Re: A sense of scale

From: jorganos <joe_at_VTc_6CA7OPFLalropcym-96mWAkJJX_bmMpC5o5mr7BZGCW6z2eAeMpo3Vo48-ard-pbnPw.>
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 03:54:33 -0000

Ian
>> The main difference between Gloranthan bronze and terrestrial bronze is that Gloranthan bronze can be mined directly, but terrestrial bronze required both copper and tin. It was exceptionally rare for copper and tin to be found together, so bronze was difficult to come by and required the maintenance of trade networks. That made bronze the province of elites - its not just the cost of labor to cast it, its the effort and alliance required to transport it.

Jeff
> Yes. Gloranthan bronze is in that regard more similar to terrestrial iron (as in it can be mined directly and does not require copper or tin - although that is often the case).

Gloranthan bronze can be produced from the unalloyed metals (or their ores), too. Given the ubiquity of earth deities, tin as the sky metal is the rare portion that needs long distance transportation. Luckily, it takes only a small amount of tin to produce bronze.

> However, unlike terrestrial iron, Gloranthan bronze is not ubiquitous. You find it where Air gods died in the Gods War. That may seem ubiquitous, but there are plenty of places where that happened more than others (the Barbarian Belt may actually have the richest area of bronze deposits in Glorantha!).

> So in Dragon Pass, Kethaela, south Peloria, Ralios, Fronela, and Maniria, there is plenty of bronze - a legacy of the wars of the Air gods against their foes and against each other. In northern Peloria (flooded and under the glacier during much of the Storm Age, bronze might be more of a rarity. In much of Pamaltela, it might be even rarer!

Umath was shredded to pieces by Jagrekriand, forming among others the Shan Shan mountains and the Thunder Delta. In Western Pamaltela, we have the demise of Desero and his horde. And while the Vadrudi usually inflicted death rather than suffering it, they went everywhere and had fights everywhere.