A game beginning between 1305-1310 in Heortland.

[Darrold]

Inspired by King of Dragon Pass, Jeff Richard’s Taming of Dragon Pass campaign, the resulting saga of Korol Sure-Strike, Pathfinder: Kingmaker and other sources, I am planning a campaign using an experimental system that has parts of RuneQuest Glorantha, Pendragon and several other bits and pieces added to it. I have been reading the Glorantha Sourcebook as well as the forum and Well of Daliath and looking through the lore to prepare. 

My main question is if I missed something important about the lore or the setting or if there is another book I should check out to prepare.

The campagin would mainly be set in the area between Karse, Blackwind Marsh, Whitewall and Bullflood river. Perhaps it will later move into Dragon Pass, but that is up to the players.

Premise:

The campaign will follow the Darrold bloodline, a relatively new Hendriki bloodline spawned by Darrold Accursed son of Kestald (1204-1240) who was outlawed and had a curse laid upon him by a priest whose wife he seduced. The curse caused all male children of Darrold blood to be plagued by misfortune unless they are named Darrold. It was a clever and cruel joke on the lustful Darrold who was a famous womanizer. Due to this, male members of the bloodline are usually referred to by nicknames such as Simple Darrold, who drank a spoiled potion and lost some of his sense, or Darrold Kinslayer, who killed Simple Darrold during a quarrel. The players will play as different Darrolds (or the daughters of the bloodline) who all share the same name due to the aformentioned curse. The campagin is intended to combine comical and serious tones, with the world events providing a serious backdrop, while the Darrold bloodline and natural interactions between it's colorful members add a comedic element. Members of the bloodline are likely to have high CHA and gravitate toward Disorder, Illusion and Movement runes.

Setup and background:

I plan to start a systems test campaign in 1305, before the arrival of Belintar and if successful plan to take it across several generations as the characters deal with the changing political situation and a possible move to Dragon Pass with the wave of settlers in ca. 1320.

The game will mostly be played with one player and one GM with family members and close friends. Sessions are intended to be 15 minutes to 1 hour with the intent to squeeze some fun dice rolling and roleplay into a busy schedule. 

The game will have a lot of YGMV with Heortland clans and minor characters. But in preparation I am trying to get an overview of the broad strokes of history, major settlements and major characters who will be important in the background. 

For example this game grew out of my family using the background generation tables in RuneQuest: Glorantha to create the history of the Darrold bloodline and slowly kept adding to it until we could basically play what we called “Darrolds”. We also rolled up some random Orlanthi clan names that we plan to use in the campaign with the Darrold bloodline belonging to a clan that the dice and random tables named the Sky Rat clan. 

I understand that there is some material on Herotland at that time period, but nothing on the level of the Hero Wars.

So far I have:

Hendriki - the main tribal Orlanthi in northern Heortland who are divided into numerous clans and ruled by a High King, usually from Whitewall.

Kitori - darkness worshipping human/troll tribe who live around Troll Woods. 

Bandori and Esvulari - Tribes living south of the Hendriki, who are each ruled by a talar, have noble clans that marry amongst themselves and wizard-priests
 

The major historical characters who the players most likely won’t meet directly:

The Only Old One / Ezkankekko - The child of Argan Argar and the ruler of Holy Country before Belintar

Belintar - The mysterious god king who killed The Only Old One and ruled the Holy Country for about 300 years
 

Characters who the players may meet:

King Andrin - High king of the Hendriki who ruled from 1302, died to Belintar in 1317 and resurrected in 1318, ruled at least until 1320
 

Clans:

Orshanti - Colymar’s original clan

Structure of background events:

I believe that most of the campaign activities will concern different clans among the Hendriki and perhaps the Kitori or servants of The Only Old One. The first few years of the campaign will focus on life within the clan with feuds, cattle raids, legal cases and general Orlanthi life. 

Belintar swam ashore in 1313 but did not kill the Only Old One until 1318. I assume there will be a time when he is gathering his strength heroquesting and forming alliances. I would guess this means that at some point between 1313 and 1317 a war breaks out between Belintar and the Only Old One with the Hendriki under King Andrin siding with the Only Old One. I would guess that the southern parts of Heortland fall under/side with Belintar. The players could take part in some battles where King Andrin, most likely with or even under Uz allies, faces the followers of Belintar, with the Only Old One’s forces initially gaining the upper hand but Belintar coming out on top in the end. I would assume that for the local Orlanthi this would mean gradual losses and encroaching kinstrife with Belintar’s army (likely under a representative) moving through the lands of one or two clans at a time, defeating them on their home territory and forcing them to pay tribute to Belintar or his representative (perhaps even feed or house members of Belintar’s army) in exchange for an end to hostilities. This would create a lot of interesting tension and illustrate the many reasons why Orlanthi like Colymar left Heortland for Dragon Pass.

Any advice and opinions welcome!

 

Edited January 10 by Darrold
When I first wrote the post I forgot to add the question. Since English is my second language I got caught up in trying to find any mistakes and using clear wording.

[svensson]

INTERESTING. [also, totally diggin' the 'Sky Rat Clan' - that hits both an RQ and an L5R funny]

I'd be interested in playing this.