Akhôrahil

I really wish that at some point, someone would have bitten the bullet and re-transcribed Zzabur's name in a way that doesn't scream "SILLY FANTASY NAME!!" at you. It always feels completely out of place when I read it. What's the "zz" even supposed to represent? A particularly long "z" sound?

This would also explain their incompetence with athletic tasks.

On the one hand, Rokari Zzaburi are chosen from the children of the other castes. On the other, they're taller. So... the conclusion must be that something about belonging to the caste makes you taller? And it can't be merely that they're properly fed, as they're weaker as well, and also supposedly the nobles are properly fed as well? So what's going on here?

And what kind of attitude towards tapping should we imagine that Fonritian sorcerors have? On the one hand, their view of the world as resolving around mastery and slavery would seem to indicate no restraints, but would their enmity towards Jraktal the Tap color their impressions about what is allowed? This has to be an important question - the matter of tapping is a big deal in the West, after all.

So who is Tentacule? What does a High Slavery God do that's not already covered by the other slavery-related deties?

Also worth noting that both the Lunar Empire and Fonrit (and the Artmali empire, in its days) are fairly heavily chaotic. I'm thinking chaoticism goes hand in hand with decadence, each feeding the other?

Something I find intriguing is that all four civilized cultures presented here centralize not only administration and the military (as we would expect), but also centralize and professionalize magic. Pelorians rarely initiate, farmers in the West and Karolerela use mostly minor farming and healing magics, and in Fonrit the leadership make damned sure to keep the magic in their hands. As civilized peoples surely have ample uses for personal magic, I imagine we must assume that this is a deliberate strategy by the state in all cases? It also helps explain why tiny Sartar can put up some pretty impressive magical units once it gets its act together. Average people are already more "magical" there than among their civilized neighbours.

In Sweden, a "masarin" is a kind of sugar-glazed baked good. This makes reading the Fonrit section hilarious at times.

The Lunarization of Sartar is uniquely oppressive, isn't it, even compared to the Lunarization of the (Orlanthi-majority) Provinces? Obviously that process was often harsh at times, but there was nothing like the threat of a complete genocide of an entire country like with the Windstop.

Yes, I always associate the Lunars with the scimitar (or more technically, tulwars and the like) or sabre style of sword, bending backwards with an edge optimized for slicing, which works particularly well on horseback. While a kukri and similar forward-sloping blades are optimized for chopping, which isn't the same thing.

I'm assuming the Khopesh is cognate with Kopis, even though they're quite different weapons?

The cover made me think of something. Harrek is wielding a kukri—where would he have picked it up? Which culture(s) use kukris? My immediate guess would be Teshnos, as it's Glorantha's fantasy India.

Say no more! That explains everything!

1. I assume that Harrek would be a bad king, yes. Psycho-killers typically don't make great rulers. 2. The history of Sartar is (perhaps surprisingly) not to any large extent one about aggressive external wars. Sartar himself is a builder and a peace-maker. In fact, parts of King of Sartar can be read as a comparison between Sartar and Argrath, where Argrath comes out looking awful. Sartar solves the Telmori problem through diplomacy. Argrath solves the Telmori problem through wholesale genocide and butchering the corpses for magic. 3. As a Vingan, Kallyr's hair is dyed, surely? While you're right about gingers, supposedly you don't lose your soul when you dye your hair red?

I mean, so far it isn't more mundane, and if anything the Hero Wars are more epic and cataclysmic than the ends of the first two ages. But the Fourth Age will be more mundane, just as the Hesiod imagined that his own time was more mundane than the Heroic Age. We get to see some Fourth Age stuff in King of Sartar.

Hmm... if anything, the Age of Heroes under this model would have the First through Third ages, as the Third Age ends with Hero Wars, the banishing of the gods, and the start of a more mundane world. I don't quite believe that your model is the main inspiration, but it's worth noticing that the late Bronze Age before the Late Bronze Age Collapse would correspond with Hesiod's Age of Heroes.

Once more though, this is leading to an exploding number of threads (and there will be far, far more soon enough). I suggest sub-forum, if for no other reason than not to clutter up the "main" forum.

Astronomy?

I think a lot of people would sympathize with liberating Sartar, especially after the Lunars misbehaved so spectacularly there (the Windstop, just for the worst atrocity). Everyone likes Kallyr, the chief architect of this. But Argrath is exactly as much of a ruthless, genocidal empire-builder as the worst of the Lunars, and without any of positive qualities of someone like Jar-Eel. In what world does placing Harrek (of all people!) as king of Sartar constitute "liberation" (doubly so as he had recently killed Kallyr)?

Argrath is a decidely unpleasant person, with absolutely no concern about the devastation the wreaks around him. The people he associates with, like Harrek and Sheng Seleris, are among the worst people in the world. He's one of the primary causes of breaking the world, and is in all likelihood responsible for more deaths than any other single person of the Third Age. It only because we see him through ridiculously biased sources that this isn't immediately obvious, and quite frankly he doesn't look too good even in them. A world shaped in the image of Jar-Eel would have been vastly preferable to the one shaped by Argrath, Harrek and Sheng Seleris.

The ground in the Doraddi picture is covered with grass.

It is cool to see just how close, but not perfectly so, the images stick to the art direction.

That's what I gathered upon first read. It still makes for a decidedly odd image text, when it contradicts the actual image.

You take two poles, connect them in some way to form a frame, put a load on them, and drag them behind you by holding the upper ends while the lower ends drag on the ground. It's not exactly efficient, but it beats carrying the load, especially as you have to bring the poles with you anyway. That's my reading, at least. (When used with dogs or horses, this kind of dragging solution is called a travois. For a human-use variant, see: http://www.backcountrychronicles.com/travois-game-drag/ )

"The Guide is a view of Glorantha from 30000 feet" From the top of Kero Fin, then? :-)