> > Anyone know when the Fronan chargers appeared exactly?
> > /// Isn't the Fronan charger a recent creation, bred in Loskalm during the
> > Isolation ? They do have special magics to raise them so they're the
> > only horse
> > in the world able to carry a full-armored man on their back at
> > galloping speed ?
> >
>
> No; you're thinking of a Swadal charger, which was bred from Fronans.
>
> The date of origin of the Fronan isn't known (at least to me), but they
> are described as "widespread in the Middle Sea Empire", which suggests
> to me that they were first bred in the late Dawn Age or early Imperial
> Age, and introduced to a wider market when the Empire expanded.
Typical armoured war horses are not entirely different to the modern cart horse, although I would personally see the Swadal as resembling the romantic, popular cinema imagery of the fine race horse, trained for battle, and at ease with several hundred lbs of armoured knight on its back, including during lengthy journeys through perilous wilderness areas ;)
It's perfectly reasonable that a horse like this should be a result of magical breeding -- but unlike RW, there's no reason to suppose that the massive Fronan should be the result of any breeding programme, in my opinion. Everything I've seen from Greg on the question of horse breeds, and I believe there's an electronic document out there somewhere, suggests that there are basically two kinds of breeds -- 1) original 2) cross-bred
Generally speaking, and remembering that the various original breeds have various completely different origins, rather than a singular biological one, the origins of the first "group" of breeds are in Godtime ; the origins of the second can be found either in Myth or in History.
I would guess that the (minor) Horse Rune itself must have been a creation of the Gloranthan Court.
Julian Lord
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