Didn't I hear somewhere that in "modern" (1600s) Glorantha, everyone has the stirrup? Certainly all the pictures I've seen of people riding various beasts have involved stirrups. I know in the RW it was discovered, lost, re-discovered, ignored, and so on, but it's really a very simple idea. And slightly more likely to be popular in a world where large riding beasts are common than one where horses are small, really: how else do you get up on a High Llama without a stepladder?
Once you've got universal stirrups, and very little in the way of metal armour, you've got something very unlike the RW in the ancient period, and I suggest analogies might start to fall apart as a result.
Yelmalians: no, I'm not going to get into the spear-length argument. But Jean said:
> Tarkalor had to import Yelmalio mercenaries from Prax to create a
> phalanx able to win his battles.
Did he? I thought he formed the Sun Dome primarily as a means of
stopping the religious arguments in the tribes of Sartar between the
followers of Elmal and the lowlanders who liked the look of more
"powerful" sun gods like Yelm. He gave them Yelmalio, and set them up in
their own little enclave. It was with their help (and that of the Night
Jumpers) that he beat the trolls. And, later, he exported Yelmalio to Prax.
Jane Williams jane_at_williams.nildram.co.uk http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~janewill/gloranth/
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