Can I recommend Jean Markale's *excellent* book on the Celts in this context. His analysis of Livy's Gallic sources is a real eye-opener. Sorry, can't find it on the shelves just now: but it plausibly shows how "civilised" annalistic history can derive from heroic/epic barbarian narratives in the first instance. The parallels between the Gallic Sack of Rome and the various trips to the Otherworld are staggering!
And *always* remember Torquatus.
> There is no reason that there not be vast quantities of arms and
> armour floating around in Glorantha, it is being constantly produced,
> occasionally in great quantities as Empires go to war on each other,
> and can survive for many years.
But surely, given Repair spells, etc., there is less *need* for Empires to mass-produce replacement arms and equipment? This looks like a non sequitur to me. I'd always prefer to assume that normal Gloranthan societies look *something* like their Earthly equivalents, if only to make my life easier.
As anyone who's ever tried working with a Gloranthan artist knows, the rules do very little to help: the arm-armour thing in particular causes loads of hassle. Why on earth would Gloranthan humans absolutely require arm armour, when real world iron age armies thought it a dispensable luxury-cum-inconvenience? Because the SCA buffs who landed us with the Strike Rank system thought the average dagger-blow (2D4+2 = 7 damage) severs arms (average human arm's hit points = 3), perhaps?
> Is the scimitar the Kalashnikov of Glorantha, with export stocks
> and surplus stocks after campaigns washing through the arms bazaars
> of the world :).
Certainly! The Lunars love to help other nations "switch blades". I'm sure the citadel guards of Elkoi look mighty fine in their barbaric furs with gleaming Lunar Army surplus scimitars provided (at *very* reasonable cost) by Cyriel Endelkar...
Hey! Another Lunar/Soviet parallel... Must be catching.
> Who are [Janubian Sorcerers]? Are they ... solitary students of the
> occult? Or are they "wizards", that is priests, for a Malkioni minority?
Wizard-priests for a Syanoran Malkioni majority, IMHO.
Did you see my "Arrolian Lunar Church" write-up, and the accompanying Arrolian version of the Syanoran Church writeup, both posted here a coupla months ago? The three Lunarised Janubian city-states have priesthoods belonging to imported Pelorian cults (Lunar in Eastpoint and Riverjoin, Yelmic in Southbank), plus Malkioni wizards of the Syanoran church (which was always ready to accept other deities, being outside the God Learner imposed "monotheistic" zone of Malkionism). As we know from "Talking to the Moon Woman", the Lunars think the Creator is a wonderful being and do everything they can to put him back together (in their own image). See my piece in the (rapidly forthcoming) Tales #13 "Malkioni Special" on "What Lunars Say About Sorcerers" for another version of this. As we know from personal experience, the Lunars are dead keen on converting local religions to be more accepting of the Lunar Way. I'm pretty sure they'd have succeeded in bringing the Janubian Malkioni into harmony with their own views: after all, Lunar missionary activity is widespread (and successful!) in Fronela today: they must have achieved some accomodation with the local belief system. And what we know about Jonating religion gives us another pointer to the pre-existing native form of Syanoran Malkioni belief.
What about Perfe? Don't go there! Nowadays, most guys you'd meet worship "one hundred different gods of war".
What about Galastar? Read Codex #2, then put your questions to Mike Dawson. (Though he's very busy these days, what with #4 on the launchpad).
What about Sog City? Read our SCU Guidebook's "Lonely Lozenge Guide to Sog City" (by myself and MOB), and weep! Then, if dissatisfied, challenge our assumptions and puns here on the Daily...
Powered by hypermail