Rathori Raids from Nick Brooke on 2000-04-13 (Glorantha Digest Vol 07)

From: Nick Brooke <Nick_Brooke_at_btinternet.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 07:07:28 +0100

I think Rathori raids into Arrolia are sorted out for the most part by player character "Seven Samurai" types, not by a local rapid-reaction force of heavy cavalry with specialist anti-bear armaments and training. When an outlying village detects bear people prowling around the forest ("They haven't come this near since the Great Winter!"), they tend to panic and look for assistance. Or, alternatively, appease the bear people. ("Pooh likes Honey").

I am certain the Char-Un and Rathori skirmish along their blasted border, where the Rathorelan forest turns into the Erigian steppe. Too many trees for the horsemen, too few for the bearmen -- fair odds for both. The main driver is probably Char-Un aggression rather than Rathori covetousness, but there is now a fair amount of revenge and prestige built into the equation. (When the Russian Cossacks expanded east of the Urals, the local tribes didn't just pack it in and leave, after all, despite their military/organisational etc. disadvantages).

The last major organised Rathori expansionist military action was the White Bear Empire, and what a cock-up that turned out to be. Not a good precedent for wholesale societal transformation, IMO. I am sure Rathori mercenaries serving the Kingdom of War will do all kinds of odd things; I am not so sure that this makes them "typical Rathori".

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Nick
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