>Heortland seems to be getting the short end of the stick anyway, both
>previously and in the newest books. It should be a strong, large and
>traditional Orlanthi land, with more population than Sartar.
The earliest references to it do not have it as a traditional Orlanthi land. In the Glorantha Intro, I've tried to show that it was traditional until the Pharaoh came.
>Yet the
>Empire marches over them without breaking a sweat (just a few lines have
>been allocated in describing this, it hardly seems worth mentioning(!?!)
A lot more lines were allocated in the earlier drafts into describing how the Empire was able to march in without breaking a sweat. However they were left out on the basis of space, although there should have been a single line or two about the recent civil war.
In short, the story was that after King Owain dies in 1616, Richard the Tiger-hearted takes control and renames the land Malkonwal. His overt Malkionism is opposed by Broyan of the Volsaxi who fears the loss of the land's traditional freedoms. He becomes King using the old rites and civil war erupts in Heortland.
Richard had most of the barons behind him but Broyan was truer to Hendreiki's freedoms and so could not be overwhelmed. In the middle of this struggle, the Lunars invade. They use chaotic magics which is Larnste's Achilles's heel and so are able to overrun most of King Richard's Lands. Broyan's lands prove much harder to subdue due to Free Hendreik who even aids in the repulsion of the Bat from Whitewall (leading to Fazzur's disgrace). But because of the Lunar conquest of Richard's Lands, Hendreik is now so much weaker that he is not be able to prevent the Lunars from capturing the remainder of Heortland bit-by-bit and now they are ready to take Whitewall.
My mental picture throughout this was the US Civil War with Richard as the new Union radicals and Broyan as the old Confederate traditionalists (with the big difference being that the Confederate analogs are no longer fighting for slavery).
>It's named after king Heort, yet the new Glorantha book writeup
>hardly mentioned him.
I really don't know why it's referred to as Heortland considering that the Heortlings once occupied the whole of Dragon Pass and beyond. I focused on the Hendreiki as they are the most important people living there whereas Heort's importance is properly described in the mythology section.
>One would think Heortland is the hart and soul of _Heortling_
>orlanthi culture, and this is indeed the view I had from the
>RQ-2 writings.
They were until the Pharaoh came. Then he started changing things and many of the Orlanthi migrated north to Sartar as a result. Hence Sartar is really the heart and soul of the Heortlings.
>Ok, they had some malkioni remnants from the time of Arkat,
The Malkioni are earlier than Arkat according to the Aeolian Church writeup up at www.glorantha.com.
>I sort of liked the Larnsti tho... I just don't see how they
>would end up geing the kings of the tribes of Heortland.
They don't anymore. And when they were Kings, IMO they acted more like magical holy men than proper Orlanthi Kings. The only reason that a Larnsti was King was to maintain Hendreik's magical freedom that protected the tribe.
>Wasn't Heort's way opposed to kingly lines,
Anybody can become a Larnsti, so in the Good Old Days anybody could become King.
>the King is supposed to be chosen from among the thanes.
Which is the current Heortland practice now (or at least before the civil war) although the succession is restricted to a certain type of "thane".
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