>Terra Incognita:
>>King Bryan evacuates the City of Wonder to Harrek. What's the meaning of
>>it?
Peter Metcalfe:
>He's allowing Harrek to sack the City in return for continued
>military support.
> "Broyan also urged [Argrath] to ask Harrek to come and
> help [...]. So Harrek came too and as payment he asked
> for Broyan's Greatest City. The unhappy king could
> only agree."
> KoS p22
>The consequences of this are severe. When Broyan marches north
>in 1625:
> "Among the Kitori, a small bright light was snuffed out,
> and a demon which had many sharp mouths was let out of
> its skin. It sought vengeance, and fell upon the army
> of King Broyan while they slept. The king could not
> keep it away, because he betrayed the City of Wonders,
> and he was killed there with his army."
> KoS p152.
>At first I thought Broyan had betrayed his oaths to the Pharaoh
>by allowing Harrek to plunder it, but this is not the case
>considering that Broyan is now known to be a Pharaonic foe.
As I wrote in a message still in my outgoing queue, I think that Broyan had gained power by his recognition as protector of Kethaela after he had pushed the Lunars out at Pennel Ford. He loses this power and more when he sells the City of Wonders to Harrek. The Kitori exploit this weakness later that year.
Note that the Minaryth Blue timeline hints at Broyan alive later than this.
At Tentacles, Greg said something about the players having a choice how to play out the reign of Kallyr, with all the options from Kallyr's permanent death in the Battle of the Queens to her death at the hands of Harrek after the sack of Muse Roost (early in 1630). The story line will pick up the various possible threads with the invasion of Tarsh again. (At least that was last summer's truth...)
>I'm now thinking that since the City disappeared before Harrek
>could plunder it properly (VoG),
Don't you misread this? The VoG story has a reality split with one reality for the Wolf Pirates plundering and slaying as much as they want, and another reality taking the city (in the state before the attack) into another realm.
>he and his boon companions
>turned up drunk at Whitewall feeling cheated and demanding
>compensation. Broyan forced to make a difficult decision,
>decides wrongly and allows Harrek to plunder Whitewall
>instead. This betrayal of his coronation oaths exposes him
>to the vengeance of the demon with many mouths although its
>identity is unknown.
Harrek apparently isn't after mundane loot, but after huge collections of otherworldly artifacts. City of Wonders, Muse Roost, and possibly Ralzakark Scorpionarm's collection in Fort Wrath (see the cover of the Genertela Box) are his yummy targets. I doubt that Whitewall after the Lunar conquest has much to offer. Most of Whitewall's magical plunder will have been eaten by the Brown Dragon, since Tatius will have concentrated all locally available magic into his temple project.
>>In Introduction to HW, Pharaoh forced Heortlanders to use Marches
>>and Barons, Earls. Maybe they stopped using them after JarEel killed
>>Pharaoh...
>I doubt it. After the Pharaoh was killed, Heortland was under
>the rule of Rikard who would have kept the titles rather than
>gone back to the older forms.
I agree - if anything, all of Heortland now uniformly has nobility with western titles (and in most cases, western pedigree as well). Think Ivanhoe.
Joerg Baumgartner (via Hotmail)
mailto:joe_at_toppoint.de
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