Joerg

Take some orthopedic rubber instead, just enough that you have to work against a significant pull. Pointing an arm somewhere and pointing an arm somewhere while pulling back with some force are two very different propositions. Normally, archers "cheat" by locking the bow arm into the joints at the shoulder, reducing the amount of muscle activity to keep it stretched significantly (and removing a lot of instability resulting from muscle vibrations fighting to keep the force away). If shooting 120° to 150° backwards, I don't see any reason for disbelieve, either - that's just the rear part of the left broadside opening. Shooting directly backwards requires twisting your hips, and that should be impossible while keeping both on pressure to the horse flanks. I doubt there was much of the modern "draw the arrow to almost release point, then fine-tune the point into perfect alignment with the target" as there is in modern archery. Doing your shot in one flowing movement removes a lot of the mistakes that other approach forces on the archer. More likely one for war and a lighter one for hunting smaller game, or birds. Shooting the arrow fully through the target leads to annoying loss of arrows. Foot archery most likely happens only during looting or from behind defense works, and will in all likelihood use the war bow also used from horseback. I haven't tried a "behind the head anchor" thumb release with my bows, yet. I wonder whether they used thumb rings or the naked thumb. The angle between shoulder and arrow can be adjusted by your posture. For shooting uphill (on foot), I turn away from the target to a more closed posture, making it easier to keep the bow arm locked in the shoulder. For shooting downhill, I face the target, up to having the lower end of the bow between my legs for extreme downhill shots. Not sure I agree with the strength limit. I don't see huns or mongols switching bows when turning their horses around, and on their charge they started shooting at extreme bow range. If "no aiming" means "you cannot get a bonus for keeping the drawn bow on target", I agree. But it is a characteristic of instinctive shooting that you need something you target with your shot. Bow length is an issue that reduces the angle of the left broadside that you can release an arrow to. Some of this can be mitigated shooting forward by tilting the bow, but shooting backward that tilt would be counter-productive, but a good rider and decent (longbow) archer should be able to use his bow without additional penalty than for being on horseback in an angle between 15° forward and 150" backward (anti-clockwise).

Their means of arrival would be interesting. The route north of the Shadow Plateau seems the least likely, so they must have crossed Choralinthor Bay, either on ships, or using the Fish Road. I guess at least one clan/house should have a Fish Road migration in its history. Duh - that info has been under my nose. But it still doesn't tell us who their sponsors or patrons were (and are), and whether some emancipated themselves from former patrons, or moved upward in the pyramid of patron-client relations. Except in Trolltown? Burial by troll might be a form of post-mortal punishment, even if the bones are returned. Probably from quite far away, too. Meldektown has sort of an open border to the Antones Estates, so their goats are likely to be found intruding there. Pies in bread crust and pies in clay crust? Farmers from the north are dependent on water traffic, but that water traffic may bring their goods to markets that are far from the city gates. And in case of dairy or eggs, they might be at an advantage over the farmers having to take the overland approach. But then the fisherfolk are also a good source for seabird eggs. So who decided whether a plot may be built over? Modern Nochet has only one area inside the walls where there is open ground, and that is after Hendira and her Lunar allies razed a lot of the previous (presumably anything but well-to-do) quarter there. I wonder whether Hendira had precedents for uprooting a significant part of the population of the city by force and/or decree. Perhaps there was a recompensation program, with diminishing recompensation the longer the inhabitants held out. And I do wonder how the new landlords got rid of the buildings occupying their prospective temple grounds. Systematic "unbuilding", demonstration of Lunar siege engines, or how? How secure can a House be of the "ownership" of their estates? We hit upon the question of reclamation of burial ground in an earlier discussion - there is a map showing the Antones Estates encroaching the Argan Argar and Esrola temple. Basically local consensus-generating meetings for neighborhoods? So even the most destitute and anti-social elements will present a House-like front to the rest of the city. I wonder about that. Is Riverside all "slums"? I would have expected some quite respectable neighborhoods for boatfolk plying the riverine trade up to New Crystal City, including the main grain import of the city.

This figurine shows quite a few details for the rider who seems to be clad in leather scales with a short cape covering the shoulders and a conical cap which probably indicated her origin to the maker and the customer of the figurine, but the only piece of tack is the bridle and the bit for the horse. The horse is shown at the conventional leg constellation in art for a slow trot rather than in gallop. I wonder how much contact there could have been between the Etruscans and the horse riders. We know that the Etruscans kept a fleet of two-tiered "penteconters" (basically biremes) at the battle of Alalia, but their naval trade seems to have been on the Tyrrhenian and not into the Aegaean or the Black Sea where they could have encountered such horse folk. Considering the image of the elephants in that carving of an Elephant and Castle in Chester Cathedral, Coventry, unfamiliarity of the artist with the subject can produce quite an error (IIRC from my visit 38 years ago there is another one, even weirder, I think in the castle where Mary Stuart spent her last days). This artist or at least the person providing the art direction appears to have had some first hand exposure to such a rider (or at least a native depiction of one). I wonder where. This could be an image of a Galanini warrioress. The horse is sufficiently small, the armor indicates a less clement climate. All of this would apply to Pentans or Grazers, too, but I think they are too patriarchalic to put a bow into a woman's hands. The Galanini and the unicorn women are the only horse rider cultures that I can think of might allow such weaponry to women, and the armor would melt its wearer in Prax, so Ralios is where I would look.

So they would still live under Belintar's rulership, but not under that travesty of a king? Such clans would have been sceptical of Belintar's rulership, and the houses welcoming them most likely would at least have been willing to hedge a bet against Belintar's long-term success. So it might be interesting to see which houses those were, and whether they burnt their fingers. Given the cautiousness of Grandmothers, I suspect they would have made second tier houses in their client scheme take the risk, rather than expose themselves. I suppose that Hendrikiland and Sartarite origins aren't much differentiated in Nochet, and that they will likely have intermarried after a few generations to a degree that they have become a single subculture. (Renting out rooms to students from abroad shows me how notions of "home" broaden when you are living abroad.) So their presence may have started as guilds, possibly working their way up in status as they profited from their ties to the Quivini trade routes. But this arrival would be about six to eight generations after their ancestors left Heortland for Dragon Pass. Enough for the threat of Belintar to have become something abstract, with more pressing new troubles like beastmen, Telmori, Praxians or Grazers occupying their image of enmity. Such mercantile establishments would have been sponsored by the major mercantile Houses, possibly including Enfranchised ones. By taking a role in establishing new houses, their status would rise a lot even if those new houses didn't become direct clients. It would still be a risk, because when (not if) those newcomers misbehaved, it reflected badly on their sponsors. Grizzly Peak coincides with the boom of the Opening. While not a direct threat for the Principality, it opened up a huge opportunity. Even war clans could have been welcome, as the Melib venture provided plenty of occupation for mercenary work. Ok. I wonder about the urban diet, anyway. Given the presence of the fisherfolk, I expect a certain portion of protein to come in the shape of sea-food, whether clams, crabs, or fish. Geese appear to be an important factor in food, too, both for the eggs and for the meat. Pigs are another companion beast of Ernalda well suited for the city. Sheep and dairy on the other hand would be rather under-represented in the direct neighborhood of the city. Cattle less so since you need to breed oxen on a regular schedule to keep plowing the land and doing overland transportation. With the Antones Estates consuming most of the land directly adjacent to the city, farmers' markets require almost an entire day delivery to the city. The farmland north of the Lyksos may have shorter routes into the city than the farms to the west. This patron-client-subclient scheme probably defines Nochet society, only that obligations flow up to other houses, too, if I read your campaign correctly. Does this take the Aeolians south of the city and the fisherman communities into account? Both these communities appear to have an ongoing history of presence in the region. Either would have been bystanders in the Adjustment wars, possibly co-opted by one side or the other. I guess those are now subsumed in the "Sartarite" population of Nochet. So basically, the less prestigious houses (whether of native or Sartarite origin) live on leased land, and the land-owner has great influence over them? Makes sense. Any Orlanth temples besides Orlanth Hill will be sponsored by local houses, then? I was assuming that quite a few of the Sartarite houses would have male heads of the houses, but that those would be treated like master guildsmen rather than the equivalent of a house's "mother" when dealing with native houses. Sending female envoys/ring members would ease that a bit. But then it would be hard to be of Sartarite origin and a member of the polite society of Nochet at the same time, anyway. You would have to be quite rich or quite well related. Yes. That's why I started this thread. Basically a merger between a pre-existing house and a clan of Sartarite refugees. In the long run, possibly a slightly more respectable origin for the Sartarite house than starting with their Sartarite identity, separate from any Imarjan connection. So basically, a lot of my questions aim at these instances of "Clan {X}". Is there such a thing as "second storey houses" (clans, guilds, whatever) - independent factions too poor or too lacking in influence to have some claim on the soil of Nochet? So option 4 also hits our Clan {X}. Basically, a Sartarite Clan {X} would have to choose a patron from either an earlier establishment of Heortlings, a direct client-patron relationship to one of the houses in Nochet plus a hostility or two to houses that feel deprived of earlier privileges, or a significant loss of identity through a merger with an Esrolian House but resulting access to the Imarjan traditions. This looks a bit like there are quite a few newcomer clans who fail to make such connections, and who end up either as unrecognized communities or being absorbed by existing houses piecemeal. Unrecognized communities do include beggars, thieves, bandits, mercenaries, unaffiliated entertainers etc., but then I suppose those would have to face a similarly established counterpart of natives. The overseas communities would have been established post 1586, mainly by House Delaineos, I guess, although second tier houses of other Enfranchised Houses would have been "suggested" to invest in exotic clients, too. I expect that little of this will have gone to the established Sarli merchants for lack of influence in those quarters.

If you look at Voria's accoutrements, you will find innocent readiness for sex everywhere. Like her darker sister she is adorned by severed genitals, in her case of flowering plants. Where she has stepped, the bees and blossoms do it. Voria is all about the promise of fertility. Keep the trickstes chained and a good eye on the alynxes...

Conventionally, a Dragon Pass counter represents up to five hundred cavalry or up to one thousand foot. Magician units may have smaller bodyguard contingents, resulting in those lower combat factors. A Sartarite clan warband usually would be about 100 warriors, most of them not professionals. Those city militias bundle parts of those warbands, in elite cavalry units and ok infantry. The Free Army has a few units that are indentifiable as local warbands, notably the Colymar tribal warband (a rather weak cavalry unit) or the Two Ridge Fort temple of Humakt bolstered by local volunteers. But that's for the few scenarios in the Dragon Pass boardgame. You can reduce unit size as far as you like for smaller conflicts without changing the factors. The Siege of Dunstop scenario does just that. You might want to provide a more detailed hex map for those conflicts, and possibly a shorter turn than a full day if you do that. On the Dragon Pass board, the Battle of Dwernapple would be over maybe 10x10 hexes. You could give it a better treatment on a detail map with a turn covering an hour or two.

Yes, and Sartarites have made Nochet their biggest urban presence despite that problem. The death of Sarotar was followed by a number of violent deaths, probably including ancestresses of Hendira. Relationships between House Norinel and the Sartar dynasty were best described by "secret war". True. After the Opening, there was a well-established Sartarite presence in Nochet. That may have had to do with the death of Tarkalor at Grizzley Peak. Tarkalor was the last of the people involved in that secret war. Basically, over the course of fifty years, a Sartarite presence worth about five tribes has been established in Nochet. The later arrivals will have been sponsored or at least promoted by earlier arrivals, but how did the early arrivals find acceptance in this Grandmother-ruled city? I doubt it, unless there is a permanent Puppeteer presence in Nochet. The Puppeteers are a tribe unto themselves, a tightly knit group of entertainers and magicians. There is that possibility, although I think for Sartar a visit at Ezel would have been more important. Sartar was well versed with Heortland cities. And he may have been the first Larnsti in at least half a millennium to have left Hendrikiland. Not quite the beginning of the kingdom, but possibly the early reign of Saronil, and no more than one or two clans' population. Most likely merchants maintaining ties with their home city or clans, organized in a guild.

Those kinds of cross-marriages are behind my research, really... But about a quarter of Nochet is Sartarite in origin, and the Sartarites have either come in clans or guilds or have founded them here, and given them the appearance of Esrolian houses or guilds. I suppose that means that they send a female leader to deal with the powers in Nochet. Sartarite guilds and houses may be reckoned as unreliable and disorderly, lacking the absolute obedience a Grandmother can command. This lack of grandmothers may limit their participation in city decisions, but it helps maintaining a Heortling identity. I am trying to get something analogous to a clan questionnaire for the Sartarites in Nochet. When did they come into the city? That shows until when they participated in Sartar events, and when they started to participate in Nochet events. This may concentrate around major setbacks for Sartar, e.g. the aftermath of the Battle of Grizzley Peak, the invasion in the middle of Terasarin's reign, the troubles after Terasarin's Death leading up to the conquest of Sartar, the Starbrow Rebellion, or other more local events and rebellions. Did they come to Nochet at once, or did they spend some time in their tribal confederation city, and maybe form a new clan out of folk that didn't quite achieve what they wanted in say Jonstown or Wilmskirk? Were they sent by a city guild to provide representation in Nochet? Who sponsored their establishment? Does it have to be a Nochet House or Guild, or can it be a temple (Grace Temple or Orlanth Hill)? What other obligations did they have to enter? Do they maintain a tribe-like network, e.g. preferred marriage partners? How are their links to the Sartarite homeland?

If so, they get represented thrice: There's the Tarsh Exile hero unit, which is the twin children of Arim somehow returned (or re-incarnated/heroformed). The "Falling Hills" exotic ability has been assigned to the Earth Shakers unit rather than the hero unit. The Sartar Magical Union unit is a band of magicians with very weak bodyguards and a standard spirit without any exotic magic. But then there might be a tradition of Earth Twins born to the avatar of the Earth Mother and her King lover that predates Arim's wooing of Sorana Tor. The Cult of Caladra and Aurelion may have taken its "twins" theme from the fact that the God Learner project leaders were twins, but their success might be tied to resonance with older instances of Earth Twins. Like e.g. the children of Norinel and Kimantor. Thus, this unit's wyter needn't be exactly Arim's twins. Interestingly, the old (I would thing WBRM, from the typeface) army listing used as an illustration on http://www.glorantha.com/on-magical-battalions-in-the-hero-wars/ has marked the Sartar MU Earth Twins unit with a (T) which indicates that they (and the Warm Sisters, the Snake Pipe Dancers and the skirmish units Scouts and Bush Rangers as well as one each horse and foot city militia, but not the Thieves Arm) may join the Tarsh army. Still, there is some leeway for the Sartar Magical Union magicians using a different instance, or just the principle, as their wyter.

Recently necessary disclaimer: This is not presented as fact, but as proposal for working out the background of Sartarite clans or houses in Nochet. A clan grows overcrowded in one of the city confederations in Sartar. What can they do? Prior to the city confederations, a clan would have sent off a splinter clan with some of the herds, seed grain, and the tools necessary to claim a new clan tula elsewhere. Rarely, they would have land to spare for the new clan, but more often that new clan would start over far from home. By the time of Sartar, most places suitable to start a new clan had been claimed. Occasionally a place on the border to some unpleasant neighbors would become available, like the Pol Joni establishment at Barbarian Town which opened some farmland south of the Dundealos, or the opening of Pavis County by Dorasar’s founding of New Pavis. But with the city confederations, there was another option. Even before reaching the critical population size, excess people could be shunted off to the cities, where the constituting tribes controlled plots or even housing. These folk would formally retain their clan identity, at least for a while, but they usually were too removed from clan activities to participate in the decision making. Over time, these folk could join the guilds, or possibly move on. Are there “urban nomadic” clans in Sartar, taking temporary residence in a place but moving on after a while? And over time, Sartarites began populating the Sarli district of Nochet. Some may have started as squatters, putting up camp on plots that weren’t inhabited (although quite likely someone would have used them as pastures or even gardens). Others may have looked for a sponsor, an established house in Nochet that would lease their ancient claim on some plots in the city to the newcomers, possibly defining a client relationship and imposing some of the civic duties tied to that plot, too. This might demand the formation of a house or a guild. Would such clans or guilds be Adjusted (Heortling-style mildly patriarchal) or Traditional Esrolian (i.e. mandatorily female-led)? Later (Lunar, but also internal) troubles might send entire clans (or what remained of them) packing from Sartar. How would a refugee clan establish itself in Sarli? Another question is how such a clan would feed itself. I get the impression that the granaries of Nochet are one very real power instrument in the hands of the Queens of Nochet, although failure to feed the city was a surefire symptom of not being fit to be Queen. How could a newcomer clan partake from that source, and how would that clan be expected to contribute? Does this require intercession of an Enfranchised House who would take the feeding upon their own responsibility, and who would define a se of demands to the new clients? I have some questions about the history of Sarli district, too. The presence of Orlanth Hill makes this a logical point for Adjusted clans, providing a priesthood to the temple that sin not so easily cowed by the demands of the Grandmothers. Such clans/houses will originaly have hailed from Heortland, or from a fusion of Adjustment warlords from Heortland with an Esrolian house. Following the conflict between Finelvanth and his wife, there probably wasn’t much sympathy for Adusted houses in Nochet. However, there was plenty of space available, especially in the neighborhood of Orlanth Hill which may have been a symbol of bad luck in Grandmother circles. Do the temples own land in Nochet (apart from their actual sites) where they can install clients without consulting any of the Enfranchised Houses? Does Orlanth Hill priesthood have claims for plots in Sarli?

Orlanth has several shields - at least the (presumably square) shield of Arran from his wife and the golden round shield (IIRC of justice) he wrestled from Yelmalio at the Hill of Gold. I would bet there is a myth about Wild Orlanth/Varanorlanth grabbing a bush or some slain beast's bones to parry every incoming blow, too. While I haven't seen anything of this repeated in later publications, the old Hero Wars hero write-up had a sword thane, a spear thane, a shield thane and a backboy to surround the Orlanth hero, so there are several candidates among the lesser god names (previously and since mostly and collectively the Thunder Brothers) that we were inundated with in Thunder Rebels that may step forth as embodiment of Orlanth's shield. I still like that concept, not in the least because it allows a weapontake rite to prepare an entire party for a heroquest which has been written as a solo experience, and to step up and perform a crucial and for this individual specific task. Maybe that's for training heroquests, but it may provide well choreographed first steps on the hero plane, and a first minor hero plane benefit for a character. And we know which groups will have exploited such easy rides to the hero planes for their own nefarious plots...

If such a shield could be used Captain America style as a heroic feat, it would be quite the terror weapon. Perhaps better reserved for a One Unique Thing. So, are there cross-shaped shields for Humakti, or do they make do with cross designs on the surface of their shields? Would rune-shaped shields be able to project the power of that rune? Light or fire rune shields are quite common, and have been imbued with light magic in the canon. There might be room for disorder-shaped shields in shield push matches, although that bears a risk of backfiring.

Coming back and finding your body in dominant possession of something else, since you didn't leave a fetch behind to guard the body. Another possible hazard of smoking in a hazia den, you never know in which body you will awake. This could be a reason why bodyguards would be prohibited from using hazia - an assassin could infiltrate in their body. For spies, a form of covert possession would be even more interesting, allowing a ride on the victim during its official functions. The good news is that since you are discorporate, you can engage the spirit in spirit combat without having to wait for a shaman. The bad news is that you will probably have spent most of your magic while traveling about without your body, and are in dire need of it to regenerate your magic, so you would have to attack the occupant at your weakest.

Why would you say that? "That over there is our most beautiful princess with her ugly handmaiden. You mustn't speak to her before the ceremony." Anything else is a mere misunderstanding. "No, the handmaiden isn't part of this deal."

You mean like requiring the lesson that the "parting shot" was derived from the Parthian shot? Thanks, I knew that before. I am looking at the distinct possibility that that maneuver saw much greater variability in the escape vector with the introduction of the stirrup. Charging in, then riding away at an angle in good order is quite a feat on an ancient battlefield, where there were hardly any organized retreats. Riding away the direction one came from while continuing to fire still seems impossible to me without stirrups. Some reality check - assumptions follow: A cavalry charge with melee weapons can veer off to the left, in which case they can keep attacking foes with the reach of the forehand (or throw javelins or tomahawks), or it could veer to the right, interposing the shield with whatever missiles the attacked line might decide to lob at the riders. If a Parthian shot requires one direction only, a cavalry response to their charge could take that into account. It does take familiarity with the Parthian attack pattern, of course. Again? Sure. This is hardly the first time archery and horse archery were discussed. I am a bit more familiar with the Huns along the Danube than with Asia Minor. Regarding archery, I have done quite a bit of research and a little bit of experimentation, too, including learning from highly reputed experimental archaeologists from the Schleswig museum. Much of that happened 25 years ago, admittedly, and it had a focus on my region, which doesn't have that much of a horse archery tradition that we know about. (The Tollense Crossing battle findings might change that.) I didn't have to take in consideration that the bow could have been held in any other way but vertically because the bow hand on the bowl has very good detail. That's how I arrived at the problem with the bow horns. Textual analysis and interpretation of imagery should always be taken to the test, and material finds need to be reconstructed to find out about their use. Book- and imagery-learned archaeologists did reconstructions that were complete fails, e.g. with an Iron Age yew bow that was found rather warped and whose reconstruction strung it the wrong way around. Have you ever shot an arrow mounted on a moving saddle, without footholds? I have on two occasions, as one of the more original challenges of a fun archery tournament, probably not even approaching a horse saddle experience, but an experience of firing a bow from an awkward position. As a non-rider, I have to rely on observation of others for issues of horsemanship, but thanks to my horse-crazy niece, those include first hand observations. This post wasn't about academic knowledge. It was about matching experiences with book learning. How to shift your stance for upward or downward shots to get optimum stability from the waist. Where to be cautious of terrain features when firing your arrow - being tall and shooting a tournament bow with rather weak power for the heavy (because long) arrows I fire, I often had to kneel rather than stand to avoid entanglement with branches at the designated firing position. There are books about field archery that one can research on this topic, or one can take some training. Yes. That's what I did with the image of the archer, taking it as expert evidence. Ancient art is lousy with perspective. The only way to determine whether the left arm of the archer is before, above or behind the horse is to deduce it from his anatomy and his equipment. And my analysis suggests that he could fire back at an angle of about 150° from the head-to-tail line of his horse, not straight back. Observation of that re-enactor showed how he stood up above the saddle and twisted his hips for a shot in pretty much the same angle, but I am willing to believe that he could have made a shot over the tail of his horse. Security precautions prevent placing such shots, even on private no-admission lands. I don't know enough about horse riding and training to be able to tell how twisting around and pushing the right leg into the horse flank will tell it to turn left, so I am asking people with riding experience how a normal horse would react to a rider twisting his upper body almost ninety degrees to the left. Would that normally guide a horse to veer left? And is it possible to train a horse to keep course despite that leg signal, or how hard is that? Could such an reaction be too deeply grounded in the communication between rider and steed? In the case of the re-enactor in the video, he sort of signaled the horse that he was doing stunts by standing up in the stirrups. Our stirrup-less Parthians may have had other means to communicate an "ignore my kegs now", but I am interested in how hard that would be to train horse and rider.

They integrate spirits - do you mean into the array of contactable spirits, or do they fuse their magical self with that spirit, inheriting its powers? The way I have read the HQ animism rules, spirits are offered temporary housings that allow them to taste the material world, but aren't becoming part of the self of the spirit magician. That's somewhat different to the impression I get from absorbing a spell spirit's knowledge in RQ3. The Spindle Hag - she is the thread-maker. Does this get reflected in her magics? It certainly does say something about how all those previous moon goddesses were co-opted into the current one.

Sure, if your adventure needs a situation where it is contraband, make it so, The reason why may vary, though. Hazia appears to be a meditation aid, so who is to say that the person reclining with the pipe and lost wherever is not engaging in a private religious observation? Likewise, orgiastic excesses are part of the Lunar experience, and not just simple pleasure-seeking. Traditional Christian church services are full of contemplation aids, like the communal singing of hymns, the drone of the organ pervading the body, and short meditative sequences. They may sometimes feel archaic, but they have powerful subliminal influence, something the modern forms of service often lack. You said shamans can carry with no problems - but that's registered (and sworn in) shamans only. Rogue shamans may be unable to hide their nature, but that doesn't give them an imperial carry permit any more than every off-duty mercenary may lug about in full equipment. They may very well be politely asked to give up their stores for safe-keeping. And too bad about the mice or roaches in our storage room...

Taking a lance impact off center will turn those spikes against the wielder, too. Or his mount, if mounted. Then there is the danger of entanglement with loose cloth or ropes. You also guide slashing blades to hack into the center. Depending on the reinforcement of the outer rim, this might act as a sword catcher, but then soft-rimmed Viking shields are said to have offered that feature, too. On the other hand, you have the protection of a holy symbol here. Melee use may be a secondary consideration, and possibly discouraged. Or there might be an invisible area of protection between those points, making it just another round or obtuse-angled polygonal shield in combat applications.

I said I didn't think that the high llama tribe uses missiles, but that was German thinking slipping in. Missile in German is "Geschoss", something you shoot from a device (sling, bow etc) and which you are quite unlikely to recover. Javelins, darts and tomahawks are thrown weapons ("Wurfwaffen"). Most of these make somewhat decent melee instruments, too. We sometimes say that the tribes get their weapons thtough trade, but that is only partially true. Spear and javelin shafts and axe handles will be procudced by the clans, maybe from imported timber, but by local warriors performing this quite specialized craft. Archery using horn bows requires yet another level of craftsmanship, and even some level of alchemy for the perfect glues. This is a craft that is hard to do while on a trek, you need a workshop for this where you can let your bow assembly parts rest, and possibly temper. But then producing the pitch or providing the resin for affixing spear points is quite an alchemical process, too, even though it was known in paleolithic times. And again, this required at least a few days of "sedentary life". Taking control over an oasis will provide such workspaces, but I imagine that there are certain places hidden in the wastes where some craft resources would attract a few people to stock up their ammunition or raw materials. Do Praxians mine for flint or similar knappable rock, or do they find enough on the surface?

That isn't quite what I meant. There is the problem of the impala leaps, which I imagine would create a lot of bouncing that needs to get counteracted, and the rider needs to avoid simply being lifted out of his position. The image of the shot impala in the Guide p..442 has a saddle with something like a ridge in front, but I don't know how much art direction went into that. I don't think that there are modern riders who come close - Praxian nomads probably spend more time on their steeds than on the ground. Every short distance will be covered riding. A bit like contemporary folk using their car for a 200 m trip for a package of cigarettes. I don't quite get the bond in terms of intimacy with the species of steed or rather with individuals. My teenage niece is horse crazy, so I get to listen to horse character and individual oddities of certain horses. She recently switched horses and is in the process of training both the horse and herself to proficiency. So I wonder how much of the rapport with the steed is on an individual, one-on-one basis, and how much is transferable to other individual mounts. I also wonder how that life in the saddle affects Praxian (or Pentan) walking and running. They should be accomplished leapers (onto the steed, and off it), but they certainly don't train long distance running, that's for slaves.

Yes, thank you for noticing. The post was a reaction to this: Those comments were of course completely objective and in no way patronizing, so I apologize for getting annoyed out of nowhere.

From Hrestol's Saga and from the Arolanit descriptions, it appears that horse riding started out as a talar privilege unavailable to the horali caste. Building magical tools for the enslavement of others does have a very long tradition in the west - one of these, imitating a mostali design, lies in the early stories of the Vadeli segregation. One reason why the Men-of-All of Hrestol were named knights in older sources is their use as elite (and presumably heavy) cavalry in battle. The Malkioni don't appear to use regular bows, but have standard issue crossbows. Those don't reload well on horseback. Everybody did. That's sort of the point in the martyrium of the horse.

Given the shamanic nature of the Black Fangs, I would expect them to have a corner of the hazia market. I don't think that hazia use or addiction are criminalized in Glorantha (outside of the Sun Dome prissies). Imperial privilege circumvention on the other hand will be persecuted heavy-handedly. Hazia is likely a high-tax item, making unlicensed Hazia trade a capital offense against the Empire. Given the discorporation effect, I wonder whether putting several heavy smokers in the same basement would be a good idea.

Given their broad similarity to giraffes, I wonder whether High Llamas sort of neck-wrestle with others of their species, and possibly have a flanking ram attack with those muscular lower necks. Such an attack may very well swipe a less high rider out of his saddle. High Llama riders don't use missile weapons. They use the longer range of their weaponry to achieve a similar effect. You mean, like a knob on the back of these beasts, to plug in? I wouldn't go adjusting steed and rider so easily. Like I said, non-Praxians ride those beasts as well, and without any known complications. We do know that Praxian riding beasts are fairly common in Dragon Pass, at least in some distance of the plains of Prax. (Keeping herds of them on the Praxian border would be a direct invitation to be raided...) The Heortlings are able to ride those beasts without any special blessings of the Praxian deities (although they probably give service to Eiritha for the health of their mounts). No impalas, since there have been no reports of Heortling pygmies, but sable antelopes, bison and possibly high llamas are manageable. I don't know about any canonical Gloranthan culture using kayaks or double-bladed paddles. The Waertagi might, as light attack craft riding their tidal waves. Canoes in the shape of dugout boats, and possibly also in animal skin on frames or exotic carapaces, are ubiquitious, but appear to use the single-bladed paddle.

So you put the development/discovery of the stirrup into the Dawn Age conflicts with Galanini and Pralori (another major cavalry force near Tanisor), preceding the Gbaji War? Galanini met (future) Pentan riders in the development that led to Argentium Thri'ile, fighting alongside Praxians. This would have been after encountering Seshnegi stirruped cavalry. How long did it take them to adopt/steal that equipment? The question is who gets enslaved. If only the horse get's enslaved another bit, that's in keeping with the myth of the fiery, winged and beaked sky creature now bound to the ground. Interesting question here: Do centaurs have a single, continuous chorda in vertebrae, or does the human "half" sit on a similar construct as the human skull, able to twist what comes above about 75° to either side, possessing a separate chorda that somehow communicates with the horse chorda? On the other hand, centaurs have only one pair of eyes, unlike the horse-archer who can leave terrain and neighboring horses observation to his mount while concentrating on the target. Centaur biology has a couple of unresolved questions - like what is their diet, how does their dentition and mouth size correspond to the needs of a quarter metric ton body (assuming a pony-sized horse body rather than a charger or beer wagon horse), and do they just breathe through their noses or do they have gill-like slits around their human hips? How much human anatomy is there in the human torso? I would expect a human stomach (able to regurgitate, unlike the horse part) preceding a second one in the horse abdomen, without any intestine in the human torso. A double set of lungs? A single heart in the horse body, or an additional one providing special service to the human brain and the upper lungs? Which mammalia are functional in a centaur female? How do they give birth? Does the upper torso of the centaur foal come in some horse-head-like posture (possibly with a protective skin that is only broken after birth)? Yes, of course centaurs are innately magical. Still, their foes as well as their doctors will know where to find the vitals, and how those are connected.