Esrolia is very densely populated – “too dense” say many. At somewhere around 200 people per square kilometer, it is even more densely populated than medieval France. This means that every 4…
Month: October 2022
Sartarite Inns
Inns along main trade roads go back at least to Achaemenid Persia, probably older. For example, Herodotus writes concerning the Persian Royal Road: “Now the true account of the road in question…
Esrolian fleets
I’ve been thinking a lot about the size of the Nochet trireme fleet, and clearly the number of rowers (and not finances) is the biggest limiting factor. If we assume HALF the…
Deep Lunar Synthesis
One of Greg’s deep background notes that I refer to an awful lot when I think about Glorantha is this chart that he put together to try to think about the basic…
What books do I need to run a RuneQuest campaign?
So I’ve said what the “canonical corpus” is for Chaosium publications. Perhaps more important – what books do I need to run a RuneQuest campaign? This is a shorter list: The Starter…
Jeff’s Canonical Corpus
So let’s talk about the books I think constitute the “canonical corpus” for official RuneQuest publications. These are the works that get referenced in future Chaosium publications with very few changes, and…
Glorantha is a Bronze Age setting
People use bronze instead of iron, use ox-plows, and so forth. But it is a fantasy Bronze Age setting, not a historical one set in the real world. We have silver coins,…
Vadeli
There are about 150,000-200,000 Vadeli in Glorantha, most in the Vadeli Islands or Pamaltela. That’s roughly the same number as Brithini in Arolanit and Sog City. Although they are descended from Malkion,…
The Invisible God
The Invisible God is abstract, the ultimate reality in the universe. It is Brahman, the Ein Sof, the Unmoved Mover, the One. The Invisible God does not change, but is the cause…
Sartar’s Roads & Inns
So people have asked why the Sartar route over Dragon Pass is preferred to the Grazeland route. It basically comes down to that it is much cheaper and safer to travel over…
The “Fourth Age” of Glorantha
This is not intended to hammer down the “Fourth Age” of Glorantha, but let’s look a little bit at our King of Sartar sources. Now remember, I edited this book and work…
Feeding Boldhome
Normally a city gets most of its food from within about 30km. Within about 30 km of Boldhome is about 250-300 km2 of cultivated land, raising mainly wheat. Now that is enough…
Kallyr’s Stationary Lightbringer Quest
Kallyrs Stationary Lightbringer Quest was much like how many people understand heroquesting. She got the tribes and temples to perform a giant ceremony filled with pageantry. People wore masks and sacred regalia…
Silver Lunars and Costs
Silver coinage is incredibly common. The caravan trade between the Holy Country and the Lunar Empire uses silver. The Lunars also dump a huge amount of silver into circulation to pay their…
Royal Economics and Demographic Distribution?
So, one might ask, why are you spending so much time figuring out royal economics and demographic distribution in developing a game that is so heavily about mythology and magic? Easy! The…
The Royal Economy of Esrolia
Prior to 1616, the Esrolian queens’ main source of revenue was a combination of agricultural taxes, rents, workshop taxes, a city head tax, associated and other temple contributions, and market tolls. The…
Lunar Imperial Finances II
Of the 14,000 to 15,000 talents a year the Red Emperor receives as revenue, about 2/3rds (let’s say around 9500 talents) of that is taxes or rents on agriculture. A little over…
A few notes on terms
In the late 1980s and 1990s, using a hodgepodge of Old English and Icelandic terms for various Orlanthi words was all the rage. Greg was deep in Pendragon, and many such terms…
Sartar Money and War
The Kingdom of Sartar was the wealthiest of the Dragon Pass kingdoms prior to the Lunar Conquest. Its revenues were a combination of a head tax paid by the tribes (in silver),…
Followers of the Prince of Sartar
One thing to keep in mind in dealing with any Gloranthan leader is that they generally don’t have strict organizational charts! So for example, around a Sartarite Prince we have:Household. This is the…
Lunar Imperial Finances I
So some ballpark figures on Lunar imperial finances. I’m going to use an anachronistic accounting measure – the talent (valued at 300 Lunars) to reduce zeros and make possible real world comparisons….
Exploring Glorantha’s Collective Unconsciousness
A heroquest is an exploration of Glorantha’s collective unconsciousness – the realm of mythology. In a heroquest, the questers interact directly with the primal forces and archetypes that make up the world….
Choosing a Homeland
This was another fun interview with James Coquillat – this time we talked about the various Homelands in the RQ Core book. Sartar, Lunar Tarsh, Esrolia, Prax, and the Grazelands, and some…
Ernaldan Adventuresses: Blood, Sex, and Rock’n’Roll
Claudia Loroff and Katrin Dirim did an interview with the God Learners podcast about Ernalda, Earth religion, blood, sex, and rock n roll…
Beat-Pot Aelwrin
Beat-Pot Aelwrin is one of my favorite capital “H” Heroes, and IMO the most interesting Lunar Hero (as opposed to Heroine). Here’s WBRM: Beat-Pot anticipates Danfive Xaron – the redemptive power of…