>I have a
>hard time understanding what Heortland and Aeolianism really is like.
>Anyone care to summarize the recent discussions?
Well, the argument has been less about Heortland and more about the Aeolians and their position in the recent civil war but I'll have to give some background on Heortland first. I'll try and keep this bit uncontroversial.
Heortland was settled during the Chaos Wars by the Hendreiki tribe or outlaws, depending on who you read. After the Chaos Wars ended, the Hendreiki have grown so that they are now larger than Sartar. They still refer to themselves as being part of the Hendreiki _tribe_ and this is a political fiction to keep their ties to the original Hendreiki tribe.
Greg hasn't written much on Heortland as they are really Orlanthi and he has written alot about Orlanthi elsewhere (the Kitori have suffered similarly, I suppose, because they are a Troll-and- Orlanthi mixture).
The little that has been published about Heortland is vague and often contradictory (are the Hendreiki one tribe among the four Heortland tribes as the Heortland description on p49 of the Genertela book suggests or are all Heortland tribes Hendreiki as per King Richard's bio on p46 of the same book?). Furthermore many published details concern Sir Richard and leave us ill-informed as to the nature of Heortland.
Two things stand out amidst the morass of vague and confused detail.
But although changed, the Theyalan love for political freedom remains. [...] Heortland's knights are not a class of nobles, just another of the free classes. [...] The "unfree" class is so abhorrent to the Heortlanders that fewer slaves or serfs exist than in most western countries. Genertela Book p49.
b) The Hendreiki are heavily Malkionized.
The Hendreiki tribe has been altered from its Orlanthi basics by heavy malkioni mercantile, religious and social impact. [...] Instead of "thanes", the Hendreiki warriors are called knights, and armed to fight in the same way as their western overlords. Genertela Book p49.
We have another data point in that the majority of Sartarites who come from Heortland about three centuries ago do not have Malkioni influences. So the Hendreiki have been malkionized since that time as a result of the Pharaoh's rule and before this time, such influences were slight or neglible.
These Malkioni influences are neither complete nor uniform. They do extend not to the religious practices of the Hendreiki which are larely unchanged. In the more distant regions of Heortland, I expect to see unmalkionized or partially malkionized clans. In addition, these Malkioni customs come from Safelster/Handra/Trader Princes and not from Seshnela or Loskalm.
The current bunfight resolves over the nature of the Aeolians, a Malkioni minority in Heortland and their status within the Heortland kingdom. Even less is published about them and nothing official. There is also the matter of their history and when they originated but that can ignored by saying they became significant in the Imperial Age.
The Aeolians are so-called because of their patron spirit Aeolus. They are heterodox in that they combine their worship of God with the Orlanthi deities in some strange manner. The precise details of Aeolian religion is not known although IMO the Stygian Churches of Safelster will have had a great influence through the Trader Princes.
The Aeolians were formerly allies or friends to the God Forgotten of the south. I think the Pharaoh has encouraged the Aeolians to take up Trader Prince practices to widen the gulf between them and God Forgot, preventing the formation of an alliance that could disturb his rule.
A key difference between me and Joerg is about the social positions of the Aeolians in Heortland society. From the Players Book: Genertela p13, the Heortlanders are not dominated by worship of the Invisible God, so the Aeolians do not rule the Orlanthi as is the case in Jonatela or perhaps Umathela. So how do the Aeolians fit in?
Joerg thinks that the Aeolians are treated equally by the Hendreiki as they are no different from any other minority (elmali, troll-friends etc). I think they are, to some extent, pariah because of their historical misdeeds.
Given that the Sartarites did not build cities until after Sartar showed them, I believe the kindred Hendreiki have a similar attitude towards city-dwellers. Hence the Aeolians make up a large portion of city-dwellers in Heortland, and that they have less voice in the government of Heortland than equivalent city-dwellers do in Sartar. I should point out the coastal ports of Karse and Vizel will be dominated by other people.
Joerg thinks that apart from religion, the Aeolians are still Hendreiki in social practice, in that they have the same social virtues, the same social groupings (clans, rings), the same marriage practices etc. IMO although the Hendreiki have adopted Malkioni names for their institutions (ie Knight instead of Thane), they are still organized around Orlanthi concepts of kinship etc. whereas the Aeolian social practices are fundamentally Malkioni and work differently.
The rest is pedanty plus some discussion about what is happening to Heortland in the recent civil war and Lunar Conquest.
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