> Yes, I realize that this is actually Greg's fault, bne thing I've frankly
> NEVER understood about East Ralios is why the heck there are any Orlanthi
> there at all. In reality, it's about as far away from Sartar as possible,
> given that all the mountains are impassable! Zero communications with the
> Orlanthi heartland in Sartar. In the First Age, the whole area was overrun
> by Gbaji and Arkat, and
> it's now heavily inluenced by westerners and trolls. I can imagine a lot
> of interesting cultures in East Ralios, but Orlanthi is about the last.
I think it relates to the terrain. The Orlanthi are "hill barbarians," and parts of Ralios are full of hills. Presumably the Western plow doesn't do so well in the hills, so the Orlanthi can make a better living than the civilized farmers.
The mountains were far less impassable in earlier times. In the Dawn Age, folks could go through Kartolin Pass -- and did, bringing the Orlanthi religion. Harmast Barefoot went through Ralios on his heroquest (likely reinforcing Orlanthi beliefs). In the Imperial Age, there was flying by dragons and Orlanthi (the "Hill of Nardain" mentioned in King of Sartar is probably a landmark used by the Nardain Society, who all had mighty flying magic).
> I was involved in helping create one of the first Ralios maps (along with
> Jurek Chodak, formerly of Chaosium), many of the ideas of which have been
> kept in official pubs, but out of 4 of us nobody ever said "gee, it's so
> logical to have Orlanthi here".
Wow, I haven't seen your name since, well, I looked at the credits of one of the fine products of that era!
David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_pensee.com> Glorantha/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html> Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #421
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