>1) mountain people - you're right. However, the number of people who can
>climb up a mountain AND see much further than the next (usually immediately
>adjacent and commonly opaque) mountain: rather small. Those that can are
>usually on an island. Not much to map. But of this amount of people, you
>find that indeed, they DID draw "panoramic maps" (i.e. what you are talking
>about) - you can find such things as far back as Homeric art.
Huh? I'm curious what you mean by Homeric art. Do you mean Minoan frescoes with nifty pictures of islands, dolphins and boats (closest analogy I can find in pre-Archaic Greek art that mit fit the bill for "panoramic map")? Although they are nifty, they aren't exactly useful for finding your way around. The later sailors of the Mediterranean did have coastline maps, but frankly, these were pretty crude affairs.
>2) proportion of fliers who would be doing such a thing: I have two
>arguments for this.
OK, when we are speaking of Gloranthan fliers, we are, in effect speaking about the Orlanthi. Other than an occasional Moon Boat, the Orlanthi are just about the ONLY flying peoples of Glorantha. Among the Orlanthi, maybe one in ten or one in fifty men can fly. Pretty much all Orlanthi fly once a year - on the High Holy Day when they fly from their sacred grounds to Orlanth's Hall atop Kero Fin (or Top of the World). However, this is during the midst of sacred ritual and ceremonial heroquesting - I doubt ANYONE is making a map (if they did, they wouldn't be part of the ceremony and would doubtless fall from the air to their death).
>Firstly, only in our era (where maps are everywhere)
>could it be even suggested that maps aren't that important. I think that's
>a late 20th Century mindset. True, historical populations were much^3 more
>static. But those that did need to travel, needed maps desperately
>(generals, merchants, and pilgrims, to name a few).
Oh well, pity these guys don't have good maps then. Seriously, Orlanthi maps would be tend to be schematic things, emphasizing sacred hills and peaks over more prosaic concerns. Dara Happan maps if anything are even more schematic, with stylistic concerns overshadowing petty interests like accuracy. And so on.
Jeff
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