>This is, I suppose, the crux of the problem: the presumption that the
>Esrolian army has a bad reputation.
It certainly has among the majority of Gloranthophiles. Since most of these tend to think Sartarite or Lunar, one can assume that a lot of Lunar or Sartarite people think so...
>Off the top of my head, I can recall no
>"official source" that states or even implies that the Esrolian army _has_
>such a reputation; if anyone can dig one up, please post it.
The implication is that they hire lots of foreign mercenaries even when fighting in their own lands. Think of it - Caladraland mercs and Wolf Pirates support Brian's expeditionary force of Heortlanders, Volsaxi and Sartarite exiles at Pennel Ford.
>The idea that
>the Esrolian military is lame seems to have simply taken root, perhaps
>because Esrolia is ruled by women, perhaps because it has no tradition of
>conquering its neighbors, or perhaps because it's made up mostly of farmers.
Exactly. This is how Esrolia's neighbours think of the Esrolian militia. If they are wrong, the Esrolites haven't taken measures to prove them so.
>And, in fact, strong infantry forces often seem to develop
>either in the absence of or in direct competition with more specialized,
>"elite" warrior castes; cf. [...] the English archer tradition.
At least this one is the "conflict" between two specialized warrior castes - knighthood and yeomanry.
>Outside of the Granite Phalanx cult, disciplined infantry tactics do not seem
>to be entirely associated with specific gods; the Yelmalions are certainly
>associated with phalanx warfare, but there is little within the cult's magic
>or in myths about Yelmalio himself which demonstrate a strictly mythocultic
>link (and indeed, I seem to recall speculation that the Yelmalions were
>initially chariot riders, who developed phalanx traditions later on).
Actually, the more I come to think about the Yelmalians, the less hoplite and the more swiss-guard-like they become. (And no problem with those pesky armour geasa, either...)
>It would
>seem perfectly reasonable to me, then, that the cult of Barntar in Esrolia
>could well have developed a strong military component not unlike that of
>Yelmalio's; and just as the best armor of the Ancient RW, the hoplite
>panoply, was developed for and by a mass infantry culture, it's perfectly
>possible for Esrolian farmer-soldiers to be well equipped, with more than
>just their "two-handed spear" to rely on.
You forget that the farmer-soldiers of the other cultures are the efective owners of their land and armour, and that only the owners can afford both training and equipment. In Esrolia, ownership of the land definitely is female. The female farm-owner can send a dependent into the militia, but would you equip that dependent better than yourself? Well, maybe your marriage partner, but would you send that person (regardless of sex)?
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #506
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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