M Helsdon
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Everything posted by M Helsdon
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At present I am attempting to think up a new project.
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This slim illustrated booklet explores the use of the mighty war elephants of Fonrit, one of the regions of the southern continent of Pamaltela. It explores the diet and training of the feared shovel-tusker elephants, and their use on campaign and when deployed in battle. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/328937/War-Elephants-of-Fonrit?affiliate_id=2310005
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Only one species.
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As I have two illustrations I have decided to create a small (five or six page) booklet on shovel-tusker war elephants, which I will put on JC for a $ or less.
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Afraid the East is potentially as tricky as Pamaltela. There's an official Kralorelan book in the works, so trying to write about and illustrate the east would be difficult. I have someone asking me to look at their Tekumel project...
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Finished, more-or-less. Shovel-tusker now looking for a home.
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Thank you. Given recent events, a treatment of Pamaltela would be potentially highly contentious (and I fully accept the advice) and there may be future official development of the region. Rather than spend considerable time developing a book that might be very sensitive I have concluded that it is best to shelve the project.
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Afraid the Pamaltela project is being shelved, based on advice received (which I entirely understand), so this is the only remnant. Needs a little more work... I need to think up another project.
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Another one. Next I will have to do the crews, though am not certain I have enough 'seed' material for Pamaltela to fill a book. [The box isn't a 'fighting turret' but the enclosure for a chair - these creatures weren't massive.] There is an error in this picture - the trunk shouldn't be able to fit between the lower tusks. Will have to amend...
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Amebelodon. I decided to give it a long trunk. Hmm, I've made a mistake with the trunk - starts to curve too soon. Need to do more research.
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Will just leave this here...
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Non-canonical, but as canonical as I can make it, Men of the West may answer many of your questions... https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/325525/Men-of-the-West&affiliate_id=2310005
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There's a fair bit of First and Second Age arms and armor illustrated in Men of the West, in part because I wanted to map in my own mind the evolution of the Western cataphract. Only the Zistorite Bronze Turtle galleys are illustrated; no other Zistorite inventions, though some are mentioned in the text.
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Yes. I have a few books on the Benin bronzes on order. Sadly, there appear to be no actual finds of pieces of armor, but the same is mostly so for other items of bronze armor, world wide - finds are relatively rare compared with the number of pieces there must have been in use, because it was recycled.
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After working through my books (presently sitting in piles of books or disorganized on shelves) have found a fair number on Africa - but, all pretty much of the Colonial Era. I suspect that much of the Guide illustrations on Fonrit are derived in part from the Benin Bronzes, and whilst I have seen some of these, I don't have a book about them (cue search online for books). Some of the West African states had significant armies, but, there's relatively little on them available outside academic circles, and other than documentation about them by the Colonial powers, there's very little available. However, this lack of documentation is true, even for armies we tend to think of as well documented (Macedonians, Successors, yes, even the Romans). So I am pondering whether to embark on this project. European armed forces only became superior to those they encountered, when the advantage of rifles over muskets became apparent, and even then weren't a guarantee of victory. There is a bit of a disconnect, because most Gloranthan cultures are roughly equivalents of Late Bronze Age/Iron Age, and whilst bronze (and iron) working goes back a long way in West Africa, there's virtually nothing known of those earlier cultures, and it is necessary to rely upon almost modern cultures, like the Oyo and others dating to around the 12th Century onwards. Am not sure if this is a sufficient basis. Obviously Fonrit isn't a copy of a West African empire, so getting the look and feel is important. Horses weren't unknown in West Africa, and many states had cavalry described as knights by Europeans, and of course, horses are rare in Pamaltela.
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The Roots Of Glorantha: What's IN There? Should I Be Frustrated?
M Helsdon replied to scott-martin's topic in Glorantha
I for one would like to see how much I've got severely wrong, and how much more I could have gleaned from these in writing Men of the West... I did pick up a copy of the GreGanth Atlas a while back and used it as a source for The Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass - didn't copy the maps, but after studying it, it provided a view on the interaction of the various cultures in Peloria. -
It's a few years since I saw a draft. Uz armies are basically war gangs. The only ones that seem more organized are part of the Kimantorings and those are covered in Armies & Enemies. With an official product in the works and a JC publication already present, it is a bit... crowded. Whilst I have read some books on Chinese ancient warfare, I have no knowledge of some of the genres that seem to feed into Kralorela. At the moment I am assessing Pamaltela as a possibility, though I need to check with Chaosium.
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Now at silver. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/325525/Men-of-the-West?affiliate_id=2310005
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Now at silver. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/325525/Men-of-the-West?affiliate_id=2310005
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There's not really much I could add beyond what is in the Guide and the Different Worlds article. Whilst I use Chaosium material (with permission prior to publication) there's not a great deal I could add to dwarves. Well, I do. For the past eight years I was the carer for a parent, for the last three, intensively so, usually at their home for twelve or so hours a day and on call outside that. It is no coincidence that this coincides with the work on Armies & Enemies of Dragon Pass, as it kept me busy and distracted when there wasn't a need to do anything - though I was there for 'emergencies' which became increasingly common. I could sit with the laptop or sketching pad ready. I had started work on Men of the West a few weeks before they suddenly died, and resumed work on it to help with the black pit a few months later. I am now clearing their home, and my own, because I'd promised I would look after their garden and pets, but can't work on this continuously, so am deliberating another project. Again, there's the issue that available official material would be tricky to expand on. There has been an official work on the Uz in the works for some time, so like Kralorela it is not viable. Am pondering northern Pamaltela...
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Am now between projects. Sadly an Eastern supplement to balance the West is unlikely, given an official Kralorela book is in the works. I did consider Fonrit, but that may not be viable topic at present.
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Probably depends on what definition of henosis you follow. The one I adopted is: Union and unity with the Invisible God through self-mastery. Several techniques of henosis are practiced by different Malkioni sects. For the Hrestoli the paths involve clearing the Mind, overcoming the Self, and ascending to achieve Unity with the One who existed before Being. This ascension is opposed by many - Erasanchula, zzaburi wizards, and other forces, but once it is achieved, the state of Joy has been reached. If you explore its basis in terrestrial philosophies and religions, you'll also find a variety of methodologies, ranging from meditation to ritual, to certain types of prayer. As noted, there is undoubtedly more than one Gloranthan route to Joy. [This probably deserves its own thread.]
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Sorcery is implicitly rational, cool, intellectual, almost the application of a mathematical algorithm; Joy is its antithesis: an emotional and ecstatic release, henosis with the transcendent One awakening the ‘inner light’ of the essential soul. The variant paths to Joy all follow the same general path of Preparation, Revelation, Return, Teaching, and ultimately, Dissolution. Hrestolism and other cults of Joy reemerge now and then throughout Seshnela even in the late Third Age. One Rokari Watcher described it as a “plague of joyful madmen washing through the rural lands.” See 'Men of the West' for an exploration of Western beliefs. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/325525/Men-of-the-West?src=hottest_filtered
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What's interesting is that based on archaeological evidence, pigs were very definitely on the menu in the Near East, up to around 1000 BC, and there was then a significant decline. There's no clear reason why, but it may be due to an increase in the presence of trichinella parasites, or more likely because around that date human farming and logging was starting to impact local conditions, and pigs need water and woodland. People were increasingly exploiting the woodlands for building structures and especially ships and temples. In much of the Near East, once you chop the trees down, the ecology can't recover, which is so for most of the Mediterranean woodland zone. Pigs were therefore expensive to maintain, so became taboo. The destruction of the forests even features in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and much later the Roman Emperor Hadrian attempted to prohibit the destruction of the cedar forests in what is now Lebanon. Despite all the problems of that country, the Lebanese are now attempting to replant cedars, and one of the measures used is to ban goats, because goats are so destructive to woodland. Of course, in Glorantha, many of the forests are likely to have guardians.
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[Shameless plug] Whilst it is non-canonical, Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass goes into some detail of the cavalry types and tactics of the major Praxian tribes, derived in part by material written about the topic by Sandy Petersen. There's also detail about whilst Praxian beasts can be used to pull chariots (in Sartar etc. not Prax). As a detail, I suspect that this is an example of how the RQ rulebook can't cover everything without becoming a ten volume set.
