Well, the fact that it is also labelled "Marcher Barons" implies to me that it is one of the trading forts of the Merchant Princes of Maniria, who have a string of trading forts from Ralios to Kethaela (since I think Merchant Barons is a much better term for these traders -- reminds me of the 19th Century US Rail Barons who dominated so much of the US business world for so many years).
This one is just placed in a really lousy position -- the Barons didn't realize until too late that there was little point in it, and continued building only because of the financial and political support of the inhabitants of God Forgot and lower Heortland, who were happy to have some military buffer between them and the semi-frequent raids of the Praxians.
Simon Hibbs:
>The main problem RoC suffers from is that the company publishing it (AH)
>had little communication with the people who realy know about Glorantha
>(Chaosium). It was an appaling situation, which issaries Inc should be
>able to avoid.
Someone may have already said this, but Simon is categorically wrong in this regard. River of Cradles was *designed* 100% by Ken Rolston, who was in frequent contact with Greg at the time, as he was later on the other books he worked on. AH had nothing whatsoever to do with this book except publishing it. Ken made all decisions as to what would or would not be included, as far as I know. And he included some things I thought should not be (such as the detailed descriptions and maps of the Pavis neighborhoods), while leaving out much that could have gone in (Cult of Humakt, Cult of Pavis).
Ken was a bit more restricted on Dorastor: Land of Doom, since he inherited a manuscript which had been submitted to AH by Sandy Petersen. But he still made decisions on what to include or not to include, got large amounts of material from Greg, and wrote a huge section of material (Riskland) pretty much by himself, as far as I recall.
The situation may have been appalling, but the problems had little to do with Gloranthan content or contact with Greg, both areas Ken had well under control.
Sandy on Kralorela
I am becoming more and more convinced that most of Sandy's ideas about
Kralorelan history, Emperors, and Afterlife are correct. I still prefer
my variations, but I agree with the spirit of most or all of what he says
about them.
I recently had an idea that the Kralorelans view the planet Mastakos as one of their psychopomps. He travels across the sky constantly, gathering up the souls of all who have died, and leaving them in some Waiting Ground or Afterlife. This planetary deity then immediately rises again, continuing to gather souls until the Dragon Emperor moves on to the next stage of existence, when his charges are liberated as well and he starts over.
Now, all I need to do is reconcile the fact that Mastakos deposits these souls in the _West_ with Sandy's notion that the initial afterlife of the Kralori is in Holy Vithela (the _east_), and I will be set. Ideas?
Stephen Martin
ilium_at_juno.com
- -----------------------------------------------The Book of Drastic Resolutions
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