If Lord Meriatan is as he is written up in Genertela Crucible of the Hero Wars, then he is a heroic figure heading a knightly Order in defence of the frontier (though some of his Heroquesting sounds a bit, er, experimental -- and could easily be seen as Godlearnerish and/or Arkati (whichever is worse) by those who oppose him from within Loskalm).
However if one flips it over and sees the Knights of the Swallow as being like the neo-Nazi Teutonic Knights of Alexander Nevsky (as some people did earlier today -- and it is a possible Glorantha, though probably not my own first choice), then Lord Meriatan isn't the hero any more (though he might still be an honourable and ambiguous villain rather than a diabolical fiend).
So who is?
/// Why not both ? Meritian will slide further and further into militarism and imperialism in the long war to end war. He will do it consciously, while agonizing over terrible decisions. These decisions will be Logical and so will have the effect of reinforcing Loskalm more and more, until it becomes a New Empire.
Can you picture this campaign : a new unit of the Order of the Swallow is formed, due to horrible attrition rates in the war to end all wars. Its member are idealist rookies, newly-made Men of All who proudly ride to the front line. Their first clashes with KoW's skirmishers go as expected. Then, things start to go strange. Their commander assigns them unsavory tasks, such as burning innocent villages, forcibly evacuating resisting peasants - all to starve the approaching KoW army. Will the PCs obey ? Then it gets worse, as they are assigned to protect a Wizard who tries a ritual to damage KoW. It's very unsavory, it includes propitation of local demons, and the PCs are, of course, drafted to take an active part in it as the regulars have died for some reasons. What's a Man of All to do ???
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