Theo:
I'm somewhat curious... Glorantha obviously has an extremely rich history, but compared to other game settings there are comparatively few physical traces of this history in the games I've played.
I speak only for Sartar.
It must depend on the campaign :). Then again, how many official scenarios have ever been set in Sartar?
Sartar has been home to the Heortlings for tens of thousands of generations, and their exile was (relatively) short. Yet the land was also subjected to the ravages of the Gods War, the Gbaji Wars, and Dragonkill.
IMG I've always emphasised the presence of the past. In Thunder Rebels, frr instance , in the 'poetic' intro to Kerofinela (p 48) it mentions that: It is an ancient land, filled with reminders of the past. The ruins of ancient empires lie all about - mostly worn and battered from titanic battles before and after the Dawn. Some still shelter evil: twisted wrecks of temples and fields of melted stones that once were armies. Some were build by the Heortling ancestors - hill forts and walls, the great mazes and the guardian stones - and these have been restored and are used once again by the tribes.
In general, how much physical evidence of the past does an average (say) Sartarite see
In the shapes of the land, in carved rocks, and in gigantic structures like hillforts and mazes I'd say 'lots'. Smaller structures not so much - though you never quite know what might turn up under your plough, or in some desolate highland ruin.
Regarding treasures, the King of Dragon Pass computer game contains lots of 'middle level' treasures, things like the Raven Banner, Vinga's Comb and the Wyrm's Footprint. There are lists of these on some of the KODP websites.
The greatest and most valuable treasures of the Heortlings, however, are not things but stories - myths that reveal the hidden paths of the Other Side and reveal how the Creative Powers there can be tapped and controlled.
IMG every Orlanthi in the Far Place knows about the ten great treasures known as the Shields of Odayla. Exactly *what* they are is less certain, some are certainly objects, some rituals, some perhaps spirits or other creatures. Some may even be cults or something even more obscure! All are missing, or hidden: in past ages Odaylans have hidden them in the eternal gors (forests) and promptly forgotten about them (typical of Odaylans), confident they will be found again when needed. They are: The Shields Of Odayla. The Four Stream Voices, the Spear Courage, the Cloak Persistence, the Three Feathers of Vision, the Thunderbird's Nest, Theya's Dance, the Ormsword, the Mask of the Ridgeleaper, the Dragonseed, the Staff of Justice.
Cheers
John
nysalor_at_... John Hughes
Perhaps I'm old and tired, but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied.
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