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 THE GUIDE TO GLORANTHA IS OUT COME JOIN US ON IRC AT #cowgame on the SYNIRC SERVER FOR REAL-TIME DISCUSSION!Jenx posted:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/416625372/13th-age-in-glorantha Glorantha is the name of the RPG setting from prolific game designer, setting-monger, and shaman Greg Stafford, known for its mythological and anthropological focus. First introduced in the mid-70's with the war game "White Bear, Red Moon", which also introduced the barbaric Orlanthi and the expansionist Lunar Empire, the setting has grown and shifted over the 30+ years of its life so far, being the main setting for the various RuneQuest rulesets, and also the HeroQuest line.  Glorantha in the Third Age. What makes Glorantha unique? Greg Stafford has always had an interest in anthropology in our world, and so unlike the linguistic focus that exemplifies Tolkien' fantasy, Stafford's work has been mythologically focused. In Glorantha, the myths of the gods are all real, including the ones that contradict each other. Further, these myths have concrete expression in the cultural life of Gloranthan societies (at least the ones that aren't sorcerous Westerners), in that heroes can enter into the Godplane to reenact these myths, and should they succeed, do anything from help push back a malevolent glacier from overwhelming the world to bringing the dead back from the underworld. Myths have power in Glorantha, and one sect of incredibly powerful wizards known as the God Learners created a great empire by learning, using, and abusing the myths. Humans in Glorantha are usually broken into a few major groupings:  Orlanthi, brave and war-like followers of the Storm King Orlanth and his Earth Queen Ernalda. Orlanth became King of the gods when he used his new weapon Death to slay the Bad Emperor, showing his might and courage. But when it seemed as if all creation would be destroyed by Chaos, he embarked on the Lightbringer's Quest with his chosen companions, and received the blessing of the Emperor, who returned to the world above. Orlanthi generally live in clans of 500-2500 people, sometimes coming together to form larger tribes, which in turn make up their kingdoms. For Orlanthi, the clan is the family, and there can be no greater crime than to commit kinstrife, for to do so breaks the bonds that keep Chaos, the primal destruction, at bay. Murder and wounds are dealt with weregild, and justice ensured by the clan. Major Orlanthi Regions: Sartar, Tarsh, Ralios, Heortland, Esrolia, Umathela, Fronela  Pelorians live in the north-central region of Genertela, the great northern continent, in the flood-plains of the river Oslira. Rigid and hierarchical, they worship Yelm, the Bright Sun. Yelm is the incorruptible sovereign, perfect and unchangeable, whose Celestial Court orders the world as it should be, and whose descendant, the Emperor of Dara Happa, rules the earth in his image. Dara Happa is the major Pelorian state, though their control over the other lands around the heartland has fluctuated depending on the dynasty in charge. In the "present" Dara Happa and all Peloria are ruled by the Lunar Empire, whose Goddess the Red Moon decreed that "We Are All Us", a creed somewhat at odds with the traditional smug satisfaction of Dara Happa, but is balanced with the concrete rewards of ruling over many distant lands. Major Divisions: Dara Happa, Carmania, Saird, Sylila  The West of Glorantha is slightly peculiar, in that they are monotheists, holding that Makan, the Creator God, worked several Actions to create Glorantha. Malkion, the True Being of Law, gave Laws to man, but the exact nature of those laws is disputed by many and over many centuries. Western magic is based on sorcery, their spells direct and repeatable, unlike the fickle and unconstant magic of the heathens. Once they ruled the great Middle Sea Empire, and the God Learners codified and introduced many schemae and classifications of magic and myth, but now true sorcery is restricted to a few places including Seshnela, under the rule of half-barbarian kings; Loskalm, a utopia that must now fight off their antithesis in the Kingdom of War; and Brithos, island of the immortals. Important Realms: Seshnela, Loskalm, Brithos, Umathela, Vadeli Isles  The Doraddi live on the plains of southern Pamaltela, stretching from Tarien to Kohar. They are split into various societies, but they are generally spirit-talkers (though a great host of them went north to Genertela to fight the Chaos God Gbaji and are now sorcerors). Beyond humans, there are other civilizations on Glorantha, including: Trolls, or Uz, are creatures of the night. Due to an ancient curse, they rarely breed true, and for every Dark Troll is born many stunted and unthinking Trollkin. Trolls can eat anything, but like it when they can eat fresh meat, whether its beast or man. Not to say they are evil, for many trolls have been friends to humans, especially the demigod the Only Old One, who once ruled the Shadow Plateau and held the Orlanthi Hendriking kings as his friends and allies. Trolls are perhaps the fiercest fighters of Chaos, and can be found throughout Glorantha. Dwarfs, or Mostali, are creatures of the earth. Each of them works from birth to try and repair the World Machine, which has broken down since the Golden Age, and must be repaired or else everything will fall apart. Inventors of the metal Iron, which they made specifically to harm Elves and Trolls, they are jealous of their inventions, and have often intervened in the world above to set plans in motion to make sure what's theirs stays theirs. Elves, or Aldryami, are thinking plants, and live almost entirely in their dense and dangerous forests. This puts them into conflict with many of the other races, for all of them have need of wood for whatever reason. As the Hero Wars begin, the Elves seek the Reforestation, a great and cataclysmic campaign... Finally, Dragonnewts are inscrutable and enigmatic creatures. They possess strange magic, and can call upon the great and terrible Dragons as their friends. Can and will do completely uncomprehensible and inhuman acts, for no reason known to man. Not to be trusted, and not to be trifled with. Rulesets Past and Present Glorantha started off using the RuneQuest set, a percentage-die based system that's now on its 6th iteration. RuneQuest 6 is currently in the hands of The Design Mechanism. Moon Design, by contrast, has chosen to use the narrativist HeroQuest system (now on its 2nd ed) as its default system. But one of the great things about Glorantha is that it can fit into many different rule sets, all depending on how you want to run your game. Non-P&P Glorantha So far, Glorantha has found a fruitful expression in the computer game King of Dragon Pass, by developer A Sharp. Taking control of an Orlanthi clan in the lands that would become the kingdom of Sartar, you have to deal with the trials and tribulations that beset the Resettlement of Dragon Pass. A fanstastic game, and highly recommended. What's new in Glorantha? Edit: THE GUIDE TO GLORANTHA IS OUT!! After some delays and tribulations, the Guide is out in pdf form, and will be shipped out physically soon! Now the folks at Moon Design are working on the massive tome of comparative Gloranthan religions - The Gods of Glorantha! Anyway, in this thread I'm hoping folks can talk about anything to do with Glorantha - your games and campaigns, your favorite lore, questions that could be answered, anything like that! If you'd like to talk on IRC, #cowgame on SynIRC is where we hang out and talk about duck deathlords. Haystack posted:Links to add to the OP: Finally: Hail Argrath! Curse Shepelkirt! Friar John fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Sep 7, 2014 |
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Oct 31, 2013 20:43
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Man, I hadn't heard of this and it looks really cool. How should I begin to introduce this to my group?
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Oct 31, 2013 20:47
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Blacktoll posted:Man, I hadn't heard of this and it looks really cool. How should I begin to introduce this to my group?
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Oct 31, 2013 20:59
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For people starting off, I would recomend the Sartar:Kingdom of Heroes sourcebook. It's set in one of the most detailed areas, and concentrates on the storm worshipping Orlanthi barbarians, who are often people's first introduction to the game. Rulewise, the book is intended to be used with the HeroQuest second edition ruleset, but given how narrativist and ruleslight that system is, the book should present little difficulty with being used with the system of your choice. As a sourcebook, it contains several good maps of the area, a description of the various cultures found there, from the Orlanthi, through the Lunar invaders, and even the Ducks. It also comes with a campaign, but your milage may vary on that, I've found it a bit too railroad-focused for my tastes.
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Oct 31, 2013 21:04
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So, probably the best part about Glorantha is the extensive mythology behind it, and how it ties into the magic system. Take, for instance, this random myth told by Storm Tribe about their chief god, Orlanth. The Stafford Library: Volume XI | The Book of Heortling Mythology | Page 57 posted:
An Orlanth worshiper could use this story as the basis for magic, using magical bagpipe playing to undermine traditional authority and inspire new ways of doing things.
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Oct 31, 2013 21:25
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Seriously, if you want a good intro to the setting read any of the KoDP let's plays. Informative and amusing! Another random tidbit: In the Orlanthi Pantheon, Lhankor Mhy is the god of knowledge, tradition, and legal advice. He is widely hailed as a pedantic nitpicker with no equal. Since he is bearded, all of his initiates must have beards. Does this mean that women aren't allowed to enter his service? Hell no. It means they have to wear elaborate fake beards. As long as that requirement's fulfilled he's more than happy to teach you the mystical secrets of writing. Benagain fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Oct 31, 2013 |
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Oct 31, 2013 21:31
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And keep in mind, Lhankorings aren't just some backwards people who learned how to write and think themselves all high and mighty. Most successful Sages are very knowledgeable, and possess documents and knowledge that most of the world considers lost, like secrets and magic from the old empire of the God Learners. (This knowledge is, of course, treated like it's depleted uranium, since if used wrong it will have about the same effect on the population) Edit: Unless one of the resident Loreposters wants to take a shot at it, I might do a write up on the Praxian animal nomads, since I really like those folks and I find their lack in the front post to be a big mistake.
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Nov 1, 2013 11:23
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Benagain posted:Seriously, if you want a good intro to the setting read any of the KoDP let's plays. Informative and amusing! This is cool. The other cool thing like that is the duckmen. They worship the Orlanthi pantheon too. In Dragon Pass they are strong adherents to the god of death, Humakt. Does this mean they worship Humakt in duck form? Nope. He's a guy wearing a fake duck bill held on by string.
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Nov 1, 2013 11:30
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Neurosis posted:This is cool. The other cool thing like that is the duckmen. They worship the Orlanthi pantheon too. In Dragon Pass they are strong adherents to the god of death, Humakt. Does this mean they worship Humakt in duck form? Nope. He's a guy wearing a fake duck bill held on by string. I am pretty sure most of that comes from the old Mongoose publications for Glorantha. I think in the current "canon" of the lore, ducks just worship the Orlanthi pantheon as it is, though with just slightly different names.
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Nov 1, 2013 11:36
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The Pavis book is also a good setting for starting players, it has its share of weirdness but it is perhaps a bit more focused than Sartar. Also, if you can find the Pavis companion - booklets give them a look, they have some quite good articles.
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Nov 1, 2013 15:46
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Time for a loredump from Haifisch's current LP (i am taking the title as  rules)On Keets - nutranurse posted:Keets On Nysalor/Arkat/Gbajji Fuligin posted:I'll give this one a shot. In very broad strokes: Cerebral Bore posted:Yeah, if you're some kinda Chaos-worshipping filth or something. On how to gently caress things up BryanChavez posted:I feel that if you've learned anything by now, you should have learned that true Orlanthi don't check to make sure - they leap into action immediately, doom the whole world to destruction, and only realize their error just in time. On Orlanth and Ernalda BryanChavez posted:Contest. On the origin of Lunars BryanChavez posted:The Lunar Empire comes from the birth of the Red Goddess, which happened inside of Time. She was born when a cabal of like-minded individuals sought to recover lost magic from the Gods Age. They brought into being She Who Has Come, and in time, she was a young girl, a young woman, a demigod, and then a goddess in her own right. She healed Peloria, and preached acceptance, and freed her people. She fought against those who would oppress those she came from. Eventually, she knew that this was not enough, and so she went on one of the greatest Heroquests ever undertaken. I'm going to stop quoting Bryan Chavez, just read all his posts, but here's his thoughts on Glorantha Metal BryanChavez posted:Depends on the gods. Orlanth will be jamming out, and Ernalda will appreciate the raw grit of your rock, so they'll definitely accept worship. Yelm will not appreciate this new kind of music at all, so no sacrifices will be allowed, especially if it leads to forbidden dancing. Eurmal will be at the back, screaming "FREEBIRD!" at random, but if you have enough booze at the concert, I think he'd come around. In general, you'll find the Orlanthi pantheon will approve of songs of love and slaughter and will therefore accept all sacrifices offered, except for Chalana Arroy, who will be rolling her eyes in the corner the whole time, wondering why Elmal brought her in the first place. And the best post Mr. Maltose posted:Maybe I will.
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Nov 1, 2013 16:13
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Jenx posted:I am pretty sure most of that comes from the old Mongoose publications for Glorantha. I think in the current "canon" of the lore, ducks just worship the Orlanthi pantheon as it is, though with just slightly different names. No... NO. This had better be loving changed in the Guide to Glorantha.
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Nov 1, 2013 16:25
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Ohhh poo poo I swear I was just making a topic for general Glorantha discussion, I was going to be done with it in 2015, you really took the winds out of my sails, Friar John.Friar John posted:The West of Glorantha is slightly peculiar, in that they are monotheists, holding that Makan, the Creator God, worked several Actions to create Glorantha. Let's talk about a couple of important things in Glorantha, one of which relates to this. Only the Rokari and God Learners, two sects of Malkioni belief, would agree with this. Others would argue that Makan is not the name of the Invisible God at all, or that Makan is actually the name of the evil Demiurge that obscures access to the true Hidden Mover, or that the world was created by natural processes called the Prime Mover, and the idea of it having intelligence is absurd. There are some Malkioni who aren't even monotheists, and allow for the worship of other gods and spirits. Hell, there are amphibious Malkioni with blue-green skin that also worship the Water Tribe and use ships made out of the corpses of dragons. One of the things that makes this world both very deep and very complex is that when you say something about one group, you're talking in very general terms. On one hand, it makes the world feel very real. On the other hand, it's been a clusterfuck to get a real sense of the entire world, so thank god that the Guide to Glorantha is about to come out. You're all living in a blessed time. The other thing that probably could be in the OP is that the world is made up of associations of Runes. If you're a Theist, and gain your power from worship and sacrifice to the gods, you receive magic based on the runic affinities of the god - Ernalda is Earth, Life, and Harmony, for instance, while Humakt is Death and Truth. If you're an Animist, and gain your power by binding spirits to your service, you receive magic based on which rune those spirits are associated with - there are Death spirits, Darkness spirits, Fire spirits, and so on. If you're a Wizard, and gain your power through the use of spells codified in grimoires, you're able to logically comprehend and manipulate the Runes based on the procedures and techniques found in each book. Everyone in Glorantha is composed of Runes. Trolls are a mixture of the Darkness and Man runes, Elves are a mixture of Plant and Man, etc. In the Heroquest set of rules, you also start with three Runes that are most important to your character, which determines what kinds of magic they can learn. Neurosis posted:No... NO. This had better be loving changed in the Guide to Glorantha. I believe that while most of the Mongoose stuff is decidedly non-canon, to the point where Jeff Richard seems to approach spitting bile whenever he mentions the books they've wrote, that it's still canonical that the Ducks believe that the Orlanthi gods were, like the Ducks, cursed to pathetic existence in humiliating human shape for some reason or another. I figure this allows for gods with fake duck bills. Your Glorantha Will Vary.
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Nov 1, 2013 16:35
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One thing we've been discussing in IRC, which disappointed me to no end was Kralorela is still just Fantasy China, with the dragons, and the emperors, and the clothing, and the rice and the fuckin' chopsticks. I really expected more out of this.
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Nov 1, 2013 16:53
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BryanChavez posted:Ohhh poo poo I swear I was just making a topic for general Glorantha discussion, I was going to be done with it in 2015, you really took the winds out of my sails, Friar John.  It's up to good Chaos-hating Orlanthi to pick up the slack of Lunar-friends.If you're disappointed something isn't in the OP you should post about them. If it's good enough I might edit the OP! 
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Nov 1, 2013 17:19
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I thought humans were all made of every rune, it's just some were more prominent in an individual than others?
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Nov 1, 2013 17:31
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Friar John posted:If you're disappointed something isn't in the OP you should post about them. If it's good enough I might edit the OP! Well maybe I will, blind slave to Orlantus' meaningless rebellion. Maybe I will. The Sharmat posted:I thought humans were all made of every rune, it's just some were more prominent in an individual than others? Yeah, that's true. Our form rune, which decides our shape, is the Man rune (for Trolls, that's Darkness + Man, for Dwarfs, Stasis + Man, and so on). Our breath is Air, our blood is Water, our flesh and bones is Earth, our shadow is Darkness, and our heat is Sky. Our temperament is the conflict between Death and Life, Truth and Illusion, Harmony and Disorder, and Stasis and Movement. As a fun side-effect of this, the fact that most of our mass is composed of Earth is one of the explanations for 'gravity' - being made mostly of Earth, we're more inclined to be drawn towards it. BryanChavez fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Nov 1, 2013 |
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Nov 1, 2013 17:40
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Speaking of Glorantha in different rules-sets, I've had a few idle conversations with friends about the Fate Core system and how to adapt it to Glorantha. If there's an interest, I could do a series of posts here about how to go about doing that. In some respects I like how Fate Core takes players out of the "what is written on my sheet that would let me accomplish X" mindset and moves them towards constructing stories with the GM. Then again, most of my past visits to Glorantha were under RQ 3 rules...
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Nov 1, 2013 18:47
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Narsham posted:Speaking of Glorantha in different rules-sets, I've had a few idle conversations with friends about the Fate Core system and how to adapt it to Glorantha. If there's an interest, I could do a series of posts here about how to go about doing that. So...
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Nov 1, 2013 18:50
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Narsham posted:Speaking of Glorantha in different rules-sets, I've had a few idle conversations with friends about the Fate Core system and how to adapt it to Glorantha. If there's an interest, I could do a series of posts here about how to go about doing that. Go for it, man. I'm currently running Glorantha in FAE, just by noting down cults and runes, and using those to expand the scope and power of the six standard approaches. I'd like to see how you'd do it with Core.
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Nov 1, 2013 19:18
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Tulip posted:And the best post Just stopping by to remind everyone that Zzabur/Azabur is the best ever. Who ended the great Age of Darkness, known in the west as the Ice Age? Zzabur, by casting the Ritual Of The Great Web, which also had the bonus effect of blowing the poo poo out of the evil Vadeli and giving the people of Danmalastan and abundance of beachfront property. Who defeated the Devil the Orlanthi barbarians call Wakboth? Zzabur, who cast the Great Inundation upon his armies at Soruvela. Who beat up the Middle Sea Empire? drat near everyone, but it was Zzabur who CURSED THE OCEAN to do it. It would take quite a while for anyone to figure out how to get around that one. EDIT: Realtalk, Zzabur is a total dick. But he's also a cool guy to bat for because unlike everyone else in the setting he's cool with hanging out on the Island of Sperg Partying instead of dicking with anyone else.
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Nov 1, 2013 22:44
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Uh it's spelled "He, Zzabur".
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Nov 1, 2013 23:57
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Mr. Maltose posted:EDIT: Realtalk, Zzabur is a total dick. But he's also a cool guy to bat for because unlike everyone else in the setting he's cool with hanging out on the Island of Sperg Partying instead of dicking with anyone else. I am wondering if you could set this schpiel to the "shaft" theme tune. Also lets have a quick mention of Not!China that is Kralorela. The differences between the place and actual Han dynasty china can be counted relatively easily, for one the emperor is an immortal golden dragon who is part of a large illumination/ enlightenment idea that permeates most of the culture. Alongside this is the whole "two-fold path" idea wherein the nearby dragon-newts and the Kralorelans each respects each others ways and do not attempt to interfere or interact in any way with each other becoming part of the Universal dragon. The reason for this will probably best be seen when the Empire of Wyrms/Empire Without Friends gets a mention. The problem with Kralorela is the fact that it is so painfully generic as to be almost a none entity, whilst one of the foremost examples of combining both Theistic god worship with the mystic idea of enlightenment it comes across as a straight copy of early Chinese Dynasties that it is as if the writers did not even bother. There are good reasons for this no doubt, but the fat that they appear as a much more straight up copy of an existent culture as opposed to the Celtic-phonecian-mediteranian Orlanthi or the Iranian-Isrealite-Posh French Bastard Dara Happas kind of makes them about as much fun to play as a hammer to the knee-cap.
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Nov 2, 2013 00:53
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To be fair, Kralorela gets hella interesting during the reign of Godunya. But that's entirely because Godunya's reign could easily be renamed The Time Where Sheng Seleris Wanted Kralorela. Sheng Seleris makes everything interesting. Interesting and unpleasant.
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Nov 2, 2013 02:12
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Mr. Maltose posted:To be fair, Kralorela gets hella interesting during the reign of Godunya. But that's entirely because Godunya's reign could easily be renamed The Time Where Sheng Seleris Wanted Kralorela. Sheng Seleris makes everything interesting. Interesting and unpleasant. Sheng Seleris, Ghengis Khan without the fun. Speaking of I really do think they should intergrate some of the more fun aspects of chinese history, for instance the overlooked T'ang Dynasty "directed trade" with outsiders, the commissions, female high priests and "spin the bottle" style drinking games would all be great additions to it. Heck why not mix in some Rome and have it so that some areas only allow tests to be taken using swords. I suppose it is only a mercy that, as far as I know, footbinding isn't in it.
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Nov 2, 2013 02:16
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I have faith in Kralorela expanding as time goes on. The West has certainly done so, and with the new push forward with the Guide and assorted I wouldn't be surprised if Kralorela got its own book and expanded to be a much cooler melange like everything else in the setting.
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Nov 2, 2013 02:22
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Perhaps Kralorela is boring because Greg Stafford knows a lot less about China than other areas? Can't specialize in everything.
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Nov 2, 2013 02:22
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Yeah. Neither Kralorela or Vormain are terrible, they're just not up to snuff compared to the other regions of Glorantha. In almost any other big setting book, they'd be great if unoriginal additions. I think that when we get a freelancer team on the Kralorela & Vormain book, they could do a lot to make the sparse and re-heated region into something as unique as anything else in Genertela. The problem with the area, as it stands, is that I could definitely run a game there, but can't think of anything that would make it different from just running a standard wuxia game. Except that Dugu Qiubai would be a Humakti, which is admittedly pretty cool. But hey, at least Teshnos is really awesome.
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Nov 2, 2013 02:30
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This month's update on the guide was just posted. To summarize: they've laid out about 1/3rd of the pages, and are now expecting to be finished and sending out pdfs in December. Printed versions of the guide should be in people's hands sometime in January. The Sharmat posted:Perhaps Kralorela is boring because Greg Stafford knows a lot less about China than other areas? Can't specialize in everything. Given that Greg Stafford once wrote a 429 page campaign covering the 80 years of king Arthur's reign in obsessive detail it's probably safe to say that he's more of a western history buff.
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Nov 2, 2013 02:52
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Which was also the problem with the West in the beginning. Dude loves Arthurian stuff. To be fair, Pendragon is loving killer.
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Nov 2, 2013 03:26
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Links to add to the OP: Glorantha's official website The well-buried starting page for the unwieldy but informative official wiki Glorantha on google plus A pdf explaining the main runes Mr. Maltose posted:Which was also the problem with the West in the beginning. Dude loves Arthurian stuff. Well, no, actually. Apparently the whole "the west is medieval Europe" thing came around due to publishing pressures and Greg was quite unhappy with it.
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Nov 2, 2013 03:59
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I may be in the minority in that I actually did like Jamie "Trotsky" Revell's version of Medieval Europe West, with wizard-knights, ritual initiations into saintly orders and passion play-like heroquests and all (the highlight of Trotsky's West for me was probably the order of fanatical elf-hating knights - armed with axes and sworn to strict vegetarianism as a way of spiting their enemies). It was a pretty interesting take on the theme, different from the usual "medieval" fantasy, though I agree the new one is even more original and distinctive. The ideal West in my Glorantha is kind of a mix of the new Graeco-Bactrian and Indian stuff and the neater parts of the Medieval version anyway. Also worth looking at, despite the sub-par site design and occasionally outdated information: Nick Brooke's site. The HeroQuest Voices used to be hosted there but can now be found on the official site, and they are also a must-read if you want to get a quick impression of the various cultures in Glorantha. The Elder Race bits are particularly tasty. advokat fucked around with this message at 06:17 on Nov 2, 2013 |
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Nov 2, 2013 06:13
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The Sharmat posted:Perhaps Kralorela is boring because Greg Stafford knows a lot less about China than other areas? Can't specialize in everything. Greg Stafford is also like, super super anthropologist-y, and anthropology more or less by definition is about "uncivilized" areas ('peripheries' is more fashionable). History is about places that were heavily populated and wrote alot and had long periods of stability, anthropology is about not-that. Kralorela is boring because Stafford isn't interested in states in general, he's at his best when it's shatter zones and the normal political units of history are largely absent.
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Nov 2, 2013 06:26
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advokat posted:I may be in the minority in that I actually did like Jamie "Trotsky" Revell's version of Medieval Europe West, with wizard-knights, ritual initiations into saintly orders and passion play-like heroquests and all (the highlight of Trotsky's West for me was probably the order of fanatical elf-hating knights - armed with axes and sworn to strict vegetarianism as a way of spiting their enemies). It was a pretty interesting take on the theme, different from the usual "medieval" fantasy, though I agree the new one is even more original and distinctive. The West still has Frankish influences with the Seshnegi, as 'barbaric' inheritors of a legacy that doesn't quite belong to them. The Safelsterans owe a lot to the Italian city-states of the medieval and renaissance periods. The Jonatelans obviously bear a lot of similarities to post-conversion Lithuania. I'm fine with involving some of Medieval Europe in Glorantha, especially in the West. It's just that 'Medieval Europe' in gaming (and popular thought in general) tends to be a bland mish-mash of several centuries and cultures stirred in a pot until all of the flavor has been boiled out of it. I'm happy that they're stripping out saints and churches, and not using the term 'knight', and things like that, because of all of the immediate baggage you get when you use those words. Plus, cataphracts, fāris, and clibanarii are way cooler than knights. I thought that Trotsky's ideas for the West are pretty cool, and I'm glad they exist, but I'm also glad that they're not canonical. BryanChavez fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Nov 2, 2013 |
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Nov 2, 2013 06:30
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BryanChavez posted:The West still has Frankish influences with the Seshnegi, as 'barbaric' inheritors of a legacy that doesn't quite belong to them. The Safelsterans owe a lot to the Italian city-states of the medieval and renaissance periods. The Jonatelans obviously bear a lot of similarities to post-conversion Lithuania. I'm fine with involving some of Medieval Europe in Glorantha, especially in the West. It's just that 'Medieval Europe' in gaming (and popular thought in general) tends to be a bland mish-mash of several centuries and cultures stirred in a pot until all of the flavor has been boiled out of it. I'm happy that they're stripping out saints and churches, and not using the term 'knight', and things like that, because of all of the immediate baggage you get when you use those words. Plus, cataphracts, fāris, and clibanarii are way cooler than knights. "Knights" just seem a bit more evocative and less cumbersome to say than "Men of All" to me, I guess.  And I'm not sure if it's really much worse than all the Greek terms in Dara Happa and all the Norse terms among the Orlanthi, which also can be a little misleading as to the nature of those cultures. But I think see your point(s).What do they call the "churches" now? Sects?
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Nov 2, 2013 06:47
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Oh yeah, wergild and thanes and skalds and all of that? Yeah, they might have changed those too. The Orlanthi aren't vikings, but the setting does itself no favors by using a shitload of Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon terms for them. I think they're just embedded too deep to remove now, whereas the West had more of a chance to change things up. At the same time, those words all, at the very least, convey a sense of what the Orlanthi are. It can be misleading, but all of those words share a definition with what's in the setting itself. Whereas I rarely imagine (using the Seshnegi as an example) a stripped to the waist to show off his perfect physique, highly sensual warrior-philosopher when I hear 'knight'. And going to Loskalm, knight confuses the issue when you're talking about people who have risen to the rank via a strictly-enforced meritocracy, rather than being born to the position. Knight isn't a hot-button issue for me or anything, it just conveys a lot of dangerous assumptions about the oiled-up mustached philosopher-kings that you'll often find in the West. And yeah, they're generally using sects now. Or heresy, obviously, if you disagree with them. Edit: Hey, if anyone ever starts a Gloranthan metal band, consider Oiled-Up Mustached Philosopher-Kings. It does necessitate a specific look, so also consider working out a lot beforehand. BryanChavez fucked around with this message at 07:08 on Nov 2, 2013 |
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Nov 2, 2013 07:03
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BryanChavez posted:Edit: Hey, if anyone ever starts a Gloranthan metal band, consider Oiled-Up Mustached Philosopher-Kings. It does necessitate a specific look, so also consider working out a lot beforehand. Hell, even if it's not Glorantha themed - if you start a metal band, do that. Cos that'd be awesome.
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Nov 2, 2013 07:19
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I need to remember to but in with some Eurmal talk. As the greatest of the gods he needs some time.
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Nov 2, 2013 07:40
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Deadmeat5150 posted:I need to remember to but in with some Eurmal talk. As the greatest of the gods he needs some time. I find that this wrute-up is a good introduction to the one true savior of the universe.
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Nov 2, 2013 07:49
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 15:56 |
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The kickstarter just updated with a few sneak peeks of the layout: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/224590870/the-guide-to-glorantha/posts/648417
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Nov 2, 2013 07:50
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