>Where do the [red-, bone-]smiths in Sartar get their metal from?
As I recall metal is found in Glorantha in one of two ways -- lying around, either on the surface or buried, where gods were killed, or in more RW-style veins of metal. The metal in the god's bones depend on the kind of god killed -- bronze for Storm, copper for Eath, etc. It is unclear to me whether there are veins of bronze in Glorantha or if "non-godly" bronze has to be made the old-fashioned way (by mixing mined copper and tin). It is also unclear to me if the veins of metal are also the remnants of gods, or if this whole "remnants of gods" answer is a theist approach to a natural phenomena. I understand that the West is the only extensive source of minable iron (I think it's controlled by Dwarfs in old Seshnela), but I could be wrong.
All that aside -- Gloranthan smiths get their metal the same way that RW smiths did -- they mine it, pick it up on the ground, reuse metal (from weapons, tools, etc), or trade for it.
>I don't know of any tribe having a reputation for this, but my
>Gustbran-PC surely wants to know this...
>Even more important, how do they distribute the metal between the
>clan & tribes, no matter if imported or self-"produced"? the lunars
>will cut any trade, especially with revolting clans [as my pc's clan
>is suppossed to be =]
If your clan has a source of metal (a mine or some other form of deposit), the clan ring will, no doubt, assign some of the metal to the smiths and trade the rest to other clans. Clans within the tribe probably get first crack at it, and some sort of trade deal may be part of the tribal laws ("The Redhill Clan will bring the produce of its minds to the seasonal tribal market before selling outside the tribe, and its Issari will never charge a non-tribal buyer less than the tribe has paid.") as KoDP shows.
Metal assigned to the smiths is repaid to the clan in finished goods -- armor and weapons for the thanes, of course, but also decorations for the halls and shrines, fitting for the chief's stead, and tools to be distributed to other clan members. The ratio of material to goods should be such that the smith has enough metal for to cover wastage and "private" trade. Remember that any significant trade outside the clan needs to go through the clan ring -- fixing a visitor's sword or trading for a new one should be OK, but the smith who makes forty plows to trade to another clan is going to have some explaining to do.
Peter Larsen
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