The West, an Anachronism? from David Weihe on 2005-05-11 (Glorantha Digest Vol 11)

From: David Weihe <blerg2_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 16:58:37 -0700 (PDT)

Mikko Rintasaari said:
> The West has always seemed like a terrible anachronism. Late medieval
> society (platemail clad knights and all) living next to the Celt-like
> barbarians and Ancient Greek level Solars.

IIRC, the first thing that Greg dreamed of, from Glorantha, was Prince Snodal escaping from his enemies by running all the way to Altinea. After that, it was WhoIsIt and his friend, BigBear the Troll, from 2nd Age Janube.

Therefore, if anything is an anachronism, it is Theistic Central Genertela (except maybe for Carmania), the more recent addition.

Anyway, there is nothing about Peloria that requires ancient Greek *technology*, just that their social organization maps to the Hellenistic/Roman era.

For that matter, what makes you think that Arthurian Britain (one of the main Malkioni analogs) had better technology than the tail edge of the Viking era? Also, while we all LOVE to play up the primitive aspects of the Heortlings, expecially the Sartari, remember that they are from a country that was founded by a man whose life arc best maps to Issaries, famous for building cities, sophisticated roads, and trade routes that made them rich. There is a lot of complexity waiting in fallow for a new Changer, after the Lunar taxmen are thrown off.

> It all requires a bit of fixing to me :)
>
> I do use imperial Persia as the major inspiration for Dara Happa /
> The Lunar Empire (with the India-remeniscent religion of the Lunars).
>
> I don't like the idea that the west would have a huge technological
> advantage, but a monotheistic religion seem central to the theme =>
> moslem arab civilization is a good inspiration to me.

Peg your Malkioni society at the technological level of Byzantium of the early 10th or 11th Century, and you still have Vikings living it up in Northern Europe, and the Irish living almost as primitively as in Patrick's time. Furthermore, that the Empire used the Varangian Guard as elite troups, rather than as sword fodder, implies that the Northmen had perfectly good martial arts and crafts, even if they didn't usually bother much with cities when at home (except for founding all the ones in Ireland).

Discover Yahoo!
Have fun online with music videos, cool games, IM and more. Check it out! http://discover.yahoo.com/online.html