Forgive me if this appears more than once - YahooGroups is being a little funny with my posts (so I am reposting this):
> I'm working on a 2A Ralios game and trying to work out what similarities and differences there are between Ralians and Heortlings. (Ie close enough to be recognisably Storm barbarians, but I really don't like the idea of presenting players with Heortling sources and saying, "but you call this god something else")
OK to start with, the Ralian Orlanthi call Orlanth the same thing that the Heortling Orlathi do: Orlanth. The Ralian Orlanthi worship Orlanth and Ernalda, along with the Lightbringers and several other major gods (such as Humakt). Some gods found amongst the Heortlings are unimportant to the Ralians (such as Vingkot, Heort, Kero Fin, and so on); some gods are more important to the Ralians than to the Heortlings (such as Alakoring) or even unknown to the Heortlings (such as Visku and so on).
But at the end of the day, the Orlanthi of Ralios share the same pantheon as the Orlanthi of Dragon Pass. They differ in initiation rites, ancestors, history, current political organization, rivalries and allies, but they share the same basic set of gods.
As for material culture, the Orlanthi of Sartar are most influenced by Esrolia, the Orlanthi north of Dragon Pass are most influenced by Dara Happa and the Lunar Empire, and the Orlanth of Ralios are most materially influenced by Safelster.
Jeff
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> --- In WorldofGlorantha_at_yahoogroups.com, "valkoharja" <rintasaa@> wrote:
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> > One of the princes of Sartar built a really nice and big one (broch), and I'd love to get a good handle on what sort of a fortress it would be.
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> I'm working on a 2A Ralios game and trying to work out what similarities and differences there are between Ralians and Heortlings. (Ie close enough to be recognisably Storm barbarians, but I really don't like the idea of presenting players with Heortling sources and saying, "but you call this god something else")
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> Partly, I've been trying to separate them in non-game terms. I really can't stand cultural descriptions/differences for RPGs that purely revolve around, "people A use this type of magic/weapon/rule/alignment, whereas people B use this other type." (yes, I'm looking at RQ3 and the long list of Malkioni societies that only seemed to differ by their use of Tap, but other settings are even worse)
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> Anyway, I'd put brochs, duns and wheelhouses at the northern end of the Barbarian belt; Fronela and northern Ralios (a bit of cross cultural architectural influence). In northern Ralios I could see wheelhouses and roundhouses sitting side by side, while the eastern wilds would be almost entirely roundhouse construction.
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> Then, southern Ralios and into Maniria would see a blending of round- and longhouse construction. I imagine an Esrolian influence marking the change from circular houses to squarer (and more Earth rune shaped) buildings and further east, heortling pragmatism exztending the buildings to full-on longhouses.
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> The point is, I don't think Sartans (or any Heortling culture) would have brochs. Maybe a motte and bailey, maybe a round tower, but definitely more saxon/possibly Norman than a broch, which were specifically north scottish IIRC.
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