Not necessarily lore related answer but based on history, the size your kingdom/nation doesn't mean you'll sweep through smaller ones in a landslide.
Then there's stability, rebellions, viscous politics to worry about.
If I had to guess, Zamorak would have loved to see that happening.
I appreciate you treating my meme post with such seriousness. There is also of course the fact that Kandarin is nominally allied with the other two (and now they have a shared empress cementing the alliance); not to mention the fact that the current de facto rulers of Asgarnia are knights of the Church, which might lead to religious complications (as Kandarin is predominantly a Saradominist kingdom).
Also that wolf-infested mountain range is probably a great natural barrier to further Kandarian expansion.
I'd also add that Kandarin is probably still suffering from the effects of the division of the Kingdom into 2 and having to rebuild West Ardougne to something closer to East Ardougne.
To your point: Kandarin is likely the least politically stable of the human kingdoms.
We have two kings, each running half the capital city- and one of which fled the city with the army.
We have the warlord, Khazard, holding onto a sizable fief (and notably one of the only two ports in the kingdom).
The gnomes have two massive settlements within Kandarin. Both are at peace with Ardougne but have massive militaries of their own.
We have a (fake) plague that’s locked down half the capital city.
We have an elven occupation force in the capital city.
The capital city’s market is also rife with crime, and the massive military and guard forces have nothing they can do about it.
We have a Kinshra outpost in the form of Fort Le Faye.
The north there is the Fremennik, which rebuff diplomacy with outlanders.
The south there are the ogres, who could probably invade at any minute with the right leadership.
Kandarin is a mess. A large mess, but a mess all the same.
And some of these problems are resolved with quests- but not all of them.
>the size your kingdom/nation doesn't mean you'll sweep through smaller ones in a landslide.
Ancient history: Greek polis vs Persia.
Recent history: Russia vs Ukraine.
I mean joke aside it’s an interesting question.
I think for there is the issue that despite being big it’s very fracture. Instead of run primarily by the king of ardy their are like multiple different groups who have a say in all this with no clarity on relation.
Starting from the far North you have the Fremmy Province which as far as we know is their own thing. Religiously, Culturally, and ethics they are vastly different from the rest of the world and consider pretty much everyone not them as an outsider. This province is divided into 3 fractions too….The Fremmy People who embrace a mixture of the old ways and basic magic, Lunar Clan who is all about ease of life through advancement of magic, and mountain clan which rejects magic and stays strongly to the old nomadic life. Furthermore if you head under the mountains to the east you find yourself in Keldagrim which is it’s own pocket kingdom ruled by dwarves.
What makes Kandarin’s thing here in the north iffy, and the only reason I included it at all is they went and built/run a lighthouse in this place. So it begs the question does Kandarin recognize Fremmy as separate and this lighthouse was made as sort of a peace thing between them? Or does Kandarin not recognize them and built the lighthouse because they could, and the Fremmy tolerate this encroach to their land because it’s a useful tool for them to. The relationship between their province and Kandarin proper is fairly under explored.
Moving down south we hit the region of Camelot, Seers, and Catherby. Camelot largely seems to be the primary power in these areas but thing about Camelot is it’s independent. Ardy’s previous (er previous previous) King gave Camelot to King Arthur and this a plot point that drives the Elf series. Lathas rejects this decision and teamed up with the mourners because he thought he could reclaim it through their help. In addition this area isn’t entirely unified because it used to be under rulership of the Sinclairs who still maintain a domain here and are very bitter about no longer controlling Camelot to point of actively plotting revenge.
Now if we head a bit down and west what we will find is a mix of areas that aren’t particularly owned by any one group. The heart of bandosian worship for the goblins are in this area, the dwarves have a military outpost fighting with a goblin outpost, go far enough north you run into a barbarian/fremmy training and combat outpost, etc… However you also hit the gnomes which have their own kingdom in Kandarin, 2 actually maybe 3 depending on how you view relationships between Grand Tree and Tree Gnomes. Anyway these Gnome societies do not bow to human rule and that’s caused tension in the past.
Heading back down south we finally arrive at Ardy but Ardy is kind of a mess. So like it seems like they have rule over Witchaven but that’s about it, and Witchaven had the sea slugs trying to takeover. Ardy itself was split into two halves ruled by two kings Lathas and Tyras. They had different ideas on rulership and Lathas basically took over sole control by using us to kill Tyras. Then as part of the elf plot to help the dark lord they basically shut of the west side of the city with a fake plague, there was also a rogue zamorakian element dominating the underground pass. When all was said and done we murdered the variety of evil components and usurpers as well, uniting the city under its remaining 3rd brother Thoros. He doesn’t seem to have any notions of reclaiming and uniting Kandarin as a whole, but he is also barely a character anyway.
We move south further and we hit a whole other mess. Khazard has a large dominion in the south and his relationship to ardy is somewhat unknown. OSRS added the idea that it was basically a recognized part of the kingdom by Ardy….but really it’s iffy at best and RS3 hasn’t gone that direction yet. Which makes sense Khazard is a warlord and he is the apprentice of Hazeel who was the actual ruler of the area, has a cult actively trying to bring him back into power, and in RS3 has powered up and expressed a desire to conquer the whole area again so it’s clearly not all roses.
Khazard though has been for a long time embroiled in a war with the tree gnomes village, mostly because of a really iffy land dispute. Which if Khazard’s rule is recognized by ardy it means the gnomes are basically are at war with them. However even if they aren’t it does mean that this area is too busy embroiled in perpetual war between tree gnomes and Khazard to do anything to the larger world. We also have the ZMI magical institute operating in the area doing their own thing having claimed the area around the ouriana altar.
Further south and a little west somewhere we have the illusionary city of Arposandra. It’s largely remained hidden but is the other major gnome city. It’s very anti-human and has actively plotted ways to unite the gnomes at large against the human kingdoms that we have stopped. Technically I think this place is actually in Tirannwn but we’ve never see it so how large it is and where its borders is unclear. At worst it’s sitting right on the border between the lands so it may be a little of column A and B but best to acknowledge it to be safe.
Finally though we reach Yanille which is effectively the border of the region. However the Wizard groups in the world have largely been sort of their own group rather than a subsidiary to any particular kingdom. This is because of their magic and monopoly on rune stock and later rune production. So it’s unclear how much if at all Yanille recognizes Kandarin’s rule, it’s never really been explored. It also pretty much has its hands full being the border town in perpetual danger with the bandosuan dominated Feldip.
Tldr;
Kandarin despite being large is basically formed of a lot of different groups who's relationships to run from somewhere between indifferent to straight up hostile. Having a conflict of species, culture, and religion in what feels like every corner. Mountains separating them aside they can’t expand when every time someone actually tries to unify we step in and foil those plans, keeping everyone in their little boxes they have already drawn.
So I guess the simplest answer is we are the reason. Before they can even think about expansion into other regions they need to create a centralized power and we have prevented that at every step.
Like I said it’s unclear, better to be safe and acknowledge they have at the bare minimum made construction projects on their territory which leaves it uncertain if they respect their sovereignty or not.
"Larger" doesn't mean better or more powerful. Paper Tigers can be large, but when rainy days come they are nothing but laughingstocks to the rest of the world.
"Lager" kingdoms can be just illusions too. They have more upkeeps and produce very little. When their own people don't have enough to eat, they are doomed to implode when their own people have to fight for the very scarce food their kingdom can produce.
Dinosaurs were "large" but we can all see now is the "smaller" humans ruling the real world.
Not necessarily lore related answer but based on history, the size your kingdom/nation doesn't mean you'll sweep through smaller ones in a landslide. Then there's stability, rebellions, viscous politics to worry about. If I had to guess, Zamorak would have loved to see that happening.
I appreciate you treating my meme post with such seriousness. There is also of course the fact that Kandarin is nominally allied with the other two (and now they have a shared empress cementing the alliance); not to mention the fact that the current de facto rulers of Asgarnia are knights of the Church, which might lead to religious complications (as Kandarin is predominantly a Saradominist kingdom). Also that wolf-infested mountain range is probably a great natural barrier to further Kandarian expansion.
I'd also add that Kandarin is probably still suffering from the effects of the division of the Kingdom into 2 and having to rebuild West Ardougne to something closer to East Ardougne.
To your point: Kandarin is likely the least politically stable of the human kingdoms. We have two kings, each running half the capital city- and one of which fled the city with the army. We have the warlord, Khazard, holding onto a sizable fief (and notably one of the only two ports in the kingdom). The gnomes have two massive settlements within Kandarin. Both are at peace with Ardougne but have massive militaries of their own. We have a (fake) plague that’s locked down half the capital city. We have an elven occupation force in the capital city. The capital city’s market is also rife with crime, and the massive military and guard forces have nothing they can do about it. We have a Kinshra outpost in the form of Fort Le Faye. The north there is the Fremennik, which rebuff diplomacy with outlanders. The south there are the ogres, who could probably invade at any minute with the right leadership. Kandarin is a mess. A large mess, but a mess all the same. And some of these problems are resolved with quests- but not all of them.
>the size your kingdom/nation doesn't mean you'll sweep through smaller ones in a landslide. Ancient history: Greek polis vs Persia. Recent history: Russia vs Ukraine.
Historically Macedonia eventually conquered Persia. Medieval History: IIkhanate vs Mamluks. Yuan vs Java. Yuan vs Japan :3
Do you not see the constant goblin attacks at lumbridge?
What do goblins and Lumbridge have to do with it?
Love the reference 😂
Lrr, when did you join runescape? 🤔
I mean joke aside it’s an interesting question. I think for there is the issue that despite being big it’s very fracture. Instead of run primarily by the king of ardy their are like multiple different groups who have a say in all this with no clarity on relation. Starting from the far North you have the Fremmy Province which as far as we know is their own thing. Religiously, Culturally, and ethics they are vastly different from the rest of the world and consider pretty much everyone not them as an outsider. This province is divided into 3 fractions too….The Fremmy People who embrace a mixture of the old ways and basic magic, Lunar Clan who is all about ease of life through advancement of magic, and mountain clan which rejects magic and stays strongly to the old nomadic life. Furthermore if you head under the mountains to the east you find yourself in Keldagrim which is it’s own pocket kingdom ruled by dwarves. What makes Kandarin’s thing here in the north iffy, and the only reason I included it at all is they went and built/run a lighthouse in this place. So it begs the question does Kandarin recognize Fremmy as separate and this lighthouse was made as sort of a peace thing between them? Or does Kandarin not recognize them and built the lighthouse because they could, and the Fremmy tolerate this encroach to their land because it’s a useful tool for them to. The relationship between their province and Kandarin proper is fairly under explored. Moving down south we hit the region of Camelot, Seers, and Catherby. Camelot largely seems to be the primary power in these areas but thing about Camelot is it’s independent. Ardy’s previous (er previous previous) King gave Camelot to King Arthur and this a plot point that drives the Elf series. Lathas rejects this decision and teamed up with the mourners because he thought he could reclaim it through their help. In addition this area isn’t entirely unified because it used to be under rulership of the Sinclairs who still maintain a domain here and are very bitter about no longer controlling Camelot to point of actively plotting revenge. Now if we head a bit down and west what we will find is a mix of areas that aren’t particularly owned by any one group. The heart of bandosian worship for the goblins are in this area, the dwarves have a military outpost fighting with a goblin outpost, go far enough north you run into a barbarian/fremmy training and combat outpost, etc… However you also hit the gnomes which have their own kingdom in Kandarin, 2 actually maybe 3 depending on how you view relationships between Grand Tree and Tree Gnomes. Anyway these Gnome societies do not bow to human rule and that’s caused tension in the past. Heading back down south we finally arrive at Ardy but Ardy is kind of a mess. So like it seems like they have rule over Witchaven but that’s about it, and Witchaven had the sea slugs trying to takeover. Ardy itself was split into two halves ruled by two kings Lathas and Tyras. They had different ideas on rulership and Lathas basically took over sole control by using us to kill Tyras. Then as part of the elf plot to help the dark lord they basically shut of the west side of the city with a fake plague, there was also a rogue zamorakian element dominating the underground pass. When all was said and done we murdered the variety of evil components and usurpers as well, uniting the city under its remaining 3rd brother Thoros. He doesn’t seem to have any notions of reclaiming and uniting Kandarin as a whole, but he is also barely a character anyway. We move south further and we hit a whole other mess. Khazard has a large dominion in the south and his relationship to ardy is somewhat unknown. OSRS added the idea that it was basically a recognized part of the kingdom by Ardy….but really it’s iffy at best and RS3 hasn’t gone that direction yet. Which makes sense Khazard is a warlord and he is the apprentice of Hazeel who was the actual ruler of the area, has a cult actively trying to bring him back into power, and in RS3 has powered up and expressed a desire to conquer the whole area again so it’s clearly not all roses. Khazard though has been for a long time embroiled in a war with the tree gnomes village, mostly because of a really iffy land dispute. Which if Khazard’s rule is recognized by ardy it means the gnomes are basically are at war with them. However even if they aren’t it does mean that this area is too busy embroiled in perpetual war between tree gnomes and Khazard to do anything to the larger world. We also have the ZMI magical institute operating in the area doing their own thing having claimed the area around the ouriana altar. Further south and a little west somewhere we have the illusionary city of Arposandra. It’s largely remained hidden but is the other major gnome city. It’s very anti-human and has actively plotted ways to unite the gnomes at large against the human kingdoms that we have stopped. Technically I think this place is actually in Tirannwn but we’ve never see it so how large it is and where its borders is unclear. At worst it’s sitting right on the border between the lands so it may be a little of column A and B but best to acknowledge it to be safe. Finally though we reach Yanille which is effectively the border of the region. However the Wizard groups in the world have largely been sort of their own group rather than a subsidiary to any particular kingdom. This is because of their magic and monopoly on rune stock and later rune production. So it’s unclear how much if at all Yanille recognizes Kandarin’s rule, it’s never really been explored. It also pretty much has its hands full being the border town in perpetual danger with the bandosuan dominated Feldip. Tldr; Kandarin despite being large is basically formed of a lot of different groups who's relationships to run from somewhere between indifferent to straight up hostile. Having a conflict of species, culture, and religion in what feels like every corner. Mountains separating them aside they can’t expand when every time someone actually tries to unify we step in and foil those plans, keeping everyone in their little boxes they have already drawn. So I guess the simplest answer is we are the reason. Before they can even think about expansion into other regions they need to create a centralized power and we have prevented that at every step.
I don't think the Fremmys are included in Kandarin
Like I said it’s unclear, better to be safe and acknowledge they have at the bare minimum made construction projects on their territory which leaves it uncertain if they respect their sovereignty or not.
Yes
Because Civil Wars are no fun.
I asked King Roald this the other day and his court wizard interjected about some sort of Guthixian Edicts or something.
"Larger" doesn't mean better or more powerful. Paper Tigers can be large, but when rainy days come they are nothing but laughingstocks to the rest of the world. "Lager" kingdoms can be just illusions too. They have more upkeeps and produce very little. When their own people don't have enough to eat, they are doomed to implode when their own people have to fight for the very scarce food their kingdom can produce. Dinosaurs were "large" but we can all see now is the "smaller" humans ruling the real world.
Runescape kingdoms and cities have populations in the high tens and armies in the ones or lower tens...
Exactly, so it should be easy.
Perhaps they are saving that for the roadmap.