Does sound a bit too common for a foreign imported material. I agree that Teshnos and the East probably have their own supplies of Iron.
Peter
>The Keeper allows pilgrims to enter the valley and reach the tomb of
Soravatoor. >There after passing several tests, they are allowed to take
home either a Diamond or >a worked Iron. Hence the Teshnans have ample
access to Iron.
I like your and Erik's ideas regarding Teshnos though explains where they get their iron from.
Anyway we seem to have already pretty much ignored Pamaltela and the Eastern Isles, so maybe Greg's quote about 95% of the iron being from the Iron Mountains is referring to mankind only in the western and central regions of Genertela.
Peter
>Laurmal to Dragon Pass: Go through Safelster, Pralorela and then Maniria
and then >one ends up in Kethalea.
>Laurmal to Carmania: Go over the High Llama Pass into Fronela and sail up
the >Janube. After the Syndics Ban, one has to go through Dragon Pass and
then >through the Lunar Empire.
I agree that there are routes to Peloria, perhaps 'virtually impossible' was a bit strong. The Carmanian one sounds feasible enough pre syndics ban. The Dragon Pass route prior to the resettlement after the Dragon Kill would be difficult without trading with the trolls. IMO the OOO wouldn't be too happy about filthy westerners dragging cart loads of poisoned dwarf metal through to the Sun worshipers up north, but as no one was trading with the Mostali of the Iron Mountains at this point, supplies would have been small even if he was. When the Pharaoh turns up things would have got easier but you would still have a whole bunch of Orlanthi hostile to your eventual customers to get through, especially after the war in Tarsh starts. Could sell it to them though. Anyway we are still talking about long distance mostly overland travel through regions of undetermined hostility with an expensive cargo, so I don't think it would be any easier than for instance the RW spice trade.
Peter
>I think that all Mostali conclaves can sell Iron whether it be Bad Deal,
>Gemborg or Greatway. They don't sell it in bulk quantities (ie by the
>wagon load) like the Iron Mountain mostali do, but they would not be
>adverse in selling an ingot or two.
I'm sure they all can, they never seem to be short (of iron that is), but do they. They can't all be openhandists, maybe that is the exceptional thing about the iron mountains mostali. On the other hand it could be they just have the biggest store of it, or maybe its all part of some fiendish dwarf plan.
I don't know much about the Von mountains so I'll take your word that a
tradition could have been carried on by some craftsmen using local iron but
their output can't
have been that great even if it did make up most of the other 5%, probably
enough to equip quite a lot of rune lords though. I do still like my gold
rush image and I think it has MGF potential "There's iron in them there
hills".
One point however is that if it is difficult to trade iron with anywhere outside the west that would make most merchants look for local markets, keeping the price down. That makes me happier about its abundance in the west but raises the question of what happens now that the trade is easier again. I still think we are thinking too globally for ancient peoples.
Does anyone have any more info on caravans from the east. These merchants in Boldhome did they go straight there or come through Pavis or Sun County first. If they came that way could they go through Pent to Peloria as well, IIRC Genertela book says something about the Redlanders going to Kralorela.
Me
>>I am still however not happy with the western knights. I can accept that
>>the west is technologically more advanced, sorcerers being more logical
or
>>scientific etc. but is the knights armour made from the more easily
worked
>>Gloranthan bronze or are we to assume that the jointed plate armour of
the
>>illustrations is Iron armour. IMO the later is more feasible.
Peter
>What is wrong with them being smithed from bronze? After all bronze is
>not the RW bronze but an analogous metal.
Nothing really, I just thought if the materials were good enough to make Bronze plate that refined. i.e with hinged joints and intricate interlocking parts, rather than something like the Dendra style Mycanaean armour, which looks like it was made by Ned Kelly. Then your could make anything that late medieval Europe could make out of metal (And it wouldn't rust). That didn't seem to fit with the idea of a mostly Bronze Age and Neolithic world as described in the Glorantha intro. If this was the case we would just have a pseudo-medieval world with a red-gold tinge, and then your back to AD&D which is where I came from (And don't want to go back), and probably why I really like the Bronze Age bit about Glorantha (And have it in for the knights).
Peter
>>>The inquisitive, intelligent or(?) well educated in the RW have
>>>tended towards the study of magic and religion until modern times.
Me
>>No offense intended Peter but you're surely not trying to suggest that
>>intelligence and education are somehow inexorably linked.
Peter
>No. I was wondering why you apparently considered these categories
>to be mutually exclusive.
I think we are in agreement here. I didn't mean they were mutually exclusive just not necessarily linked, four years at university taught me that if nothing else.
Me
>>One last point does anyone else think it sounds more likely that the
lunars
>>built a trading port in a marsh, on the most inhospitable frontier of
their
>>empire, to trade iron with Seshnela than Grain with Esrolia.
>The Lunar Empire does not need grain from Esrolia.
I didn't think so either that's why I thought maybe they built Corflu to trade in iron with either Teshnos or Seshnela.
Trev
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