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> On 6 Oct 2010, at 01:53, Jeff wrote:
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> >> Nothing about spiked hair and chariots that say backwater. That was your prejudice speaking, not mine.
> >
> > Chariots are militarily at a disadvantage against mounted horsemen. They survive as expensive status symbols or in backwater areas where their limitations are acceptable. Given the Ralian Orlanthi heavy involvement in the Gbaji Wars and in Alakoring's wars against the EWF, I doubt chariot use would have militarily survived (just as it did not amongst the continental Celts, Assyrians, or the Greeks).
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> A few comments:
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> IIRC, the Ralios campaign came about because one player liked the idea of chariots, and I wanted to run a Glorantha game. I attempted to find the part of Glorantha that would fit them best. That seemed to be East Ralios. Peter points out how that fits nicely. As Jeff points out, just because it's reasonable and not inconsistent to have Ralian charioteers, it doesn't mean that it's part of Greg's vision.
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> Minor elements like hair style and clothing ought to fit into regional variation. I never intended Ralians to BE British Celts. A few Celtic traits seemed like a good way to distinguish them from Orlanthi elsewhere (just as Celts had their own variations).
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> The Ralians who visit in the King of Dragon Pass game are clearly engaged in some big sort of ritual. They might be using a chariot for its ritual value. (For that matter, same with hair styles.) Their purpose in KoDP was to be odd foreigners.
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> It's also conceivable that Ralians retain chariots as a sport rather than a military technology. If it was good enough for the Romans…
>
All this presumes that the chariots stay on the ground, but it's Orlanthi we're talking about here. It seems to me that there is a military virtue in Sky Chariots. After all, if you're flying or being carried by a sylph you're a bit of an obvious target for archers, but if you're protected by a platform carried by sylphs, that would come in rather handy. Plus if the platform had some nice spikes or scythes on it, you could swoop down and lop off a few heads or impale a powerful enemy. And of course you don't want to waste your magic taking these platforms from battle to battle, so having them engineered so they could run on wheels and attach to horses for ease of transport makes sense.
I think My G just Ved.
Iain Murray