Re: Kralori questions

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_cs.ucc.ie>
Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 19:16:06 +0100 (BST)


Peter Metcalfe:

> The Archexarchs are appointed by the Emperor, but I think this
> is something of a mere formality as the sage is determined by
> the Archexarch's bureaucracy (amidst factional power struggles
> IMHO).
Definitely. Though for an Archexarch, the factional pow-- err, I mean, the elevated and refined contemplations on the cosmically best candidate for the job, likely draws in the imperial bureaucracy as a whole. To imagine the full horror of this, the best comparison I can come up with is the procedure for appointing a senior academic post -- reports from experts, selection committees with baroque compositions, inter-departmental turf wars and generally, much pissing around. (Exarchs can likely be appointed largely with reference to their own, 'local' bureaucracy, but don't bet the farm on that, either.)

Terra Incognita:
> >Archexarch (God Realm Governor?) and Leader of Exarch (Mundane Province)
> >are all Dragon Mystics?

To an extent/sort of. The exarchs and archexarchs can only attain such positions by 'fitting in to' the imperial religion, but they play a role very different from the guys who sit around monasteries all day, drawing mandalas a grain of sand at a time, and talking in profound-sounding self-contradictory aphora. You might say this is because they're sacrificing their own mystical progress for the good of the well-being of the corporate empire; you might say it was because they have minimal actual Darudans powers or knowledge (or interest) in the first place. Both may well be true to some degree and I suspect official pronouncements of Kralorela will be constructively vague on to what extent. (Of course in a sense, both can be true simultaneously.)

> I think it was Yanoor's Capital which was flooded in ShangHsa's
> reign due to his abuses. Metsyla's capital lies between Genertela
> and Vormain AFAIK.

Yup, pretty much. If the myths are any indication (and being Glorantha, they ought to be), it has to be somewhere under Kahar's Sea of Fog. (I don't know of Kralori (or maybe even Vorumai) archeologists go on expeditions seeking 'the lost city of Metsyla', but the idea does tickle me rather.)

Cheers,
Alex.


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