The ludicrous thing about the "President of Caladraland" is that it comes from a very hierarchical theocracy, sort of solar, to boot. At least the use of the title "president" seems extremely leery, since there are no influences tending this way in your list below.
> The government is not described as "constitutional", and could
> be a description of Orlanthi Chief practices modified by Esrolian
> Sacrificial King ideas.
Could be, if it were Orlanthi city states similar the Greek city states. What we have instead are slash-and burn agriculture, somewhat migratory clans and tribes, and a priestly hierarchy wielding much of the real power. This would make the president more like the German president (sort of a ceremonial position, with moral authority but little actual political power) than the US president (no comments, ongoing trial ;-). If it is sort of a ceremonial position, no Gloranthan culture would name it "the one sitting in front of the rest".
> Neither is the Only Old One's described as sailing the open seas.
> I was under the impression that the Mirrorsea Bay was not directly
> affected by the Closing (like Ozur's Bay, the Suam Chow, Maslo Sea,
> ..) and the fleet could easily patrol the bay and it's islands.
This impression is correct, otherwise the Rightarm Isles would have been depopulated. The Closing even allowed coastal navigation - if you stayed close enough to the shore to suffer interaction with it.
The Mournsea too allowed inshore sailing, even between the Wenelian and the Manirian Isles across the bay of Erenplose. The Ludoch of both seas maintained close contact despite the Closing. Daring sailors may have braved the Poison Shore. That may have included a troll navy...
I said about Nimistor pirates:
>> They'd prefer experienced sailors, maybe, though I don't see how
>> Nimistor River would provide these.
> Handra, which is relatively near the Nimistor River, was the first
> city visited by Dormal on his first voyage. The people there
> immediately started building ships and befriending the Triolini.
> This gives them 32 years to gain sailing experience. In ToTRM 10
> Dormal cult history this almost immediately results in Kethaelans
> trying to suppress the ships of that resourceful city of Handra.
Handra is quite different from Nimistor, but we can't rule out that the Handran merchants bought the services of semi-barbarian Nimistor nobles for the dirty work of a naval trade war. A similar policy was pursued by the dissident Hanseatic League cities of the southern Baltic sea against Luebeck and Hamburg when they hired impoverished rural nobles from interior Mecklenburg and gave them letters of marque. (They plundered "enemy" merchant vessels, and ran the blockade of Stockholm - most famous among these was Claus Stoertebeker.)
However, already in 1583 the Handran merchants were faced with a strong external pirate presence just west of their territory, the Alatan pirates, who needed little nudging to deal with the Holy Country merchant navy. Even after the Alatan pirates (who don't seem to have spared Handran vessels) had been punished by the alliance between Kethaela and the Quinpolic league of Pasos, piracy from Alatan continued to be a threat, and a source of easily convinced captains to harrass ships of one's competition.
With the arrival of Orstando Black Wolf's fleet on the Threestep Isles in 1606 and an increase in Vadeli travel eastward after their setback at Oenriko Rocks, I doubt there would have been much incentive for Handran merchants to finance a pirate fleet of their own.
> Pirates from Alatan defeated the Pharoahs ships in 1582 and dominated
> their region of shore. (so Alatan pirates ruled Nimistor's coastline
> until 1585 when Alatan was attacked by Pasos. The pirates moved east
> (ie to the Nimistor region) and split up into pirate communities.
> (presumably Nimistor had at least one of these.)
> So, plenty of room for experience there.
The Alatan pirates remained on their island, and continued to provide a good reason for merchant travel to make a stop at Khorst, just west of Ramalia, even after their unity under the Kingdom of Smelch had been shattered. My picture for Alatan is Malta, a rocky island in pleasant climate with oodles of safe and hidden anchorages ideal for smuggling or piracy, with the bonus of no interference by mermen (unlike the Mournsea). Along Newcoast, it would be difficult to hide a pirate base except perhaps in dragonewt territory (and it is stated quite clearly how unhealthy that would be in Ryzel).
As an afterthought, you don't need superior seamanship for a large-scale naval raid. It appears that the main naval tactics in the Mirrorsea Bay are boarding actions, with ramming attacks to sink ships and shearing off rows only a preliminary option, unlike Aegean naval battles, more like nordic battles where sometimes entire fleets were lashed together to form a battle platform from which to expect the enemy fleet.
Peter corrects me:
> 'The illustration [...] shows [...] Harrek the Berserk
> and his pirate companions as they destroy a temple during
> their assualt on the Rightarm Islands, in the holy country
> (Maniria). This bloody event occured recently, in the
> year 1616'.
> Glorantha Book p19.
> Criticisms aplenty can be raised about the quality and reused nature
> of the actual picce. But they do not mar the legend's veracity.
The picture clearly depicts one of the Hero Wars battles in Dragon Pass - - it is easy to make out the shaven-head Lunars, snake-headed dragonewt priests etc in late 70s pictography for Glorantha. Since the event depicted is some 20-30 years after the date given, the presence of Harrek in 1616 isn't based on too solid facts.
And (having lived in similar environment): what has stung Harrek that he returns from lush Maniria to behind-nothing Ygg's Isles without plundering heavily along the Neliomi Sea (e.g. Loskalm, rife for plucking, or Brithini Arolanit) in 1617? One would at least expect a trail of burning ports during the voyage north.
Apart from this meagre and not too reliable bit, real evidence will only be found in new publications (hopefully soon).
End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #422
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