> Back in 1988 when the Genertela book meandered out, several lands were > marked as "blank lands" i.e. "Referee do what you will with them".
Well, the earliest exposition of Blank Lands was in 1981, from "Wyrms Footnotes #10". Its list is sufficiently humorous -cum- useless that I'll repost it in full below:
: Some of the areas we are currently considering as Blank Lands include:
:: - several Lunar cities
: - The Fronelan elf nation of Deerwood
: - Two minor Fronelan river duchies
: - A riverford
: - an Arolanit city-state
: - a Ralios river manor
: - several medium ports on the southern coast of Genertela
Since then, as we know, every riverford in Glorantha (bar one) has been extensively developed in published sources... :-(
> When Trollpak was torn assunder and loosed on the market in more bits > than Krjalk, there was made the odd reference to Balazar, which was one > of the Genertelan "blank lands."
Balazar was the focus of "Griffin Mountain", the 1981 campaign pack for RQ2, which was bastardised into a "Gateway" generic fantasy setting for RQ3, "Griffin Island", in 1986 (Lunars turned to Orcs, etc.). Balazar was presumably designated a "blank land" in 1988's "Genertela Book" in the knowledge that many copies of GM were in the hands of long-time RQ players, but it was unlikely to see republication any time soon (given GI). It *was* rather a half-hearted attempt, agreed; and Trollpak was first published back in 1982, when Balazar was the *most* detailed Gloranthan setting available. (In fact, it still is!).
What this probably means is that "official" Balazar is more or less exactly what you get in "Griffin Mountain", but that its inhabitants, politics, beer, etc. are never likely to impinge on the world outside of that campaign pack. So any changes to "official" Balazar you may have made -- deliberately (through long-time gaming) or inadvertently (through not having GM) -- won't affect the wider world of Glorantha. Any more than they did when we were *all* gaming there in the early Eighties, hand-rearing allosaurs to drive the Lunars out of Elkoi...
As for the other Blank Lands, Who Knows? I hear Rumours that the whole shebang is to be closed down, but can't see the earthly point of doing this -- they're no harm to anyone, surely?
Cheers, Nick
BTW, I believe there's a guide to retrofitting GI back to GM out on the www somewhere; not sure where...
End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #461
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