Interesting. Are there any records or preparations left from this session? I have been planning a similar, but geographically limited event as a Freeform for one of the German RQ-Cons to come, located in late 1617 kingless Heortland only. Any such background information would be extremely helpful...
>>I suppose that the first reaction was to call for a Tournament of
>>the Masters of Luck and Death
>This civil war was, in effect, a kind of MOLADS tourney.
An unusual one, then, especially since the 1616 Tournament was "wrong" both in the outcome and the cause.
>>But did the other Sixths have any realistic candidate to unify all
>>the Sixths?
> "realistic"? They had Richard the Tigerhearted, the Admiral,
>several competing Esrolian matriarchs, the Littlest Only Old One,
>Gemborg's champion, and at least one Lunar imposter? If they'd been
>able to unite behind one of them, they might have been able to get
>somewhere, I suppose. But none of them really sound like future
>Pharaoh material, do they?
I wasn't even looking for a pharaoh, only a leader strong enough to make a majority of the Holy Country follow his lead.
>The Kingdom of Jab, like most Gloranthan (and
>real-world) catastrophes, had multiple antecedents. One way to look
>at it is like this: If Richard hadn't weakened the Storm Bull cult
>(which was a hotbed of Heortling resistance to his regime), then the
>scorpion folk would not have been able to organize. But they still
>needed the vulnerability of the humans via civil strife and the
>stimulus of Lunar aid in order to trigger their onslaught.
That sounds like there was/will be a major involvement of the Queendom with greater politics at some time. King of Sartar mentions a chaos outbreak around 1622 (p.150), but that sounds like way too late to relate to the campaign you seem to have played in.
>If Richard had kept suppressing the Footprint,
as well as numerous other essential Orlanthi and even Aeolian tasks of the office of the king,
>then the
>Queendom would not have been able to seize its opportunity when the
>countryside erupted.
What happened? Were there huge bands of scorpionmen roving around in 1616/1617?
>It would not have been there. On the other hand,
>if the Lunars and civil war hadn't occurred, the Queendom may have
>been forced to bide its time, or when it _did_ invade, it would have
>done far less harm, because the humans could have responded to the
>outbreak in an organized manner much more swiftly.
When?
> Of course, I suppose we could blame the Storm Bulls for
>wasting their time resisting Richard instead of keeping up their
>anti-chaos duties.
Did they resist Richard, or did they resist the sudden lack of essential support (like beer supply) when the Rokari stopped the redistribution of the tithes?
>And in my heart of hearts, I can't help but feel
>that the scorpion folk are at least a _little_ at fault here. ;)
You mean the three queens which let themselves be eaten?
>>What is the Ludoch position to the cult of Dormal?
> Officially, the Rightarm Island Ludoch are friendly to it.
>Cynically, if there were no ships at all, the Ludoch would have less
>opportunity to meddle with surface life.
I know the official position, it's the same position which granted "mermen aid" to the Holy Country fleets throughout their major naval battle desasters (except the battle in Kralorela, which cannot be blamed upon the Ludoch at all).
>>Would they support the Waertagi in their campaign to eradicate the
>>cult?
> Dunno. They haven't yet. Maybe because there are so few
>Waertagi, and those that are around have not yet tried to eradicate
>the Dormal boats, either because they are too busy looking for other
>things, or because the Dormal shipping is too vast.
If you buy into the Sanctuary-Refuge parallel, I find it all too tempting to make the Beysib invasion of Asprin's Sanctuary a Waertagi invasion in Refuge. Actually the invasion would be an invasion of refugee Waertagi who had a major disagreement with the majority or new power, if one wants to take that parallel further, but I believe that this makes a useful plotline for character interaction, and even provides a couple of well-described NPCs (even with RQ stats). With the current dearth of publications, this existing material shouldn't be ignored.
>Note that it is
>possible that the Waertagi aren't anti-Dormal at all. The fact that
>they are apt to attack Dormal-type boats is probably the result of
>the fact that they are apt to attack _anyone_. And Dormal's ships are
>among the most common.
Depends on what sources you read. The Seshnela section of Genertela Book quite explicitely states that the Waertagi will attempt to eradicate the cult of Dormal, and that they will fight Pasos and Nolos first, then the Wolf Pirates.
On another topic: I believe that _all_ ships afloat on the high seas in the 3rd Age are Dormal ships, or at least ships altered to use Dormal's techniques. Possibly wiht the exception of elf gallegas and mostali cement ships.
The most explicit description is in the Holy Country section of the RuneQuest Companion, p.22 (_not_ in the boxed text):
"Dormal maintained that his success was built on a few simple factors, and as long as they were maintained then other men could sail as he did. These factors include: ship design, a practical stout ship with sails; propitiatory worship, especially to the water gods; and formal cooperation among the crew."
Despite what Greg said in the Convulsion 3D Lore Auction, in my Glorantha all ships which can perform the ritual of Opening have been altered in a slight way from 2nd Age (or older) designs. I do not believe that the trick for the 3rd Age seagoing ships is that they are camouflaged as sea monsters, with flippers, sharkskin or whatever (I believe that this was what Greg objected to at the Lore Auction). However, since Dormal did alter the ship design inherited from the 2nd Age (to no little extent thanks to the Lhankor Mhy library in Nochet) there must be a subtle, but decisive difference between his type of ship and the pre-Closing types.
It cannot be the development of tubby, sail-driven merchant ships. Every sea-going culture has used these as soon as they left reed boats or balsa floats behind.
My best theory so far is that it has to do with the keel of the ship.
>> If so, why should they prefer a Waertagi domination on the seas?
> Because they're kin.
So are the Malasp and Ysabbau... Kin makes the best rivals. Could you imagine the Aggarites destroy Lunar Sylila only to make place for the Bilini? Or the king of Raibanth destroying the horse warlords to give way for a ruler from Yuthuppa or Alkoth?
>>The money spent [on new fleets] was actually beneficial to the Holy
>>Country:
> Possibly so, but he could have spent the same amount of money
>on ships even if he'd still _had_ his previous fleet. The Holy
>Country has no shortage of sailors. Then instead of rebuilding one
>fleet over and over, he could have had three separate fleets.
What would he have done with them? The secret behind the Pharaoh's power is that every single subject kingdom or whatever owes allegiance due to a special feat Belintar performed when he entered the land (i.e. between 1313 and 1318). This explains his unability to establish a permanent hold over the Ditali better than all the talk of militarily inept Esrolites. The Pharaoh has no sovereignty powers outside of his Holy Country. He could not have conquered and held the Newcoast ports even with full support from the Ludoch. His magics would not have held.
Except for the 1616 defeat, all the major naval defeats of a Holy Country war fleet occurred outside of the range of Pharaonic magic. The 1616 battle is so ominous because Pharaonic magic failed to work _on his own ground_.
The exact dates for the battles (sea battle, Lion King's Feast) and the disappearance of the Pharaoh would be extremely interesting. Nick Brooke has established the latter as part of the Year King rites in Esrolia, which makes the harvest festival in late Earth Season the most likely date for Jar-eel's entry into the rites. Compare Hon-eel's appearance in Tarsh in 1490...
Powered by hypermail