Hi guys. My mailbox is a bit swamped so I'm rather behind in reading GD at the moment.
I know I've raised the issue before, but I think it's somewhat important (or at least interesting) so I'll go there again.
Greg's excellent Glorantha material tends to focus on the big stuff, myths and historical events. This is all fine and good, but somebody else need's to fill in the blanks.
One of the blanks is race.
Ok, it's not quite blank. We have a rather Aryan bunch in the Heortlings and the other "barbarian belt" orlanthi. Blondes and redheads abound, eyes of blue, green and gray. Easy image to grasp. Vikings, kelts and germanic tribes.
But I for one don't like to see the rest of Genertela cast from the same mould. It's far more interesting, at least to me, to look for variance. West Europe is such a clishé in fantasy. Also there's a desperate need for some cultural basis to use on names. Made up "fantasy names" can get rather painful after a while.
So, here's some ideas.
The Lunar Empire?
I've always liked the the Solar culture to be more or less greek in style. The patriarchal Dara Happans naturally bring to mind the ancient greeks and the empire reminds one of that of persia. The Plehora of lunar deities is rather indian in style, so one can use that for ideas about fashion and such.
Still basically your classic "white men", but at least not quite so nordic (all this coming from a scandinavian, mind you).
The West of Glorantha is interesting. One is tempted to use the classic medieval setting as seen in Pendragon and Ars Magica, to name just a few.
But why limit ourselves. We have a monotheistic, highly civilized race of people to draw from in our history. I'm talking, of course, of the great arabic civilizations and the muslim religion. (I also draw heavily on the work of Ursula K. LeQuinn in the Earthsea books for a wizard centered setting with a lower than medieval technology setting.)
But what do you think? All this is just scratching the surface. I'm hoping to stir conversation.
Is anybody else trying to run a game in the west casting the culture (and people) in an arabian mould? What about the rest?
-Adept
I think I think... Therefore I think I am.
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End of Glorantha Digest
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