the boat planet

[D]

Hi, other than GtG, where's the best place for information about the boat planet?  I'm interested in when it first rises, in the current time, what season, week?  In my Apple Lane build, I'm making the night sky and want to get the planet rise correct.

[David Scott]

The Gloranthan Source Book, 103: Boat Planet is a blue planet that takes exactly four days to follow the Celestial River in the Sky Dome and then an equal amount of time in the Underworld.

You might also want to try the The Movable Ephemeris and the Gloranthan Sky. It may require some Java voodoo to get it to work though

(I used https://leaningtech.com/cheerpj-applet-runner/#:~:text=The CheerpJ Applet Runner extension,without having to install Java. on Chrome, it worked perfectly)

(the boat planet is shown as Anaxial)

Edited March 4, 2023 by David Scott

[Joerg]

If you have it, The Gathering Thunder, part 3 of the Barbarian Adventures series of Hero Wars/ HeroQuest 1 scenarios, has the quest to return the Boat Planet as a central theme.

The question "when exactly" is already hard for the question when exactly did it disappear, and did it disappear everywhere at the same time?

Quoting the intro to the scenario (p.48 of the booklet):

Quote

Five hundred years ago, people across the world looked up and saw a planet die. Few knew what it portended at the time, but everyone knew that a great evil had occurred.

Over the course of decades, those living near the coasts or who sailed the seas felt the greatest effect of this doom — the great Curse of the Closing, which swept all ships from the waters, flooded many lands, and instituted a fear of the waters not felt since the Storm Age. But for many people, the loss of sea trade paled beside the destruction of the blue star that sailed the Sky River.

So already the disappearance is problematic. Zzabur presumably cast his great spell in 920 S.T., or at least that is when it took effect: (Guide p.139, boxed text):

Quote

The Closing began in 920 with the disappearance of the Boat Planet from the Celestial River. The Closing ravaged the coastal lands of Glorantha, destroying ports and cities, making sea travel impossible for over six hundred years. It first appeared around the island of Brithos and spread across the oceans and seas of Glorantha, reaching the continent of Vithela in 970. 

The disappearance of the planet started the wave-front (initially literally so, as the clutter in Ozur Bay showed) of the Closing spreading out over the seas of the Inner World of Glorantha. (We don't have any information how the Outer World may have been affected.)

Generally, ships braving the Closing would have to fight fiercely with hostile entities and hostile conditions, but sufficiently sturdy ships with sufficiently heroic crews would be able to survive such voyages, although with a great risk of not making it. There is the famous last ship from Jrustela that reached Seshnela in 996 (Middle Sea Empire p.27f), and there is the entire fleet of Kralori ships that reached Vormain through Kahar's Sea of Fog despite the Closing (but which was destroyed by a mighty holy storm, something which reads like kamikaze in Japanese).

The expansion of the Closing took 50 years to cover all of the inner Seas of Glorantha.

Dormal's Opening journeys started in 1580, with the Boat Planet being raised in 1624. It is one of four planets raised in that year, with the three new planets in Orlanth's Ring the other ones. And Sartarite heroquesters are involved in all these raisings, although the Boat Planet heroquest in Gathering Thunder shows a multitude of participants on that ship carrying Dormal and Gonn Orta's daughter (from the Cradle scenario) into the Sky. The Eleven Lights quest would have seen concurrent heroquesting elsewhere in the world, both acting for and against this new phenomenon.

My pdf of the Glorantha Sourcebook states (p.37) that the Boat Planet re-appears in Sea Season 1624, which is congruent with the story in Gathering Thunder, although it also says that it rises in 1625 (p.103).

 

The Gathering Thunder scenario apparently starts some time in 1623 (p.:50 Minaryth Purple presages the New Lunar Temple ceremony as imminent in two years time). But then, on their return the participants learn about the assassination of Termertain by the Humakti led by Sarostip.

Many of the assumptions in this story arc are clashing with the current canonical Glorantha, such as the inclusion of "Argrath Maniskison" as one of Kallyr's companions. It is still a rather grand approach at heroquesting into the Sky World, different in style from the journey of the Eleven Lights or the Dragonraise dancers (as GMed by Ian Cooper).

The Eleven Lights Heroquest in the HQ2 book The Eleven Lights (p.115 onward) has Kallyr behind that celestial quest, too, taking place during the Windstop and helping to end it concurrently with Broyan's Battle of Iceland.

Edited March 4, 2023 by Scotty
rm Guide as OP specifically said apart from GtG

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, D said:

I'm interested in when it first rises, in the current time, what season, week? 

Seaseason 1624.  

If I recall from last time discussing the topic it rises on Fireday of Harmonyweek - exactly three years after the Cradle episode (see RQ Classic Pavis book).

 

[Joerg]

Given my currently resurging research into tides, I wonder how the Boat Planet (on the visible side of the sky River) and the Blue Streak (on the outside of the Sky River, and parting ways from its ascending path starting at Lorion) interact, and whether the Boat Planet might add another influence on the tidal cycles. Do we know where on the Celestial River the Boat Planet will rise? On the Youth side (which seems to be in the East at Dawn on Voria's day), or on the Lorion side? WIll it travel with the Blue Streak, or against it?

(Given the Waertag association, I would be in favor of traveling with the force behind the tides, but the Waertagi control over tidal waves gives other options, too.)

Edited March 4, 2023 by Joerg

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

On the Youth side (which seems to be in the East at Dawn on Voria's day), or on the Lorion side?

I would think on the Youth side.

[D]

7 hours ago, David Scott said:

The Gloranthan Source Book, 103: Boat Planet is a blue planet that takes exactly four days to follow the Celestial River in the Sky Dome and then an equal amount of time in the Underworld.

You might also want to try the The Movable Ephemeris and the Gloranthan Sky. It may require some Java voodoo to get it to work though

(I used https://leaningtech.com/cheerpj-applet-runner/#:~:text=The CheerpJ Applet Runner extension,without having to install Java. on Chrome, it worked perfectly)

(the boat planet is shown as Anaxial)

I haven't had any luck with it before, I'll give it another try.

7 hours ago, Joerg said:

If you have it, The Gathering Thunder, part 3 of the Barbarian Adventures series of Hero Wars/ HeroQuest 1 scenarios, has the quest to return the Boat Planet as a central theme.

The question "when exactly" is already hard for the question when exactly did it disappear, and did it disappear everywhere at the same time?

Dormal's Opening journeys started in 1580, with the Boat Planet being raised in 1624. It is one of four planets raised in that year, with the three new planets in Orlanth's Ring the other ones

Do we know where on the Celestial River the Boat Planet will rise? On the Youth side (which seems to be in the East at Dawn on Voria's day), or on the Lorion side? WIll it travel with the Blue Streak, or against it?

 I hadn't thought of it disappearing and reappearing at different times depending where you are. Thanks for the reminder about the 3 new stars in Orlanth's ring, I'll have to add those as well.

When is Voria's day? I can't see it on the calendar in GtG. In GtG it says on new years day Yelm rises in Lorion, so that is the where I have the Boat planet rising.

7 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Seaseason 1624.  

If I recall from last time discussing the topic it rises on Fireday of Harmony week - exactly three years after the Cradle episode (see RQ Classic Pavis book).

 

Thank you, that makes it nice and easy for working out it's location as the year progresses.

Once I've got the last few bits of my build of the stars done, I'll post a video of it running.