"Rock Cellar City's Original Spring collapsed, and the new Benefactor, 'Hope Iver,' has taken up residence. Dawn City has been founded—"
The cries rang melodiously across the desert, accompanied by the calls of falcons.
Once Dawn City had restored its water supply and resumed normal life... the surrounding city-states that had been watching finally became certain that Dawn City truly had a new Benefactor.
Thus, they temporarily lowered their banners and abandoned the idea of sending or hiring Slave Knights to go and feast at the buffet.
The Benefactors of these city-states were all in contact with one another. Their relationships might not have been good... but as soon as something happened to one side, the nearby Benefactors would certainly respond—for example, by "taking care of" his citizens.
These spies passed information outward on one hand, and on the other, they would incite rebellions against the Benefactor at the appropriate time. Since every city had such spies, if a Benefactor began purging spies on a large scale, it was generally taken as a sign that something had gone wrong on his side. The others would then increase their efforts, and might even join forces against him.
Crossing the desert required vast quantities of supplies. A city-state's water and provisions were already limited, and sending troops inevitably required rationing the residents' water ahead of time. The spies would pass that information on. Thus, wars had "omens" that allowed people to respond and prepare in time.
Furthermore, in this tribal warfare model, where supply lines were practically impossible to establish, the enemy would withdraw from lack of provisions after one or two waves of attacks were repelled. As a result, regular armies mainly focused on harassment and surprise attacks. Truly taking a city-state was extremely difficult without someone inside coordinating with the