How do the Banu rank militaristically against other alien races in terms of experience and tactics? Do the Banu have as much experience in war as, let's say, the Xi'an or the Tevarin? Has there been a big Banu war?

Yeah, they would have no idea. I mean, militaristically, just off the top of my head, the Tevarin were a dedicated military society. So they're definitely lower than them.

I think in individual small skirmishes, they can probably hold their own. I mean, they have these defense and mercenary guilds that are still highly skilled warriors, but it would come down to, once you start talking about larger scale operations, maybe they wouldn't quite match up to someone like the Xi'an, who are very good at overall strategic planning and conceiving stuff on a much grander scale. So I could see, when you have an outlaw pack going against a squad of Banu Defenders, you're in for a tough time. These are people who've been training their whole life to fly Banu Defenders. Their job is to fight off outlaws, so you'd expect them to be really good. But coordinating with five other...

Yeah, there might be a communication breakdown if you had 16 Souli, war Souli, that had gotten together to form this big army and stuff like that. And they all have different ways of doing things. So yeah, it might not be as efficient, but on an individual level, it probably would be.

We've talked about a general tone about how the Banu look towards violence overall, and how it's seen as a fairly wasteful endeavor. If you could make peace and both profit, that's a better road for everyone involved. So why wouldn't you? But they're not afraid. Sometimes violence is the only option, and then they bring the pain.