There is another big factor in the sense of scale of Glorantha.
Glorantha has non-human races. We don't. Some of them magical and far more powerful than mere humanity.
So Gloranthan human cultures have effectively impassible barriers to expansion in the form of other races that resist them, often essentially undefeatable ones like Luatha and Altinelae.
This is exacerbated by magical geography in many cases too, at least to the East in the form of Vithela, and perhaps to the south in the form of hotter temperatures than earth experiences?
Even when the non-human races aren't more magically powerful than humanity, they are in some cases far more adapted to living in particular climates than humanity might be. We don't have the equivalent of a large Inuit territory, because Snow Trolls are better at eking out a living in Arctic climates than humans are, for example. As a result crossing the Winter Wastes of Valind is harder for most humans than crossing the equivalent (already harsh) regions of Earth, because we don't have to contend with hostile snow troll populations (not to mention hollri).
And you can see the result quite clearly on the maps. Glorantha seems small because only part of it is accessible to humanity at large. The published canonical maps of Genertela and Pamaltela and Slon cover significant parts of the continents, but clearly leave significant parts unmapped. Only what may be a small tip of Vithela appears on published maps.
For a specific example, there is this fan contributed map by Trotsky of the Far North of Genertela (I'd love to know more about the sources for this map, BTW!) http://www.glorantha.com/new/fan/FarNorth.JPG
showing Altinela as a fairly large proportion of the continent, and also a huge chunk of (as far as I am aware) completely undocumented land to the north of Kahars sea of Fog - reachable only by traversing huge chunks of freezing troll territory, or by navigating a sea that is incredibly difficult to navigate, unmapped and largely unmappable, and filled with hostile merfolk. If this map is close to the actual northern Genertelan geography (and while this is the only source I know of, I know of know sources that contradict it either), then the well documented, human inhabited, percentage of the continent might be only 60% or less.
Glorantha appears smaller than Earthly equivalents because what we think of Glorantha is, to a large extent, human Glorantha, and human Glorantha may be a fairly small part of the whole.
There is also, of course, epic potential for truly heroic campaigns in all this unexplored territory.
Cheers
David
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