>So - I'm thinking of starting things up in Pent - since it feels almost
>a blank land whose only contribution to the Gloranthan saga is the
>occasional invasion by the (mongol) barbarian hordes.
>
>Pent seems like a good place to transport the AH Vikings box set. This
>is all pretty self-contained stuff which could be made reasonably
>Gloranthan (or at least not non-Gloranthan). I like a Scandinavian look
>and feel.
Pent is closer to Mongolia than Scandinavia as it is the homeland of the (scythian-hun-mongol-timurid) horse nomads. It is chock-a - -block full of horse nomads who eat pseudo-scandinavians for breakfast. Furthermore any foot nomads there are more akin to siberian natives than hardy viking pioneers.
If you want to use the Vikings Box and remain objectively true to glorantha, then the Yggites are the best culture to use. But the problem with them is that they are stuck at the extreme end of the map and there's only Elves and Loskalmi and Maidstone Archers to interact with. Have no fear, we shall indulge in some creative source interpretation (rubs hands).
Don't worry about the map of Fronela in the Genertela Box. In the north of Fronela between Winterwood and the Glacier is a land called Bija (depicted in Cults of Terror). I've been informed (by Daniel) that Greg sez that sometimes Bija exists and sometimes it doesn't. Thus you can have a blank land populated with Giants as Gonn Orta does comes from Fronela. There are also Uz which are a mixture of Snow Uz and the shattered remants of Borklak's Queendom (which appears to have been destroyed in the Elder Race Wars).
If you do want a serious explaination for why the Ice is depicted as it is then my guess is that the Ban is still in force along the boundary of Winterwood and would normally be a thick wall of fog. However it's extremely cold and so the fog appears like Ice and all the modern mapmakers think that Valind's Glacier has advanced during the Closing. Your players will discover this error ('The Glacier's GONE!!!!')and then be the first people to enter the land of Bija since Snodal created the Ban.
I would suggest that the area between Porent and Biga still be under the Glacial Ban. This is because explorers have reached the edge of the pseudo-glacier in 1613 and it still exists in 1621. Thus your PCs would enter Bija from Winterwood.
One minor piece of gloranthicana that I dug up about this place:
Along the northern plains of the region called Fronela
creeps the Winter Ice. There is a hardy type of nomad
called the Neechen who thrives from a life in the Cold.
Travelers in the northlands claim these people fashion
the ice into great monoliths towering towards the heavens.
No one has yet explained the purpose of these great
monoliths.
The RuneQuest Companion.
>Characters could be Sun or Storm worshippers, and I can see
>possibilities for porting non-RQ stuff across which is relatively
>self-contained (I'm determined to shove the AD&D Giants/Drow stuff in
>there somewhere - what could Lolth be I wonder?).
The Storm worshippers would follow the god Ygg. The Solars would follow Yelmalio as he originally came from the Winterwoods. I would however make the cult more like Elmal (cf Enclosure) rather than the writeup that exists in Sun County. Since your PCs are Yggites, then they can enter the Winterwoods without too much trouble (they've even got cutting rights in the forest!).
As for the Drow, make the sexy villians a degenerate Zorian Colony which worships a twisted version of Uleria. They may wear slinky spider silk costumes (through harvesting spiders) if you feel like it, but methinks fur would be more comfortable against the winter chill. If you really want the spider link made more strongly then read Sandy's recent post about how spiders reproduce and make _that_ a holy rite of the Zorians (with hands substituting for pedipalps in case anybody has any mechanical objections). There's bound to be magic mushrooms around to enhance their depravity. Ebon skin, elven features and passionate spelunkophilia can be added in if necessary although I think it would work just as well as if they were normal humans living on the surface.
>The intention then is
>to add more and more Gloranthan stuff into scenarios as I get to grips
>with it, and gradually migrate adventurers southward into the Wastes.
If you want them to enter the Wastelands, then Harrek the Berserk sacks Sog City in 1615 and joins the Wolf Pirates in the Three Step Isles shortly thereafter (sacking the Rightarm Isles in 1616). Getting from the Three Steps to Prax is a breeze. If your PC's miss this connection, Harrek next appears in Ygg's Isles and leads half the population to the Three-Step Isles in 1617. I presume there's a dribble of Yggite emigrants to the Three-step Isles after that.
I hope this helps.
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