Jeff

The weather in Dragon Pass is provided there in the rules book. For some RW comparisons: Clearwine: Innsbruck or Sofia (although Clearwine gets more precipitation) Boldhome: Davos Furthest: Munich Germany, Walla Walla Washington Nochet: Venice, Charlotte, Washington DC. Prax: Santa Fe

And they wear different hats. See that Storm Voice over there? He has an awesome hat that says, "Here is an important person who speaks for the gods." See that shaman over there? He has a crazy person's hat that says, "I'm a crazy person who talks to dead people and rocks."

That is pretty much exactly what the rules state on page 137: Generally, one adventure occurs per season. The “one adventure per season” suggestion emphasizes the fact that adventures are extraordinary affairs, and that the adventurers have lives to lead. Much of an adventurer’s time is not their own. Farmers must work the fields, warriors must guard their lords, and even priests must spend most of their time worshiping the gods and managing their temple. The default assumption is one "extraordinary affair" (whatever that means) should happen in a season, and that otherwise the adventurer is doing the stuff they need to be doing as part of their community. That "adventure" might take place over several days or it might be spread out over the whole season. The goal is to not encourage daily tracking of player activities as RQ3 did and to let game time pass in a campaign, so that events can take place and the campaign can unfurl.

Yep. And if we wanted a purely Gloranthan set of titles, we can guess that the Orlanthi use the following (I am not sure whether Theyalan language is gendered or not, so am just using "man" as the default for person even though that is probably incorrect): Free man - this is a full member of the community, male or female. These households do not need to serve someone else to survive. Unfree man - this is someone who needs to serve someone else to survive. Horse man - this is a member of the martial aristocracy, who is given land and/or livestock by others so that they might be full-time professional warriors. House man or hall man - this is a personal bodyguard of a high status person. I increasingly use "palace" instead of "hall" but the terms are basically synonymous. "Big House" might be best. God-talker - this is somebody who serves as a part-time holy person. They speak "to" the gods. God-voice - this is somebody who serves as a full-time holy person. They speak "for" the gods. Wyter-voice - this is the leader of a clan or kinship group. Also called Chief God Voice for the kinship group. War Lord - this the tribal ruler. Earth queen - this is the high priestess of the Ernalda cult. Storm King's voice - this is the tribal ruler of the Rex subcult. And so on. Some of these terms were around since the Dawn or even the God Time (free, unfree, god-talker, god-voice, war lord), others are later developments (horse man, hall man, Storm King's voice, etc.)

This is absolutely correct. "Free" citizen status exists in many cultures, alongside "semi-free" tenants, and a semi-hereditary martial aristocracy. The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age (ed. Cynthia W. Shelmerdine), Wolfram's "The Roman Empire and its Germanic Peoples," Auboyer's "Daily Life in Ancient India", Bryce's "Life and Society in the Hittite World", all describe similar social classes. And not just Indo-European. You see similar social categorisations in the Aramaic-speaking tribes of Mesopotamia (a great academic source is the anthology "The Babylonian World" edited by Gwendolyn Leick). As an editorial decision, we largely use modern English words to describe things like noble, warrior, or house bodyguard, rather than (mis)use Anglo-Saxon or other terms. It makes it easier to explain what something is, causes less confusion, and allows the status to become Gloranthan rather than a transplant from a real world culture.

One of the reasons that I rely on McEvedy is that he estimates urban population by measuring the built-up are within a settlement and multiplying it by the best estimates of population density. Outside of the tiny sub-field of ancient population estimates, pretty much every other scholar (including scholars I have tremendous respect for) just forward estimates that were forwarded from other sources. And yes, Pavis is definitely an outlier, but it is included because it is useful to keep in mind that the Big Rubble is bigger even than metropolises like Nochet. Of course, relatively little of the Big Rubble is built-up ruins - the majority of the Rubble is either open land (Huntland, Big Grazing) or wooded (the Garden).

The clan or tribe assigns land to a thane. The thane and their family might farm it directly, or they might rent it out to half-free sharecroppers who give half the crop (what most adventurers do). The same system that has likely existed in much of the world for thousands of years. When the thane dies, usually a member of his family is able to prove their worthiness to continue carrying out the thane's duties (which generally is what the community prefers), but the community could allocate that to a new family (uncommon but it does happen). When someone dies in an Orlanthi clan, the land doesn't usually get redistributed - their family pushes to have the land kept within that kinship group. Assuming the kinship group is reasonably well-regarded by their peers, and reasonably competent, that is precisely what usually happens. But sometimes, the community decides to upset the apple cart and reallocated the land. Certain offices have customary land associated with it - so in Apple Lane there are a bunch of orchards that are allocated to support the Thane. Jeff

Actually I have them more densely populated than most ancient world cities are estimated to be. But keep in mind, the numbers thrown around for ancient city populations are absurd. The best analysis I've seen suggests that at its peak Rome had a population of about 200,000 and not the one million often thrown around. Alexandria hit about 100,000 at its peak. Londinium was maybe 7,000 (and thus had a population density about a third of Furthest).

A few notes on the Torkani: Argan Argar is the tribal patron god. He is worshiped as a consort of Ernalda, as is Orlanth. Humakt is the most important war god, although Storm Bull is also popular. All the Lightbringers are worshiped. Their Rex cult is unique - as the tribal leaders need to worship Argan Argar in conjunction with Orlanth Rex.

Also we have replaced "carl" with "free" (a literal translation of the term btw) and "cottar" with "tenant" (I was going to use "half-free" but reconsidered it).

If you notice, we have downplayed the terms "weapons-thane" or "housecarl" in RQG. Instead we have substituted "noble" and "bodyguard" (in fact, I am not sure whether "housecarl" ever appears in the book. Nobles in Orlanthi society include the martial aristocracy called "thanes", which evolved out of the priesthood in the Second Age. During this time, it was discovered that an armed militia of farmers and herders could be overcome by a smaller band of elite troops. Chieftains use companions to fulfill this martial role among the community instead of the priests. Land and herds are assigned to support these petty nobles - in exchange, they report to the local ruler and are expected to protect their community. Important people also maintain bodyguards as part of their personal retinue. A high status bodyguard might also be a thane, with lands and herds of their own. Or the bodyguard might just be a type of mercenary who serves for pay.

A thane is a full-time warrior supported by others. Their responsibility is to defend the people, which carries along with it the right to exercise military leadership and authority on behalf of whatever clan or tribe the thane serves. Because they are important, wealthy, and respected for their prowess, the people they defend tend to defer to them.

The mechanics of heroquesting essentially boil down to three things: 1. What is a heroquest? Thematically and narratively what does it include? 2. What is the landscape of Gloranthan mythology? This one sounds weird, but it is basically just a mythic toolkit that lets you treat the God Time like any other sandbox setting. 3. How do I handle heroquest rewards? What does it mean within the RQ rules to be a Hero? The first two things don't have many mechanics associated with them - they are more or less a toolkit of concepts and ideas for the gamemeaster. The third is mechanical, and nicely supplements the existing RQG rules.

Greenbrass didn't make the map unfortunately, as it was too small and would have made the Nymie Vale too congested. It will be appearing soon. However, you can see its locations here, on the road from Clearwine to Old Man:

Yes. Orlanth is the god of heroes after all. In Orlanthi culture, leaders need to prove their right to lead by example - and primarily in a martial manner. Chiefs, kings, etc. are under tremendous pressure to display their prowess, which is a great opportunity for adventure.

Yeah, over 1200 years ago. In the Third Age, the closest thing to a crannog in Sartar are the Duck villages in the Marsh.

An Orlanthi clan chief has three roles. The chief is: 1. The chief priest of Orlanth and the other clan patrons for that clan. They perform sacrifices, oversee rituals, and keep the gods on the clan's side. Often the chieftain follows the lead of other priests and god-talkers, but at the end of the day, the chief is the apex of the clan temple hierarchy. 2. The local village headman, who needs to resolve disputes about land, herds, and rivalries. 3. A local warleader who needs to continually prove his or her right to lead through deeds, gifts, and action. This means leading the fight against trolls, fighting those broos that are plaguing the hilltop pastures, even leading attacks on others to get booty or vengeance. Roles 1 and 2 are usually most important, but there are plenty of heroic chiefs who emphasise 3. The tribal king also has several roles: 1. The high priest of Orlanth Rex for the tribe. In Sartar, the tribal king is also bound to the Prince as the king of the Rex cult. The tribal king presides over sacrifices and rituals, does what the tribal gods demand, and so on. Usually full-time Storm Voices perform most of the actual work. 2. The war leader for the tribe. The tribal king has to constantly prove their right to lead through deeds, gifts, and action. That can include performing quests, fighting enemies, leading their bodyguards to fight tough foes, leading the tribal army in times of war, etc. 3. Judge of disputes between the communities of the tribe. Temples and clans dispute land, herds, rights, privileges, and much more. The tribal king is expected to resolve this, although some disputes get kicked up to the Prince. 4. The voice of the tribe with outsiders. The tribal king speaks on behalf of the tribe with regard to outsiders - other tribes, foreigners, even the Prince.

They also disappear as tribes at some point in the Third Wane. Lunar Tarsh is not organised along tribal lines. The cities serve as administrative centres for the local region - and have effectively replaced the old tribes. Clans continue to endure, of course, but they are much less geographically defined. Wearing my Creative Director hat, this is a complaint I have with a lot of material submitted to us - names get used because they appeared many centuries or even millennia before. Tribes and political entities disappear in Glorantha. All of the old Heortling tribes disappeared in the early Second Age - not because the people disappeared, but because those tribes no longer served a useful purpose and were supplanted by something else. Now old names do get recycled - some Lhankor Mhy scholars insist on calling the Grazelands "Koroltesland" or Sartar "Orgorvaltesland" or "Storn" or whatever, just as Magyarország gets called Hungary by outsiders and in the early modern era literary pundits called the area "Pannonia."

As an interesting point in comparison, here's the size of several ancient world cities (source Colin McEvedy, "Cities of the Ancient World"): Alexandria: 236 hectares (residential districts, not including palace or Pharos) Antioch: 375 hectares Athens: 120 hectares Autun: 200 hectares Babylon: 500 hectares Jeusalem: 110 hectares (including the Temple and Herod's Palace) Londinium:135 hectares Miletus: 100 hectares Ninevah: 720 hectares Palmyra: 130 hectares Pompeii: 65 hectares Rhodes: 388 hectares Rome: 360 hectares (buildable area within the Servian Wall) Syracuse: 315 hectares. For comparison with Glorantha: Runegate: 12 hectares Clearwine Fort: 20 hectares Boldhome: 350 hectares Furthest: 130 hectares Nochet: 600 hectares Old Pavis: 1905 hectares!

Dwarves are sympathetic to me (not so much to Greg). They see the broken ruins of the world and they work tireless to fix it. They see (or at least have been taught about) the once perfect dance of the cosmic spheres, the Golden Age where everything worked. And now look at it. The Spike - Mostal's masterpiece and the cosmic support beam - is gone and destroyed. Nothing works right, and entropy and Time wears everything down. And the mortal races squabble over the ruins of the cosmos. Weep for our poor Mostali.

KoDP was heavily over-reliant on Anglo-Saxon England and Iron Age Scandinavia art references. I don't see the Heortlings like that at all - their cultural orientation and origin is the Holy Country, not Northern Europe. Think Thrace not Iceland. That doesn't mean you won't see wattle-and-daub used but it is more likely to look like: There is a much broader architectural world to draw on than just northern Europe.

The top picture of Arkaim is very Vingkotling - indeed, we have used it as a reference piece for Vingkotling architecture. I imagine that this is the idealised abstract concept of a city for many Orlanthi. The second picture is something you might see in the First or early Third Ages. I think this is a fortified shrine or temple.

And of course, the ruins of the palace of Knossos are wonderful inspiration for the Big Rubble:

Resurrecting this old thread - One interesting point is that any ruins from the EWF have been destroyed for at least 500 years if not longer. Which means that they might resemble the Mycenaean and Minoan palaces as presented in Assassins Creed Odyssey (in terms of how intact they are):

To the extent that Ulanin worship is well-defined enough to be a full-fledged subcult (as opposed to just a local land god folk offer sacrifices to), he likely provides Command Horse. He certainly is not a better riding god than Hyalor.