Sartar needed to build Duck-Point, or at least needed to buid another city, roughly there, for his own mystical reasons. With his other cities he managed to get the local tribes to come together and form a city confederation (all getting a piece of the city and putting people on the city ring and forming a city trade guild).
Duck Point went wrong all the way.
The ducks didn't want to live in a city of stones and streets, and probably for all his magic Sartar was not able to fully win their trust to persuade them to take even a token presence there.
The Colymar were not willing to join a city federation. I'm not aware of the details of why, but the impression I get is that they were too proud. They eventually accepted Sartar as high king, and his descendants as Prince, but they were not willing to accept the other tribes as peers in a city confederation.
The remaining two tribes that 'should' have been part of the city confederation didn't try and create a "city confederation" on their own. For that matter, they might not have had direct land access to the city, I'm not sure. Anyway, one of them absorbed the other long ago (per the gazeteer), which suggests that there may already have been some sort of close relationship at the time between them (allies, one tribe paying tribute to the other, whatever) that they may have felt was working fine as it was, with no need to muck with it.
I'm sure Sartar placed a few people in Duck Point, but with no inhabitants and no market, traders had no interest in settling there (or left quickly), and nobody else had reason to go there....and the town stayed essentially empty.
I'm pretty sure that there are those who consider the failure of Duck Point to be the reason why the kingdom of Sartar fell. Some probably blame the ducks, some probably blame the Colymar. Some probably work to finally create the Duck Point federation, thinking that will lead to the renaissance of Sartar. I think that would make a great character motivation (it is high on my list of ones to use if I get to play at some point), a campaign them for a politically oriented campaign, a decent multi-part episode, or background for hero band. Hmmm, I should take a shot at creating such a hero band perhaps. Hero Bands are fun to write :) It would be easy to make it "In my game" thing that in fact the creation of Duck Point was in fact a critical catalyst to the success of the rebellion.
For what it is worth, have you noticed that Sartar built four cities besides Boldhome? And that they are roughly north, east, south, and wwest (Duck Point) of his eventual capital? It makes me think of the traditional "Four Storms" that should accompany a hero. I'm sure there are myths of heros falling because one of their storms failed, and probably even a few where the failing storm managed to recover, and hence save them all. So there would be mythic parrellels. For what it is worth, I'd view the northern city (whose name escapes me at the moment) as the Sword, Jonstown as the Shield, Wilmskirk at the Spear, and Duck Point as the "Back Boy." (hmmm, if anyone suggested the like at the time, maybe that is why the Colymar refused to join? Not glorious enough). The "Back Boy" of cousre is the one that is supposed to provide support and healing when things get rough, which didn't happen at the conquest, but if it came into being now, maybe it could heal the kingdom?
Of course, convincing the Ducks to live in a city of streets and stone could still be a problem.....but I always say that Glorantha needs more canals....now where did that spade go?
--Bryan
Powered by hypermail