M Helsdon

Will be bringing a couple of copies to Dragonmeet.

Until the file is loaded and I have access to the necessary information, I won't be able to determine whether to permit a POD option. Whilst I have purchased PDFs on DriveThru in the past, I know nothing about the options for sellers. I have been using a softcover I had printed to do 'final' proofreading and format checking (and am still finding typos, which isn't surprising in a 380 page book). The twenty printed this week are all hardcovers (and vanity printing costs an arm and a leg, so this is not an avenue I will be repeating - a Dragonmeet special). Given the size of the book, it would have to be a POD hardcover - the softcover is not faring too well, but is serving its purpose. Update: Have found the DriveThruRPG POD page: if it is permitted, a hardcover POD would be necessary, and cost roughly the same as the ones I have had printed, according to their calculator.

Version 1.0 on DriveThruRPG this Friday, I believe.

Printed books dispatched by printer; arriving tomorrow. Two-wheeled trolley to carry copies to Dragonmmet delivered. Now I just have to hope I can get into the Trade Hall before it opens...

Am neither an expert on Grain Goddesses nor terrestrial grains, but would make the following observations: Pelora is an alternative name for Pela? Esrola used to be the barley goddess; einkorn wheat can be grown in poor, dry, marginal soils and was mostly eaten boiled in whole grains or in porridge, though it can be used to make bread. In our history it was almost entirely replaced by barley. It seems an odd choice for a land and goddess as rich as Esrola?

Might be worth obtaining a PDF of the Sartar Companion, as there are fifteen pages about Jonstown, plus another five on the Jonstown Library. It is a HeroQuest supplement, and set during the Occupation. Using Pavis to fill in any blanks, you might be able to get enough to work on.

Thank you. I have taken certain... liberties... with the material you kindly shared, mostly small expansions based upon assumptions, and some of those 'new' 'old' regiments have illustrations. Some of those 'new' regiments appear in very old Greg documents, mostly lacking information beyond the name, all shared with you, that were unearthed in the process of collecting information over three years. The only changes that had me perplexed for a time were the 'new' 'old' Lunar Army Corps, and I hope how I have integrated and explained them is amusing. I will be bringing some hardcopies to Dragonmeet on Saturday. If updates are allowed to DriveThruRPG, I hope to periodically update the book with any new information. Something appeared on FB today which added a sentence to one regiment...

Real myth cycles are full of contradictions - they often seem to offer monomyths because they've been edited over the years (often centuries) according to the agenda of those transmitting them. Even so, despite what we have being a small fraction of what was, the Greek Myths that have come down to us have significant variations. Examples being: was Zeus raised either by a nymph or a goat; the sun is Helios or Apollo, and in one of his ephithets, Apollo is Helios... And for that matter, bright Apollo, who also brought (and cured) plagues may be derived from a Hurrian plague god and further back, Nergal, who in turn was related to Shamash, the sun god. Having a mixed up mythology makes Glorantha myths more real, even if frustrating. If you hold to one particular interpretation, then that's the one true to you, and perhaps your clan and tribe, but it isn't necessarily a universal truth.

Regular ashlar masonry is far less resistant to earthquakes and tremors than polygonal ashlar. The Inca used both types but polygonal has much greater strength. I thought the detail might be of interest, though not in those notes.

Minor suggestions: in an earthquake prone region, there were a number of ancient methods of making buildings more resistant to earthquakes. The simplest was to build on a foundation of packed earth, with a more expensive and later method being to build on three layers of unmortared orthostat stones, with the layers absorbing the shock waves (in our history the method goes back to at least the 5th century BC and is apparent at the Tomb of Cyrus in Pasargadae). You do not want foundations resting on bedrock or natural soil, so your lower 'built in stone' level probably rests on a layer of packed earth. Then there's the structure on the foundation: Building in wood is likely to create relative cheap and earthquake resistant structures, as the structure will flex and bend - though a sufficiently powerful earthquake will wreck it. Stone structures can be built using closely fitting mortar-free polygonal masonry which 'dances' and then resettles after an earthquake; L-shaped blocks at the corners will reinforce the structure; trapezoid doorways, tilting slightly inwards will help (these can be near square 'Earth Runes'). Additional: recall reading a description by Greg about De Garavum, the Temple of the Great Shaker, and it included the Inca-style masonry of polygonal blocks.

Print preview now at printers. I expect delivery on the 28th.

Derived from a draft document. Subject to change.

Dendara has a write-up in the forthcoming Cults of Glorantha, I believe. Her Runes are Fertility, Earth, Harmony.

Would just like to note that putting books of any significant size together isn't quick or easy: text to write, check for consistency and proofread; art to procure, artists to be given direction; maps to draw; layout to be done. If there's a team available to do these tasks, then things are eased, to a degree, but then there are the issues of communication, management and editing. There's a reason, even in the professional mass market world for non-gaming books, that there's often a year of development hell between a book being delivered by an author, and the product hitting the shelves. Anyone doubting this should put something together for the Jonstown Compendium. 😉

They are given in the RQ3 Gloranthan Bestiary, page 23. Nasty.

My printer is old and doesn't give a good resolution - which was particularly of concern, because it printed illustration surrounded by a faint grey haze, which isn't there in the professionally printed copy.

The Bestiary covers a larger area than Dragon Pass. I'm not going to get into an argument about canon, but Anaxial is not in the list of canonical documents, old or new, and some things in it are definitely not canonical. I've seen the older documents, including army lists which mention the different breeds of Seredae ridden by different regiments, and whilst I've made use of those, have been wary of using the Roster. There's an old list of canonical documents here: https://www.glorantha.com/docs/canon/ It is now a little out of date.

It's my document; had it printed to permit a more detailed typo hunt and formatting check. You would have to ask Chaosium regarding author's printing and selling their work.

Just had a test printout made. Now checking for typos.

It very much depends on the period and the efficiency of the organisation: having at least one remount was desirable, and for a cataphract, at least five plus pack animals was a good idea. For much of history, horses have been expensive, and suitable cavalry mounts even more so, making it generally an aristocratic game, unless the entity fielding the cavalry was well organised and wealthy. For Glorantha, the Mongols aren't a good model; even during the Celestial Empire, Sheng's forces were never that organised as his innovations were magical, not tactical. If I recall correctly, the arrow resupply was carried by thousands of camels.

Will share this here... Test printout to check formatting.

Roman: we don't know. British: prior to 1887, depended upon the decisions of the individual regimental colonels. Even when the provision of horses was made the responsibility of the Remount Service, horses were rarely plentiful; in 1900 a Major lamented that although a regiment was supposedly 350 strong, only about 180 horses could be put into the line on the occasion of a review, because there was a policy at the time of having fewer horses in a cavalry regiment than men! One excuse for this was that not all the men were actually cavalrymen, but support staff. In a House of Commons review one MP declared that the army should adopt the rules of Charles XII of Sweden who had had twice as many horses as men in each regiment. On campaign, the availability of suitable remounts for a British cavalry regiment was exceedingly variable, depending upon the competence of the commanding officer and the officer required to procure horses. Earlier than either the Romans or the British cavalry regiments, Xenophon recommended that 'There will need to be a reserve of remounts, or else a deficiency may occur at any moment, looking to the fact that some will certainly succumb to old age, and others, from one reason or another, prove unserviceable.' Unfortunately he does not recommend how many should be available.

Anaxial's Roster is no longer part of canon. Many ancient armies could only operate when within easy access of supply depots or by the capture of enemy depots. The Persians inherited the roads and depots of the Assyrian system, and Alexander and his Successors inherited those; away from the Mediterranean coast, Alexander's forces could only operate by capturing the Persian supply system; when his own attempt to supply the army on the return from India went severely wrong, as it wasn't possible to supply the army by sea as intended due in part because of the monsoon winds, his army suffered terrible attrition. Even with a mule per three men, a Roman army could only operate without additional supplies for a few days. The Mongol system was far more advanced than that of their predecessors on the steppes, and no Gloranthan nomad army fights using Mongol organisation.

I don't have experience of selling books to gamers!

If you are referring to British cavalry horses from the late 18th century on, there had often been many generations of breeding, and a regime of particular fodder, but even then, a horse couldn't be in constant use, day after day, but had to be rested. Daron are still canon; not certain about the others. Most ancient horses were smaller, though there were breeds like the Nisean horse which were much desired and sought after, that could carry a heavily armored rider (and the large Daron is perhaps a continuation of the Persian influence on Carmania - but then Carmania in our world was a province of various Persian Empires, and the name still exists as Kerman), whereas most other cavalry weren't so heavily armored - at least until larger horses were bred, including from Niseans taken from the King of Kings' herds. Possibly, if they can retire behind the battle-lines, though it doesn't seem to have been common in the ancient world.