Maps, trolls rituals

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_primus.com.au>
Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 17:02:04 +1000


Heys folks

KUDOS WHERE DUE Where to start? James Frussetta's 'Troll Wonderhome' site (http://www.wam.umd.edu/~gerakkag/rq.html) is awesome! Nick's 'attack ships off the shoulder of Orion' was also inspirational: I hope he works this into a poem / story. Great atmosphere and 'look and feel' for a campaign starter.

There have been some excellent and thoughtful commentaries on Issaries and the fan-base issues over the last week, and I'd like to acknowledge the comments of Rick Meints, Roderick Robinson and Neil (Neil? Neil who?), among others. Thanks also to Rick for his guidelines on converting HW characters. I found them very useful.

RITUAL POLITICS David Dunham seems to have misunderstood my contribution to the discussion between David Cake and Martin about Gloranthan politics and meaning. It was explicitly stated that the ideas I presented were to be considered as *balances* to the approaches being discussed, not as either/or alternatives. Even the counter-examples that David presents (Kerenath's Saga?! ?! - nothing like going to the core sources <g>) - whooping dances, marriage to the FHQ - are far from clear examples of the supposed dichotomy between self-gain politics and ritual/mythic imperatives. There are considerable elements of both involved in each of those examples. Luckily neither David or myself seem to be the dogged point by point rejoinder types, or this could drag for weeks. :)

We all bring loads of twentieth century baggage to our Gloranthan scholarship (assumptions about meaning, values, religion, gender, goals, thought processes etc.) - some conscious, most of it unconscious. My own efforts have always been to try to make this cultural baggage visible, to render it as explicit as possible. My own love of Glorantha springs in large part from the sense of wonder I can sometimes experience when I looking into an alien perspective on life (Heortling war leader, one-armed duck bandit, Doraddi Speaker-To-Animals) and seeing it *suddenly make sense*. Alien, though understandable, human yet bewildering. The alternative is a kind of SCA Glorantha, barbarians wearing Nikes (hmmm, must be thrall-takers) whose opinions, values and ways of thinking are indistinguishable from own . There is a balance of course - we're here to enjoy ourselves, not to write ethnographies or code entire cultures into flow charts. But questioning automatic assumptions ("politics is about this...," "gender roles are like this...") and offering alternative perspectives has always been part of the fun. David Cake summed this up nicely.

We need to employ as many different conceptual toolkits as we can manage when it comes to exploring Glorantha. I can't turn off my own training and perspectives any more than Martin or David or David can theirs. But we *can* employ the Ernaldan imperative, and see the value (or at least utility) of asking different sorts of questions. For me, this is one of the rewards of creative cooperation, and the reason I enjoy Gloranthan exploration so much.

'Part from that, David's comments made a lot of sense. :)

SARTAR MAPS Speaking of Sartar maps, don't forget Walter Moore's map of Sartar from TOTRM, which I later used to illustrate the Sartar tribes and population article in Questlines 1. Though 'unofficial' (oh the shame, the shame) David Hall's population figures and my resulting tribal maps (for 1610 and 1621) were closely sourced from and checked with a dude called Greg Stafford.

It's time those maps were put on the web, maybe even in the Issaries library. Being black and white they pack down into a quite modest-sized GIF. Is anyone in contact with Walter Moore? Please e-mail me privately if you are. As my Questlines maps were derived from his, I'd like to secure permission before webbing them.

TROLLS IN SARTAR Douglas Seay asked about locations for troll threats in Sartar.

On one level, Uz can be a threat *anywhere* in Sartar. It only takes a relatively small band of Uz raiders to wreak absolute havoc across a tula, especially if they're on a 'dip and dive' (hero plane and physical plane) quest.

There is also the question of just how much wilderness/Uz lands/hunting lands Sartar has. It depends where you stand on the

green and pleasant farmland <-------> untamed wilderness

axis. There's still room for a good deal of subjective interpretation on this one. RQAdventures, for example, portrayed neatly-farmed open steads right to the edge of Snakepipe Hollow (where my own Tovtaros, by contrast, huddle behind their defensive palisades). Most of us would allow a certain amount of wilderness and hunting lands on and around tribal tulas, but if you go to the published demographics and and maps and do some sums, you find that Sartar is a particularly *cozy* place to live.

The simple answer for encountering trolls is

  1. to the North of Sartar (the western and northern Far Place tribes in proximity to Dagori Inkarth [and Snakepipe, and the Stinking Forest, and did I mention Lunars, and Solars, and kinstrife and, and...] and
  2. in the South. Tarkalor Trollkiller (who is becoming my favourite Sartarite king - what a great time for a courtly HW campaign) got his name from fighting 'many wars' against Uz in the south of Sartar, where they threatened closure of major trade routes. Fifty years on, I doubt if much need to have changed...

ALDA CHUR Speaking of Sartarite kings, one thing I neglected to mention about Alda Chur was King Terasarin's extensive rebuilding of the city and its ancient walls in the mid 1580s. The possibilities for Tarshite/Youfish/Sartarite/Solar/Grazelander architectural crossovers are, well, frightening.

Cheers

John


nysalor_at_primus.com.au                   John Hughes
johnp.hughes_at_dva.gov.au

So join the struggle while you may
The Revolution is just a t-shirt away.
- - Billy Bragg.


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