A Whitewall Micellany from John Hughes on 2007-03-04 (World of Glorantha)

From: John Hughes <nysalor_at_H_iZzd_okhTy2XYUY12Y9M7DcSzXYLWilPoV8C4zyDsCAJayuBrfnybVpQ4iFkp38jgj>
Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2007 11:24:11 +1100

Clansfolk,
Here are some selections from my Whitewall notes, born of (and indebted to) the Whitewall Wyter Group and wiki, my fictional scribblings, and my presentation at Tentacles in 2004.

"Heroes, chant the great summons. Respond to the Blue Arrow Calling… Defend the holy places of the Storm …
When the Blue Arrow came to your clan, to your hero band, who responded? They will be remembered in song as long as the wind endures."

Warriors went to Whitewall
Came to Kallyr’s calling
Kheldon Queen called clans
True champions came.

Warriors went to Whitewall
Brave Bryan the bold bade
To stand strong in Storm hold
Orlanth’s last altar.

Blue arrow calling
Thunder drum’s summons
Beacons burn bright
For the call of two kings.

“Come to the altar rock
Cloud-height most holy
Stormhold of southland
Hela's high hearth!”

Orlanth’s grey champions
Heort’s honoured heroes
Storm sons of Sartar
Kerofin’s kin.

Ride willing weaponthanes!
Ride now to WhiteWall
Course the long key miles
Come you to king.

And also from the Kallyrkala, these words of reflection (from ‘Ruin’ available in YBOT 6 and at Questlines)...

Warriors went to Whitewall. Here we stood together, the last moot of the free. Here, with ruse and ritual and quest most desperate, defying the world's wyrd, we held an Empire at bay for two long years.

Here we forged a tribe called Hurricane, birthed by a blue arrow, led by a high king's courage, strengthened by a star queen's wisdom, borne upon a desperate storm, forged by feat and fire and the bitter blade-clash of battle.

Here our eyes were opened. Here we forged a new vision, a new allegiance, a new way of living and dying.

Here the world changed, forever. Time and the Great Before came together as one. Here we lived each day within a myth, an eternal story most holy and most real, and one not always one of our own telling.

And yet here our last altar fell, our last temple shattered. Here, the Last Storm was defeated, and an unknown wind was loosed upon the world. Here began the winter of the world’s ending, and here, so the skalds sing, were planted the seeds of its birth anew.

Warriors went to Whitewall. Yet for all that we gave, the city lies forlorn and empty, and with the passing years even its name will fade like our dreams in the cold dawn. The very winds hasten its decay.

Everything is change.

We dared so much. We fought like the hurling gales of Sacred Time. But our leaders have fallen now, they feast at higher halls, their courage and struggle is betrayed by treachery and rank ambition. Battle on battle comes anew, blood is poured on blood. The clans rise in greed to the call of the Argrathi.

We that survive from that great testing are few, and weak, and scattered like the leaves of Earth. My own hair is mixed with grey, my shield trails low, I lift a lighter spear. I sometimes dream that the godar of my heart might yet return... Broyan ... Kallyr.

From Thunder Rebels, p 241.

The Four Fighting Storms

"Everyone knows the Four Fighting Storms, Orlanth's thanes … Their defence is great, but they can be defeated. … The Lunars know that when they defeat these thanes with their false storms, the god will be weakened."

The Seven Storms

"Everyone knows the Seven Storms, for they form the air around us. Their magic is great, but they can be defeated. … Six storms have fallen to the evil sorcery of the Lunar Empire, and they have trapped the seventh within Whitewall. The Lunars believe that when Whitewall falls so too does the last storm."

The Seven Winds

"But the Lunars know only what they can know. The Primal Air moves inside and outside the world, beyond the perceptions of normal men. Everyone knows the Seven Storms, but when they fail then the Seven Winds will come to fill the void at last."

BATBLAT! Phase Three: Enter, the Bat

Stasis Week, Dark Season 1619
First major night battles.

Movement Week, Dark Season
Windsday: Arrival of Kallyr and her band. Truth Week, Dark Season
[Speculation: Summoning of Evil ritual begins.] Godday: Rumours of the Bat approaching. Panic in the city.

Disorder Week, Dark Season
Waterday: Bat sighted. Attempted mass breakout from city - many slaughtered. Fireday: Lunars prepare to mobilise for major assault, while simultaneously seeking to control panic and to withdraw out of the Bat's expected path.
Wildday: Bat begins attack. Broyan and select band kill Bat's riders. In his moment of victory, Broyan is mind-blasted by the Bat. [Speculation: Out of control, Bat destroys sections of city wall and kills many in the besieging army before flying southwards.] Godday: Defenders take advantage of complete Lunar demoralisation. Major raid burns Lunar supply camp.

Harmony Week, Storm Season 1619
Lunars regroup. Major assault on the walls. [Speculation: Jokandros Binder recalled to Karse.]

Phase Four: The Blue Arrow Callings

The year 1620 is a year of rapid escalation and much heroic battle, 'the fire [season] of heroes'. Sartarite rebel bands flock to the blue arrow callings, while Lunar numbers increase steadily throughout the year. Tatius the Bright assumes command of the siege: the arrival of his Lunar College of Magic instigates a period of frantic magic and ritual warfare and increasing quest-related activities. Heroes are frequently co-opted into enemy quests, and even standard rituals and quests attract unexpected enemies. Both sides delve deeper into myth, taking greater risks and beginning sustained experimental questing. This activity is paralleled by an increase in military assaults upon the city. Increasingly, individual champions engage in herocombats with mythic enemies on the walls and on the plain before the Great Gate.

Four Arrows in the Wind

Red Arrow – send fighters against chaos bands or raiders! White Arrow – send healing and help, The battle is over. . ‘Broo have pawed me’.
Black arrow – defend the tribe or kingdom. An army approaches Blue arrow – defend the Storm Tribe! (Enemies threaten holy places, temples, pilgrimage sites).

Heortlings At Whitewall

Many heroes from diverse backgrounds ‘earn their iron’ during the siege.
Heroes join in the defence from across Sartar in common, sustained battle. Many inter-clan and inter-tribal feuds and rivalries are settled, at least among those on the wall. Peace is made. The unity that Sartar promised again seems possible.
Friendships, loves, rivalries, and hatreds are forged before the walls that will endure until the burning of Glamour.
After dogged beginnings, Broyan of the Volsaxi and Kallyr of the Kheldon prove themselves as leaders and strategists, learning from their mistakes.
Men and women of high degree work together, sharing in an unprecedented way the myths and magic of diverse clans and cults and hero bands, paving the way for new magical formations and wyters.
Growing desperation leads to experimental heroquesting and much mythic mojo. ('How the Outer Temple Melted, and Why'). These seeds will later bloom into Orlanthi mastery of wildwalking and experimental heroquesting.
Heortlings work closely with Westerners and Monotheists and Uz. Much is learnt on all sides.
Various Independent heroes and groups are attracted to the siege, and some choose sides. Or change them.
After generations of defeat, Whitewall demonstrates that the Lunars can be thwarted, that they are not invulnerable. Though the defence ultimately fails, the lessons of the two year battle are enormous. Lunar weaknesses are revealed and exploited. Hope remains an option. Endurance becomes a basic attitude.
(More tentatively) Something subtly changes in the way the gods relate to men. The world changes.

Lunars At Whitewall

"We are all us" (even the Crimson Bat)
We are all us" - troops from disparate backgrounds working together. The combination being stronger than the individual. "We are all us" - even the Crimson Bat, morality of end justifying means.
Politics, magic, myth – what happened to plain old killing barbarians? Occult rituals and apparently inexplicable actions are the key to victory. Through the power of coordinated magic, the College of Magic eventually can overcome even the Gods. While the leadership makes this shift, it takes time for the grunts to catch up - most of them probably never do.
The needs of esoteric magical and mythic plots outweigh conventional military commonsense.
Politics is everything. It’s all politics. The Tarshite (Fazzurite) approach is supplanted by the Dara Happan (Tatius) approach. The Heartlands supplant the Provinces. It's all politics - both within the siege camp and outside, reaching all the way back to Glamour.
Obey your superiors! Tatius is a genius and his plans are beyond the ken of lesser men like yourself. What you are doing may not make any sense to you, but it fits within Moonson's master plan.
Your superiors are nuts! Best to obey them nonetheless.
This siege is endless! The mud, the storms, the tedium - when will Tatius be finally ready to destroy these rebels?
These Orlanthi can be tough fighters. The Orlanthi are proving much tougher foes than expected. The Bat is dispelled and the Shargash hellmen defeated.
We are going to finally defeat Orlanth, Rebellus Terminus, the Rebel Gods, once and for all! The Golden Age shall return!

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john_at_C1u_2dpSZ0ACIbuv2DAM1SYfl55mar2jj7c9fYdh4Mj4ilCB98rEcWRKp8vUyntze6d5yvCbYoG7VfBRdFk.yahoo.invalid                  John Hughes
Mythologic: http://mythologic.info


  May God us keep 
  From Single vision and Newton's sleep!
  - William Blake, Letter to Thomas Butts, 22 November 1802.