While the ratio of 10+ rurals to 1 urban is plausible with RW mediaeval cultivation, it rather blows my suspension of disbelief that Sartar is that urbanised, especially to the extent of being "one of the most urbanised" parts of Glorantha. At least, given the clan and steading based Sartar of the current paradigm, that is - Celts, Vikings, the old shaggy Germans from Caesar's Gallic Wars were none of them renowned as being urbanised; and they had little economic incentive to form urban areas for settled specialist trade. Courts, worship places or markets, perhaps, but few that are town-like.
The nature of Orlanthi culture - especially as we know that attempts to build a larger scale civilisation have collapsed in the past - indeed seems to mitigate against urbanisation. In the steading, you know these people are kin, and there is that social binding. When there is selection on economic grounds (specialist craft niches, mercantile opportunities), that kin-binding is at the least weakened.
Now, if we were still back in the naive
Jonstown=Athens mode, I could believe this
degree of urbanisation - the transition between
tribal and civic society had been made in
Classical Greece. I still would expect to
find Sartar well behind Kralorela, Ralios,
Seshnela, Dara Happa, Teshnos and possibly
Fonrit in the significance of urbanisation.
This is one of the things I find so darn frustrating about Glorantha : the big picture is wonderful, but every so often along comes some silly detail which punctures the whole pretty balloon...
> Yes. However, these roads didn'T necessarily lead to features one
wanted
to
> visit, like e.g. cities.
> Generally, use of the roads is meant to be riskier than using the
equivalent
> overland route.
If they aren't to be just another bit of background clutter (the line between useful background colour and interesting-to-the-Gloranthaphile irrelevance being an important one to keep in mind, in my experience), then there do have to be conceivable occasions on which they would be used by preference.
Back to economics here : if it's easier to plod the mundane route between your current location and intended destination, the only use of the magic roads will be for bravado or ritual reasons; and will generally just be another of those neat features to mention when you have an attack of the "guided tour of Glorantha".
Of course if something has happened to make the mundane journey more difficult - that makes the mundane journey at least as risky or if the magical road is fast enough that the detour at each end included still shortens the journey time and if speed is of the essence and you can handle the risk, then the magical path will seem the better option. IIRC, the StormWalk quest from WF had both of those elements going for it.
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #207
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