A question about the whole Leaping Place Lake region

[Agentorange]

So, a little while back I asked about some writing I couldn't make out in the Guide To Glorantha. Scotty leapt in to action and not only provided a good map, but directed me to some snippets of info in Trollpak ( top man ! )

Which has made me a bit curious about the whole region. As we can see   from the map to the west we have Dagori Inkarth, Shadows Dance and so on - massive troll strongholds and areas of influence. To the east and actually on the eastern banks of leaping Place lake we have Redwood Forest - which although much reduced is still pretty big. it contains green elves and 2 sites of sacred significance to the elves: Stump and Torch.

Given the usual state of relationships between elves and trolls is the middle ground between the two regions a region of hostility and warfare, are there raids and skirmishes. or is it a case of uneasy peace and trading ?

is there a sort of no mans land ( no man rune land even ) between the two ?  Leaping place lake lays in this sort of border area, though seems to be closer to the Redwood Forest. We know both trolls and elves can and do sail and have ships. Would they have ships on the lake, even if only fishing vessels. Are there humans living here, and if so what cultural groups do they belong to. As you may of worked out I'm kind of intrigued now.

 

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by Agentorange

[metcalph]

I think the Trolls can roam up to the forest borders but once they go in, they become pincushions.  The trolls try and reduce the size of the forest by herding trollkin in their direction and the elves try and increase the size of their woods.  Hampering troll attempts to raze Redwood once and for all, is that only the Gash Tribe has any desire to take over the forest.  

I think the trolls, the elves all worship the river and tributaries when it runs through their lands.  I don't think either has boats - that speaks of a technological sophistication that isn't known for the region - the troll galleys are in Jrustela and the United Foresters may have started in Fronela.

[Nick Brooke]

Yeah, the board game Shadows Dance would most likely have featured conflicts between Trolls and Elves. It’s a wonderful borderland region, and the occasional erratic  movement of a spirit of Light between the Torch and the Vale of Flowers, disturbing the Shadows and making them Dance, can upset all sorts of balances.

[Gallowglass]

One little “my Glorantha” twist I’ve added in my head is that the Redwood elves are bigger and stronger than average, so they also use giant bows. This makes attacking the forest an especially scary prospect.

[g33k]

On 2/9/2023 at 5:59 AM, Gallowglass said:

One little “my Glorantha” twist I’ve added in my head is that the Redwood elves are bigger and stronger than average, so they also use giant bows. This makes attacking the forest an especially scary prospect.

Love this notion!

Q for those in the know:  are the redwoods one (or more?) of the extant RW species (Dawn, Coast, Giant)?  Or are they a RW-extinct variety?  Or a Glorantha-only one?  Or...?
(n.b. in the real world, the "Coast" redwood needs cool & moisture -- the "fog belt" near the coast -- while the "Giant" is happier hot&dry (at least, drier) at altitude, in the south reaches of the Sierra Nevada mountains).

Because -- if you were gonna go the way @Gallowglass does -- Coast redwoods are *really* tall, but the Giant redwoods are somewhat shorter but "burlier" -- maybe their elves could have stature more like Trolls, even cave-trolls! (while the Dawn redwood is similar to other conifers in size).

[soltakss]

51 minutes ago, g33k said:

Q for those in the know:  are the redwoods one (or more?) of the extant RW species (Dawn, Coast, Giant)?  Or are they a RW-extinct variety?  Or a Glorantha-only one?  Or...?
(n.b. in the real world, the "Coast" redwood needs cool & moisture -- the "fog belt" near the coast -- while the "Giant" is happier hot&dry (at least, drier) at altitude, in the south reaches of the Sierra Nevada mountains).

Well, they are not very near the coast, so probably the Giant ones.

[g33k]

23 minutes ago, soltakss said:

Well, they are not very near the coast, so probably the Giant ones.

All the "Coast" species really "needs" is generally cool & frequently-moist conditions, e.g. where fog is common.  That's often a cool northerly coast, but doesn't have to be.
The "Giant" species gets a long cold winter, and a hot dry summer; plants in the area are quite hardy.

But maybe Glorantha's is not one of the existing species... once upon a time, various redwood species were the most common trees in the real world (and Glorantha is famously rife with archaic/prehistoric life-forms).

Or maybe the the "Redwood Forest" is mixed-species, with the Giant being at taller/drier elevations above the fog, while the "Coast" clings to the lower slopes & riparian zones; or etc.

(n.b. Chaosium was born in Coast redwood territory (and Greg retired to the center of it, in Arcata), but well within visiting distance of the Giant redwoods; I don't know which he had in mind, or even IF he had mentally specified it as an either/or)

Hence my wondering if there was any Official Word on this.