Tell me of this antelope rider

[TavBehemoth]

My Griffin Mountain campaign recently passed its 50th session and we are planning to introduce a "C team" of new characters. One of the players posted an image (from Arms and Equipment Guide I think?) depicting five rows of Gloranthan warriors. Some I recognize (good doggie!), many are still unfamiliar (wasp rider and levitating guy?). Because we want to open up the setting a little, we're using this diagram as a quick-start guide to character creation. One of the players wants to play the rider in a winged helmet with a spiral shield whose mount has back-curving horns. What should we know about that culture? Where might we find stats for one of its average warriors comparable to an Balazaring adult (the "A team") or a character generated with five years previous experience in Dragon Pass (the "B team")? 

[Nick Brooke]

I think you're referring to the picture of one of Argrath's Headhunters from page 145 of @M Helsdon's magisterial tome The Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass. He's a Sartarite warrior from the Culbrea tribe, according to Martin's account of the Headhunters (p.324), riding on a Sable Antelope (note that it's not unusual for Sartarites to be mounted on "Praxian" riding animals, cf. poster-girl Vasana on her mighty bison). You can tell from his armour (a scale hauberk) that he's a heavy cavalryman, so RuneQuest character generation is straightforward. Stats for Sable Antelopes are in the Bestiary.

Obviously you would be much better off playing as a Sable Rider from Prax, or even as an Antelope Lancer from the Hungry Plateau, because the Praxian Sable Tribe is universally acknowledged to be the most intelligent, handsome and forward-thinking tribe of Prax (by Sable Riders and their honest allies, at least), while the Hungry Plateau Antelope Lancers are an offshoot who greatly benefited from their principled conversion to the Lunar Way in the First Wane. (Other people call this the "Great Sable Betrayal," but they really ought to be more specific since it turns out the Sables have a tendency to betray their allies a lot, cf. Second Moonbroth).

Edited April 25 by Nick Brooke

[jajagappa]

2 hours ago, TavBehemoth said:

One of the players wants to play the rider in a winged helmet with a spiral shield whose mount has back-curving horns. What should we know about that culture?

As Nick noted, this figure is associated with the Sartar Culbrea tribe in Martin's book. However, it's Heavy Cavalry riding a sable, so realistically you could have such a warrior come from any of the Sartar tribes without difficulty so just use the Sartar Homeland, Warrior/Heavy Cavalry occupation, and you'll be all set.

[M Helsdon]

4 hours ago, TavBehemoth said:

One of the players posted an image (from Arms and Equipment Guide I think?) depicting five rows of Gloranthan warriors. Some I recognize (good doggie!), many are still unfamiliar (wasp rider and levitating guy?).

Those are probably, as Nick notes, from Armies & Enemies of Dragon Pass. The antelope rider is a member of the Headhunters regiment of the Sartar Free Army; the wasp rider is a Wasp Rider; the levitating man is a Stormwalker. There are more details in the book.

[TavBehemoth]

That's awesome! I came up with an analogy to unpack this for a new player: if the Balazaring lands were the Yukon in 1750 this would be someone riding a Spanish horse, who might be of Spanish or American descent, in the regalia of a particular British colonial regiment known for its fighting in New Orleans. Does that scan?

We dropped into Glorantha with just a few texts (Runequest CE and Griffin Mountain) seeking to experience the sandbox as one might have before the internet. That's expanded as comprehension has grown; players are drawing from Cults of Prax, and I have the Glorantha Sourcebook and Borderlands & Beyond. On B&B p. 195 I find a Sartarite bandit whose relationship to an ogre worshipper of Cacodemon makes for a nice hook, as our "B team" PCs recently encountered Gondo Horst. Could that bandit have been one of the Headhunters? What might they know about Argrath that would prove whether they really fought with him? What would a bandit need to know about the Culbrea tribe in order to wear their kit as a costume to help drum up contributions to Sartarite independence?  

For all that my group enjoys cosplaying like we are gamers in 1981, it is really amazing to be able to get such expert advice drawing on such a vast body of lore with such speed! Thank you.

 

 

[Nick Brooke]

As Harald said, pretty much any human warrior from Sartar or Dragon Pass (other than the Grazelands, duh!) and every warrior from the Sable Tribe of Prax and the Hungry Plateau, could ride a Sable Antelope, it just so happens that the specific picture you were asking about depicts a Culbrea Headhunter. I doubt there’s much that’s unique about their mounts or gear: the severed heads they like to carry around are the only “uniform” feature, the rest is whatever they could buy, loot or otherwise acquire. Not all Headhunters ride Sables; not all Sable riders are Headhunters. HTH.