Re: A sense of scale

From: jorganos <joe_at_EhTwzSoHN3s2_LjJoZhmd06n_3_naLcgWTraedSDBBNbO0jKLYUmIHy8taWYxdqMLJmkogmv>
Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:13:15 -0000


Bronze Age

When you say "Bronze Age", you should add "Fertile Crescent Bronze Age", which is vastly different from Central European Bronze Age.

First off, metal is a lot more available even in Barbarian Glorantha than it was in the late Hallstatt period (which already saw the first iron imported to Celtic lands). I recently saw a documentation about the earliest mass copper melting near the Dead Sea, and that's how frequent Gloranthan use of metal is.

The architecture is Iron Age, even Roman Iron Age. Pelorians and God Learners both used the same type of concrete which enabled the Romans to produce all their prestigious buildings, never mind the facades of marble, natural stone or brick.

Gloranthan roads are Roman, too – Sartar with its dwarf-taught masonry even outshining the Pelorian network of highways, with the possible exception of the Daughter's Road (which should be considered one of the miracles of contemporary Gloranthan architecture, along with a number of really incredible (nonmagical) bridges elsewhere).

Transportation has at least the standard of the middle Ages, if not Roman (note that Roman standards are higher than those of subsequent times well after the Renaissance). You get roads suitable for wagons, and you get wagoners even where the roads are dubious. You get mule caravans (also a very Roman Age invention). Shipbuilding is up to classical Mediterranean and Dark Ages Atlantic quality. (If you want Bronze Age shipbuilding, look at the Hjortspring boat, or Minoan and Sea Folk boats and simple low-board penteconters. Instead we get longships, triremes and complex rigging.)

In a sense, Glorantha is downright mediaeval in its technology, taking into account that the Imperial Age saw great mechanical (as well as mechamagical) wonders constructed by the Zistorites.

Metallurgy isn't quite Bronze Age, either. Orlanthi bronze swords and Seshnegi iron swords have the same quality as the steel swords of the Iliad, and Pelorian bronze blades aren't far inferior. (No idea about Kralori or Vormaino metallurgy, but I expect a standard that could compete with the God Learners). Coastal Pamaltela inherited Jrusteli metallurgy, although a point could be made for weaker metal from the Maslo area.

Metal nails and clamps will be used (sparingly) in construction. Admittedly Gloranthan bronze rather than iron, but hardly weaker than in Roman or mediaeval buildings. Foundries can produce bells and could theoretically produce cannons (though with the dwarf monopoly on non-magical explosives, these are unlikely to happen).

The Lunar Empire may not be up to Roman standard in technology, but certainly up to the standard of Alexander's successor states.

So, to quote Nick Brooke, "Analogues aren't."

What is Bronze Age about Glorantha?

I'm inclined to say that Dawn Age Glorantha was downright Bronze Age. Pelanda at the technology of the Aegaean city states at the time of the Iliad (or rather, at the time it was composed).

The Gbaji Wars already have the feel of the Celtic expansion, i.e. early Middle-European Iron Age (or rather late Iron Age if you look at Anatolia). The battles are a far cry from Megiddo or Ramses vs. the Sea Folk.            

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