>> When I began playing RQ, back in '82 or '83, one of the things that
>> appealed to me was it's overall feeling of ancient Greece.
>Me, too. The ancient-world, "Bronze Age" feel was a wonderful thing,
>giving Glorantha a completely different aspect to other RPGs at the
>time.
Somehow, I never ever envisioned the Greek heroes as similar to the Sartarites. No tribes, but whole armies besieging a city for a long time...
I always looked to continental Bronze and Iron Age for barbarians. Continental Celts (like in the "Dying Galatans" group), or the Germanic, Slavic and eastern Steppe tribes which destroyed the Roman Empire. Thus no cossack Pentans, but huns or magyars.
>Though IMHO the Games Workshop figures cocked up by doing almost
>*everyone* as an armoured hoplite: some "proper" Sartarites (e.g. men
>without full plate armour) would have been a welcome distraction.
Sartarite hoplites were one of the strangest discoveries for me when I first encountered Glorantha minis. Yelmalians, ok, but Sartarites?
>There have *always* been knights and wizards in Greg Stafford's vision
>of Glorantha: when he started writing in the late 60's, this was the
>genre he was keenest on developing. You'll see Sir Ethilrist and his
>Black Horse Troop in the first edition of "White Bear and Red Moon".
You find these in the ancient world, too. The Magi of Ancient Persia (and the Zoroastrian counter-religion) serve well for examples of wizards.
For knights, look at 5th century BC Baktrians, 3rd century AD Parthians, or 4th century AD Sarmates, Cataphracts, or Frankish (or Arthurian Romano-British) Clibanarii.
>There were always "anachronisms" in
>the skill rules, weapon lists (Bronze Age crossbows), etc.
You mean the "guilds"? Alchemists and artificers in Ptolemaic Egypt did have their trade secrets. Smiths had their secrets. All these were passed on in certain closed societies...
For a different example, the Aztecs had guild-like structures for traders, and I believe for crafters as well. IMO they are one of several good inspirations for Kethaela...
>Major analogues
>Orlanthi use Gauls, Celts, Vikings or Anglo-Saxons.
Or slavs from 1st millennium central Europe (Obodrites, Bohemians) if you find them.
Migration-age Germans work fine. Generally look for Danubian peoples when you try to find analogues for southern Peloria...
>Westerners use mediaeval figures:
IMO: Use Parthians for Carmania, Frankish Lancer Auxilia for Wenelia, Crusaders/Normans for Seshnela, Byzantines for Loskalm, chivalric Age for Safelstran condottieri (mixed with Dark Age barbarians).
Citizen armies of Safelster might use early swiss pikemen, but I'd prefer late Anglo-saxon fyrd (say Alfred the Great) for most of them.
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