From: RuneQuest-Request@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RQ Digest Maintainer)
To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (Daily automated RQ-Digest)
Reply-To: RuneQuest@Glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM (RuneQuest Daily)
Subject: RuneQuest Daily, Tue, 31 May 1994, part 4
Sender: Henk.Langeveld@Holland.Sun.COM
Content-Return: Prohibited
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---------------------
From: 100102.3001@CompuServe.COM (Peter J. Whitelaw)
Subject: non-Gloranthan notes. Batch Six
Message-ID: <940530153120_100102.3001_BHJ55-8@CompuServe.COM>
Date: 30 May 94 15:31:21 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 4263
THE TASKAN EMPIRE
==================
Cities of the Taskan Heartland - Part III
------------------------------------------------
Tarsang, Burial of Tarsen The Founder
Tarsang is a city famous as the headquarters of many of the Empire's merchants
and shippers. Goods entering the Empire by boat from the Inland Sea, or
overland via the caravan routes through Yegusai and Djesmirket, are traded on
the market here before being shipped on to their final destinations. A network
of courts serve as market-places where the bulk trades take place, regulated and
taxed by the local Emperor-cult. A cartel of warehouse owners also profits from
the volume of goods passing through the city, and a local thieves' network is
said to steal goods to order for customers all across the Empire.
Tarsang has a deep-water harbour, and dry docking facilities are available at
the shipwrights' yards a couple of miles down the coast. The harbour is fronted
by a line of great warehouses, offering storage space at rates which reflect the
conditions of the building and the level of security offered. Just outside the
city walls through Merchant's Gate is the caravanserai, and an area of inns,
hostels and taverns and residences known as the Foreigners' Quarter. This is
the only part of the city in which foreigners - non citizens of the empire - are
allowed to own property. Also outside the walls is the Necropolis, with its
gloomy Temple of Gomorg. The 'temple' is no more than a shrine, built out of
black volcanic stone, and its entrance has been bricked up for many years.
The city has two defence-works. Azmin's wall is a long curtain wall, pierced by
five gates, that circumvallates the whole city - except the Foreigners' Quarter
and Caravanserai as noted above - and stands to a height of 6m. This wall
extends out into the bay to embrace the harbour. There are only a few towers
sited at strategic vantage points, and the battlements are simple and unadorned.
This wall is not terribly defensible, and the chief purpose of its construction
was to demonstrate the munificence of its sponsor while at the same time
providing work for unemployed townsfolk. The citadel wall is a much more
complex affair, 10m high with towers every 30m along its length and machicolated
battlements. This embraces the Priests' quarter where the Zygas Taga temple is
to be found with its associated courts and administrative buildings, and the
Public Quarter, incorporating the Tomb of Tarsen with its immense statue, the
theatre, the cistern, Founder's Market and a residential district of tenement
blocks.
The New City - that area outside the citadel circumscribed by Azmin's wall - has
three residential quarters (Osbek, Niomis and Sugal), the warehouse quarter
(Dismani) and the Merchant's Quarter. The warehouse quarter hosts the offices
of the various shipping companies, of which the most prestigious maintain a
booth in the Court of The Corporations, adjoining the Temple of Jarmost. The
Inns and taverns in this part of town are rather more expensive than those of
the Foreigners' Quarter the other side of the wall, and cater to the tastes of
Tarsenian travellers and sailors passing through the port rather than to
outlanders. The Merchants' Quarter is the centre of all the trade in the town,
and in its courts the traders buy and sell commodities in great quantities,
small fortunes changing hands each day. The whole show is orchestrated by the
Guild of the Purple Cloth, the agency appointed by the ruling priests of the
Emperor-Cult as regulators. The Purple Cloth is a square piece of material on
which traders must stand if they are offering a deal. All offers made and deals
struck while 'on the cloth' are legally binding, and anyone who reneges is
liable for heavy fines.
People of Importance
Prominent citizens of Tarsang include:
Nysim Dal
Nysim is the head of Tarsang's Emperor-cult. He is only 43 years of age, having
won his position due to the lack of competitors who had any knowledge of the
sorcerous arts. He is not yet even a magus. Nysim's family is very famous in
the city. His grandfather gave the city her walls and his father built the
theatre. His shame is to have failed to father any offspring to inherit the
family's considerable fortune.
Majisdar Thamas
Majisdar is the Zygas Taga priest appointed to head up the Guild of the Purple
Cloth. As such he has great influence due to his authority over the commodity
exchanges of the Merchants' Quarter. The Guild also oversees the issuing of
licences to the shippers and the allocation of space in the Court of the
Corporations. This provides its officials - in particular Majisdar Thamas -
with ample opportunities for lining their own pockets. Majisdar is 56 years
old. Two of his sons and a daughter have all been provided with comfortable and
lucrative positions within various trading houses as a gesture of goodwill to
their father. A third son is currently serving in the army stationed at
Pryjarna.
Juparil Somorg
Juparil is chief of Tarsang's smugglers and thieves. His network is
sufficiently powerful to have 'relationships' with many warehouse owners from
whom they steal fixed quotas of goods over and agreed period of time. His chief
accomplice is the local agent of the Shippers' Corporation of Kispal and Nyrra
(two small towns in Felkar district), who organises the shipment and sale of the
goods acquired. This corporation has an office in the warehouse district by
the harbour. Juparil's regular job is as a scribe of the Guild of the Purple
Cloth, where he is employed in checking the quality, quantity and volume of
goods offered for sale in the commodity exchanges to ensure fair trading and
assess the goods for tax purposes.
Thagrish Martigern
Thagrish is the bugbear whose name is used to strike fear into the children -
and sometimes the adults - of Tarsang. Thagrish was a priest of Gomorg, long
rumoured to be a necromancer, who was ever renowned for his macabre sense of
humour and ghoulish habits. After the murder of several children and young
women of the city, Thagrish was deemed to be the culprit, and bricked up in his
temple. It is said that he nevertheless escapes from this prison - in body or
in soul - to stalk the weak and carry them off to the halls of the dead. Since
his 'execution' 12 years ago, no successor has been appointed to staff the
temple, and it is shunned by all except for the obligatory offerings before it
during funeral processions.
Lagash, Artistic Capital of The Empire
Lagash, with its great temple to Mansu, is where poets, choristers and musicians
and actors go for the very best training. From its academies come most if not
all of the artistic fashions that shape Tarsenian high culture. It is also the
place which most guilds of players claim for their home town in order to enhance
their prestige. The city holds annual festivals for drama, music, poetry and
dance, and a biannual festival in which these artistic forms are brought
together into original productions presented by rival playwrights. The winning
piece goes into the canon of 'great works' that are the staple of all the larger
theatrical companies. The festivals attract entrants and audiences from all
around the Empire. At festival time the Inns are full to bursting, and many
competitors have to be billeted with the townsfolk.
Lagash is situated in fine surroundings overlooking the Straits of Fashmar, from
the lower slopes of Mt Aranakis. The mountain plays a central role in the
towns' success - on its slopes is the city's fine theatre and the associated
Temple of Mansu situated at the village of Jumart. The complex incorporates an
infirmary, as it is thought that the enjoyment of the arts has a beneficial
effect on the body and soul, and Mansu's priests are skilled healers. In its
higher reaches of the mountain devotees of the god go to fast and meditate, in
the hope that Mansu will send him one of the spirits that blesses the artist
with divine inspiration.
On a small plateau in the foothills on the seaward side is the main town, and
below that on the coast is the port of Fashmar, which is counted as one of its
suburbs. The harbourage at Fashmar is very limited, but there is a good beach
for shallow-drafted vessels. It is essentially a fishing port, but there is a
naval squadron here which prevents foreign shipping from entering the Straits.
The main town has four suburbs - the Priests' Quarter centred around the Zygas
Taga temple which is the seat of the civil administration; Iropitra Quarter, an
area of shops and tenements with a small Temple of Bast; Sesklo or Farmers'
Quarter, a residential area where the town's main food market is held, inhabited
mostly by those who make a living in the surrounding country as farmers,
herdsmen and hunters; and Ashrah Quarter, which is a wealthy and fashionable
area which counts among its inhabitants the more successful teachers and several
famous writers and performers. It is to the smart establishments of Ashrah that
visiting dignitaries and aesthetes bring their custom when in town for the
festivals. Many of them have private rooms hired out as auditoria for recitals
to select audiences of potential patrons.
Lagash's necropolis is situated in a narrow defile several hundred yards from
the outskirts, the mortuary houses built onto or even cut into the hillsides.
The wealthiest have their tombs higher up the slope, cut into a rock-face which
provides a vantage point out to sea. The four suburbs of the main town embrace
on three sides an expanse of open ground which is given over to the militia on
Army Day, but at other times serves for leisure activities, from sports to
theatricals. In one corner is a collection of small shrines dedicated to
various Tarsenian gods.
Fashmar is the home of many fisherman, and the base for a squadron of 5 light
galleys. The rowers, militiamen drawn from the poorest conscripts of Lagash and
Tarsang, and the professional soldiers and sailors who serve on deck are housed
together in purpose built blocks at one end of the beach. Local men are often
permitted to live at home in order to ease overcrowding. Fashmar has several
taverns and brothels to counter to the naval contingent. There is no deep water
harbour here, and merchant vessels must anchor in a sheltered cove some two
miles away. Warehousing facilities are limited, as the volumes of trade passing
through the town are quite small. At the opposite end of Fashmar to the
barracks are a number of villas, mostly owned by wealthy individuals from
Tarsang, Zarina and Taskay. These are built to afford the owner charming views
and access to an area of beach reserved for leisure activities. They stand
vacant except for the caretakers most of the year, but are used as holiday homes
in the festival season.
People of Importance
Influential among the people of Lagash are:
Gortim Nubast
Gortim is the only noteworthy sorcerer in Lagash, and has the lofty status of
chief priest of the city's Emperor-cult.
---------------------
From: henkl@aft-ms-11 (Henk Langeveld - Sun Nederland)
Subject: Re: Stomp!
Message-ID: <9405300739.AA13879@yelm.Holland.Sun.COM>
Date: 30 May 94 08:39:53 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 4247
Martin (Argrath@AOL):
>Re: Jardine's True Dragons
> Loved the Dodge table. I think the GM might just *tell* you
>about it, rather than make you actually roll on it... if he or
>she wants the game to continue.
> Ever see the (very) short film "Bambi meets Godzilla"?
Ever seen the sequel, Bambi's Revenge?
--
Henk | Henk.Langeveld@Sun.COM - Disclaimer: I don't speak for Sun.
oK[] | My first law of computing: "NEVER make assumptions"
---------------------
From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: Immanent _and_ transcendent IG
Message-ID:
Date: 30 May 94 09:03:30 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 4248
Martin Crim in X-RQ-ID: 4230
> Re: Orlanthi taxes to support non-farmers
> The poor work for a living, it's just a bad living.
> Housecarls in Sartar do some farming, and take largesse from
> their chief,
Most probably the housecarls have thralls or a retainer of their own
to work their plot of land, and they lend a hand only at times of
specific manpower shortage, like harvest. (Remember? no harvest time
raids...)
> who gets it from the farmers as taxes.
On what grounds do farmers pay taxes? The land belongs to the clan, so
maybe the clan chief gets a portion of the harvest, but else I see
little reason for the king to receive a share of the harvest. (But
see below.)
> The smith
> gets paid by the farmers (in bushels of grain) for shoeing their
> horses (does anybody know if there are such things as bronze
> horseshoes?),
Not on Earth, to my knowledge, but keep in ming that Gloranthan "bronze"
has all the properties of average iron except in production and processing.
Surely we need another term for "blacksmith" on Glorantha to denote
the village smith who shoes horses and makes and repairs agricultural
tools.
> making their pots and swords, etc. No, their
> tithes to the temple are separate.
Temple tithes would often be an intra-clan affair. I don't imagine even
a degenerate (=civilized) Orlanthi culture like Sartar to import priests
from foreign clans, let alone tribes or nations, except as strange add-ons
to increase local power, mostly as private relation to someone in power.
WRT taxes:
I know that real earth comparisons aren't en vogue, but how about this
Anglosaxon legal bit?
The Dark Age and medieval kings may have had their strongholds as
powerbases, but what really made their kingdoms hold together were the
regular visits with their populace, to hold court (royal=jurisdictional),
reinforce alliances, etc. Their hosts had to feed them and their retinue.
Later, this curriculum was reduced. The king would not give up this
privilege, though, but instead he'd estimate the amount of food his
retinue would have devoured, and levy this as a tax.
This tax would have gone either to the local reeve of the king, to any
official of the king who held a position somewhere in the neighbourhood,
or it would have been given to the king's deputy doing the former royal
routine when reaching the place.
The main income for kings and other lords would have been tolls - for
fording, ferrying, or use of roads. The Sartarite kings were so successful
because by their roadbuilding tradition they had safe sources of income.
> Re: Immanence and Transcendence
> Unlike Paul, I see both the Hrestoli and the Rokari leaning
> towards transcendence, along with the Brithini, Sedalpists, and
> Vadeli. Here are some of the corollaries of this belief: the
> world is the creation of the IG, and therefore inferior to Him.
> The world is a thing made with a purpose, which is to take us
> beyond it, to Solace. Making is good, in imitation of the IG.
> The Hrestoli see the caste progression as a way toward perfection
> and thus departure to the right afterlife.
The Aeolians share much of this view. Using the trinity concept, they
say that the creator is transcendent, but that the recreator of the
world is immanent. The third part of the trinity is the mediator
between these twain.
One important difference between Hrestoli and Arkati-descended sects
on one side and Brithini and Rokari on the other side is the
importance of wizards compared to knights.
From early sources on Malkionism (Son of Sartar 3, Cults of Terror)
there seems to have been an antagonism between the wizards and the
knights, which was only overcome when Arkat (for a short time) unified
their efforts against Tanisor. In the Seshnelan and Dark Empire parts
the wizards and the knights were regarded as equally strong forces,
while in 3rd Age Tanisor the knights are little more than mounted
Horali, subject to the wizards.
> The Rokari see strict
> caste obedience as the way to achieve this. All these sects
> stress gnosis over experience. They see the world as the
> interaction of impersonal forces, which the individual must face
> to achieve his goals. Individuals must restrain their impulses
> and direct themselves toward a lofty goal. These sects teach
> that there is a universal truth to be learned, and the modern
> sects believe they ought to proselytize it.
Very much my picture of the Rokari. Now imagine a band of Rokari
adventurers establishing a kingdom among a culture of mixed theist
barbarians and henotheists. These adventurers would bring along their
own wizards, who would claim all the henotheist churches and populace
by royal edict, and impose their rigid ways on the native populace. Apart
from the problem of what to do with the native nobility (which caste
would be appropriate?) and the pagans, think about the naitves' reaction
to this perversion of their own religion.
> By contrast, the Stygians, Henotheists, Boristi, Galvosti,
> and (oddly enough) Jonatings stress the IG's immanence. The see
> the universe as good, because the IG is immanent in it. They
> stress growing over making, experience over gnosis, present over
> future, etc. (all the opposite of the transcendence guys, except for
> proselytizing, which they do too). A lot of them believe in reincarnation.
This is a bit too streamlined for my taste. If the Henotheists et al
were this unified, why do we regard them as not main-stream Malkioni?
I'd treat each of your "They"s as "Some of them".
BTW, "stress growing over making":
Do the Malkioni and Brithini have a distinction between farmers (growers)
and crafters (makers) in their (possible) subdivisions of castes? To which
extent are city-dwellers subject to caste-restrictions?
Hmm, I said castes. In the cases of Rokari and Brithini, this term fits;
neither the Hrestoli nor most of the splinter sects really have castes,
they have what in German medieval jurisdiction was called "Stand"
(there were three of these: nobility, clergy, and "people"). I'm
not certain how to translate this, but I think that "class" fits much
better than "caste".
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de
---------------------
From: f6ri@midway.uchicago.edu (charles gregory fried)
Subject: Gata
Message-ID:
Date: 30 May 94 09:38:00 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 4249
Greg Fried here.
Anyone:
Here's a question. It seems to be the case that the goddess Gata is so primal
a deity that she rarely receives worship. However, in my campaign, there is
indeed a Gata priestess (I could explain, but I don't think it necessary).
Question is, what kind of benefits would she give? Obviously, some elemental
powers over Earth. But what else? I had thought the abiltity to "birth"
other Earth goddesses -- by which I mean that a Gata priestess might be able
to induct worshipers into Earth cults, and, indeed, to consacrate temples to
such deities. In other words, a Gata priestess would be a kind of shaman to
Earth gods. Thoughts? Please help -- this will have direct influence on my
campaign!
GF out.
---------------------
From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: Bingista
Message-ID:
Date: 30 May 94 09:40:07 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 4250
David Dunham asked in X-RQ-ID: 4231
> Who is Bingista?
Bingista is the rain-bringing wind from southwest in Kethaela and
southern Dragon Pass who was imprisoned by the God Learners of
Machine City inside their Machine God, Zistor. Like so often in
Orlanthi tales, the rain-bringer was freed by ripping open the
entity who had imprisoned it.
Source: King of Sartar, Orlanthi Mythology, the Machine War.
It's a local myth around which I wrote the scenario in Free INT 5.
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de
---------------------
From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
Subject: priestly requirements
Message-ID:
Date: 30 May 94 09:40:22 GMT
X-RQ-ID: 4251
David Dunham again:
>> The 10 surplus depends (in RQ3) on what happens to cast rune magic by
>>initiates. If spells learnt and cast counts towards the 10, fine. If it
>>doesn't, things become harder.
> In Adventures in Glorantha, it's only currently available rune magic. This
> fits the way we'd always played RQ3 -- if you'd cast the spell (and hadn't
> regained it somehow -- AiG allows initiates to regain one point/year), it
> didn't count towards the 10.
> If the spells aren't available to you when you become an acolyte/priest,
> what's the point of requiring 10 points of rune magic?
As soon as the character gets into this rank, it will be a matter of two
weeks at most to get these spells active again, without the need to burn
of valuable (to the community) POW.
I'd ask for ten unused points of divine magic for priests, but not
necessarily for acolytes (whom I regard as advanced initiates, following
the CoT Thanatar write-up, GoG Trickster "initiates", and the Dorastor-LoD
Telmor write-up). But then I'd restrict the speed Acolytes (and Rune Lords
in priest-dominated cults) regain their divine magic to a maximum of one
point per week.
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de