Re: A sense of scale

From: Roderick and Ellen Robertson <rjremr_at_h-SdC3ibI8UlcHK8Rtu8TIeoKlV99ZR3wpIp2YbJnttQA2-ptzk4Y7lY3aGRsaEmTzRBX>
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2011 08:29:01 -0800

To my mind, focusing on the metal - either the physical stuff weapons are made out of, or the "Metal Ages" (Bronze Age, etc) is the wrong way to approach Glorantha (It's the wrong way to approach real world history, too, but that's a different question).

Glorantha is a mish-mash of cultural types and technologies. We can go from paleolithic Hunter-gatherers to iron-armored Knights in a few miles (or kilometers, or key-miles, or whatever unit of measure you prefer). Saying "Third Age Glorantha is a Bronze Age (or early Iron Age) setting" is like saying "Africa is industrialized". It's a brush too broad for the job.

Yes, parts of Glorantha are at various points in the "Bronze Age" (but is that the European, Middle Eastern or Chinese Bronze Age? Early or Late?) technologically, but Magic makes a *lot* of difference. My Sartar doesn't face starvation 3 years out of 5, because Ernaldan magic makes the grains grow even in the worst years. Healing is much easier and much more reliable and can do more than in any age of the "Real World", including Modern Times (*we* still haven't got "Resurection within 7 days of death" yet). Almost all areas of life are several steps ahead of where they "should be historically" because of Magic.

So don't worry about whether Glorantha is Paleolithic, Neolithic, Copper, Bronze, Iron or Steam age, because there is something there that fits all these ages, and usually they are mixed together, with a healthy dose of Fantasy thrown in (Bipedal, talking, magic-using Tapirs? Really?).

RR
>From such a face and form as mine, the noblest sentiments sound like the
black utterances of a depraved imagination.