This is a fair amount in print about bits and pieces of Heortland, but little things like "who was the last king of Heortland" is unknown. However, its history is largely contained in the history of its periphery, which is kind of odd. I don't think it was Belintar himself who said "let there be sheriffs, marches, and earls" - rather I think it was Andrin who made those changes after his return by the God-King. Why the reborn king decided to make those reforms is something of mystery.
> Really? That's new to me. See, it's always nice to learn things.
Everything is SO Sartar
> based I always assumed that the descriptions of traditional
Orlanthi were Sartar, and
> that Heortland was different. So the Homeland Heortland in the
main book should be
> considered to apply to Herotland primarily?
There's a lot of old material from some years back on the Glorantha Digest from Nick and myself to that regard. The fact of the matter is that Sartar punches way above its weight and it might be better to think of the Quivini as being something of an anachronistic throwback compared to the Tarshites and the Heortlendings.
The biggest differences is that most of the Heortlendings will have sheriffs instead of chieftains, baronies instead of tribal kingdoms and earldoms instead of tribal confederations. But AFAIK, the Heortlendings (with the BIG exception of the Esvulari) are otherwise fairly standard Heortlings.
> I assume the extra three was a mistake. :-) OK, so there are how
many tribes in
> Heortland? I'm only using Dragon Pass right now, since someone has
my copy of
> Glorantha: Introduction to the Hero Wars. Here we are told of the
4 tribes in the
> Volsaxar Confederation, which are obviously not the tribes you are
speaking of.
Thunder Rebels details the four large tribes of the Hendreiki confederation: Volsaxar to the north, the Jondalarings of Karhend around Jansholm, the Hurlant of Gardufar around Durengard, and the Esvulari to the south. There are some other smaller tribes like Jondalar as well. Maybe more.
> OK, so really only the middle two earldoms work with this
approach. The northernmost is
> officially part of the Kingdom, but has always been somewhat
problematic and not
> accepting the high king (who's capital is??). The Southernmost
earldom is where we've
> got the Esvulari, who acknowledge the high king, but have a much
more Westernized
> culture, and where the Aeolian church is strongest.
This is more or less how I see it. Some two centuries ago (I think - Greg can always correct me), Hardrard the Green moved the Volsaxi tribal center from Karstanstead to Whitewall. Karstanstead became just a summer lodge.
It is worth keeping in mind that since Andrin was reborn, power drifted into the hands of the Esvulari, "unobtrusively efficient followers of the Aeolian Church."
> And so if I understand, clans are as clans are, a group of clans
can be part of a tribe,
> and a tribe would have a king. In a strange Heortland thing, an
earl oversees the tribes
> of a region (each earl was based in a city, I presume?) using the
sheriffs. The High King
> rules the earls.
Again, that is how I see it. One big difference is that the High King replaced the clan chieftains with sheriffs. That reform is part of the reason so many Hendreiki left Heortland for Quiviniland - and is probably a reason that Hardrard the Green and the Volsaxi resisted "the Pharoah and the king of Heortland".
> Great, something else to hunt down. Can I just assume they are
more urban and feudal,
> rather than the clan/tribe structure I outlined above?
Yep. The Tradetalk article is really good and maybe some of the authors might jump in.
> I'm definitely making it a cosmopolitan city, with a bit of an
underside where you can get
> anything you need if you are willing to pay for it.
Sounds right to me. I just don't think it has the "racial conflict" between the Old Matriarchy folk and the nasty Master Race folk. However, by all means keep the map if you have it!
Jeff
Powered by hypermail