This mesage forwarded from Jeff Richard. Direct replys to him or email him directly at Jeff.Richard_at_metrokc.gov
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>
>Here are a few notes about the world-famous Varmandi clan from my on-going
>Sartar campaign:
>
> After two generations of leadership by the Hoskulding family, Vastyr
>Dengarlson was recognized as chieftain of the Varmandi by the clan moot in
>late 1613.
>
> Vastyr is 37 years old, rather short and burly. He is famed for his
>considerate, cooperative and thoughtful nature that values the prosperity of
>his clan above all other concerns. As chieftain of the Varmandi, Vastyr
>enjoys the unqualified support of the priestesses of Ernalda and is backed
>by most of the clan's elders. His wife, Inandra Ortossisdottir, is a holy
>Ernalda woman originally from the Konthasos clan.
>
> Vastyr's relationship with the clan's thanes and godi are often
>strained despite the faith the clan's elders have in his prudent and
>cautious leadership. Once the thane Hend Jaranison, a boon companion of the
>previous chieftain Rastorlanth Hoskuldson, furiously demanded that Vastyr
>lead the clan in a vengeance raid against the Orleving clan. Hend blamed the
>Orleving for Rastorlanth's death during Starbrow's rebellion. Vastyr asked
>the holy women of Ernalda for aid and they sent a score of widows to weep at
>Hend's doorstep, until Hend backed down.
>
> The year after this incident (1615) the clan's senior godi, Sveirtig
>Hoskuldson recruited warriors from the Anmangarn clan to follow Wind Lord
>Geir Sveirtigson and the Varmandi thanes in a raid against the Orleving
>clan. Outmanouevered by the clan's wily, war-loving Storm Voice, Vastyr
>reluctantly agreed to formally lead the clan's fyrd. Nonetheless, after a
>battle of champions where the Orleving mercenary Killer-Gest was killed by
>Anmangarn warriors, Vastyr agreed to leave the Orleving lands with a
>(according to Geir) small payment of tribute.
>
> After the raid, Vastyr generously gifted King Kangarl with a large
>share of the clan's booty and encouraged the King to gain glory and respect
>in the Malani lands. The next year, Kangarl and the Colymar huscarls crushed
>the flower of the Malani tribe in a battle outside of Red Bird Fort.
>
> Frustrated by what he saw as Vastyr and the clan elders' cowardice,
>Geir Sveirtigson began leading personal raids against the Orleving and other
>Malani clans with his picked warband. Vastyr and the clan elders vigourously
>condemned Geir's banditry but Geir dismissed their protests as the
>complaints of "women and toothless old men."
>
> Finally last Storm Season, Geir and his men killed a tax collector of
>the Red Emperor as he was "gathering tribute" from some Varmandi farmers.
>Geir argued that the Lunars' brazen robbery was intolerable as long as he
>had air in his lungs, but Vastyr and the clan elders were horrified.
>Shouting down Sveirtig's protests, Vastyr and the elders outlawed Geir from
>the Varmandi clan, denying him food, shelter or kinship for three years. To
>Vastyr's surprise, 6 clan huscarls and 5 other Varmandi men followed Geir
>into outlawry, announcing that they would keep their swords sharp in the
>Holy Country.
>========================================================
> Varmandi Demographics
>
> As of 1617 there are 560 adult Varmandi living in the clan lands. There
>are another 400 - 500 Varmandi children.
>
> Of the adult Varmandi, 45 are clan elders - ie. adults over the age of
>60 years. Their wisdom forms the basis for clan policy. Because of the
>disasterous war 15 years ago, women elders outnumber male elders nearly two
>to one.
>
> There are 246 adult Varmandi men living within the clan strongholds:
>
> 132 carl farmers (8 elders - 122 effectives) another 30 farms are
>headed by widows and single women
> 35 herders (2 elders - 33 effectives)
> 29 hunters (2 elders -27 effectives)
> 10 professional warriors
> 15 clan thralls
> 13 craftsmen (3 elders) with an additional 25 craftswomen
> 5 clan thanes (including the chieftain)
> 4 godi and acolytes ( and another 6 priestesses and female acolytes)
> 2 entertainers (1 skald and 1 fool, or is it the other way around?)
> 1 full-time grain merchant
>
> There are 314 adult Varmandi women living within the clan strongholds.
>In general they duplicate the occupation of their husband (with the
>exception of the warriors' wives) with some exceptions already noted. The
>nearly 30 elder women have a decisive voice in the clan's internal politics.
>
> The Varmandi are divided into 13 bloodlines or steads. The four leading
>families are headed by clan thanes, but that distinction is determined by
>the clan moot not by any family's hereditary right.
>
> Currently some two dozen adult males are living outside of the clan
>lands. The most famous of these is the Wind Lord Killer-Geir Sveirtigson and
>the twelve men who followed him into outlawry.
>
> The methodology for these figures was KoS (Report on the Orlanthi) and
>the Barbarian Belt breakdown in G:CotHW.
>===================================================
>Assorted thoughts on the city rings of Sartar:
>
> According to KoS, Sartar attempted to persuade Ortossi, King of the
>Colymar, into building a city ring. One of Sartar's futile arguements in
>favor of the city was that "I will create the city council so that you and
>your kin will be lords of it now, and when it grows over the centuries to
>come." I am (albeit without a lot of evidence) assuming that each of the
>four lesser cities that Sartar founded contained the some compromise with
>the rural chieftains and clans: that they and their decendents would
>dominate the internal politics of the cities.
>
> In the historical world rural control over the urban population has not
>been uncommon, for example Republican Rome was dominated by the rural tribes
>not the urban plebs. In the US Senate, rural and underpopulated states like
>Wyoming have as many Senatorial votes as California.
>
> In the Jonstown of my campaign, the City Ring is composed of clan
>thanes from each of the Confederated Tribal Kingdoms. Each clan has a right
>to a Voice on the Ring. The poor and politically impotent city residents
>have only one official voice - their mayor aka Speaker for the City-Folk,
>unless they belong to one of the local clans.
>
> I suspect that the city-folk, many of whom are wealthy (by hill-folk
>standards) merchants, lenders, influential sages tend to resent that an
>Orleving herder has more say on the City Ring than does a non-clan member
>resident of Jonstown. Most likely the urban residents are more open to
>"foreign" ideas and customs than are the rural thanes than dominate the
>city's law and politics.
>
> Additionally this exactly the opposite urban-rural relationship from
>what the Pelorian leaders of the Lunar Empire are accustomed to. In Dara
>Happa, the cultural cradle of the Empire, the cities rule the farmers.
>Indeed I suspect that Governor-General Euglyptus the Fat and his Yelmic
>staff believed that "the cities are the key to Sartar". The Report of the
>Good Rat in KoS certainly reinforces the underestimation that the Empire's
>military leaders had for Sartar's rural population. Most likely Euglyptus
>continued receiving glowing reports about "pacified Sartar" from his urban
>praetors up to and probably even during Starbrow's Rebellion. No doubt
>Fazzur Wideread's tolerant policy is based upon his understanding of the
>hill-tribes' greater importance.
>
> Jeff Richard
End of Glorantha Digest V1 #71
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