The Zaranistangi in 2nd Age Ralios and Slontos

[Joerg]

Reading up on Slontos, I noticed that the Zaranistangi activities there (leading to the Battle of the Lopers in 805) were preceded by a long period of raiding across Ralios.

Guide p.429:

Quote

A band of them led by the heroic King Bradoszaran caused great trouble as they raided their way across Ralios, heading westward towards Slontos, which they had been hired to help defend.
The Seshnegi put an end to the Zaranistangi raids, first taking the Red Sword from them around 760. Westerners believe that the entire race
was exterminated by Seshnegi sorcery when the raiding party was ambushed in Slontos in 805. In truth, the Seshnelans didn’t even destroy the entire raiding party, although the king was killed.

The box on Imperial Age Slontos names the Zaranistangi as allies of the Pralori rulers of Gualal, a small city south of the Ryzel hills.

The Return to Rightness Crusade had made incursions to Ralios since the reign of Ullmal (708-725), possibly with lapses during the succession struggles between Saval and Pilif the Magus. Under King Annmak (whose reign began in 734) the Autarchy fell in 740.

"across Ralios, heading westward" means that Bradoszaran was somewhere in Delela when the contract was made. Their trail of destruction must have run along the Doskior River and through Helby and possibly Estali into Pralorela.

If they could teleport wherever they wanted, why didn't they just do so and emerge in the neighborhood of Gualal, rather than raid their way westward?

And how and why could they have started their raiding in the furthest east of Ralios?

A possible answer could be that Bradoszaran had come to Ralios with an army as an ally of Paslac, the last Autarch, and when Annmak triumphed over Paslac in 740, the Zaranistangi allies fled east to avoid sharing that fate. Stranded in a distant land with only his trusted band of warriors, Bradoszaran needed allies, and a way home.

The Guide mentions a Zaranistangi presence in Prax at some time, but gives no hint how they could have entered Ralios.

The easiest answer would have been that they traveled there some time between 450 and 578, as roving mercenary bands traveling overland on their weird steeds, possibly through Pralorela, but another, more magical answer might be found in Mastakos' Seven Steps West, which may have transported them to Halikiv.

 

Around 758 the city states of Slontos united in an alliance and allied with the King of Seshnela, presumably to push off the Pralori yoke which obviously persisted in Gualal at that time, and possibly was re-established after Arkat had left the region.
 

By 760 the Zaranistangi, allies of the Pralori, lost the Red Sword of Tolat.

While the Zaranistangi were allied with Gualal (which probably lasted until 805), they performed human sacrifices (presumably with captives from their raids) to Annilla (or possibly Mastakos) every 16 days, in some unspecified location.

It is possible that these sacrifices and a special location was required for their teleportation magics that allowed their access to reinforcements and supply.

Their home base may have been in Istval on Melib.

 

 

 

[scott-martin]

On 8/9/2018 at 7:45 AM, Joerg said:

Annilla (or possibly Mastakos)

I can't shake the feeling that this is extremely important. Mastakos was important enough at one point to rate ownership of a Core Rune despite his now abstract worship and while a Blue God never struck me as all that watery.

[Tindalos]

3 hours ago, scott-martin said:

I can't shake the feeling that this is extremely important. Mastakos was important enough at one point to rate ownership of a Core Rune despite his now abstract worship and while a Blue God never struck me as all that watery.

He was gained/found when Orlanth drank from the well of Daliath.

It wouldn't surprise me if Mastakos was originally Varnaval's charioteer, and connected to rams (who we know have a watery association)

[Joerg]

19 minutes ago, Tindalos said:

He was gained/found when Orlanth drank from the well of Daliath.

The Baths of Nelat are supposed to purify water beings of all that is not of the Water. In a way, Mastakos if what gets left of Orlanth if you strip all the (plentiful) stuff away that isn't compatible with water - his maternal grandfather's Movement.

 

19 minutes ago, Tindalos said:

It wouldn't surprise me if Mastakos was originally Varnaval's charioteer, and connected to rams (who we know have a watery association)

Chariots don't go well with Water, really, nor do the solar-descended horses of Glorantha. There are of course water spirits in horse shape, like the River Horse. Mastakos' two well-known steeds, Crisis and Rage, are generally assumed to be horse-shaped, but they don't appear to be related to any of those standard horse deities like Elmal, Galanin or Kargzant.

I don't know why but I never figured the Ram People to have had charioteers. Lokamayadon rides his ram across the clouds rather than riding a chariot drawn by ram(s).

 

 

But then Emilla, the blue planet teleporting deity worshipped by the Zaranistangi, is female. While even Orlanth has one female aspect, the Zaranistangi refer to the blue planet teleporter as their original mother-of-all. This dual gender role is quite typical for Water deities.

The Loper steeds of the Zaranistangi are unique, and probably born from their teleporting ancestral deity who made up the second blue body in the Storm Age sky along with the Artmali birthplace/ancestress Veldara.

 

Given the fact that Ordanal delivered the Red Sword just 15 years after its loss to Melib, while King Bradoszaran remained for thirty more years in the Slontos region, I have to concur with @metcalph's reaction to my original post found on the wikia that it is unlikely that they had any way of teleporting back and forth from western continental Teshnos or Melib.

There is still the possibility that they used the first of Mastakos Seven Steps West to enter eastern Ralios from Prax or the nearby Hill of Orlanth Victorious without making any detour through Kethaela or Dorastor.

 

After Ordanal became King of Melib, and possibly even earlier, there were no sightings of Loper steeds on Melib. There may have been on the Teshnan mainland around Dupanya, from where the survivors of the (IMO doubtlessly vengeful) God Learner conquest may have retreated into the Wastes, where they still might be found teleporting away from the finder.

 

[Tindalos]

34 minutes ago, Joerg said:

I don't know why but I never figured the Ram People to have had charioteers. Lokamayadon rides his ram across the clouds rather than riding a chariot drawn by ram(s).

The Ram People seem to be the followers of Varnaval (both raided Dara Happans, and were aided by the Iron Ram) who was said to have hitched up rams to pull his chariot.

And of course before Elmal tamed Horse/recognised Hippogriff, what else would pull Orlanthi chariots? Well, I guess cattle could work.

[Joerg]

Discussing Varnaval, the Shepherd King/Iron Ram owner/Great Andam/Ordeed charioteer, is a bit of a side-track here where our focus should be on the Lopers (who btw would make decent steeds for the chariot, too).

Orlanth's chariot could have been drawn by just about anything, like hawks, wyrm, thunder beasts, lions, bears, ordeeds,. aurochs, sky bulls, cloud rams.

[Revilo Divad Of Dyoll]

On ‎8‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 1:45 PM, Joerg said:

Chariots don't go well with Water, really, nor do the solar-descended horses of Glorantha. There are of course water spirits in horse shape, like the River Horse. Mastakos' two well-known steeds, Crisis and Rage, are generally assumed to be horse-shaped, but they don't appear to be related to any of those standard horse deities like Elmal, Galanin or Kargzant.

Not to disagree with the basic premise, but I believe that Poseidon traditionally rode a chariot drawn by Hippocampuses (hippocampi?). 

 

[jeffjerwin]

2 hours ago, Revilo Divad Of Dyoll said:

Not to disagree with the basic premise, but I believe that Poseidon traditionally rode a chariot drawn by Hippocampuses (hippocampi?). 

 

So did Manannan mac Lir (the chariot Scuabtuinne).