Glorantha technology and Glorantha material technology

[Zit]

On 4/28/2018 at 3:49 PM, Joerg said:

Take some orthopedic rubber instead, just enough that you have to work against a significant pull.

ok, I did it, without stirrups and with a fitness ribbon. I'm untrained (I already shoot a little bit with the bow -I even have a self-built one- but I'm far away from being a true bowman), I am not a great rider, I have an estimated STR of 08 (*) and my horse was staying (I didn't want to take a risk). I was able to aim my ribbon at 180°, so I guess it is not a problem for a trained horse archer, even at  gallop which is a rather comfortable pace. I noticed that, while when turning left your right leg applies a pressure on the right flank as expected, you push at the same time on the left leg to help the rotation (which explains why you can rotate so much), which seems to compensate the pressure from the right, and helps holding the horse.

My conclusion is that the Parthian shot is highly plausible - with all the limitations such an experiment may have.

(*) I estimate the draw at at least 50lbs, which, considering my ridiculous muscular mass, should correspond to 80lbs for a trained warrior

Edited April 29, 2018 by Zit

[scott-martin]

29 minutes ago, Zit said:

I guess it is not a problem for a trained horse archer

Love it. Now we just need to figure out which armor configurations support that range of motion.

[David Scott]

On 27/04/2018 at 9:42 PM, M Helsdon said:

There's a 6th century BC Etruscan figurine of an Amazon...

Here's some 3rd century roman mosaics of amazons I took in Sousse, Tunisia - no bows...

[Noita]

5 hours ago, soltakss said:

"If Praxians don't have stirrups, how can they ride their beasts?"

As kids we rode bareback lots. Ponies, so not that hard to get on, but that's what rocks are for innit. 

My biggest problem is folk riding with bare legs. The one time I wore shorts my legs were royally %€##ed for ages. Never again.

[Jeff]

36 minutes ago, Iskallor said:

As kids we rode bareback lots. Ponies, so not that hard to get on, but that's what rocks are for innit. 

My biggest problem is folk riding with bare legs. The one time I wore shorts my legs were royally %€##ed for ages. Never again.

And that was the norm in many cultures. Then again, I can't hike barefoot without reducing my feet to bleeding stumps, but that was also the norm in many cultures. 

[Psullie]

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

And that was the norm in many cultures. Then again, I can't hike barefoot without reducing my feet to bleeding stumps, but that was also the norm in many cultures. 

still is in my neck of the woods: Croagh Patrick

[M Helsdon]

3 hours ago, scott-martin said:

Love it. Now we just need to figure out which armor configurations support that range of motion.

The horse archers performing the action were very lightly armored.

2 hours ago, Iskallor said:

My biggest problem is folk riding with bare legs. The one time I wore shorts my legs were royally %€##ed for ages. Never again.

In our ancient world, riders on the steppes tended to wear trews to prevent chafing; riders of other cultures wore high boots: some of the Macedonians wore high knee- or calf-length thick-soled laced boot, fastened in front, which left the toes exposed, to provide an extra grip on the mount’s flanks.

There was also a custom (possibly Greek?) to shave the flanks of a horse to make it more comfortable to ride.

Edited April 29, 2018 by M Helsdon

[davecake]

On 4/16/2018 at 4:37 AM, Joerg said:

The taste of barrels (or of resin on skin) is an acquired taste in beverages. As we are unlikely to have cognac, rum or whisky,  this doesn't really matter much.

Red wine of various kinds is the primary market for barrels for aging beverages in, whisky etc are after markets that use old wine barrels. While historically wine was aged in amphorae etc, if wooden barrels are in use there is no particular reason for people not to have developed a taste for it. 

[davecake]

On 4/16/2018 at 1:32 AM, David Scott said:

It would be interesting to look at other cultures - The Doraddi?

The Doraddi largely don't even use large ceramics much (without beasts of burden, too heavy when you want to uproot your entire home), and generally store liquids in gourds.

(sorry to still be talking about liquid storage when everyone else has moved on to cavalry issues)

[Joerg]

I would guess that the oasis-dwelling Doraddi have huge containers in the ground. No idea whether those would be ceramics or simply clay-lined pits with conical covers.

Having a garden that sits atop of a 2 meters thick layer of blue clay (almost ceramics-grade), I can attest to this material's water retention properties.

But maybe such containers could be baked into terra cotta and glazed in situ, firing them from the inside, rather than building an oversized kiln, then digging an even larger hole to deposit them in the ground. Especially with having a fire god who might like to explore holes in the ground in the midst of their pantheon family.

 

Gourds for nomadic Doraddi seem to be a good container of choice, given their rather low weight to content ratio. Which means that they would be grown either at seasonally visited gardens or at oases. How long does such a gourd last?

Animal bladders (or stomachs, or intestines) are logical containers for hunters and pastoralists, too. (Cheese might have been discovered by storing milk in calf stomachs...) Like skins, they might require some outer container to prevent them from receiving too much pressure, but basket weaving is likely to be an ancient and quite ubiquitious art. Or they could be used as lining inside less perfect natural containers (e.g. defective gourds, or hollow branches).

 

There is hardly any archaeological evidence of homo erectus activities in China, despite a fair amount of bone finds. There is the assumption that these hominids used bamboo-based tools rather than stone tools for their technology. Do we have a similar human culture in Glorantha? Bone and horn technology is better documented in archaeological finds (like e.g. the Ahrensburg reindeed hunter cultures), so we have a better idea what they used.

 

Another random thought: Doraddi technological and social development has been described as progressing from technologically and "culturally" (as western people measure cultural achievements in huge organisations etc) developed society to their current hunter/gatherer/horticulturalist society. They have a few remaining tokens of such earlier culture, like the chairs for their chiefs - status symbols that take quite a bit of effort to carry along between camp/village sites in the absence of beasts of burden.

I wonder what kind of artifacts you wouldn't normally associate with a hunter-gatherer culture they may have preserved in their culture. The Kresh knowledge about wheels appears to be one such item.

And what could we possibly extrapolate for their Tishamto culture?

[metcalph]

1 minute ago, Joerg said:

And what could we possibly extrapolate for their Tishamto culture?

Tishamto is ancestral to Fonrit via Afati.  

[Joerg]

1 minute ago, metcalph said:

Tishamto is ancestral to Fonrit via Afati.  

True, but so is the Artmali material culture. I regard the origins of Fonrit as a merger of the Tishamto and Kungatu cultures, much like Eastern Rome inheriting from both the Hellenistic and its Etruscan-descended original Roman influences.

One might argue that Kungatu was set up in imitation of Tishamto, or vice versa, but I expect a distinct Veldaran inheritance for Kungatu.

To keep these thoughts on topic for this thread: Both these places (and quite likely all Golden Age civilizations) would have had artifacts and magics that no longer work now the cities with their societies are defunct, or whose function is severely limited by what contextual powering (through rites, sacrifices, whatever) is available.

[metcalph]

1 minute ago, Joerg said:

True, but so is the Artmali material culture. I regard the origins of Fonrit as a merger of the Tishamto and Kungatu cultures, much like Eastern Rome inheriting from both the Hellenistic and its Etruscan-descended original Roman influences.

I prefer to use Mondator to describe the Artmali of Fonrit and reserve Kungatu for the Artmali of Tarien.  True, Jarkaru claims to have conquered more than that but the only verifiable conquest is that of Tishamto.  Mondator may have paid tribute to Kungatu or it may have been a distant part of the Kungatuan Empire.  This doesn't obscure Kungatuan culture in Fonrit as Afati's people would have acquired some elements when they became annoited as New Artmali.  How much they retained after the migration to Laskal is an open question as is the type of culture the Veldang of Fonrit had before their conquest by Garangordos.

 

[davecake]

 

On 5/1/2018 at 6:09 PM, Joerg said:

They have a few remaining tokens of such earlier culture, like the chairs for their chiefs - status symbols that take quite a bit of effort to carry along between camp/village sites in the absence of beasts of burden.

I don't think the chairs for their chiefs are a remnant of a Golden age when everyone had chairs. And I don't think carrying the chairs around is really an issue - sometimes the chiefs throne is immobile (cut into an old termite mound, for example), sometime it is just a stool that is easy enough to get someone to carry. Rather, the chief sits on a chair because it is a symbolic cognate of the holy mountain Um, and everyone else doesn't sit on a chair (or sits on a lesser chair, like a bench or a log or something) because they aren't the king. 

[davecake]

On 5/1/2018 at 6:09 PM, Joerg said:

I would guess that the oasis-dwelling Doraddi have huge containers in the ground. No idea whether those would be ceramics or simply clay-lined pits with conical covers.

Maybe, it depends on climate a bit - I think food storage pits are only really viable in fairly dry climates, so they wouldn't be great in a lot of Kothar. 

The basket is the canonical food storage for a household or individual - light and easy to carry, and is the symbol of Aleshmara. I think they get pretty artistic too. But I agree that the oasis people are going to want some grain storage, it is probably a duty of kings to ensure this is organised. 

[Joerg]

1 hour ago, davecake said:

Maybe, it depends on climate a bit - I think food storage pits are only really viable in fairly dry climates, so they wouldn't be great in a lot of Kothar. 

I wasn't thinking of solids, but of liquids. There are few cultures which don't brew or ferment some special drink, and if it takes big pots to ferment stuff, this would be an activity for oasis dwellers rather than migratory Doraddi.

 

 

1 hour ago, davecake said:

The basket is the canonical food storage for a household or individual - light and easy to carry, and is the symbol of Aleshmara. I think they get pretty artistic too.

Oh, I'd bet. But for a migratory family, they would be made for easy transportation, while at the oases they could be way bigger - too heavy too lift when full.

1 hour ago, davecake said:

But I agree that the oasis people are going to want some grain storage, it is probably a duty of kings to ensure this is organised. 

Dried beans, or peas, or similar - no grains grow on the veldt. But still similar purpose.

 

1 hour ago, davecake said:

I don't think the chairs for their chiefs are a remnant of a Golden age when everyone had chairs.

I don't think it is about everyone having chairs, but about everyone living a sedentary life rather than roaming the veldt, with all their belongings hanging from the pole between two of the wandering people.

Carrying along a chair is quite the extra burden. It might be a prestigious burden to share, but I doubt there can be many such status symbols while between camps.

1 hour ago, davecake said:

And I don't think carrying the chairs around is really an issue - sometimes the chiefs throne is immobile (cut into an old termite mound, for example), sometime it is just a stool that is easy enough to get someone to carry.

I was thinking of that RQ3 image of the Doraddi chief, which clearly showed a low wooden bank or stool, with the chief sitting cross-legged atop. If you have such an item, you don't leave it at the camp site, and then it doesn't quite matter whether your next camp site has such a natural feature a person of status might use or not. There will be camp sites without such features, but the dignity of the chief still demands his elevated seat. At least that's what I expect.

 

Tishamto quite likely had quite a few varieties of furniture, but none of these were usable for a migratory life.

 

But then the "Pamaltelan culture develops backwards" sort of breaks down with the earliest Pamaltelan cultural myths, which are pretty much on spot for a hunter/gatherer/horticulturalist society on the move. That doesn't stop me from assuming some form of peak "civilization" for Tishamto and then a continuous regress to a more original way of life, though. 

[scott-martin]

On 5/1/2018 at 6:09 AM, Joerg said:

chairs for their chiefs

On earth the most famous "royal stools" belong to the highly urban Ashanti, who even put one on their flag. Maybe if Pamaltela runs backward the Pamalt chieftain is sitting on an ancient and irreplaceable heirloom salvaged from the days we tried living under the roofs of houses.

[davecake]

On 5/3/2018 at 12:58 AM, Joerg said:

Dried beans, or peas, or similar - no grains grow on the veldt

To reply to your pedantry with more correct pedantry, Joerg, what you mean is no cereals. Pulses are legumes that are grains. It is also possible that some of the staple grains of the veldt are psuedocereals like amaranth, quinoa or buckwheat. Bloodbean in Jolar (definitely a legume), Squaa in Tarien, Lagniappe in Kothar - I don't think we know much about Squaa at all, I think lagniappe is regularly made into patties. 

The staple food (the one that has a 'grain goddess') of Zamokil is sweetgrass, which despite the name isn't a grass (but is sweet), so sounds like a psudoceral type crop. 

There are other staple vegetable foods, or course, but they aren't grains and can't really be stored long term. Yams, probably plantains in some areas.  

On 5/3/2018 at 12:58 AM, Joerg said:

it doesn't quite matter whether your next camp site has such a natural feature a person of status might use or not. There will be camp sites without such features, but the dignity of the chief still demands his elevated seat. At least that's what I expect.

Yes. But also, if it is the seat of a king (a chieftain is not always a king, and a king is not always a chieftain, but usually a king is also a chieftain), then relative immobility is common and symbolic - kingship is tied to land, not people. 

 

On 5/3/2018 at 12:58 AM, Joerg said:

But then the "Pamaltelan culture develops backwards" sort of breaks down with the earliest Pamaltelan cultural myths, which are pretty much on spot for a hunter/gatherer/horticulturalist society on the move. That doesn't stop me from assuming some form of peak "civilization" for Tishamto and then a continuous regress to a more original way of life, though. 

I agree that it is best not to take that too literally. The key point for Doraddi culture isn't 'backwards' it is 'we tried that'. They don't reject civilisation entirely or think of themselves as retrograde - they think of themselves as having tested various civilised ideas and found them wanting, but they are not afraid of innovation in the abstract (though it often seems that way). But if someone comes up with a new way of making something etc that seems useful, they'll try it (and there are probably some aspects of Doraddi society that are quite sophisticated).Hon Hoolbiktu, in particular, was quite an innovator, just many of his innovations were put aside once they were no longer at war. 

On 5/3/2018 at 1:29 AM, scott-martin said:

Maybe if Pamaltela runs backward the Pamalt chieftain is sitting on an ancient and irreplaceable heirloom salvaged from the days we tried living under the roofs of houses.

The symbolism of the chiefs special seat is the sacred mountain Um. I have this from Greg (we chatted about it quite a bit, some years ago). Its certainly not implausible that some chieftains have ancient heirlooms to sit on, but its unrelated to the symbolic/magical function of the chiefs seat. The chieftain lineages are ancient, though - I think mostly they go back to the founding of the lineages  at least mythologically - so I bet some would be happy to demonstrate their links back. 

Edited May 6, 2018 by davecake

[Joerg]

3 hours ago, davecake said:

To reply to your pedantry with more correct pedantry, Joerg, what you mean is no cereals.

The collective term I use internally is German "Getreide", which has no connotations with a Roman earth and fertility deity, but probably yes, if you include varieties of rice, too.

I remember taking exception to reed huts in Pamaltela because reeds basically are just another form of grass single leaf plants, but absent grass as contenders there is no reason why there shouldn't be a "parallel evolution" creation from some non-single-leaf plant into reed-like forms. P.538 of the guide makes it clear that there is sedge growing on the veldt.

And I will accept that my knowledge of botany barely scratches the surface... Like you taught me a new collective noun with "pulses".

3 hours ago, davecake said:

Pulses are legumes that are grains.

That's where different native languages shape different idea rooms, I guess... in my mind, the lowest common denominator between pulses and cereals is "seeds", along with lineseed or sunflower seeds.

3 hours ago, davecake said:

It is also possible that some of the staple grains of the veldt are psuedocereals like amaranth, quinoa or buckwheat. Bloodbean in Jolar (definitely a legume), Squaa in Tarien, Lagniappe in Kothar - I don't think we know much about Squaa at all, I think lagniappe is regularly made into patties. 

Having had to read up on pseudocereals, I agree with the concept.

Cotton is grown at least in Kothar, so cotton seeds will be part of the diet, too. Unlike linen, the cottonseeds get harvested together with the fibre, creating no conflict between the desire to get the fibre and the desire to get the food.

3 hours ago, davecake said:

The staple food (the one that has a 'grain goddess') of Zamokil is sweetgrass, which despite the name isn't a grass (but is sweet), so sounds like a psudoceral type crop. 

Apart from the distracting fact that sugarcane is a real grass, I always assumed that this sweetgrass would be harvested for the sugar and/or starch inside the stems rather than for any seeds. A bit like a single year form of the sago palm.

Given the hostility between the Doraddi and the aldryami, I think that sago harvesting should be something done by nomadic clans of Doraddi near the Taluks. Killing an entire tree for food must be jarring to the aldryami, and feel like doing the gods' work to the Doraddi.

 

3 hours ago, davecake said:

There are other staple vegetable foods, or course, but they aren't grains and can't really be stored long term. Yams, probably plantains in some areas. 

Processing potatoes, yams or cassava can produce starch "cakes" which, when dried, can be stored more or less indeterminately (i.e. until eaten by mice, mealworms or similar "vermin"). Basically the "flour" form of the harvest rather than the seed form.

 

 

3 hours ago, davecake said:

Yes. But also, if it is the seat of a king (a chieftain is not always a king, and a king is not always a chieftain, but usually a king is also a chieftain), then relative immobility is common and symbolic - kingship is tied to land, not people. 

No objection to royal seats, but my picture of a Doraddi traveling group is that of a few extended families (or huts) with a chief and a council of matrons.

 

3 hours ago, davecake said:

I agree that it is best not to take that too literally. The key point for Doraddi culture isn't 'backwards' it is 'we tried that'. They don't reject civilisation entirely or think of themselves as retrograde - they think of themselves as having tested various civilised ideas and found them wanting, but they are not afraid of innovation in the abstract (though it often seems that way). But if someone comes up with a new way of making something etc that seems useful, they'll try it (and there are probably some aspects of Doraddi society that are quite sophisticated).Hon Hoolbiktu, in particular, was quite an innovator, just many of his innovations were put aside once they were no longer at war. 

Still, there is this general trend for Pamaltela, like e.g. dinosaurs being a rather recent addition to the western Pamaltelan fauna, preceded by mammals and birds, according to Sandy. (Which makes explaining the dinosaur "hsunchen" interesting - will such beast totem humans form whenever a new (animist world) beast enters the stage?

I have no idea when the dinosaurs entered Pamaltelan ecology - it may have been as far back as the Storm Age, or it may have been as recently as the Dawn or even Second Age (possibly triggered by the extinction of the Lascerdans).

But then, again, Pel-mre predate the Agimori in Doraddi creation myth.

 

3 hours ago, davecake said:

The symbolism of the chiefs special seat is the sacred mountain Um. I have this from Greg (we chatted about it quite a bit, some years ago). Its certainly not implausible that some chieftains have ancient heirlooms to sit on, but its unrelated to the symbolic/magical function of the chiefs seat.

I sort of misremembered the chief's stool, and confused it with carved hardwood exponates in those colonial anthropology collections I am sure everybody has visited at some time.

The image of the chief is reprinted on p.582 of the Guide, showing a leopard-like fur cushioning the seat, and three out of presumably four legs that almost look like basket elements rather than carved wood.

That elephant carving is interesting - I didn't expect such pachyderms south of the Tarmo mountains, but the Elephant Mountain of Labuhan may actually be a beast of geographic dimensions rather than a mobile geographic feature. Rhinos or triassic megafauna might be more appropriate. Also the origin of that leopard-patterned fur or skin is a bit puzzling. The mammalian predators that I would associate with such fur have been mostly located in the Jungle, like the Andrewsarchus.

Molibasku does border on Taluk Tabanos, and the Taluks are where veldt ecology and jungle ecology some hybrid, so it is possible that these are trophies from expeditions into that region. The elephant might be a Fonritian ivory statuette that was traded across the Tarmo range. 

3 hours ago, davecake said:

The chieftain lineages are ancient, though - I think mostly they go back to the founding of the lineages  at least mythologically - so I bet some would be happy to demonstrate their links back. 

This concept of "hereditary" chiefdom comes to me as a surprise. Pamalt is the outsider who became chief by merit, not by blood relation. He had no family or lineage when joining Aleshmara's hut.

As the concept of medicine plants, I think most lineages are ancient. Tracing them back to a mother doesn't quite fit the myth of male Dorad being the first person to produce a medicine plant, however. And Sandy spouted some interesting notions how a child of two lineages might belong to a third lineage back in the RQ Daily when presenting some elements of his Pamaltela campaign in the context of discussion of Tales 11.

I wonder how ecological changes further or threaten these medicine plant habitats, and with what repercussions to their human relations. And how much of that persists in Pithdaros or Prax, or north of the Fense mountains in Laskal and Fonrit. And possibly on Teleos.

[Joerg]

Talking about cotton and linen, I notice that we haven't discussed textile fibres and the technologies involved in this thread, yet.

The materials from terrestrial woven textiles are present in Glorantha - wool (not just sheep), silk (various insects and spiders), cotton, and linen. Hemp for canvas is likely, too.

In addition, soft basket weaves are used as textiles, too, and there are feather cloaks which may be within the fringe definition of textiles.

 

So, let's speculate, and get creative.

Spiderwebs probably predate any human (or divine) weaving even on Glorantha. Arachne Solara, sort of the reincarnation of Glorantha, did use a spider web to capture Kajabor, and later the remaining shards of the world. Spiderwebs don't use any interlacing but fuse or glue the single-dimension threads into a two- or three-dimensional structure. (Silk cocoons apparently simply wrap around long fibres.

Ernalda's weaving uses interlacing rather than glue, and I suppose almost every weaver all over Glorantha sort of received this technology from the Earth Queen. (The Veldang may be an exception if they have a native weaving tradition brought down from Veldara.)

 

Terrestrial weaving probably started out as a variation of basket making, and some basket-making material should be included under the heading of textiles. The usually rectangular pattern of textiles nicely corresponds to the shape of the Earth rune, or vice versa. Human net-making may have the same origin, baskets with bigger pores and wattle-constructions have been used as fish traps before soft fibre became available, and continue to be in use in some places.

(Although the sheets have a woven look, papyrus for writing is made of two layers of non-interlaced fibres in different orientation bonded chemically, possibly by sap from the fibres emitted under pressure, possibly by the addition of cellulose-based glue. Papyrus sheets thus aren't textiles. Papyrus strips used for soft basketry are.)

In hunter-gatherer and pastoralist cultures, textiles are often trumped by animal skins (leather) or furs, and most cultures combine these flexible non-textile materials and skins.

Few fibres come long and thick enough to be directly available for weaving, most get drilled into composite threads by spinning. This may include other fibres used for building or for high tension threads, like animal tendons or bast, or leather ropes (e.g. sealskin ropes). High tension fibres are in high demand and (other than silk) rarely ever used for weaving, although they may make useful warps.

Releasing the fibre from the basic material may be as easy as combing your dog or rabbit with your fingers or as sophisticated as fermenting the linen stems just right for removal of the unwanted lignin-containing parts or cooking out the builders/inhabitants out of silkworm pupae. Linen and silkworm silk almost qualify as synthetic fibres.

Various types of looms are possible within the technological bracket of Glorantha, though no mechanized ones. The only culture that might produce mechanized looms is the one least likely to use plant or animal fibre, so that development probably never happened.

 

Attested textile crafts in Glorantha are spinning, weaving, sewing and stitching. I don't know about knitting or lace-making, however. Any thoughts about that?

Terrestrial historical sequence needn't be the k.o. criterion.

 

I wonder whether canvas could be made from feathers. Sails like that surely would create some magical opportunities for flying ships or chariots, at least in Outer World or Hero Plane environments.

Speaking of textiles and flight: Kites were established as a Gloranthan fact with Hero Wars. Is this still canonical?

 

Mineral fibres are known to the mostali - spun glass, metal wire and possibly asbestos come to mind. Wide-spread use of plant or animal fibres either promotes vegetarianism or openhandism and might be avoided by the octamony and the decamony.

I have no idea about the processes that create metal or mineral animals like the few examples mentioned in Anaxial's Roster, but none of these appear to have had any fibrous integument, but from all appearances quite flexible one, at least near the joints. Still, creating such beasts and immediately dismantling them again for material and possibly food purposes might be a way to get leather- and tendon-like material for protective clothing or crossbow strings. Or just creating surplus construction material and using it for other purposes if that's how metal beasts get assembled (I assume mineral creatures to be carved or cast from rock with high residual "aliveness", concentrating the slow traces of former life in the final shape. Think of the special properties of the organstones. In a carved rock body, those qualities could have been created through transmutation when imprinting some Man Rune principles to the automaton.)

Metal wire or thin metal bars can be used to produce chains, an alternative to fibres.  I wouldn't rule out a sorcery that allows copper dwarves to draw chains out of molten metal, although I hesitate to have a self-prolonging chain of draupnir-like qualities without providing a supply of (molten) metal to draw from.

Any other ideas for material which might be used to produce chain loops? Horn spirals might work, or any other hollow long material that can be cut in spirals that provide enough flexibility to be separated into key-ring double loops (e.g. giant insect legs or plants), which may be used to connect simple, closed loops. Bast chains are possible, but spun bast fibre probably is superior in tensile strength.

Can you imagine some material that may be shaped into loops from originally linear stuff and then treated to create closed loops arranged as a chain? Perhaps cuirboullie?

Chain links could use runic shapes. Fire/Light/Heat, Moon, Earth, Fertility, Disorder, Stasis and Infinity offer closed loops. To some extend, Man, Plant, Beast and Dragonewt do, too, but interlinking those feels a bit like abusing the detail of the rune. The Air rune may be used to create an interlocking chain, too, although one easily unraveled.

 

[soltakss]

9 hours ago, davecake said:

To reply to your pedantry with more correct pedantry

And so begins the Pedant War.

[soltakss]

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Talking about cotton and linen, I notice that we haven't discussed textile fibres and the technologies involved in this thread, yet.

The materials from terrestrial woven textiles are present in Glorantha - wool (not just sheep), silk (various insects and spiders), cotton, and linen. Hemp for canvas is likely, too.

In addition, soft basket weaves are used as textiles, too, and there are feather cloaks which may be within the fringe definition of textiles.

 

So, let's speculate, and get creative.

 

Praxian and Pentian nomads would probably use felt, made from the pressed hair of their riding beasts. They would also have something like Cashmere, from the soft underbellies, Impalas might be good for that. Rhino Riders and Morocanth are at a disadvantage as their herd beasts don't have a lot of hair/fur. I think that Praxians and Pentians also weave long grasses into clothing, especially in Fore Season when the grasses are driest.

Kralori use silk, probably gained from insects.

Uleria's Web existed before Arachne Solara's, but I doubt if Uleria cultists weave, although Seamstress was a euphemism for working girls, so it could apply. 

I agree that Ernalda would have taught weaving and sewing to her followers. Knitting can be found wherever there is wool, so it makes sense that Orlanthi have this, knitting is easier to do than weaving as it doesn't need as much equipment.

Aldryami would use a lot of plant material and would make clothing from that, although their agriculture is different from everyone else's. I think of Aldryami as being Gatherers rather than Planters, utilising the rich resources of their forests.

[Ali the Helering]

Since human hair can be felted (google is a wonderful thing), I would assume that gern felt would be a possible thing.

[David Scott]

1 hour ago, Ali the Helering said:

Since human hair can be felted (google is a wonderful thing), I would assume that gern felt would be a possible thing.

Human hair can be felted but the felt it produces isn’t good quality compared with other herd animals. Herd-men hair produces the finest rope, so its saved for that. As we know from HeroQuest Glorantha page 168, Waha charms use rope string and cord. I imagine that herd-men hair Is coveted for that purpose. I always imagine that Morokanth herders spend hours combing the hair of their herd to stop it tangling. The other tribes find this ridiculous and clearly can’t bring themselves to do it. This is why herd-men in other tribes always look much more disheveled than expected and one of the reasons they are the first animal into the pot. 

[Ali the Helering]

That the felt is of lesser quality is a subjective human judgment. The material has a rougher and more fibrous quality (having been compared to dredlocks) which may well be favoured by some markets, such as the Uz.