I'd like anecdotal stuff about some of the main cultures, or even better stuff I could use for possible naval encounters. There must be more to the isles than just canoes and Haragalan Tallships...
I'm also still puzzled where the Haragalans get their divine sun magics. Do the larger of the East Isles (like Haragala or Mokato) have more than one deity? I mean, both Mokato and Haragala are about as large as Sartar or Tarsh, geographically, and will likely be less uniform in cult and culture than say Rathmorasomangon, the island of Comb and Braid (and no, I did not know _that_ name, but had to look it up).
>Me
>>2) the Admiral of Rightarm betrayed the rest of Kethaela, and later
>>had his fleet sunk by the Wolf Pirates. It's clear that the balance
>>of power in Rightarm has passed from the humans to the mermen. Now
>>they are in charge.
>Joerg puzzles
>>Ok, I did know that the Rightarm isles are effectively run by the
>>Ludoch. The Islander admiral has nominal control of all the fleet
>Yes. His power is far lessened now.
Apparently the fleet has. Since I am currently working on various Mirrorsea Navy related matters, I keep wondering about the size of the Pharaonic navy, and the number of ships in the Holy Country beyond this body of ships.
After only one year, the Holy Country had outfitted 42 ocean-going ships for a quick strike against the Alatan navy. This in addition to the flottilla traveling westward with Dormal, and likely more ships being used for internal transport on the Mirrorsea.
When did the Admiral come to importance? Did his office exist already before the Closing, or was it created when Dormal Opened the seas?
>>I did not know that the Ludoch did forsake their historical allies
>>at any point - the Wolf Pirate success over the Pharaonic navy was
>>possible even with mermen support of the Holy Country,
> They did not have to forsake their allies. They fought at the
>destruction of the navy, and carried many, if not most, of the losing
>sailors to safety ashore.
Did they make a distinction between the sailors and the marines (and other warriors on board the Holy Country ships)? (Did the Wolf Pirates?)
(In reply to Peter Metcalfe's correction of my dates: I still think it's a pity that Harrek did not command the Ice Serpent in this battle...)
>>What puzzled me most is Sandy's sequence of events. The Kethaelan
>>fleet is sunk in 1616, three years before any Lunar move south from
>>Sartar.
>I misspoke -- the betrayal of the Lunar admiral was during
>the Kethaelan civil war. There was Lunar meddling in the war, but not
>an troop invasion.
I suppose you mean the 1620 siege of Karse (when the fleet carried off the Caladraland defenders), and the 1621-1624 civil war in Esrolia? Or do you say that after the Pharaoh's disappearance in 1616 and his failure to reappear by Sea Season 1617 was followed by a civil war not only in kingless Heortland, but all over Kethaela?
>>Of course the mermen were largely untouched by this defeat - what
>>are ships to them?
> Ships are items of worth to land-dwellers -- they can be used
>to achieve and maintain domination over the humans by controlling
>ship numbers or access. And the fact that the mermen would be
>untouched by such a defeat was known to the mermen before the battle.
Still, the mermen (in fact their Wenelian brethren) had called the Pharaoh and his ships to their aid in 1582 against Alatan (in the first of a proud tradition of desastrous defeats of Holy Country fleets, almost as continuous as Napoleon's fleets performed...).
>>What would the Ludoch gain from this shift of alliances?
> What _have_ they gained? The wreck of the City of Wonders.
Well, Loon Island still disturbs the centre of the Mirrorsea Bay, even though it cannot be entered any more (if it is Loon Island upon which Belintar built his city - seems logical to me, even though I can't think of a reason why to call the island that way. Any Ralian Old Beast Society connections?).
>The elimination of the Holy Country's fleet.
Once again. This was the third major eradication of a Holy Country fleet. It seems that the Aldryami suffer more from this than either the Holy Country sailors or the economy, since the Pharaoh always commissioned new, and better, ships.
>The destruction of any
>means of convenient communication between the various factions of the
>Holy Country, thus tending to break up and disunify the factions even
>more -- from which some factions have suffered more than others
>(notably the Esrolians).
Was this defeat that serious? Then how do the Capratis grain ships travel to and from Nochet? And are all fishing vessels and fish freighters (to carry local catches to the markets at Karse, Nochet, or Vizel to cater for inland customers) affected?
In my vision of the Holy Country, what was lost were the rowed galleys, both pure military vessels and semi-military merchant galleys forming kind of a ship militia, crewed with militia marines from the surrounding lands. Quite a couple of these vessels made their way into the Wolf Pirate fleet, IMO. Overall, the number of military vessels on and around the Mirrorsea Bay hasn't changed much, only the dominance of a single power is broken. I really wonder what the Ludoch gain from this. The Pharaoh, for all his magic-grabbing, ritual-warping ways, was an ally of the merfolk, and never hesitated to send considerable ressources to their aid. Why should they want to weaken this ally?
On a geographically related issue: what is the role of the sea trolls off the shore of the Holy Country? According to the distribution map in Gloranthan Bestiary, they inhabit all the waters frm the Rozgali Sea to Valind's Glacier (as well as the seas around the Jrusteli Archipelago and the East Isles). This overlaps mostly with the Ludoch realms of Genertela and the East Isles, with the Ouori shore areas of western Genertela, and with the Malasp are of the Jrusteli isles. (BTW: Why do the Ludoch and Ouori habitats overlap in the Seshnegi Isles when it is stated elsewhere that Ludoch and Ouori have not had contact for centuries? Misinformed sources?)
And where do the murthdryami fit into the offshore politics? Their habitat coincides with both sea trolls and Manirian ludoch.
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #162
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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