Joerg Baumgrtner:
> IMO Gloranthan "iron" is an element alien to its earliest ages, [snip]
> (Probably related to Humakt and Eurmal bringing in Death from beyond
> Subere's caves.) The development of the Mostali iron crucible was
> about contemporary to Middle or Late Storm Age.
> My suggestion is that iron came into the world(s) as the four original,
> pure worlds collided. It is the metal of Separation, and it is found
> at or near the seams where the collision took place, plus deep below.
I'd like to promote this thought. I want to combine this with some things Peter Metcalfe pointed. IMO historical problems can be avoided.
Peter Metcalfe:
>> Even if there was a cast iron reference that the pre-Ban >> Loskalmi did not smelt iron to any great extent, that does not >> prevent them from discovering how to do so and doing so on a >> large scale during the Ban as part of the plan to make >> Siglat's Dream come true.
My suggestion is that maybe the Loskalmi did not smelt that much iron during the ban. But with increased magnitude _after_ the ban.
They did have the plan of new prosperity, the Siglat's Dream. So they discovered the secrets of iron: and, as they knew them to some extent: researched the deeper meanings, the origins. They prepared. Indeed they may have recycled most of the iron that Loskalm held! To advance, to perfect the processes. They built up a infrastructure. They prepared for a larger scale iron work.
When the ban lifted (in snatches) they were ready.
What was The Ban, if not Separation?! The Loskalmi counted on that meaningful deposits of iron ore could be found after the ban would be removed. The wizards were able to (correctly) predict that Syndic's Division would create meaningful deposits of iron ore.
I'd say Loskalm is leading the leap towards Iron Age (in the western Glorantha.)
points summary
* The Ban created new iron deposits along syndic's borders
all over Fronela; after the mists blew away they have been
searched for, annexed and accessed by the Loskalmi.
Peter Metcalfe:
>> We are informed that the Loskalmi have enough iron to equip >> over twenty thousand knights _and_ they've recently started >> putting *barding* on all the horses of one particular regiment.
We can recognize that the Loskalmi quest for steel is beyond compare to what has been seen in the face of the middle world.
It should be enough to allow both extensive trade on Castle Coast and endogenous iron sources from the bowels of the Great Kingdom, and still cry for more!
The downcast of Loskalm's progress is that the hu-metal is the metal of war and death. If post syndic's Fronela is filled with it, it will lead to a worst imaginable war.
"With good, comes Evil." -The Kingdom
The seams between worlds:
>> Except that a) the Von Hills are not in Pent and b) the four >> worlds hypothesis in the form that you describe it has a big >> problem in that the Greatlands have always been Animistic.
Details-metails, on the scale of such broad strokes, no offence. b) Greatlands are Animistic, because they are that much closer to the Underworld. a) may not be in Pent, but may still express seams in-between theist/mystic/underworld in the middle world.
Dwarven deposits:
> Nida might have very deep deposits of iron,
>> Why must they be "deep" and not "accessible"?
Why not "deep", and yet "accessible" (for the love of Moria)?
> That still doesn't mean that I expect deposits in Loskalm proper.
> As far as I am concerned, Loskalm during the Ban was cut off
> from iron imports, and had to make do with what was in the
> country. Which probably was a huge amount, more than the Lunar
> Empire holds.
Yes. Following my thoughts, the iron deposits of modern Fronela would not be on ban-era Loskalm proper, but beyond, along ban borders. Valid reason for Loskalm to expand.
Other thought, river Janube was heavily parceled by the ban. I could imagine "iron washers" along it's course nowadays. (Hm, maybe river Janube's waters dont turn iron into rust?)
"There is nothing like desire for preventing the thing one says from bearing any resemblancce to what one has in mind." - Marcel Proust, Rememberance of Things Past -
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