraks. Both theologically and politically, the Karandese were
always considered second-class citizens, and this general conception
of them prevailed until the final ascendancy of the Melcene
bureaucracy near the end of the fourth millennium.
The first encounters between the Angaraks and the Melcenes proved
to be disastrous. Since the Angarak peoples prior to that time had
domesticated only the dog, the sheep, the cow, and the common
housecat, their first encounter with mounted forces sent them fleeing in terror.
To make matters even more serious, the sophisticated Melcenes utilized
the horse not merely as a mount for cavalry troops but also as a means
of drawing their war chariots. A Melcene war-chariot, with sickle-like
blades attached to its spinning wheels, could quite literally carve
avenues through tightly packed foot troops. Moreover, the Melcenes
had also succeeded in domesticating the elephant, and the appearance
of these vast beasts on the battlefield added to the Angarak rout. Had