LC, how is your French? (Coming from Montreal I'd hope good, but when I worked there a few of my co-workers were still resisting bilingualism....). If it is at all decent, for much muchness on the holy country (some summarizing official material, some unofficial), there is a very good french site just teeming with it, at: http://kethaela.free.fr
Also, if for you or any of your players who may get inspired to join lists, french is your preferred language, there is a french Glorantha yahoo group (Glorantha_VF). In the files section of that group you'd find some handy things like French character sheets....and of course, it is another place in which to ask questions. There are less grognards there, so the tone of the discussions tends to be different— it is a good place overall.
Briefly about the holy country, my completely unofficial and informal
take on it:
- At the dawning, the area south of Heortland was ruled by the Only
Old One (OOO), a troll demi-god.
- Eventually a chap named Belintar swam out of the Mirrorsea Bay in
the middle of that area, and eventually offed the OOO and took
charge.
- Belintar took the title "Pharoah" and coined the phrase "the Holy
Country" for his pocket empire. It includes Caladraland (volcanos
and jungle, represents fire), Esrolia (a matriarchal off-shoot of the
storm tribe, representing earth), Heortland (includes both Heortlings
and Esruvilar, represents air), the Shadowland Plateau (the OOO's old
stronghold, once a troll paradise, now a trollkin ravaged wasteland,
represent darkness), Mirrosea Bay and its islands (fisher folk ruled
by mer-folk, represents water), and the City of Wonders and some
other odd bits.
- It was his conquest that prompted some Heortling clans to return to
Dragon Pass, which had been empty since the Dragon Kill at the end of
the 2nd age. (and by the way, I heartily recomend the computer
game "King of Dragon Pass" which is set during that re-settlement
era).
- Belintar lived a good long time, re-incarnated every so often into
the body of the winner of the tournaments of life and death (or some
such phrase, the winners were "masters of luck and death" a title
stolen for the hero band book.)
- In such a manner he ruled the holy country for a few centuries,
until the lunars apparently snuck into the quest he used to reincarnate
himself and messed it up, so he failed to come back
(actually he was seperated into 7 pieces and hid, I think, but that
could just be rumor).
- There has been no oeverall ruler of the Holy Country since then
(1600 I think?), and the separate sections have gone back to
squabbling within and between themselves.
- The exact nature and origins of Belintar are not known. Some say
he is from the future, others speculate that he is not gone for good
and we'll see more of him in the future.
- The more you do a compare and contrast between Belintar & the Holy
country on the one hand, and the red goddess/red emperor & the lunar
empire on the other, the more it is apparent that there are some
underlying rules or structures which influenced both....but what
these are is mostly cryptic or unknown (but good fodder for the hero
wars).
- One of the more natural campaign premises is for the heros to
belong to a group trying to re-assemble Belintar. One of the hero
bandsin Masters of Luck and Death is more or less about that, so if
your players want high fantasy adventure, using obscure magic rituals
and working to re-build a god, keep it in mind.
--Bryan
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