I fear "City of Carse" will have been out of print for some time, but it might still be available as 2nd hand material. Try and get it. If you fail to get it, get the Cadw - Welsh Historic Monuments publication on Caernarfon Castle, ISBN 0 948329 42 4. While it lacks the characters and house descriptions, it has a nice city map too, and contains a lot of otherwise info. For a quick impression, take a look at the Palladium Book of (Weapons, Armor and) Castles, which features this city as well. German speakers might want to go for "Corrinis", which is essentially the same product as the Chaosium one, but with different (more Gaelic and Scotch) names.
The city of Karse is ancient, but it hasn't always been the same.
The Karse, the wet lowland on both sides of the river mouth between the Shadow Plateau and the white cliffs of Heortland, site of the city, became important after the implosion of the Spike, when Sky River Titan reversed his course and ran through Choralinthor's basin to answer Magasta's call for assistance to seal off the Void. The site of his meeting the child of Esrola and Faralinthor became an important place of communication. The stretch of low-lying land along the lower River (*1) gave its name both to the land and to the settlement that grew from the survivors of the Unity Battle who gathered here. They traded the little surplus they had against dearly needed assistance from others.
The earliest settlement lay on a hillock above the western bank, actually some distance from the actual river, opposite a side bay fed by a stream dropping from the white cliff through a narrow chasm. It was a typical Vingkotling Caer (hillfort). The surrounding farming land and pasture was enclosed by two parallel ditches and low ramparts running from the cliffside to the waterfront. On the opposite bank of the river, on Watchtower hill, hidden in a copse, a second, cruder hill-fort served as a hide-out for the settlers.
The forts proved valuable during the Grey or Silver Age. After the events described in the Sword and Helm saga, during the bitter time of the Hidden Kings, the fortress at Karse offered a safe refuge to its inhabitants. It was assaulted often, but never taken. Through the bad harvests of that era the people still managed to remain fed, mostly by hunting the scarce beasts around and beyond the shores of the Mirrorsea. The fisherfolk became highly regarded in this time when most people just lived of roots and barely digestible weeds.
When King Heort had returned with tidings from I Fought We Won, and
had undertaken the Lawstaff quest, the hardships of the Darkness lessened.
What followed was termed the Silver Age by later scholars. The people of
Karse definitely fared quite well in this time, when the first Waertagi
ships reached Kethaela, and dropped some of the Malkioni people around
its coasts where the drydocks and the supporting colonies were founded
(like Sog Harbour in southern Prax, supported by the God Forgot people
who followed the Malkioni lords and wizards after they had been left by
their gods, or Nochet at the mouth of the Lysos River, on the far side
of the Shadow Plateau). The harbour of Karse was deep and wide enough to
accomodate even city-ships, thanks to the rich waters of Lorion's river
(and his brothers') pouring down from the Sky River. The temple to Esrola
was built right next to the old fortress, and an Aldryami grove was planted
right next to it by the wisewomen of the Esrolvuli who knew the best ways
to keep the goddess as awake as possible throughout this age.
At this time, the settlement of Karse consisted out of several clusters of buildings forming almost separate villages, but too close to each other to be reckoned as such. The fisherfolk lived closest to the River, and their homes were sometimes flooded when tidal waves ran into the river mouth. A few matriarchs of Esrolvuli stock with their teeming families lived right beside the temple to Esrola, which they tended. Other Heortlings - - mostly of the Ogorvaltes - settled around the steads of their thanes, on both banks of the river, or directly below the Caer. Around the market no real nationalities were discernible, and people of different background mingled freely here. A cave under the cliffside of the Shadow Plateau, connected to the Obsidian Palace by tunnels, served as home to a few troll traders, and as a hostel to other trolls visiting. Quite close to it some of the farmers worshipping dark gods had their steads.
The Princes of Karse ruled over all these people from their hillfort. They organized the law meetings, made their hirdmen protect the market peace, and collected the tribute due to the Only Old One. They mustered the host of Karse when the king of the Ogorvaltes called for war, or when there were raiders to hold off.
When the Lightbringers returned at the Dawn, the Heortlings received them and the sun with joy. The tribes left their hide-outs and reclaimed the lands of Kerofinela, and began once again to grow the sacred grains of the goddesses. Karse sat at the crossroads of the two major centres of the Theyalan lands, and profited much from the traffic flowing through it up and down the River.
The Waertagi and the Only Old One differed about certain rights, but finally they settled their differences and divided the outer islands between their interests, swearing allegiance and alliance instead. Karse grew out of its ramparts, and many times the kings of the Ogorvaltes held court and justice here. Traders from all over Esrola's scattered lands moved here, and even Aldryami, Mostali and Uz set up habitats or at least hostels, as did the lesser council peoples, too. Old Karse finally covered all the land between the River and the cliffs, and was protected only by the (meanwhile reinforced and heightened) ramparts running from the cliffs to the river.
After the defection of Kethaela from the Second Council, Nysalor's birth and the military takeover, Palangio the Iron Vrok set up some strong Council controlled garrison of Dara Happans in Karse. The garrison was a typical Polaris/Shargash compromise: a rectangular structure inland from the temple to Esrola, next to the ruined site of the original hillfort which had been stormed and destroyed in the conquest, with the commander's house in the centre and barracks symmetrically filling the space within the walls. This structure attracted many of the farm houses which had to be rebuilt after the conquest as well, and formed the main core of the city during the following age. The last of the princes of Karse had fallen defending against the Iron Vrok and his army, and instead some officer from distant Alkoth ruled heavy-handedly over the settlement which grew, with dwarf aid, into a regular city. Karse was one of the main garrisons and depots supplying what was needed to keep up the siege of the Obsidian castle during Palangio's reign.
When Arkat landed, most of the garrison had been accompanying the Iron Vrok on his siege of the Obsidian Castle, though, so the structure remained mostly undamaged from the assault. Arkat reinstated the Only Old One as the supreme ruler of the land. Karse became a tribal seat for the lower River Valley, and controlled the land north of the Hendriki plateau all the way up to Smithstone.
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #83
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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