>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.
Apart from the Blueskins, the Jungle Trolls, the Tarint Hsunchen....
> I don't think the Vangono are at anything like the stage of
>wholesale plunder yet.
The Kresh caravans have been burning since 1613. The Arbennan Confederation is formed primarily to wage war on the Kresh. Hawi Kange is showing people how to share booty with their kinsmen afterwards. If the Arbennan haven't started plundering the Kresh *yet* then one has to wonder whether the Doraddi can find their arse with both hands. IMO the situation is tense and frequent raids occur (think of the Sartarites raiding the Grazers for horse). It isn't considered war because the main forces on both sides are still a long way away from each other and the Vangono raiders are not prepared to stand pick fights with any prepared Kresh 'army' yet.
The Kresh, if they do decide to 'invade' Jolar, would probably equip a big wagon train and hire a lot of warriors from among their Doraddik and Zamokil subjects. Then this 'army' would move into Jolar looking for trouble.
>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.
According to the Secrets Book (p8), it is stated that the information about the Kresh in Jolar come from the Vangono warriors. Therefore IMO the Vangono are feeding the frenzy about the Kresh rather than passively reflecting the will of the community.
> The likely spark for the fire is not organise Vangono aggression (I
>think the chieftains keep them in check better than that).
Why? What is so special about Doraddi society that the chieftain can do this better than any other society in glorantha? The chieftain works mainly with *co-operation* rather than force. If the Vangono leave the tribe temporarily to go sack the Kresh and then return showering gifts, how would you as big chief put a stop to this? Remember there has been no reprisals by the Kresh so far. If a chief puts his foot down, then he becomes unpopular and is in danger of losing his job.
>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).
According to our source:
'Armies swarm upriver into Tarien and Jolar, their origin seems to be the lifeless Nargan Desert. In the eastern plains, mighty Kresh wagon trains have vanished without a trace and the cause is completely unknown. At the same time, war looms between the still-expanding Kresh and the Arbennan confederation to its west.' Introduction to Glorantha.
This seems to me to say that the disappearance of the Kresh wagons is occuring in eastern Kothar which is in a different region from the Kothar. The cause may be any of the things you mention (but the lack of traces rule out chaos IMO). Even the Vangono are likely to leave behind burned wagons. So why would the Kresh blame the Arbennan Confederation for the complete disappearance of their caravans?
James A. Holden:
>I also like the idea of the Kresh connection with Aldrya. Would that be
>considered an "orthodox" Aldryan belief, though, simply to grow trees
>with the express purpose of chopping them down for lumber?
It is when you cast food song.
>I don't see Aldrya getting much out of this.
You're looking at it from the Elf viewpoint. From the Kresh viewpoint, their Aldrya is a goddess doing good instead of acting destructively. The Kresh are at war with some elf forests in the plains according to the Aldrya cult writup in Elder Secrets (p46).
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