> I get no real sense of relations between the Orlanthi in the Hills and
> the civilized folks in the City States. Does anyone have some insight
> into this?
Orlanthi mercenaries are also popular, albeit unreliable, in civilised Safelster (Remember: "this god's worshippers are like the wind: first blowing hot and hard, then wavering, and finally fading when needed most"). Good opportunities for Conan-style barbarian adventurers amid a civilised culture.
Tradetalk issues #2 and #3 contained lots of Ralian Orlanthi and Malkioni information, and are well worth looking at.
>> I tend to dislike this judgemental approach to Glorantha -- "Malkioni >> are Right, Stygians are Wrong".
> No worse than "Lunars are Right, Orlanthi are Wrong" profounded by
> some...
The difference is, I don't try to write the game rules so as to support my polemical positions. If, believing that "Lunars are Right, Orlanthi are Wrong", I rewrote the RQ magic system to support my point ("Orlanthi get weaker Rune magic because they are Doing it Wrong; Orlanthi who submit to the Red Goddess get access to more powerful Orlanthi magic because they are now Doing it Right), I doubt I'd make many converts.
(That said, Lunar Rune magic is *demonstrably* more powerful than Orlanthi... :-)
Whereas writing off a whole culture -- "the Stygian city-states of Safelster have weak magic because they are Doing it Wrong" -- is something I always dislike. Likewise, tarring major Gloranthan religions or philosophies as deliberately misleading or created with fraudulent intent -- "The Lunars are frauds! Wizards invented the Invisible God!"
I know -- we *all* know -- that Malkioni think themselves superior to Stygians. What none of us had been told prior to this was that the Stygian heretics got weaker magic because they were "wrong".
I would have been happier not being told this, frankly.
> Their theistic magic is weaker than the ordinary barbarians whom they
> often have close (if unfortunate) contact with.
Yes, but overall they are usually stronger, through a combination of *all* of their social, political and magical resources pitted against those of the barbarians, which cannot usually compete. (Nowadays, I probably have to write: "Orlanthi barbarians form weak kingdoms, and have low technology, and cannot use sorcery, because they are Wrong").
:::: Email: <mailto:Nick_Brooke_at_btinternet.com>
Nick
:::: Website: <http://www.btinternet.com/~Nick_Brooke/>
End of The Glorantha Digest V7 #259
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