You are, of course, correct that on one level, you don't get border guards and passports, etc. etc. In fact, many older borders are along fairly obvious landmarks for just that reason. (We rule everything to the river to the east, to that hill to the south, bounded by the glacier in the north, etc.)
Rulers, especially central rulers, care a GREAT deal about where the border is, and they would have it on all their maps. Local peasents can also care a great deal about who gets a piece of their harvest. Family, clan, tribe loyalty are huge parts of human action. To this day that kind of thing continues. To give a very mild example, people in Quebec often refer to themselves as a nation, and moves for independence continue. Look at the situation with the Kurds. The lands they consider traditionally theirs were placed in both Iraq and Turkey. Turkey is opposed to the Iraqi Kurds getting their own nation because it might inspire even greater problems with the Turkish Kurds wanting a "Free Kurdistan" that encompassed both.
Who is ruling you (or claiming to rule you) matters a LOT sometimes. Occasionally people on the ground don't see much difference between the two situations. (Who cares, we are still the people of the valley, and what color of flag flies there means nothing to me and my neighbours.) Often it doesn't. (How dare these Rokari come here and tell us our gods are evil, our lives are sinful, and we must convert!? We will never rest while they control us!)
I think you can trace a lot of the Glorantha borders using natural features, so it probably isn't impossible to get one for Your Glorantha (which May Vary), But I am glad at least some of the maps of the Lunar Empire has borders of the empire (not the same as the GLowline) on them. But even there, the various Sultanates and Provinces should have VERY clear borders, since in a unified empire that would be a massive bone of contention among political powers if you left it undefined.
LC
On 19 May 2004 at 10:09, S. Ben Melhuish wrote:
> In M(hypothetical)G, the borders don't make that much difference, with
> exceptions like the (well-mapped) glowline, which isn't exactly a
> national border anyway. MG wouldn't generally have guarded border
> crossings where your passport is inspected and stamped and tariffs paid
> -- that wouldn't feel properly bronze age to me. Changes would appear
> more gradually than that. The only way someone on the ground would be
> able to tell when he's crossed over might be the color of the flag
> flying over the local garrison's quarters, or perhaps in conversation
> with the locals. (And sometimes not even then -- when it comes down to
> it, does a peasant really care whether part of his harvest goes to Ruler
> A or Ruler B?)
>
> -- Sben
>
Powered by hypermail