Speaking of the Aururians of the Outback, I always liked the "uncivilised" Aururians ITTL and the glimpses we have at them. I've love to see another entry or two centered around them.
I'll probably get to covering at least some of those peoples at some point, it's just that there's so many different cultures there that covering all of them is just about impossible.
While I'm still doing a re-read of LoRaG, did they ever adapt emu herding? I'd think basically every group no matter how remote would be able to conduct some limited horticulture (especially whichever groups live near where domesticated wattles can grow) and emu herding for the reliable meat/bones/leather it would provide. Militarily I'd think they'd be useful as scouts and light infantry from the earliest of times and into the colonial era of Aururia I'd think armies across Aururia would employ them as tribal auxiliaries just like what many Middle Eastern and North African armies did historically.
The "desert peoples" (which is the literal translation of the most common term used in both the Middle Country and Tjibarr, even for those who don't actually live in the desert) don't really take up emu herding in a big way. Emus are hard to keep in without building a lot of fences, and still need to be fed a bit even when kept in. Even more importantly, the desert peoples usually move around from time to time within their country, as the dictates of resource management require. (Such as depending on what food is in season, among many other things). It's
hard to move emus, and then you need to build more fences to keep them in where they are... basically, high effort for low reward.
Some domesticated horticulture has spread to a small degree (similar to how it's spread to the Palawa), but again... "
desert peoples." The Gunnagalic crop package is a dryland agricultural package which relies on rainfall. The desert peoples don't live in much of the high-rainfall country (or they would have been pushed out already). There is some integration of a few domesticated plants into their resource management strategies, such as planting wattles across dry watercourses since the plants can often get the water they need with deep roots.
In terms of interactions between "agriculturalists" and "desert peoples", there is of course quite a lot of that, in various forms. The Atjuntja have made it a policy to have varying levels of relations with their neighbours. Tjibarr being Tjibarr, many levels of interactions occur as a result of the factions being factions.
Tjibarr gets particularly interesting because "desert peoples" include some who live
within territory claimed by Tjibarr - part of the course of the *Murray is so dry that rainfall can't sustain agriculture. While there's some careful irrigation there, it's also a place where there's several "desert peoples" who dwell not very far from "farmers". Tjibarr also maintains some links with "desert peoples" along a rough frontier area into the desert where they have some outposts where they collect resources directly, and others where they have different levels of trade with the locals. *Broken Hill and its silver mines is the most notable of those, with opals being not far behind, but there's also some collection of salt from dry salt lakes, gypsum, and a couple of other resources.
The "desert peoples" of course have all sorts of goods which they'd gladly trade for if they could get a chance - iron tools, textiles, and a bunch of others. The challenge is having something which the others value enough to trade for. That works in a few locations (again, salt, opals, and a few other bits and pieces), but mostly it's more of a challenge.
In terms of military service, well, scouts are particularly valued. Light infantry not so much, but there have been a few specialist units or skirmishers and the like from time to time. Tjibarr in particular will recruit all sorts of people in the right circumstances (Palawa archers and Maori mercenaries have already been shown in the timeline, and there are others).
One other point I'd note is that interactions with the Gunnagalic and Atjuntja peoples has also brought some social changes to their nearer neighbours. OTL Aboriginal peoples rarely if ever had "chiefs" in the European sense of the word. They had a great deal of respect for elders who formed consensus decisions, but didn't really have one person who decided for them. ITTL, the Atjuntja and to a degree the Tjibarri like having just one person to deal with, and so have encouraged the development of what they call chieftains. This hasn't led to hereditary leadership or anything like that amongst the desert peoples, but it has encouraged the emergence of individuals who are effectively 'first among equals' - there's still a need for consensus of elders, but the chieftain has a certain primacy. There was one viewpoint character of these who visited the White City in one of the earlier chapters.
(And then there's occasional raiding leaders who emerge amongst the desert peoples and go raiding for the things they can't trade for, but that's another story. And not all that frequent in the east, although reasonably common with the Atjuntja because the Atjuntja don't have the older Tjibarri experience in building peaceable relations.)
I'd think the groups of Western Queensland who OTL grew the most favoured pituri would still hold some prestige ITTL, even if the Five Rivers peoples still view them as barbarians.
The groups around the *Mulligan River do still hold considerable prestige with other "desert peoples", but not very much with the Five Rivers. The Five Rivers have plenty of *pituri, including some selectively bred strains which they value more than the desert product.
Their lives must've changed incredibly after the introduction of horses and the trading missions of the Nangu and Portuguese. I'd love to see more on that.
The northern coast of Aururia (where the Portuguese and Nuttana have had most contact) has changed in a variety of ways. I really need to get a chapter or two on them written at some point.
When putting together army lists earlier this year, I came to the same conclusion; there are some references to them here and there, especially for those polities that border on the interior.
There are various references, though again there's so many different aspects of this world which could be explored that it's hard to cover all of them.
Having finally got my Kindle in the right city/working again I've purchased and read the first volume of the published version of LoRaG. I did not realise there would be new content! I've reread those early chapters many times, having first read them while in high school, and was very confused that there were parts that just did not seem familiar next to ones which I could recite almost verbatim. An excellent quarantine treat, I strongly recommend it to everyone in this thread and would do so on Amazon if I had spent $50 and was allowed to write reviews. I'll buy a paper version if it ever becomes available.
Thanks very much. Amazon are annoying in how they have started restricting who can write reviews.
However, there's another option for reviews which has almost as much influence as Amazon. Goodreads lets people write reviews without needing to go through all of Amazon's rigmarole. If you (or anyone else who's read it) would like to write a review on Goodreads, I'd really appreciate it. Needs creating a free account but no other barriers. Walking Through Dreams is on Goodreads
here.
In terms of new material, there is a fair bit in Book 1. Something over 12,000 words, although I didn't keep complete track of everything. Book 2 will have more than that - already written around 20,000 words - although getting time to write it is challenging at the moment because I have a day job which has gotten busier with all of the pandemic times. But probably somewhere between 25,000-35,000 words of new material in that volume.
Book 3 will also be coming with new material at some point, and I plan on writing an original short story/novellette for the Alternate Australia anthology I'm editing, time permitting.