Hey Donald, I took a look at the map you referred to in your post. While the outline of the SPH is the same it does not show detail on the level of the various sets of hills in the Far Place. So who knows. Also, there is some confusion about the location of Salor that I have encountered before. I have some sources stating that Old Salor is the EWF city under Alda-Chur. I have found 'plain' Salor in two other locations on various maps from other sources, one being the one you mentioned. The other placed Salor further down the River from where your map shows it. I would assume that yours is the most definitive source for the location of Salor being that it is official material and the latest published. So anyway, I think once again it is up in the air about just how early one has to date the origin of the New Hills.
>
> In the second age Alda-Chur should show as Salor or Old Salor an EWF city dedicated to trade. Good idea about checking to see if the New Hills were already there on a second age map. This had not occurred to me yet. With regard to the buried chaos horde, I too had some inkling that some power had buried something there. Probably something chaotic as this goes along well with Snakepipe Hollow lore. I was thinking possibly some dragon had buried itself there after the Dragon Kill to sleep off the thousands of souls consumed (now defunct do to the New Hills already being present) and possibly to guard against, consume or pursue some chaos manifestation for some inscrutable reason. A dragon event could account for the fires on the Sharl and possibly even the volcanic nature of the new hills, if that is indeed their nature. Maran Gor could account for New Hills being raised as well. Yes, Maran Gor works just as well for the New Hills. Whatever happened, it was before the Second Age. Their cause must predate the Dawn.
>
> Thanks Donald Oddy and anyone else who wants to put in their couple of shekels too. I love hearing the ideas and at a minimum it keeps the thread alive until one of the poobahs, or in this case it might be appropriate to spell this Puh'vahs, notices my plea!
>
> Again I ask:
>
> Does anyone know some detail about the New Hills which are just NW of
> Alda-Chur along the rim of Snakepipe Hollow??? Why are they called the
> New Hills? I will add, does anyone know anyone other than those already mentioned, doing development for the Sharl, Alda-Chur, the Princeros Tribe, or the New Hills????
>
> I am hoping to attract a fairly informed guess or even an authoritative answer to some questions. It would be a shame to write several more chapters of fiction based on bad assumptions. Its bad enough that I already have 50 pages of rough draft and notes without having sought either sanction or guidance.
>
> --- In WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com, donald@ wrote:
> >
> > The map in Glorantha the 2nd Age (page 106) shows the same general
> > contours as the 3rd Age ones so the hills presumably were created
> > before the 2nd Age. Alda-Chur doesn't appear on the 2nd Age map.
> >
> > Given the proximity to Wintertop I'd speculate that it's Maran
> > Gor's stomping ground. Maybe she or one of her priestesses buried
> > a chaos horde under them.
> >
> > --
> > Donald Oddy
> > http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
> >
>
>
>
> Does anyone know some detail about the New Hills which are just NW of
> Alda-Chur along the rim of Snakepipe Hollow??? Why are they called the
> New Hills? Its been fun all these years wondering, now I have reason
> to seek something substantial. I am doing some writing that requires at
> least their vague explanation.
>
> Note: They are not part of John Hughes' On Snakepipe's Edge material or
> of the Kalikos Society's Third Zin Letters on the Eastern Far Place.
> They are not explained in any of the Satar or Tarsh materials that I
> have. The earliest mention of them, that I know of, is in Chaosium's
> Trollpak and they still exist at least as late as A Gazetteer of
> Kerofinela.
>
> What I think I know:
>
> In the vague descriptions of the Sharl Plain around Alda-Chur from
> various sources there is an indication of a fair amount of volcanic
> activity on the Sharl, particularly around Fire Top. Indeed, the
> character of Yelmalio (and early on the Elmali) in Alda-Chur and on the
> Sharl includes a fire worshiping component of purity.
>
> At Glasswall there stands waiting an army of glass soldier statues fired
> during the kiln of the Dragon Kill.
>
> My assumptions:
>
> The New Hills are different from the ancient Gor and Gault of the Lost
> Man Wilds and of the Tovtaros homeland. Further from Skyfall and nearer
> the Dragon's Eye, they seem to me a little drier. I also assume that,
> as there name implies, they formed after some of the surrounding
> geography. The implication of 'New' in their title might indicate that
> they formed after time began.
>
> Were they formed during the tumultuous passing of Arkat on his way north
> to his ultimate goal? Unlikely, while Arkat was a major disruption to
> the various political and cultural entities of the first age I don't
> recall any events that indicate that the landscape was being changed.
>
> What about the Dragonkill? Glasswall and Old Salor and at least one
> sizable army were cleansed by the vengeful eternal behemoths, though it
> seems that some of this may have been at the hands of the trolls. Could
> Dragon's fury be the source of the New Hills? This seems like a
> possibility. But who would have been around afterwards to name them?
> One or all of the elder races or possibly the surviving experimentations
> of the EWF? Then, however humanity got the name they must have
> received if second hand. Or did they?
>
> There is another possibility. Possibly the New Hills simply look or act
> new. In the short lifespan of humans this area is exhibiting change or
> possibly even creation. If they are largely volcanic in nature and
> parallel anything remotely Terran this could be the answer to my
> question. Not that I am purporting something as mundane as terrestrial
> geology as the explanation. There is surely and underlying magical or
> godly event and this is what I am really seeking. So again I ask; does
> anyone know any detail about the New Hills and why are they new?
>
> I would love to hear something definitive from anyone who is in the
> know. I am also, of course, open to tall tales, pure gossip and tenuous
> rumors.
>