I can see what you're saying. But, even with the Calormenes, I found it creepy that they had been quiet for so long. They had been planning for hundreds of years.

^I know what you mean. The Calormenes couldn't invade Narnia during the golden age because the desert blocked them by land and Narnia was as powerful at sea as they were. But the Telmarines hated the sea and had no navy. Why didn't they invade then?

Well the Telmarines were much more warlike than the Narnians and would probably be much harder to conquer.

The Calormenes couldn't invade Narnia during the golden age because the desert blocked them by land and Narnia was as powerful at sea as they were. But the Telmarines hated the sea and had no navy. Why didn't they invade then?

Nobody knows. The fact is, that in Narnia's golden age, Rabadash's army was repelled from Anvard, which kept Calormen quiet for at least a generation if not more. The subsequent incoming army of Telmarines under Caspian's ten predecessors were too strong for Calormen to be interested in Narnia, and for another seven generations until Tirian's father Erlian was killed battling against giants, the dangers to Narnia came from elsewhere.

That is not to say that Calormen wasn't always around and always a bit dangerous, in an insidious sort of way. In LB the Calormenes got into Narnia by being disguised as merchants and by dealing with traitors like Shift the Ape, just as earlier, Calormene merchants were the ones who were buying slaves on the Lone Island in VDT thanks to Gumpas economics. Calormen seems to represent a worldly sort of temptation to Eustace who thinks the place sounds less phoney than anywhere else, Lucy sees herself enthroned at a great tournament in Calormen because of her beauty, and Pittencream deserts the DT to live in Calormen.

In Silver Chair, though, despite Lord Bern's VDT fears about war with Calormen, there was no mention of Calormen, apart from a recitation of the Horse and his boy or Rilian remembering a song about Corin Thunderfist, only this Queen of the Underlands and the just as insidious dangers she represents. So Silver Chair and VDT can't be linked by reference to Calormen.