Macharius wrote:War Maid's Choice, Chapter 16 wrote:Both the hradani and the Sothōii had tried at one time or another to sweep the Ghoul Moor clear and exterminate them once and for all. Unfortunately, a single female could produce literally scores of eggs in her lifetime, which was the reason even a handful of trolls or ghouls could grow to astounding numbers in an astonishingly short time. Even worse, both Troll Garth and the Ghoul Moor backed up against Barren Fell, and Barren Fell was terrible terrain to follow them into. Hilly, uneven, heavily overgrown, it offered ideal hiding places or spots from which they could ambush pursuers. And, worse yet, directly on the far side of Barren Fell, lay the Forest of the Sharmi. No one in his right mind went into the Sharmi, and upon occasion things much worse than any troll or ghoul came out of the Sharmi. At least twice, the Sothōii had believed they’d actually finished the ghouls off, only to have them re-emerge from the Sharmi and Barren Fell to reclaim the Ghoul Moor once again.
I see no way for things to change any time soon, even with a Sothōii - Hradani alliance. Both races recognize this, which is why they're not even trying to exterminate the ghouls but building forts and establishing patrols instead.
It might be possible long-term, but that's likely longer than the scope of the story yet to be told by RFC.
Rifles, especially cartridge-fed ones, would probably do the trick of driving them off any land that 'civilization' wanted to claim from the Ghouls. Anything short of that, however, probably not. And even that is unlikely to be enough to exterminate them... it would just drive them away.
So far we've been given no clue that Weber has any intention of going there in this series, however. And with the Dwarvish ability of their sarthnaisks, they have no NEED to develop gunpowder for mining purposes. So unless Sword Brother in some fashion 'contaminates' the technological development, I could easily see gunpowder never being developed during the entirety of this remaining series.