>Me> To be King of Heortland, one has to be a
> > noble. Since they wield Hendreik's Freedom
> > (Glorantha: Intro p142), the King is found from
> > among them. So yes, IMO Broyan is crowned King
> > of Heortland although he has only controlled
> > the Volsaxi at best.
>But referring to (Glorantha: Intro p142) you or Greg wrote that this was
>only true after King Andrin's reforms (the bad King Andrin brought back by
>the Pharaoh from death). Prior to this the King had to be from the Larnsti
>(a magical brotherhood established by Hendreik).
A Heortland Noble is one of the Larnsti, being a wielder of the powers of a free society*. They appear different because King Andrin used his powers of change to draw forth an order of "rulers" (protector of liberties) out of a inchoate magical brotherhood. Most Larnsti accept the nobles as being authentic Larnsti (they might say differently about those bloody sheriffs).
IMO I do not see the Larnsti as a monolithic order but a scattering of different bands and individuals, each studying an aspect of Larnste (or better still maundering around from one aspect to the next as the need takes them). The major change resulting from Andrin, is that before a Larnsti could decide to take up the duties of protecting the freedom of the people for a while and then drop it for something else. Now the ordinary Larnsti don't feel the need to take up the duties of "ruling" while the nobles don't feel the need to explore other aspects of Larnsti (However such changes do happen and they are not unheard off).
*when thinking about Heortland's divisions, I was influenced by the American Civil War in which both sides fought for freedom. Broyan is the Confederates while Sir Richard is the Union. The parallel is far from exact (Broyan's mob doesn't keep slaves and the US was not overrun by England during the war) but it is something to keep in mind when considering the viewpoints or utterances of various Heortlanders.
>Presumably this new version is why the ancient spirit of Hendreik no
>longer protects Heortland and it is full of chaos and civil war (which of
>course the Lunars want to encourage).
Hendreik's spirit (daemonic presence?) does protect Heortland. In the civil war, Broyan was quite safe from King Richard's superior armies because of his adherence to the ancient freedoms. Hendreik's spirit is why Whitewall still holds out one or two years after the Lunars have conquered the rest of Heortland (and that was including the Bat!).
Heortland has big problems recently because their connection to Free Hendreik has been weakened. There are IMO a number of explanations for this, some more plausible than others:
If I were to write a heortland campaign arc, I would base it around the heros' attempt to find the cause of Heortlands woes and repair it.
>Is Broyan a member of the ancient and nearly extinct (to make the PC's
>life difficult) Larnsti brotherhood or could he have been inducted into
>it during his time away from Whitewall in order to have a better chance
>at the Hero Wars ? Can this interpretation fit with what is going on or
>is Broyan meant to fail because he is not a Larnsti King ?
IMO Broyan fails in the end because he does the wrong thing (open the City of Wonders to the Wolf Pirates). He is a tragic hero because of that.
--Peter Metcalfe
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