I think of them as like Masai or other savannah africans. I tend towards herding.
>(2) What is the vegetation like in Jolar?
The clover is the current concensus, I think. I'm not sure how this extends to Tarien or other nearby areas, though.
>(3) What is at the root of the Arbennan tribes' conflict with the
>Kresh? Is it simply about territory? Political independence? Culture
>(walking vs. wagons)? Religion (new gods worshipped in or alongside the
>Pamalt pantheon)? Is there a mythic conflict involved? Something else?
All of these somewhat. The Kresh are not understood very well, appear to be doing pretty well our of the whole deal, and are the only people on the plains that aren't Jolar Doraddi. They are almost Doraddi, but they have secret religious rituals that they won't tell anyone about (which if the Doraddi new what it was, would involve a mythic conflict).
Peter talks about the plunder from Kresh wagons empowering the
Vangono warriors
>In a short period of time, the cult
>of Vangono has changed from a cult of psychotic hotheads into an
>attarctive way of life.
I don't think the Vangono are at anything like the stage of wholesale plunder yet. At the moment its just that the political mood is that the tribes must be ready to fight the Kresh, and this implies the first standing army in centuries, which gives the Vangono political influence they haven't had since they fought the Six Legged Empire. Normally, Vangono warriors do not fight in organised groups - they want to be heros, not soldiers, and are always fighting wicked sorcerers and big monsters and such (at least, in their stories - in practice they mostly fight each other to avenge insults. Just one more reason why everyone else in Doraddi society is so polite). So the thought of a war is a strange thing - but it would give all the Vangono a chance to prove themselves in battle which is what they all crave.
The likely spark for the fire is not organise Vangono aggression (I think the chieftains keep them in check better than that). The problem is that the Kresh wagons keep disappearing, and no one knows why (it isn't the Vangono - but the Kresh don't know that, and are getting even antsier). I don't know who it is either, though I bet Sandy does. Chaos monsters, broo, promalti from the Nargan, some bizarre Veldang resurgence (my bet is on big chaos monsters).
And as Peter said, the secret of the Kresh is they worship a form of Aldrya, and use Accelerate Growth spells to make the wood for their wagons. But this is a Big Secret that no one who is not Kresh would know.
I hope some of this is useful. Check out my web page http://www.cwr.uwa.edu.au/~davidc/glorantha.html for some more.
Cheers
David
Powered by hypermail