>What I meant was "are these events the results of the Sartar Rising
>campaign, or
>are they independant from it?"
Whooo bitchin! And it seems such a simple question... :)
The predestination/free will debate has wasted countless tons of ink since around the sixth century BCE, and its definitely NOT what we want to get into here.
Luckily, we are roleplayers, not historians, and Glorantha isn't a place, its a collection of stories, *our* stories - a point sometimes lost on non-roleplayers.
As a GM/Narrator, you are free to change the guidelines at any point along the way. YGMV - 'Your Glorantha May Vary'. This includes changing major events, dates, key personages. If your campaign ends with Prince Sartar II, known as Arki the Many-faced, being found among the wilds of Holay, being proclaimed a Twue Hero of the Durulz, returning to Boldhome 'midst a general rising of the tribes, turning Temertain into a cockroach, Argrath into a temple dancer, marrying Harrek, naming Moriades Jarlmaster-General and unleashing the Bat against the recalcitrant rebels of the Kheldonians, before signing the kingdom over to the Vanchite Trading Company, then more power to you. (Just be sure to share the tale with us all).
Who knows, you might even make the Lunars the good guys. :)
However, if you wish for your campaign to follow the broad outlines of the Hero wars arc, what we usually refer to as GAG or 'Generally accepted Glorantha' then these key events will occur, and at this stage of the arc are pretty much independent of what player hero bands do or do not do. Events like the fall of Whitewall, the campaigns of Bryan and Kallyr, Fimbulwinter and Dragonrise are key, pivotal events around which the entire arc unwinds.
Later, as your heroes grow in power and ally with or become key players, things turn much more on their actions. But that's 3 and 4W territory.
That's the short answer. What follows is mere padding.
The key events of the entire Hero Wars were first shared by Greg Stafford in 'King of Sartar', published over a decade ago. There Greg mapped out the entire arc with broad strokes, right to the very end.
SPOILERS: STOP HERE IF YOU HAVEN"T READ KING OF SARTAR AND DON"T WANT TO KNOW. Rough (and somewhat ecliptic) Summary: Sartar Enslaved. Bad Things Happen. Argrath Pops Up. Empire Barely Notices. Badder Things Happen. Dragon Eats Temple. Empire notices. Empire Strikes back. Argrath Does The Big Jump West Thingee ((TM) (C) One Million BST, Orlanth Inc.). Things Can't Possibly Get Worse. They Do. Elder Races Join the Dying Throngs. Walls of Limitation Break Down Everywhere. Sheng Seleris Comes Back, Sorely Pissed. Empire Rushes Off To Change Its Toga. Every Stickpicker And His Alynx Quest For God-like Powers. Chaos Enters Sequel Market With 'End Of Everything, Part Two'. Arkat Returns, But Did He Ever Really Go Away? Continents Sink, Weird Stuff Enters Mass Syndication, Dragons Burn Minor Countries, Dogs Sleep With Cats, Actor Becomes Governor of State He Cannot Even Pronounce, Yadda Yadda Yadda. Red Moon Falls/Turns White/Turns Invisible (Tick One). Argrath Pulls Double Bluff Utama Sacrifice on Empire (Lunar Opinions Vary). Last Recorded Words of Emperor...'Oh Bugger...' (Lunar Opinions Vary). Block Dissolves After Years of Tourist Souveniring - Devil Free At Last. Things Get Even Worse. Nearly Everyone Dies. Another Big Net Thingee. All the Gods Die. Humanity Becomes Very Confused. Sartar slowly turns into Oregon. (Maybe.)
END SPOILERS Call those spoilers? Why back in third season Babylon 5, we had REAL spoilers...., hair curling, gut wrenching, melt-in-your-mouth spoilers passed lovingly from hand to hand...
Of course, Greg has spent far two long scrambling midst the splendid ruins of Arthurian Studies to ever write a Gygaxic 'What happens next' book. The documents in KOS are 'written' long after the event, utilising a variety of partial sources. Confusion, repetition and downright contradiction abound. Discerning the 'truth' is part detective work, part guess work, and in large part impossible to determine. We spent lots of time in the early 90s going over the book with a fine toothcomb, concocting theories to suit our prejudices (see the Gloranthan Digest repository and the Lokarnos website to get a flavour of these fan boy meanderings.)
However, discerning the truth about Argrath from KOS is like discerning the truth about Arthur from the collected dross, pseudo-history, half-remembered legends and inspired mythopoetics of a millennia. (The similarity in names is probably meaningful - Arthur, Argrath, Arkat, Archilles, Agamemnon, Dent - Arthur Dent... but hey, that's another fan boy duck chase). Did Romanised Britons (or perhaps descendants of Romanised Sarmatian cataphractarii) fight Saxons during the Empire's long twilight? Certainly. Was Arthur historical... maybe, kinda, 'cept he probably wasn't called Arthur and he almost certainly wasn't a king. Was there a historical Round Table, Merlin, Quests and Tourneys and maidens and dragons and silly english-k-nig-ets...? Sorry, no.
Ditto for Argrath.
Of course, as your campaign arc progresses these myths of Argrath will take a definite form. Things will become set in concrete, though in a variety of different ways. Some of KOS will be confirmed, lots will be overturned, and a whole lot of new stuff will spring out fresh to blow you away. It will be a big challenge for writers and narrators to balance the ever-branching arcs of campaign outcomes with the broad strokes of the 'central' history. Which means we're in for quite a ride.
I hope this answer had something to do with your question. :)
>Moah, platypus powaaa!
>
Vibes, dude, righteous.
John
John Hughes
Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 2600
Phone (02) 6125 0649
Visit CAEPR on the web at http://www.anu.edu.au/caepr/
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