> That was the answer given in our old Pendragon Pass game.
And repeated in Issaries publications, for example Anaxial's Roster p51 and glorantha: intro p61 and I think they make an appearance in the King of Dragon Pass game.
> However,
> after working on the Gloranthan historical atlas with Greg I no
> longer think that is the case.
Rather than argue about the gregging of old sources, I really see about two issues here.
One - the practicality of chariots. I'm pretty much on the same page as you are here. I don't think that chariots of the eastern ralian highlands are useful at all for warfare but rather for ritual shaming purposes to reinforce the split between the storm worshipping highlanders and the sun worshipping lowlanders.
It was the lowlander pony-riders that the World Council used to fight against the Jenarong dynasty. The highlanders would have fought as peltasts or skirmishers in that conflict. Looking at the roster for the Battle of Night and Day, the Dari alliance sends mounted warriors while IMO the highlanders are represented in the Karian contingent (bearing mammoth hide shields).
Two - I don't think the Galanini became Orlanthi. They are the ancestors of the Safelstrans rather than the eastern highlanders. While they would have happily accepted whatever gods the World Council offered and placed them alongside their own, they do not become culturally Orlanthi. I suppose the historical parallel I'm using for is the adoption of hellenistic culture by the Etruscans, Romans and the Carthaginians for example. They were all gung ho for it but they never really became Greeks.
--Peter Metcalfe
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