>
> > That's a reasonable point, but it still requires a certain amount of
> > wildland. And that the Heortlings have three or so hunter cults
> > indicates they put a significant cultural importance on it, if
>nothing
> > else. (Unless like Humakt and Babeester Gor, every hunter cultist in
> > Sartar is a PC...)
It's important to remember that Sartar is still undergoing fairly rapid change. It was depopulated during the Dragonkill, and a good deal of it could be counted as 'frontier society' until quite recently. There's been a steady growth into clans, tribes, city rings, and kingdom. (Hero bands are the latest innovation - but that's an article I'm writing at the moment). Of course all of these have historical precedents, all are ancient, and all are in some sense being forged anew. Gloranthan history is circular.
I don't have TR handy, but I recall that the Orlanth hunting cult was one of the archaic cults listed, and is no longer worshipped.
The importance of hunting is going to vary a lot. The upland Far Place tribes that are my obsession are probably at one extreme; the Tovtaros, Tres, Amad, and Bachad are surrounded by preternatural forests dedicated to the Lady, and have significant Odaylan/animal motifs in their founding myth, the Taroskarla. By contrast, the lowland FP tribes of the Sharl are almost completely agricultural/herding.
Hunting as a lifestyle (as opposed to a hobby) is a niche exploitation, and highly specialised. Gathering (by women, and children, and men) is as often even more important as actual hunting - though there's a fairly direct correlation between distance from the Equator and the importance of animal foods. And it always exists in a close and complementary relationship with agriculture. Personally, I'm not sure if contemporary American population densities are particularly helpful for understanding Sartar. I've always been big on wilderness - in DP preserved in the founding negotiations with the powers of the land, and with large areas taboo because of ruins or animal powers, ghosts, newts or other Elder Races. That's purely a personal bias. Because of this, I've always tended to scale up the DP maps. There are problems and contradictions both ways - communities that survive entirely by hunting in the same landscape where enemy clans can be stripped of cattle in overnight raids, but for me that's a limitation/fact of genre, and demographics won't be able to solve it.
However, pretty
>much all the arable land in Sartar is now (c. 1600) under cultivation,
>and there has even been population movement away from rural Sartar (to
>the Pavis and the River of Cradles, to Alone, and into the cities).
>Short of killing Delecti and draining the Marsh, Sartar is probably
>"full".
Nice observation. There's room bordering on Shadows Dance, Dagori Inkarth, and even Ginijji, but the risks get considerable. There's probably room for further settlements *of a sort* along the eastern approaches of the Dragonspine, and among various hills and ranges. But costs in terms of both economic opportunity and facing hostile powers is considerable. The River of Cradles does seem to be attracting a lot of settlement.
Cheers
John
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