Here is another description of the household of King Malan (circa 1347), by an Orlanthi clanswoman from Ormsthane Vale:
"We went to take the weregild to Malan, who calls himself a king. He and
his huscarls were all given over to death and war, and had no respect for
the Great Mother, her farmer sons, or the Way of Peace. Malan's daughter
warned me that he intends to make terrible war on the Varmandi unless we pay
him Shameful Tribute, and join his Tribe of Death."
"Malan is no chief. He has little respect for Orlanth, and none for the
Laws of Heort, or the ways of the Great Mother and her kin. Malan is a
butcher."
Theya Two Mothers
I suspect that this is a pretty common perspective of the early and violent Quivini kings. When my batch of Heortling farmers encountered the Humakt worshipping huscarls of King Malan, they did not swoon in envy - in fact, if anything, the Orlanthi farmers looked down upon the huscarls as landless men. One character, Illig Jarangson, described the Humakti as "thralls with swords". So much for Martin's depiction of the Humakti as role-models.
In the "Farmer-Quest" of Taming of Dragon Pass, violence and death looms over the players like a dark storm. The player-characters, proud and arrogant farmers, are certainly not bucolic pacifists. Yet after a half-dozen game sessions, there has yet to have been a single combat!
There was some discussion recently about whether farmers learn combat spells. As I see it, magic in Glorantha is so deeply intertwined with society and cultural world-view that it is almost pointless to try and separate the two. A better question might be: do the farmers in Culture X have a significant violent/combat role? With most of the Theyalan or Orlanthi cultures, this is probably true - hence they have "combat magic". With other cultures (say the Westerners) this is not the case. Not much of an answer, is it?
Yours truly,
Jeff Richard
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