> On re-reading Uz Lore- I noticed that in describing the invasion
> of Dragons Pass by the Invicible Golden Horde it mentions them
> committing unspeakable crimes of rape and genocide. Whilst I
> suspect an incomplete understanding of Gloranthan history- this
> struck me as odd. I've found a couple of references- but they
> just suggest that the Horde was Sun worshippers (except for the
> Sons of Javinu out of Talaster). Is this anti-Solar bias from
> the hand of Minaryth Purple or not?
It's fair comment. The aim of the Invincible Golden Horde was the systematic destruction of the race of Dragonewts. That's what we call "an unspeakable crime of genocide" (where I come from). The backbone of the army of the True Golden Horde was made up of some of the downright nastiest troops Glorantha has ever known, including amok Shargashi from Alkoth (cf. "Enclosure" for insights into their magnificent Sumerpunk culture by Martin Laurie, Pam Carlson and others) and their allies, the Carmanian Hazars of the Golden Lion Empire under their last great Shah, Haran the Great. Where you get huge armies of professional, hardened warriors invading and deliberately despoiling a land where they consider the human inhabitants to be 'sub-human' (tainted by their draconic connections), you probably get occasional rapes. Unspeakable, of course, and we usually don't dwell on it. (The word could also be used metaphorically: "they raped the once-fair lands of Dragon Pass"; I only offer this as a sop to those who don't believe Gloranthans can be as horrible as Real World racist genocidal murderers.)
> A Seshnegi fleet, while the Waertagi ruled the waves... I never
> really got over this. The orthodox assumption would be that the
> Seshnegi hired a Waertagi fleet to ferry them over.
I'd champion orthodoxy. I'm unwilling to believe that the Waertagi "monopoly" had already been broken in the middle First Age. Also, the invasion's more fun if it lands and breaks stuff before being repulsed by the Brithini: wounds taking longer to heal, lasting damage to the eternal structures and settlements of Brithos, etc.
> How close to the current Loskalm model were the [First Age Sesh-
> nelan] idealists?
IMO, they needn't have looked anything like my write-up of Siglat's "New Hrestoli Idealist Church". Any more than worshippers of YHVH from Biblical times would look like the Jehovah's Witnesses today.
I believe the New Hrestoli Idealist Church of Loskalm is a pious attempt to recreate something which perhaps never was, and surely wasn't anything like *that*! YGMV, but I could not for the life of me see how such a clunky, artificial, insulated and unworkable system could flourish under anything other than the womb-like isolation of the Syndics Ban. That is to say, if the First Age Seshnelan Idealists *were* anything like the current Loskalm model, I would pile on the "corruption" towards which that model naturally tends (semihereditary "opportunities" for the sons of upwardly-mobile families, and the like), and banish the "ideal" aspects as soon as convenient.
>> CoT may be long outdated, but it suggests a conflict between the >> knights of Hrestol and the wizard adherents to an older way. These >> wizards seem to have been allies of Brithos. =
In my Malkioni writings (cf. my homepage), "these wizards" conflate two or three Western trends which Knights don't like.
One is their rulebook scriptural literalism, hemming proud and lusty knights in with "Thou shalts" and "Thou shalt nots" and "Never on God's-days" and the like, with which Knights can't be bothered; and threatening them with Penances and Excommunications and Inquisitions and the like for stepping out of line. This is what Wizards you know do -- it's why a Vandervasse might dislike Old Wizard Marlet. These Wizards needn't have anything to do with Brithos, except that Malkion (who wrote the rulebooks) came from Brithos -- but Malkion was the Prophet, and *he's* all right: it's the petty skirt-wearing pointyhatted types who know every word he wrote but understand none of his message that we have no time for! They want religion to make everyone afraid to wipe their nose without priestly sanction: Hrestol showed that true Malkionism is a liberation and a joy! So you can stuff your Grey Age mumbling back in the darkness where it belongs: we have Hrestolism, now, and you can keep your scriptures to yourselves. (To which the Wizard answers: "Ten Hail Malkions, and don't forget to put a shilling in the roof-fund box as you leave").
One is the martyrdom of Hrestol by rulebook Zzaburi judges, condemning the Second Prophet himself to death for petty, trivial transgressions when *everyone* knows that Hrestol, First Knight, was the saviour of his people (and of Malkionism Everywhere-that-matters). These are the archetypal "Stubborn Brithini" of Western legend: presented with the messenger of God's Word, they hardened their hearts and sentenced him to excruciating death in Sogolotha Mambrola. (Much as their ancestor, Zzabur, pronounced the banishment of Malkion from Brithos). This, to a pious knight, "proves" that the Wizards' reliance on books is wrong: everyone knows that the Brithini live by the Law of Malkion, and if they can cock it up so badly that they exile one Prophet and murder another, there's something *seriously* wrong with their approach. (And, unsurprisingly, Wizards [pro-Brithini or otherwise] can get rather shifty and defensive when challenged on these matters by a tall lad with a well-used sword and an aggressive attitude...)
One is the way Sorcerers can zap even brave, bold and lusty Knights with cowardly and underhanded spells. This makes the Knights scared to go up against Sorcery, and Knights don't like being scared of anything, so they naturally see any wielder of arcane arts as hostile to them. I emphasised this aspect of Malkionism in my writeup of Old Seshnelan Chivalry -- the one which explored Western history as the battle between Chivalry and Sorcery. (While Sorcerers are rightly annoyed at six-foot strapping bullies wearing magic-resistant Iron armour and wielding spell-cleaving Iron snickersnees, following the orders of pig-ignorant Kings and cutting them down *just* as their work is about to reach its fruition...)
And so the West goes.
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Nick
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End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #436
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