How did the Mindlords protect Saragar? We all know about the physical barriers, and the border guardians. But lets face it, that isn’t going to stop a Sorcerer King or the Dragon. Furthermore, in MLotLS the Wanderer writes about Saragar, which means that the secret is already out there (that’s pretty dumb, though, and I ignore it).
How DO they protect Saragar then? What is disclosed in MLotLS is impressive but insufficient. Lets whip up a quick idea.
The Mindlords are in the possession of 6 artifacts discovered in the Green Age (they originally had 9). These 6 identical artifacts are the Radiomantic Mind-Bombs (RMBs), which are something like a psionic nuclear weapon. While the RMBs would probably not destroy an SK, a single RMB could destroy 60% of a tablelands city’s population, while 2 RMBs hitting a single city would wipe out 90%.
In the distant past the Mindlords demonstrated their power by destroying a tablelands city utterly, using 3 RMBs on a single city and demonstrating to the Sorcerer Kings the Mindlord’s response to aggression. Perhaps the city that the Mindlords destroyed was Kalidnay.
What is certain is that the Mindlords did not create the Radiomantic Mind-Bombs, nor did anyone they know. Unbeknownst to the Mindlords, each RMB has at its core a weaponized illithid elder brain - no longer conscious, but primed for a radiomantic psionic explosion. How 9 elder brains got to Athas, and how 9 elder brains were turned into RMBs is a mystery lost in the sands of time. Perhaps it has something to do with the conflict because the various Gith sub-races.
I think you’re over analysing the situation. The Last Sea has been more or less isolated for at least 2-3 thousand years.
Why would any of the SKs or the Dragon risk everything to attack a place that is so far away, has no interest in the outside world and is no threat to them? Just to get there you’ve got to trek across hundreds of miles of wilderness, not to mention the Lava Gorge.
Marnita is a ridiculously long way from any of the city states. The nearest (Kurn and Eldaarich) have no interest in attacking the place and the other city states are just too far for any armed force to be able to make it without a) crazy supply lines and b) leaving their city undefended against closer threats.
Borys is the only force that would be capable of attacking the valley of the Last Sea and even he would balk at the risk - 3 epic level psions plus their attendant lawkeepers and the beach druids andwater clerics. Borys *might * come out on top (albeit severely depleted). Then again might not.
I think that Borys have the power to defeat the mindlords and conquer Marnita… But why bother? He already is “the facto ruler” of the Tyr Region (the other SKs are his “vassals”, in a sense), he controls the biggest and most powerful city on Athas, with plenty of green and resources. Such battle would bring more troubles than benefits.
And the other SKs are in a sort of “stalemate” between themselves (think about Gulg vs Nibenay), besides being occupied by other and more pressing things. I think that ANY city state would be severely weakened by a war against a place so far and ruled by some of the few beings that are on the same power level of the SKs.
From being unable to pay the Dragon’s levy to be an easy target for another SK, the whole thing is too unsafe.
And for the two “forgotten cities”, Oronis doesn’t want to conquer anyone, so he’s not a threat to anyone. Daskinor, otoh, seems to be unable to do a true war of conquest, due to his madness.
Yeah, the mind lords had literally thousands of years to plan ahead for their isolation, long before the cleansing wars came. They deliberately amped up the isolation of Saragar and Marnita. By the time the cleansing wars arrived, it was already an isolated backwater that nobody cared about. By design.