M Helsdon

The Wastelands are more desert chaparral, and Prax a semi-arid grassland than a prairie with thickly rooted grasses. It's unlikely that the resources to build sod houses are widely available in the vicinity of Pavis. Instead houses in Pavis utilize what is fairly available: adobe, stone, leather and reeds (from the River of Cradles).

There's a Return to Apple Lane in the HQ Sartar Companion. Whilst not based in RQ, it contains a great deal of background information, set around 1621? Drolan Swordsharp is still there, the thane of Apple Lane. You can download it here: http://www.glorantha.com/docs/return-to-apple-lane/

And with Harrek there's always the question: did he possess his god, or did his god possess him? Or are they symbiotes? Another 'sword & sorcery' hero who manipulates and uses organizations (he predates them all) is Karl Edward Wagner's Kane. Another writer who died too young.

There only ever was one Conan novel, before the pastiche writers got their hand on the property. Much of the widespread assumptions about Conan are derived from movies and comics. It's interesting that the Weird Tales covers painted when the stories were first published tended to show Conan in sensible armor and garb. Conan wasn't as brooding as Kull, but he's not the simple barbarian either, with his own brand of Howard's angst. Now some of the themes in the original Conan are dated, and there's the usual background racism of the period when Howard was writing, but Conan's greatest love, Belit, was a Semite and some of his most loyal followers were African. As for his youth: he was born on a battlefield and took part in the storming of an Aquilonian settlement in Cimmeria in his youth, and by the time he was a teenager was thieving in Zamora. He swore by Crom, but Crom wasn't the sort of deity to help out. No DI from Crom.

Conan had support during his career from a number of religious groups (especially Mitra) and Fafhrd became an acolyte of Issek the Jug (and both he and the Mouser enjoyed the patronage of certain magicians...) so none of them were totally cut off from cults and other groups. If you chose to be independent then you aren't going to be penalized other than by lacking the benefits (and responsibilities) a cult provides.

Cannibalism is one way to become a ghoul... cf the King of the Ghouls, Brangbane. Live human 'cattle' available for slaughter and consumption are more convenient than waiting for a battlefield or looking for corpses, especially when the predominant culture in Dragon Pass burns a high percentage of its dead, and buries the rest where they can be guarded. As ghouls have to devour a corpse a week or start to decay, meat on the 'hoof' is a necessity.

The ghouls are very 'proactive' - their society is a mockery of Orlanthi traditions, based on cattle, and cattle raiding - but their cattle, whom they keep in byres, are human.

The Professor reviewed Cults of Prax in the Gryphon #1 Summer 1980, and Greg responded in the same issue. Unfortunately the Cult Compendium only includes Greg's response, but the review is interesting.

A set of silhouettes I threw together when generating those used. Note: no impala in this line up; the horse is one of the larger breeds.

Only in as much as all birds are descended from dinosaurs. The demi-bird is closer to one of the Phorusrhacidae 'terror birds', and I used them as the basis of the silhouette in HeroQuest: Glorantha.

A picture paints a thousand words... Often little details in an illustration can provide many cues and clues to what is depicted.

There's another canon illustration of a Bolo-lizard in RuneQuest: Foes, page 83, which I also used as a source for scale. The Bolo-lizard has similar forearms and 'fingers and claws' to a Therizinosaur, which would make sense for a herbivore scratching around for food in Prax and the Wastes. I believe Foes will become more accessible due to the Kickstarter? It includes a size comparison chart and several useful illustrations.

RQ2 gives an average SIZ of 19; Impalas 13; Sables 21-22; High Llama and Bison 34-35; Rhinos 37. Bolo-lizards are pygmy mounts and so one of the smaller Praxian riding animals. RQ2 Foes gives Ostriches a SIZ around 15. These SIZ were taken into account when producing the silhouettes, bearing in mind that much of the apparent 'bulk' of an ostrich is feathers.

All the Camptosauri were too large. No known dinosaur quite fits, which is why the silhouette was a 'mash-up'.

Perhaps I shouldn't have uploaded the draft (now deleted). No, the bison is slightly too large in that version, and the rider doesn't sit on the bison's 'hump' but well behind it - see Gene Day's illustration in Cults of Prax, page 43.

It was a composite - the body of a raptor with a smaller head, and modified legs - with the SIZ derived from the RQ2 description. I may have lengthened the neck a little to be more similar to the Nomad Gods counter.

There's considerable detail regarding the structure and memberships of clans, steads and households in forthcoming Volume 1 of The Coming Storm.

Not Heorting but closely related: there's a plan of a typical Steadholder's house in the oop RQ3 Dorastor, page 109. Basically an oblong with a front and rear entrance in the middle of the longer sides, with the hearth and living quarters, then private quarters to the right of the entrances, and stalls for livestock to the left of the entrances. The same publication has diagram's of richer buildings - a chieftain's hall and council hall on page 113. The forthcoming The Coming Storm will also contain information about households in Sartar, including: A longhouse is a long, narrow, timber-framed building. The walls are of wattle-and-daub, the roof of tiles. The ceiling is open to the top of the rafters, which are used for storage. The floor is rough earth. Often, the building is divided into three portions: stalls for cattle, a single living space, and bedrooms. In richer houses the cattle live in a separate byre. The Coming Storm contains a lot more information, so whilst it is written for HeroQuest there's a very great deal of general background in it, about houses, steads and villages.

Looks a little like Therizinosaur, a herbivore therapod, though the more recent recreations are feathered.

Not canonical, but perhaps something like this... http://www.fancyscribbles.com/images/gallery/sketchbook/thumbnails/sketch_01.jpg

Drastic Resolutions Prax states: 'Characteristics are for normal humans, except SIZ is 2D4+2 and STR is 2D8 for men, 2D6 for women.' Whether this is canonical...?

Intermarriage between Pygmies and non-Pygmies occurs in several areas: Bantu/Pygmy contact in the western region is several thousand years old whilst sudanic/pygmy contact in the eastern region is less than a thousand years old, based on genetic data. Neither indicates any mismatch arising from relative size. And so would take captives from other tribes. The Bolo-Lizard Folk and Ostrich are both minor tribes, and the Impala have been driven out of Prax into Vulture Country. Whilst the Sables remain dominant as Lunar Allies the Impala tribe will remain out on the fringes of the Wastelands. Relative numbers: Impala 120,000 Bolo Lizard Folk 2100 Ostrich Clan 1200 Much in Drastic Resolutions Prax is not canonical.

In our world where similar intermarriage occurs it is almost always Pygmy women marrying outside their group - in West Africa such Pygmy-Bantu marriages are not uncommon.

No, the Lopers weren't native to Prax or included in the Covenant. The Zaranistangi arrived from Pamaltela and went west from Prax, being defeated by the Seshnegi in the Second Age in 805 when they attempted to conquer Slontos. They reappear during the Hero Wars, being returned by a Melibite Hero.

Perhaps, but it seems to reflect the idea that selling captured foes who couldn't be or weren't desirable to be assimilated into the tribe was very widespread. Foreigners wouldn't be sent into exile by being sold to other foreigners at Pimper's Block. Instead it appears to reflect a mechanism whereby a ransom could be obtained by forcing the prisoner's relatives to buy them back or else foreign exchange (coins, goods, especially metals) could be obtained. It seems to be primarily Praxians selling Praxians, and in sufficient numbers to draw buyers from the Holy Country and Lunar Empire. Prior to the invasion of Sartar by the Lunars, perhaps it was also a place where Sartarites could buy back kin captured in nomad raids. Given the ongoing cycle of conflict between the Praxians whereby a tribe becomes powerful enough to dominate Prax, forcing its rivals into the Wastelands - until they come back sufficiently lean and tough to wrest control back - it seems a likely place for captured members of tribes defeated and driven off over the River of Cradles to be disposed of.