M Helsdon
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Everything posted by M Helsdon
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You presume correctly. I've been delayed by looking at The Eleven Lights and something else.
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Have been sending in comments on the Sourcebook (four pages of comments so far, after a skim and commencing a detailed read-through) but am uncertain if they are being received. Mostly typos.
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I have heard in the past that they have sold Game Workshop items below cost price. Part of the strategy seems to be capturing custom to increase subsequent sales - which seems to work because Amazon is so useful, whether directly or by providing third party sales. A second hand bookshop owner I knew was driven to close his physical shop because with the overheads he couldn't compete with dealers on eBay and Amazon. A great shame, because perusing the stacks of books I often found things I didn't know I wanted! However, he also had to deal with thefts: once as I was at the desk about to pay he asked me to 'mind the store' as he raced after a shoplifter...
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The Yelmalio Helm is fashioned from solid gold and is engraved with Solar symbols. Only a very few of these Golden Age artefacts exist. The faceplate depicts a handsome bearded man said to be Yelmalio himself. The faceplate slides up into the top of the helmet. These helmets offer superlative physical protection and are imbued with magical properties. The helm is heavily decorated, and the embossed detail would make it susceptible to catching the points of impaling weapons were it not so resilient. An ordinary full helm is shown for scale.
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May be from the non-canonical Pavis Rises.
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Moonbroth was garrisoned by the Empire, and was the religious center of Lunar Prax.
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Four of the five Great Tribes have been virtually pushed out of Prax by the ascendance of the Sable Tribe due to their alliance with outsiders. The ownership of Prax is always unstable and subject to change as the tribes pushed out of Prax become lean and mean in the Wastelands, whilst those in Prax become soft in its relative wealth. In this instance the growth of the White Bull Society and events in Sartar result in disequilibrium as the Sables and their Lunar allies become weaker than their resurgent foes.
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The Pavis Road is an unpaved Lunar military road, so during the Occupation it would be a source of wood - there are going to be few trade items from Pavis and surrounds worth the effort of taking back west (save for magical or historical artefacts from the Rubble), so having carried supplies to the garrisons, wagons might be broken up at Pavis and sold for a tidy profit... 'The caravan master says three wagons have been damaged en route, sir. It's the state of the road. He asks permission to sell them off.' 'Does he? We're losing too many. The Army can't afford this. Tell him to get them repaired.' 'Ah, sir. I forgot. Here's your cut from the last sale.' 'Thank you. Now are you sure it was only three wagons that should be listed as irreparable?'
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They lived long fulfilled lives according to their caste. Until the lifting of the Ban, when suddenly the utopian system of Loskalm was confronted by a world that wasn't utopian, and in some areas, such as the Kingdom of War, a dark dystopia - Loskalm's own shadow returned.
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I proof-read it several times (and there's one very obvious typo I missed) but in this case, I thought the numbering was intentional: either due to a split entry or an intentional error. However, my opinion is in no way official.
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As requested some front views: A variety of helmets displaying Runes. Top to bottom: Three Dara Happan helms: first with no decoration; second with a Solar disk; third with a Truth Rune. Pelorian helmets; first with no decoration; second the helmet of a Lunar soldier displaying the Death and Moon Runes; the third, almost identical to the second is the helm of an Orlanthi Wind Lord with the Mobility Rune prominently displayed. Front and side views of Lunar Full Moon Corps helmets, complete with silver masks. The first is a decorative Parade style; the second is a more practical campaign helm. The Lunar Full Moon Corps masks are derived from Roman Cavalry display helmets, the Sumerian Mask of Warka and the Tales of the Reaching Moon issue 12 cover by Dan Barker.
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If a blow were sufficient to break the teeth, it would also hurt the wearer. And a helmet cannot be repaired in combat (except by using a Repair spell). In Glorantha a Repair spell will mend broken or dented armor, so long as all the pieces are present. In the real world anyone wearing a broken boar's tusk helmet would at best be stunned or concussed. True in our world, but in combat a helmet that fails means the wearer is wounded, or dead. In contrast, a wearer of a bronze helmet would have taken far less damage. In this case, 'superior' means still able to defend themselves. A boar's tusk helmet in both worlds is a prestige item, but not one you'd want to rely upon in combat unless you had nothing better.
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The author seems to have divided a single Jonstown Compendium entry for the purposes of his text. This supposition is further supported by the variation between the papers gathered together in the earlier text and the latest. It can only be supposed that, as with many ancient documents, different versions were preserved, and that the compiler of the later version attempted to impose additional order on the material taken from the Compendium, obtaining the Kings List, interposing other historical entries, before including the description of folk ballads (which the earlier version ignores), as they are not as historical in nature as the Kings List and the subsequent material. The JC entries run: 271852, 271851, 271850, 271852. Instead of retaining the entry order, the author or perhaps a scribe, has attempted to impose a thematic order instead. It is only to be hoped that future archaeological excavations may unearth other versions including new material, which may add additional understanding of this poorly documented and legendary period.
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There is a resemblance (and at one time it was very strong in the source material), I believe, but there's a stronger one with Mesopotamia, and ancient Syria and Iran, with a few bits of Classical Greece thrown in, plus a degree of Byzantium in costume and politics. Regarding Alexander's empire: several of the Diadochi (specifically Seleucus and Ptolemy) founded relatively long-lived dynasties. The Lunar military is far less uniform than the Roman military (even allowing for the variation in auxiliary units), and the use of red by the Romans is in large part a modern invention - there's evidence that most ordinary soldiers wore undyed off-white tunics. This is my opinion - you'd have to ask Jeff or Greg to get the precise terrestrial equivalent(s).
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The latter looks like a partial expansion of the former. If you were to consult the original Jonstown Compendium you'd probably find them all part of a single entry, split by the compiler of the manuscript. There are quite a number of inconsistences and apparent errors in King of Sartar (all intentional). It's an unreliable in-world set of documents, and in some areas is potentially as suspect as reading the Iliad as an accurate historical account of the wars in western Anatolia in the Bronze Age.
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In ancient Europe, and probably various areas of central Genertela, wild boar would not have been uncommon, and were hunted because they were common, and both good eating and a pest to agriculture. It would not take long for the hunters in a region to collect enough for a helmet. Though such a helmet offers more protection than leather, it would not survive many serious blows because the teeth would shatter. A bronze helmet would be superior in every way. At one excavation at Ialysos 195 boar's tusks were found in one deposit, and so it seems that helmets made from them were prestige items - not especially useful in combat. A boar's tusk helmet weighs about 2 pounds/1 kilogram. Ancient bronze helmets range in weight between 1 - 5 kilograms, with 2.2 kilograms a likely average. If Gloranthan bronze is roughly equivalent to ancient terrestrial bronze then a similar distribution is likely.
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Despite a boar's tusk helmet being described in the Iliad as 'unique' representations of them on Mycenaean pottery are common and a number (fragments included) have been excavated. Each helmet required tusks from around forty to fifty boars (or large domesticated pigs).
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A little bit about the origin of E6: “Meriones gave Odysseus a bow, a quiver and a sword, and put a cleverly made leather helmet on his head. On the inside there was a strong lining on interwoven straps, onto which a felt cap had been sewn in. The outside was cleverly adorned all around with rows of white tusks from a shiny-toothed boar, the tusks running in alternate directions in each row” (Homer, Iliad 10.260–5). A boar's tusk helmet appears in an illustration in the Sartar Companion.
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No...(though there was a typo). The order is: The depth, double! This order is used to move from close order to open order. Each alternate file (of eight or ten soldiers) moves to the rear of the file beside it in an orderly fashion. This means that an empty space is created between the remaining files. The alternative would be for every file except the one at the center to shuffle sideways a variable distance, which would be incredibly difficult and dangerous upon the battlefield. The file is the basic unit of a phalanx, with a file leader and a half-file leader, and changes in formation are made by the moving of files. In the formation diagrams above, see states A and B.
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In very approximate terms: Carmania is roughly Sassanid but not nomadic; Dara Happa is roughly Mesopotamian (Assyrian/Babylonian) but with Hellenistic hoplites; Lunar is not quite like any terrestrial template - perhaps a mixture of Mesopotamia and Hellenistic, but with significant differences.
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Most of Kerman Province is sandy desert; it's part of the very hostile desert Alexander marched his army through returning from India. You can find Peloria nearby on some maps of the ancient Persian Empire. No, the Carmanians are Westerners, but with a dualistic religion. They are not related to the Horse Peoples.
