M Helsdon

You have to dam the river first. From ancient Egyptian tomb painting we know they hunted hippos using a javelin or harpoon with a detachable tip to which a rope was tied; many such strikes were needed to seriously injure and kill the animal; the ropes meant that the hunter both retained the tips if they became dislodged (metal blades were expensive) and kept hold of the animal if they weren't. It was a slow and dangerous business, waiting whilst it bled out and tried to kill you. And this wasn't a task performed by an individual - you need others to distract the hippo and to also harpoon it. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=157951&partId=1&searchText=copper+egypt+predynastic&page=2

Both the worshippers of a Second Age Yelmalio.

"In this area, I can see these thrown spears probably being used against crocodiles, hippos, or some other big animal that one could get close to with boats," Shea said. Speculation: note the probably. Hunting hippos from boats with javelins would be a good way of ensuring your genes are not propagated. Hippos are notoriously bad tempered and deadly. Only slightly safer to hunt crocodiles, especially as the boat (for which there is no evidence) might be no more than a flimsy raft.

RuneQuest Glorantha: Sun Dome Temple Culture/Religion: Heortling/Yelmalio (Sartar) Sun County Culture/Religion: Old Pavic/Yelmalio (Prax) Compare with: Pavis Culture/Religion: Heortling/Orlanthi

The Air Gods are the progeny of Umath, who was the result of the union of Ga and Aether. Copper is the metal of Earth and Tin is the metal of Sky, and their union resulted in Bronze. This is the mythic explanation of why copper and tin (even though not the same as the terrestrial metals) can be alloyed to make bronze.

Not exactly a battlefield weapon but a close-in hunting javelin. You gets what you pays for. If I were a peltast, I'd want a javelin with some range and penetrating power. In our ancient world, the most effective and strongest javelins were made from coppiced wood, which required long-term resource management. Making a javelin from split wood will provide you with an inferior javelin.

Only if it is mined as bronze. In Glorantha, bronze can be made by mixing tin and copper (or the Gloranthan analogues).

I suspect that Bronze made as an alloy of tin and copper might (but it takes a very long time - I have a piece of late Roman bronze and it hasn't corroded - yet, and the chemical breakdown depends very much on chemical composition of the soil), but iron rusts (it would be logical for the dwarves to sell iron to humans with this inbuilt design flaw).

Unfortunately the majority of Near Eastern (including Assyrian) bronze arrowheads suffer from extensive bronze disease corrosion (cuprous chloride in the copper alloy reacts with water to create hydrochloric acid which eats away at the bronze, and in turn reacts with the copper, ultimately resulting in a covering of green fuzz). After many centuries the original state of the head cannot be accurately assessed. Iron arrowheads rust, with a similar outcome. It is rare to find an ancient bronze or iron arrowhead in good condition, unless it is recovered from a very dry environment. Most of the ancient arrowheads you see on sale aren't very ancient.

Interesting, thank you.

All pretty irrelevant, as the Templars revived sarissa-based phalanxes long before Monrogh was born. A Sartar-driven renaissance in Sun County seems unnecessary. Just that it only lasted a few generations. It's remains are lost somewhere in or near the Zola Fel delta. Given that the names were intended, as stated, to be a bit of fun, it seems to have triggered unnecessary pedantry (I'm sure the Sun Domers have a particularly painful punishment for that...)

Curiously not mentioned in Sun County at all. The Solitude of Testing ended with the arrival of Dorasar in 1575 (1550 in more recent chronologies)... yes I know it's claimed that Monrogh sent the first Varthanis, but Monrogh only became Count of Vanntar in 1579, so it would be a mite tricky for him to have sent Templars into Prax any earlier from there as he had no Sun Dome Temple to send them from... His claims of refounding the Yelmalio cult only apply to Sartar, as there were active temples in southern Peloria and in Prax before he was born. The Teshnos influence was limited to a very short-lived colony in the 13th century, on the map its size seems to denote the search area for the Red Sword, not its zone of control. There's no apparent Teshnan influence in the Praxian Sun Dome.

A combination of the Second Age name for the god, and local usage, as whilst it would probably be denied, there was a significant Nomad influence during the Solitude of Testing. An outlander travels through and tells you what you should call your god, whom your ancestors have been worshipping for centuries? They'd either be laughed at, or suffer a suitable punishment. Few Counts seem to have had a sense of humor.

Totally non-canonical, but here's a possible list of the different names of Yelmalio and Orlanth. Neither deity has a huge organized monolithic cult, and traditions and practices probably vary to a greater or lesser degree. So as a bit of fun... Yelmalio Temple Location Peralam Vanch Yelmalio Daughter’s Road (White Rock) Holay Khelmalio Domanand (Mirin’s Cross) Holay Khelmalio Vanntar (Sun County) Sartar Yelmalio Little Cafol (True Sky) Sylila Yelmalus Laramite Hills (Kareiston’s Temple) Imther Khelmal Linstingland (Lingsting Sun Dome/Last Light) Talastar Elmalio Zalador Hills (Zalan Sun Dome) Holay Khelmalio Orenair Sun Dome (Cold Sun) Aggar Helmalo Upper Forantin Sun Dome (Crystal Dome) Aggar Helmalo Ever-New-Glory Tarsh Yelmalio Goldedge Tarsh Yelmalio Karia March Delela in Ralios Ehilmalus North Dona (Northbank) Janube River in Fronela Ehilmalo Mo Baustra (Sun Dome County) Prax Yarmalum Serene Victory Jarst Kharmalus Southbank Janube River in Fronela Ehilmalo Orlanth Location Sartar Orlanth Heortland Orlanth Fronela Worlath Seshnela Worlath Umathela Worlath Imther Orlantio Fonrit Baraku Pent West King Wind Ralios Worlanth Dara Happa Orlanatus Southern Peloria Orlanthus Southwestern Peloria Erlanth

Which is why arrows made of light woods or cane often had a fore-shaft of a heavier wood, which increases the 'weight' of the arrow and its penetrating power. Arrow bushes appear to be relatively rare in human lands. Composite bows probably originated on the steppes, but were certainly known and widely used in Mesopotamia and Egypt. There are suggestions the Egyptians got them from the Hyskos, but impossible to prove. Composite bows are known from archaeology and art to have been widely used since the second millennium BC; and there are indications that they were used as the missile weapons of choice in the Near East using Bronze Age chariots as weapons platforms. However, the style of the composite bow varied widely over time. Every archer needed two bows, because keeping one permanently strung will reduce its performance relatively quickly, but in war you can't avoid the time to string your bow (and this was quite an exercise with a composite bow) in the face of the enemy. There were significantly different designs and geometries over time.

Making a good javelin, much like making a decent bow, is a job for a specialist, not a carpenter. A javelin requires the services of a redsmith, a leatherworker (for the ankyle) and a skilled wood crafter. Carpenters make carts, wagons, doors etc. not precision weapons.

No, because they have to be far straighter and well balanced than a thrusting spear, requiring more work on the shaft. A wonky javelin is far less likely to hit the target.

Spears tend to be expensive, especially if they are made of coppiced wood, which provides a stronger shaft than a spear made from split planks. Atlatl, to be effective, have to be made very carefully; if the shaft isn't perfectly straight then it isn't going to work very well. As for the price of bows, whilst arrows are supposedly covered by the cost of a quiver, historically, a sheaf of arrows could cost more than a self bow (including a long bow). In the 14th century, a sheaf of 24 arrows for a long bow cost 16d (one shilling and four pence). As few players or GMs keep a tally of munitions, the cost of a RuneQuest bow also covers an endless supply of arrows.

Even in the south east, there is little genetic evidence of a population replacement by the Saxons. The Danes left a far greater genetic footprint in what was the Danelaw. The early entries of the Anglo Saxon Chronicle are very suspect; of course there were fights, but on the whole it seems likely that in many areas the Romano-British nobility suffered a severe case of 'stabbed in the back', something that would be rewritten in far more heroic terms, if the later chroniclers knew what was good for them.

Several centuries between the two events, and the Saxons were brought in initially as infantry mercenaries, in the southeast by the Romans and then by the Romano-British - and as the province broke up into different kingdoms, mostly following the lines of the old Roman administrative regions but also some old tribal divisions, there are suggestions that the Romano-British elite were primarily cavalry, and then in just about every kingdom the mercenaries ultimately staged a coup, the exception being, probably Wessex, where the Saxon king lists include Romano-British nobles. The Romano-British in the southeast then adopted Saxon ways and language, as the old political and economic systems collapsed as part of the western Roman decline and fall. It's sort of a reverse of events in southern Peloria, where a large number of the population become Lunarized, until the Hero Wars.

Note that Gloranthan (and terrestrial Near East) self bows are not European longbows (and yes, the European longbow of yew goes back to the Neolithic) Just to confuse things, longbows are self bows, but the term self bow covers a wide variety of materials and at this point of the Hero Wars there are no longbows in central Genertela, save in the hands of rare Rathori mercenaries.

No cheese boards?

Sadly, prices and availability in the Manchu Dynasty a few centuries ago are not a good guide to Bronze Age prices. All the available information suggests that composite bows were expensive prestige items. It isn't easy to cost items in the ancient world, though the materials used in making composite bows are mentioned in trade lists and palace storehouse lists, as are the bows themselves. An Iron Age Assyrian text suggests that a good quality composite bow cost a mina or two of silver. A mina was 50-60 shekels of silver. A shekel weighed about 10.88 grams (.35 troy ounces). In comparison a Lunar weighs 6.22 grams (.2 troy ounces). So... that roughly gives a price of 175 to 88 Lunars (assuming 50 shekels to a mina of silver). No doubt you can buy cheaper composite bows, but they may not have as powerful a draw or last as long. A bit of a problem when your composite bow goes crack! just as the enemy are rushing forwards...

Whilst self bows were relatively cheap in the ancient world, a composite bow was far more expensive in terms of labor and time, with the best taking a very long time to make (often bows were glued together and left for the winter to 'set' whilst being periodically checked).

That's the problem with in-world sources - they are (often intentionally) unreliable narrators. Makes the mythology more realistic. If a myth or legend doesn't have well defined areas of doubt and uncertainty, it just isn't mythic. The Dara Happan version of myth and history is more than a little biased, in part perhaps to write out of their prehistory and history the enormous influence of those they now call Horse Barbarians. Even Buserian's sky diagram is obviously the frame of a nomad kert. Claiming that the real Yelm didn't reappear until the Sons of the Sun were expelled is perhaps an expression of a deep seated realization that they aren't quite the legimate heirs of the Empire of the Sun they'd like to be.