>I see Sekever is described as the Son of the Black Sun/Blood Sun/Zerel
>Fan. Are there any details given about his ancestry? Was he originally
>a human, a demigod, or a god?
You will probably get a different answer depending on who gloranthan you talk to. Because Sekever doesn't match up chronologically, I get the impression that there were many people that became Sekever during the Storm Age and Greater Darkness. Local Sekeverans will claim that he was a local while their country-men will claim that Sekever came from a foreign land.
>Sekever warred against Teshnos, until Chal instructed King Bulthushasam
>to sacrifice to the God Somash - the Sun appeared and "bit off Sekevers
>face". I don't think this is start of Solara Tempora for the Teshnans,
>as the other fiery forms - Solf, Calyz, and Furalor - I think are
>similarly revealed to the Teshnans.
It's the start of the Human Cycle which occurred about 2500 years ago or roughly -875 ST. The King at the Dawn is Soravatoor as in the Glorantha Book.
>(Unless those fiery forms are revealed within Time...) I presume that
>like in Kralori
>myth, Sekever is likely to return.
The other forms can be revealed against people other than Sekever. Soravatoor IMO is the hero that gathered up the divergent Chalite traditions and made a functioning state out of them.
> > The one thing the Huan To would not do would be
> > to have anything to do with Thanatari magics. That's
> > because the Black Sun fought a famous battle in
> > the waste lands against Tien in what is now the
> > dreaded city of Than Ulbar in the Tunnelled Hills.
>Ooh interesting. Where would one find any more information
>on this? Thanatari are showing up in my Lunar campaign, and
>are the source of much fear and delight.
There isn't much official. On Than Ulbar:
The nearest approach to a city in the Wastes. Than-Ulbar
spreads out like a cancer in and around an old-blown out
volcano. The volcano, already hollow, has been riddled
with crawlways for goblins. The volcano's crater holds
a bottomless lake and is Than-Ulbar's source of water. This
place is reputedly the largest temple to Thanatar in the
World and is rumoured to hold the skull of Atyar deep within
its precincts. The goblins who dwell here raid the western
wastes, ranging as far as Kralorela and Teshnos for
trophies.
Tales #15 p58.
I think the skull is massive and is the sort of thing you heroquest in. Than Ulbar controls the land of Akka:
Southeast of Than-Ulbar and controlled by the dire land.
This small valley is full of sowed fields (mostly growing
coarse vegetables or crude grains) interspersed with
open plains and marshes. Huge slave pens mar the
countryside, housing field workers and future victims.
The folks of Than-Ulbar use Akka as the hunting ground
for small game as well as growing whatever vegetable
food they can. Chsa Glut, an immortal sorcerer-priest
of Atyar from Kralorela, has taught a few of his minions
the secrets of agriculture. The field workers rarely
survive more than a year or two before they are worked
to death. Chsa Glut's only concession to the slaves'
survival is to house chaotic and non-chaotic slaves in
different pens.
Tales #15 p57.
I think of Chsa Glut as a spitting image of Mola Ram/Amrish Puri except that he's into nerosurgery rather than cadiology. Than Ulbar seems to own allegiance to a mysterious third entity which is only described in Elder Secrets.
Deep in the wastes, beyond lands were normal men
dwell, lies a range of hills in which lurks a kingdom of
Chaos. The kingdom is ruled by a demon child born
of Cacodemon and a diseased broo. It rules even less
effectively than Ralzakark, Broo King of Dorastor, and
its subjects are in constant revolt and riot. Its wasted
mind delights in breeding projects which run amok,
spewing out occasional hordes of displaced ravenous
broos, krarshtkids, scorpion-things or just unnameable
things into the wastes.
Elder Secrets Book p14.
The demon child probably lives in the Weeping Valley, about which little else is described.
--Peter Metcalfe
End of Glorantha Digest, Vol 11, Issue 327
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