How do Sartarites build roads?
I've been reading King of Sartar, and was struck by the descriptions of the roads built by Sartar and his offspring: marvelous spans leaping across impossible ravines etc. However, it was unclear to me whether or not these roads were produced by mighty magics, or by human hands (coupled with some lesser magic). The description of how one of Sartar's descendants stole the knowledge of building towers from the dwarves might imply that the Sartarites were using sound building ideas coupled with hard work, but this doesn't really fit with the feeling I have for their largely wild and barbaric culture. Of course, knowledge/technology itself can seem like mighty magic when viewed mythically, but in Gloranthia, something described in terms of magic is perhaps more likely to be just that.
So, is there a cult of Sartar Mason based in Boldhome? I imagine something which uses a lot of ritual/ceremonial magic. A work gang sent out to build a road will consist of a group of navvies there mainly to contribute MPs, and a priest to focus this energy into the formation of the road. The priest still needs to know a bit about engineering, to properly envision in his/her mind's eye the finished product, but doesn't need to get the hands too dirty. A typical week might involve the following: a) some form of divination to find a suitable source of rock to build with, b) the mason's form of the peaceful cut ritual, before the rock is excavated, using ceremonial magic, c) the rock is carted to where it's needed, d) the really big ritual, where everyone sacrifices lots of MPs, and the rock is reformed to the right shape. This ritual should perhaps involve the binding of a spirit to the structure to act as guardian/maintainer (the sacrifice of animals and/or people before major building projects certainly happened throughout Europe in ages past - many bridges have bodies interred under the piles). This ritual should be physically exhausting, as well as draining of magic points.
A nice by-product of having bound spirits watching over the roads, is that lone travelers would have people to talk to along the way. A friendly spirit might even warn the traveler about the band of trolls that walked this way half an hour ago. Or have the lunars been systematically destroying these spirits, following their conquest? It's nice to think of the bridge itself fighting back, as lunar sappers try and undermine its foundations, as they retreat from Argrath's Orlanthi.
In any case, comments/suggestions would be appreciated.
Owen Jones
Centre for Maths and its Applications, School of Math. Sciences Australian National University, ACT 0200 Ph +61 6 249 2897 (office) 249 4552 (direct) Fax +61 6 249 5549 Web page http://wwwmaths.anu.edu.au/~oj/
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