Comments: Shannon's already posted a ToC for the Missing Lands so I'll go through them.
>OCEANS AND ISLANDS
>Overview of the Oceans, Triolini Sea Beings, Merfolk Kindred
>Non-Merfolk Sea Beings
Most of the stuff above has already appeared in diverse sources such as Elder Secrets, ToTRM#10 and the Gloranthan Bestiary. There are a few extra esoteric details such as the reproductive lifestyle of the some of the merfolk.
>Mermen's Mythology, Deities of the Waters, Watery Ancesters
>Life in the Waters
The Mermen mythology reads a bit like the Vithelean origin story (for those of you who haven't seen the Pelorian origin stories in the other Works in Progress). The next section gives names to the gods of most of the bodies of water and adds the novel detail that the reason why the God Learners worshipped Wachaza was that he could drag something beneath the surface or force it to the top (very handy when dealing creatures that prefer to remain submarine). Also of interest in the origins of the Zabdamar which is stemed in Eastern mythology and not Mermen (although one is left to wonder why the Kralori and the Zabdamar hate each other so). The last section 'Life in the Waters' has already appeared in Tales #10.
>ABOVE THE WATERS
>The Greater Islands, The Lesser Islands, East Isles, The
>Sendereven, Jrusteli Isles, Kumanku Islands, Loral, Slon
>Teleos, Vadeli Isles, Vormain
Much of this stuff is new. The lesser isles detail all the funky little isles that are large enough to warrant their own writeup. Some surprises: the Iron City lies in Magasta's Pool and _not_ in Jrustela as KoS would have it. An editing glitch implies that Nowhere Isle (also in Magastas Pool and full of ancient mariners) is known as Last Stop Island
The East Isles stuff is new (although I haven't seen the details in Tales #17 yet) and very diverse. Of particular note are the Sendereven who circumnavigate Glorantha. Literally. On Sramak's River no less.
Much of the inhuman bits of Jrustela has already been published in Elder Secrets. What ML does admirably is to give it a context by giving a decent map and listing the various human populations of Jrustela. Most of these are dominated by the Vadeli under the Orange Guilds but there are colonies of Yggite Northmen, Pamaltelans and Malkioni. All in all this would be a very cosmopolitan place to venture around in what with the Elder Races, the Malasp and the Tinimits (although the Tinimits have been left out of the treatment - one would be advised to check the Gloranthan Bestiary esp. the entries for the Lucans and the Myrmidrons).
The Kumanku Isles are your average post-God Learner slaves regressed to a barbarian lifestyle and now slaving under the yoke of Golden Kareeshtu. To give you an idea of the sophistication of the inhabitants, they thought the Closing was a God Learner experiment and the Vadeli manage to fool them into thinking they were the Kumankuan God Learner overlords returned.
The writeup of the Monster Isles of Loral is pretty basic but what else can one do when the inhabitants are monsters, the government is 'might makes right' and the language 'grunts, growls, roars, bellows and snarling'? If one wants to meet Kong or Godzilla, this is the place to go.
Much of the Slon stuff has already appeared in Elder Secrets and the only new things one has is the map and various names for various swamps.
Teleos is somewhat interesting. As well as the details of the colour folk culture, there's a list of the trading places and the tribe they trade with and the nation from whence the traders came. One item of clarification: the Angazabo who run the Pearl Lover's house are a minor isle listed in the East Isles.
The Vadeli Isles aren't much. Some of it has already appeared in Wyrm's Footprints and the rest are pretty basic details of observable Vadeli culture. Throughout the book, there are two sidebars about the Vadeli. One details a vadeli's observations on the Ouori and the other is a passenger's description on board a Vadeli ship when a freaky storm hits.
Vormain is pretty basic with names and short descriptions of Isles and a short list of people who attempted to investigate Vormain (and died trying). Nobody outside glorantha knows more because the Vormain are insular xenophobes.
>PAMALTELA
>Chronology of Pamaltela, Errinoru, Fonrit, Jolar, Kothar, Maslo
>Tarien, Umathela
One should note that there are large sections of Pamaltela *not* treated. In particular: the Tarien, the Palakri and the Mari Mountains, Kimos, Zamokil Hornilio and Laskal are not given writeups.
The Errinoru stuff is basically a rehash of what was in Elder Secrets although some significant details are added (like the existance of pygmies in the jungle) and the map.
The Fonritan stuff has appeared before in Heroes 1#6 (and the map gives the roughly same information), but more cities and a couple of natural features are described.
Jolar has been presented before in Tales#11 along with a better map and editing. Kothar is brand new and includes the Sozganzio in some detail. The Maslo details the humans who live on the edge of the Elf Coasts and gives basic place names and descriptions.
Tarien is very basic and not much is given on the Slarges (apart from acknowleging that they exist). Umathela is reasonably detailed although it has appeared before in a relatively obscure Ozzie publication.
>SHIPS AND SEA FARING
>Warships, Seasonal Shipping Routes
Mostly the same as in Tales#10 although the maps of the Seasonal Shipping Routes is of better quality.
>SOME PAMALTELAN MATERIAL
>A Pamaltelan Creation Story, In Service of Her Ladyship
>Some Arbennen Heroes, Elves in Pamaltela
The Creation story is good, giving some names for Doraddi gods and hinting at the possible origin of the Slarges. It's actually of the creation of the Doraddi and the creatures who were made before them. In service of her ladyship is a short fictional excerpt. Arbenan Heroes is a single paragraph and the Elves in Pamaltela is a halfpage giving some minor detail as to why the Green Elves of Taluk Mormadak (in Jolar) had a bustup.
What is not mentioned in the ToC is a nearly complete writeup of the Doraddi along the lines of similar writeups for the Hsunchen, Praxian, Orlanthi and Westerner in Genertela bozed set. No 'What My Father Told Me' alas. Lastly is a section on how Arbenan react to people to suggesting changes in their lifestyle (ie growing crops, riding horses etc). The title 'We tried that already' (and it didn't work) gives the essense of their reply.
>UNFISHED FICTION EXCERPT
>Aftal the Waertag
A story written in the sixties. Much of it obslete, although the Deri mentioned in the story still exist as one of Dormal's companions is a Deri.
Downside: The maps are still preliminary and some are downright incomplete. The text has a fair bit of editing to do and despite the foreword's claim that it is more developed than the GRoY, it seems to me the reverse is the case.
The worst maps are the Vadeli Isles and the Loral. One can get remedy the deficiencies in the Vadeli map by referring to the Neleomi sea map on p20 of Wyrms Footprints. The Loral map isn't too bad considering there are only five isles but only the names of two isles (Eschi and Var Loralng) can be worked out from the text whereas one is left to guess which are the Zis and the Olo Garanga Vichi.
More irritating are the maps of Kothar and Fonrit, although they are more complete, leave out quite a fair bit of information. The location of *twelve* cities are not given on the map and I could only rely on an old digest posting (Digest v05 n043) to locate two of them.
Likewise the Kothar writeup has many details but no location is shown for them on the map. I had to dig out the map of Pamaltela in Tales #11 and plot the course of the rivers in and out of Lake Tondu before I could get a clearer picture of Kothar. Even then, much of Sozganzio's internal geography was lost to me given the names in the text.
Sometimes there is a great deal of variation between a placename in the text and placename on the map. For instance: the Atapupo foothills of the Palakri are described as the Ataduro and the Xuxu river is at another place called the Zuzu. Although valid linguistically, I find this variation irritating. It would have been better to have something along the lines of Xuxu (also called the Zuzu, TsuTsu etc).
Conclusions: If you're a compleatist, buy it.
If you want some information on setting up a campaign on an exotic part of glorantha, then the worth of the book depends. If you are setting it in Fonrit, Umathela, Jrustela, Jolar or the East Isles then you'll find plenty of information to make your life easier. If you are wondering about the Maslo or Kothar then you will be provided with some detail but you will have to do a fair bit of work filling in the gaps.
If you are doing it in any other place like Tarien, Teleos, Sozganzio or Vormain then the book contains as much information as the Genertela Book does on Pent. In which case you might be disappointed if you thought it would be the answer to your prayers.
For the historically minded: the dates of the Closing have been revised again?!? AARRGGHH!
End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #54
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