metcalph

I would like to have known more about these invasions but the real question is why is "neutrality" so important to Belintar? It's not as if there was anybody else who could impose sanctions upon him for infringing the supposed neutral status of the Holy Country. This suggests that his navy had attempted to annex Handra and Melib. The real thing I'm not getting here is that after a setback in Kralorela, he's called off the entire enterprise. That's not something that Sheng Seleris, the Red Emperor, the God Learners or the EWF would ever contemplate. So what is Belintar's thinking here? And an example of a dog that did not bark, apart froma few battles against the Volsaxi, there is a complete lack of any military campaigns into Dragon Pass or Maniria, something that would have interested an immortal God-King at least once. The obscure Lunar agitators among the Ditali. The real question is how the Lunars managed to reach the Ditali considering that the approaches to Maniria are blocked by the Holy Country and that going incognito in the Holy Country seems a tad far-fetched (it has happened with the assassins against the House of Sartar) and more importantly somewhat modern. p242 - the Master of Battle. One thing that strikes me in the list of Governors in History of the Heortling Peoples is that the Governors seem to be the main military commanders for the Holy Country in Heortland whereas according to this, there should at least be a Duke. Alsothe Holy Couyntry had a massive army but seems to do very little with it (other than getting slaughtered by Greymane and his thugs).

My understanding is that the Fronelan Hsunchen (like many others) at the time were incomplete, they didn't have a fully fledged religion that provided the answers for everything. The classic Hsunchen culture as presented in the Guide and elsewhere is largely a product of God Learners trying to indentify their mythic origins.

Not disputing the pan-Fronelan nature of the Syndics, Loskalm did have Amlaria the Priestess whose grave is at Midtasker (She fought alongside Svenlos who is a colleague of Snodal but not one of the Syndics). Second you are confusing Loskalm as it is now with what Loskalm was like before the Ban fell. I doubt that it was so doctrinally uniform then. But the Timeline says he and his companions disappeared. Not that their souls left their bodies on a heroquest. The way that their return is written implies that they have returned alive and whole to their lands to find disaster. Which conflicts with the brief statement that they disappeared or that people only spoke to the Syndics as ghosts after the event.

Merely because Northpoint is described as a northern capital doesn't mean a dynasty ruled in each place (the name Beijing literally means Northern Capital as opposed to the Southern Capital of Nanjing). If the two dynasties ruled in different places, then they would be buried at different places rather than at the same place. By naming alone, Eastpoint would be the Eastern Capital but there's no need for a third God Learner dynasty there. There's many different faces of Eurmal as a look at the Sartar Companion indicates. Just because Eurmal is worshipped in Fronela does not mean that all of Eurmal's magic will be known there. The epithet Friend of Men suggests a Firebringer (Sartar Companion p258) and I fail to see how Hrestol becomes an Eurmali.

Harrek wakes in the westernmost portion of Rathorela in 1594. He can reach the Sun Dome Temple and the Greenfields as they have thawed the previous year. Immediately there's a big question: what has the Greenfields thawed to? The lands surrounding them are all enclosed by the Ban for at least another year. My best guess is that the Eastpointers reached it with Moonboats in an effort to reach Riverjoin and other places (repeating the success of the Legion of Infants). The use of Moonboats for transportation would also explain why Harrek was hired by the Satraps of Darjiin as they are the only ones who still know how to make them. The newly emerging Kingdom of Jonatela is a problem as the King of Jonatela doesn't emerge from the Ban in 1610 by which time Harrek has already killed the Red Emperor and skinned the White Bear. However if we use the Moonboat hypothesis then Harrek could have reached Western Jonatela which is part of the kingdom now and may have considered itself to be the Kingdom of Jonatela until Congern came along. At some point, Harrek is kidnapped and forced to fight as a gladiator (becoz it makes for a better story than simply being hired as one) in the Lunar Empire.

p212 - "Seeing stones". When reading this I usually go "*Cough*Palanatir*Cough*". Hence I've been trying to find a non-mirror version. p212 - Mouse Tower. I find it interesting that a God Learner is ruling in Akem although I see from the historical maps that Akem was part of the Middle Sea Empire (but was it part of Frontem?) p215 - I wonder if Harrek's sacking of Sog City was part of the long ago mentioned Greenleaf Rebellion. p216 - Smiles at the text box of the origins of the Janube river. p220 - I get the impression that Arnstor for the lowest reaches of the Janube is rarely used now is because it has become part of the Kingdom of War. p222 - "The Kingdom of Loskalm has recently formed the Brotherhood of the Swallow to wage a holy war against the Kingdom of War." What strikes me about this passage is that the Swallow doesn't seem like a particularly robust response to the atrocity that is the Kingdom of War. I would be more persuaded by a more mythical creature (Phoenix etc) but as it can't be changed, I'm wondering why a swallow? p222 - I like the description of Jonatela that follows as it becomes a more vibrant country than that presented in the Genertela Book. I do have a slight case of the giggles when I see or hear Stomble because it reminds me a bit too much of the Wombles. p227 - Loyal Stone and Olotha both worship stones that fell from the sky. Jonatela seems to have had a problem with Meteorites in the Gods War. p228 - I wonder if the Yellow Bear is the son of Androgeus.

P200 - There's a tension in the text at various places concerning the Ban. The text box at p200 says that Snodal's Ghost was spoken to. The Timeline on p141 says that Snodal and his companions disappear. The text on p145 speaks of Snodal and his companions returning to find that disaster has befallen their lands. The description for the city of Ease has Snodal's tomb. Now this isn't new to the Guide (I noticed it long ago in the Genertela Book) and there may be some simple and elegant solution. But the apparent answer that I get (Snodal returns to Loskalm, dies, is buried in his tomb but the body then disappears before being contacted by magic) isn't pretty. p201 - (Map) the Swamp at the mouth of the Sweet Sea is curiously unaffected by the Ban. p204 - (picture) Meriatan is wearing a curiously ornate suit of armour for a devout mystic. p205 - (sidebar) Meriatan and Gundreken have an interesting history together. p208 - Two God Learner dynasties ruled in Frontem? The records speak of the Adalla family who provide the first and last kings (as one who put down a Perfecti revolt). So who is the other? p210 - Omphis has a severed head symbolism that is awfully reminscient of Thanatar. Although it could be a retelling of Gawain and the Green Knight.

I don't see what the problem is. In Tales #10, he's reported as joining the wolf pirates outside Seshnela. Ergo Harrek took a ship south from Sog where it was boarded by the Wolf Pirates. He joins them to sail to Three Steps. There he raids the Holy Country. Then seeking more information about the Wolf Pirates, he sails to Ygg in 1617. There is virtually no problem here.

Harono, Sun King of the Sky People (the Ono) according to Esrolia: Land of Ten Thousand Goddesses.

The King of Dragon Pass is a title that you get if you marry the Feathered Horse Queen. Thus Sartar was wooing her in order to become King of Dragon Pass when he was already Prince of Sartar.

Starbrow's rebellion

One thing to consider is that the Theyalan might be a bit of a creole from the various peoples they have absorbed. Thus you can have two words meaning the same thing because they have different origins.

King of Sartar p147 the Mularik Fragment

Given the Glorantha Sourcebook, I'm pretty much of the opinion that Genert's influence extended right across the continent and that Brilliantia (from the Eleven Lights) and Genert's Garden are much reduced forms of it in the Golden and Storm Ages respectively. A productive exercise would be to go through the mythologies and see who is most like Genert. In the Entekosiad this might be KoCharal while among the Ralians, he could be Utriam (Guide p373). In many places Genert has been replaced (by Yelm, Orlanth, the Dragons and the Malkioni) and and eventually forgotten

Map p194 Trilus and Dykene are built rather far from Dragon Pass. Map p195 Orathorn is awfully close to Gonn Orta's pass such that in the final adventure of Borderlands, people could have reached it by making a wrong turning. Greatway has had an interesting about-face in its trading priorities.

p168 Pteranosaurs! The first mention of flying dinosaurs I have seen in a while. p169 The presence of the Feathered Horse Queen at Kallyr's surrender was a big surprise to me considering both the Sartarite and Tarshite histories say nothing about her.,

p166 the section on Fronela omits mention of the Greenleaf rebellion (mentioned back in RQ3). I now think it was before the Ban and part of the White Bear Empire. p167 The rewritten section omits mention of the Luatha and Dragonewts. Map The most striking change for me is how thin Seshnela was (I know the change to a thicker Seshnela was made in Genertela: Crucible of the Hero Wars). Likewise the Wastelands seems much smaller.

The same point is made in the King of Dragon Pass computer game in which Chalana Arroy manages to stop Storm Bull from killing Ragnaglar on the grounds of the same.

Ragnaglar is dead. He's not mentioned for the same reason that Wakboth isn't.

History of the Heortling Peoples p14-15 describes the Feldichi artefacts of Dokat as Painted poles that announced the names and virtues of anybody who travelled between them. Ice which didn't melt unless placed in a liquid A scroll which could be read by anyone. This is a slightly retouched version of what was originally in Dorastor: Land of Doom p6. There is also the pseudocosmic egg that was discovered at an unknown location. Now I'm tempted to identify the painted poles as being the precursors of the warding rune magics of RQ. What I am interested OTOH is finding out what the artefacts meant to the Feldichi and what they used them for. Where they critical to their religion like the Firestick to the early Pelandans? Or where they mere child's toys that somehow survived the destruction of the Feldichi (the Celestial Emgine and other Cradle treasures will fall into this category)? What use did the First, Second and Broken Councils make of them? What did they think it was for and to what purposes did they use them for? What other treasures did they find elsewhere. And of the flying machine, the actual text describes its Feldichi origins as speculative and says that it may date from the Dawn Age, the EWF, the Gbaji Wars or the God Learner Culture (Dorastor: Land of Doom p103). I think the control panel is too modern to be Feldichi.

Fazzur was welcomed by the populace of Karse when he seized it in 1619 ST (King of Sartar p138) so my guess is that his base was there. It's a port, Lunar merchants are there etc.

The thing is when Belintar is mortally wounded (as per the Prince of Sartar webzine), he reverts to his blue colour rather than a bronze one.

p159 The Map is most interesting with regards to Altinela (certainly different from that in Arcane Lore). I wonder if the mountains surrounding it are the Mountains of the Sky? No Islands on the far side of Vithela.

p157 This was an interesting paragraph It appears to be different from Serozos.

p150 Vase illustration. Ty Kora Tek has snakes for hair which is news to me (suggests Pelorian influence via Annara Gor). Lhankor Mhy does not have his hands raised which seems quite rude in the context. p151. Teleos is called the Pirate Isle. Well, it was before the Closing but there's a distinct lack of pirates there today. Nor is there much mention of any sea worship. Anecdote: In the original Gods of Glorantha from whence the text comes, the "their" in the statement "Their religion urges a struggle of life against Darkness, but accepts a final unity with the mystical currents of the world" had a rare double typo which left me wanting to know more about the Tehri. p153. Vith's Runes (Fire, Infinity, Fire) made me understand that the identification of Vith with Aether was still current which was a huge help for me in understanding the Vithelan mythos. Vayobi has a motion rune which is unusual for the Dragon of War.