Jeff

Easiest route is to go to Quackford and then head to Wilmskirk, which takes another day. From there you take the King's Road south to Karse, which takes about 5 days. From Karse you can get a boat across the Mirrorsea Bay. So you be able to do it in about a week. That route has good roads the whole way - and Sartarite royal roads from Whitewall to Quackford, complete with inns and places to rest and feed and water mounts.

Horses get Hyalor or Hippoi, often in conjunction with Yelmalio, but sometimes alone.

Good question for Saturday's Impromptu Convention!

Orlanth or Eiritha.

There is a lot going on in the later Lunar Empire. Like a mystical Napoleon or the Third Reich, the Lunar Empire engages in a whirlwind of conquest, only to collapse within a decade.

The Sartar Book for RQG.

Geo is in the Sartar Book. His network of inns have renewed importance now that Sartar is ruled by a member of the Sartar Dynasty.

Yes. This is spot on. The Sadducees and Pharisees or the Chinese Legalists are IMO far better sources of ideas about the Rokari than Martin Luther or the Salafis.

My main quibble is that Argenteus is not Elvis - he's Telly Savalas.

Yep.

There are atheists - the Brithini and Vadeli believe the world is nothing but matter, energy, and intellect, and that the gods themselves are merely more powerful sorcerers like themselves who trapped themselves into self-delusion and hubris, and now are devoid of free will. But they don't deny the existence of those powerful beings.

The Rokari are also Realists. They take the world as it empirically is. They also believe things exist independent of our perception and understanding. This is to be contrasted with the New Hrestoli Idealists who believe that reality is indistinguishable from understanding/perception.

According to the Brithini, they are the true humans who have kept to the full Law of Malkion. We are the failures and the descendants of failures.

Most philosophers influenced by the God Learners (so that includes the Malkioni, the Orlanthi, the Kralorelans, Teshnites, and Fonritians) believe that things with weight fall down to the earth by a law of nature. It is in the nature of Earth to attract and to keep things, as it is the nature of water to flow. Things with Earth (substances made of matter) move downward to reach her.

Arkat embraced irrationalism in a very rational way! A rational skeptic who delved deep into the subconscious of the cosmos in order to overcome the Deceiver who is his shadow. Arkat must descend to the very bottom of the Pit in order to comprehend his foe, and returns changed but with the tools he needs. And then whenever he discovers that those tools are insufficient, he descends further and is further changed.

We aren't talking about hypothetical Pelorian campaigns (I suspect the Lunar Heartland campaign arc is VERY different from what your described). But in running a Western game, say in Seshnela, we have: 1. A background ideology that is pushed by the zzaburi that is rational to the point of amoral, and which is deeply suspicious of Hrestoli chivalry (along with everything else associated with Hrestol). There are rules, and they are based on reason - you can manipulate them and that's just what there is. Call it cold-eyed modern Western rationalism. 2. An ingrained sympathy for Hrestoli chivalry among most of the other castes. The strong have a duty to the weak and to fair play that trumps all other rules. Call it Pre-Raphaelite Romanticism. 3. An ambitious and ruthless king who is supported by the zzaburi but needs the chivalrous warriors to carry out his conquests. Call him the anti-Pendragon, a modern Machiavellian. Meanwhile we have all sorts of remnants of a pre-rational age - the ruins of Seshna Likita, the Beastfolk, the Elder Races, the Beast Brotherhoods, and most dangerous of all, the secretive Arkati who are the Shadow to Reason's Light. Plus we have the return of the original men - think immortal Melniboneans or Vadagh, the Flying Dutchman, and demigod Luathans. There's a lot going on there.

Backford (small city): Also called Salt Town, the inhabitants thrive from the collection of salt from the Syphon River. Salt from Backford is exported to Dragon Pass. The city is surrounded by stout walls to protect its inhabitants from incursions from Larnste’s Footprint. The magical Fish Road still stops here on its run from Deeper up the Syphon River. Syphon River: This strange salt-water river starts in the Biskill Inslet. It flows backwards some 130 kilometers, running uphill into Larnste’s Footprint until it reaches the Toehole and then runs down deep into the Underworld. When the Spike was shattered, the Syphon, alone of all the waters of the world, refused the call of Magasta to fill the Void. Gardufar: The central lands of Heortland, Gardufar is roughly marked by the Syphon River in the north and the Minthos River in the south. It is a plateau of rolling hills with farms and woods. The people here are mostly farmers of Barntar’s cult. They worship Orlanth as king of the gods, and Ernalda as his wife. Their culture is Orlanthi, and follows the typical patterns of whose who worship the Lightbringers. The civilizing influence of the country has turned tribal and clan organization into a more cohesive whole and their society has been altered from its Orlanthi basics by heavy Malkioni mercantile, religious, and social impact. But although changed, the Theyalan love for political freedom remains. Instead of “thanes”, the elite warriors are called “horali”, and are armed to fight in the same manner as their western overlords. But the warriors are not a class of nobles, just another of the free classes. Noblemen are selected from within certain families and must be approved by all free people. The “unfree” class is so abhorrent to the Heortlanders that fewer slaves or serfs exist than in most western countries. And here is the official master map of the region:

Did I say that? I said that Prince Valiant and Pendragon are very different games. They have some of the same fixtures, but so do Lucky Luke and Unforgiven. Or maybe all Westerns are the same as well.

Prince Valiant is not the game Pendragon. They might have some of the same fixtures, but they are very different.

So the Hero Wars in the West is not about mages or sorcery. It is about the efforts of our heroes to carve out a new path that is neither the ironclad rules of the sorcerers nor submission to the gods. It is humanism - and possibly even the decent chivalry of Prince Val (rather than the dour fanaticism that so many seem to want to focus on).

It is Glorantha. But if you could imagine Hal Foster having Prince Hrestol adventure against a backdrop of Gloranthan cosmology, you'd be right there. Greg first came up with the stories of Hrestol, Froalar, Jonat, Snodal, and Argrat long before he ever named Orlanth or the Lunar Empire - but these stories also had the mythic cycles we recognise. Humat and his conflict with Ehilm. Hykim and the beasts. The Cosmic Court and the Elemental Gods - the Srvuali and the Burtae. All of that was present in the oldest stories - plus an entanglement between those who would serve the whims of the gods and those who followed the secrets of the immortal secrets of Brithos. This Gordion Knot gets cut by our heroes who cut out their own path. Pendragon it most definitely is not, and if you can't see the difference, I despair.

My only quibble is that outside of Ramalia, there isn't that much Malkionism in Maniria. Or more precisely there are only talars and a few zzaburi. Like the Vadagh, our civilised Trader Princes are surrounded by Orlanthi Mabden.

The zzaburi are a small fraction of the population - probably 1% tops. They are powerful, mysterious, arrogant, and reject the idea that their wizardry is "barbarian magic". It is gnostic science, logical cause and effect based on understanding of the Runes and various techniques to manipulate them. But Prince Val does not know this - he trusts to his bravery, honour, decency, and his Singing Sword!

This is all very much spot on - the Gloranthan West is Prince Valiant interacting with Gloranthan mythology. We have Merlin and other wizards that are the keepers of many secrets, but their magic is actually science. We have monsters, and strange gods from before the time of men, both of which must be defeated and tamed for the benefit of human civilization. We might have a few friendly Elder Races like Xem who are befriended by Prince Hrestol or Jonat or Snodal. We have dogged men-at-arms who accompany our Prince to adventure, rival Princes, sinister wizards, and the rest. But the focus is on Val and his family, not on the wizards or their secrets. And that is what I think so many get wrong about the West.

They are quite appropriately called Humanists as they place humans, not gods or spirits, at the centre of their cosmology.