Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

A Sense of Scale I

Posted on December 26, 2022

The Lunar Empire rules somewhere around 410,000 square km, including the Heartlands, West Reaches, and Provinces. That’s about the same size as Iraq or a little larger than the state of California. It has an average of 21 people per square km, but includes very densely settled areas and many far less settled areas.

The Kralorelan Empire is even bigger at roughly around 625,000 square km. That’s bigger than the Ukraine or smaller than Texas, but the country I find most useful to get a feel for its size is Chile. Kralorela is a relatively narrow arable band of land, islands, and shallows seas no more than 500 km wide, between the high Shan Shan mountains and Kahar’s Sea. It extends some 1250 km from the tropical forests of Fethlon to the snowy reaches of Ignorance. It has an average of about 15 people per square km, but like the Lunar Empire, it includes very densely populated areas and vast areas of near wilderness.

Much smaller are the kingdoms of Seshnela, the Holy Country, and Loskalm. Seshnela is the largest of the three at somewhere around 89,000 km square (now that Nolos and Pasos have been conquered). That puts it at around the size of Portugal or Indiana. It has about 32 people per square kilometer.

The Holy Country is about 60,000 km square. That’s about the size of West Virginia, Latvia or Lithuania. But less than 40,000 km square is land – about the size of Denmark. As a result, it is the most densely populated at 80 people per square kilometer (on land).

Loskalm is the smallest of the large polities is only about 56,000 km square. It is densely populated at about 57 people per square km.

Genertela scalable outline mapDownload

Some people complain that Glorantha is too small, which I find complete nonsense. It is the size that it is. Use the smaller scale to your advantage. It is only 800 km from Boldhome to Glamour. It is less than 2000 km from Boldhome to Sog City. Let your adventures explore if they are so inclined.

A lot of folk imagine these little polities to be hermetically sealed, which of course they can’t be at this scale.

Many people in the pre-modern world traveled far further than the “most people don’t go beyond the next village” trope.

It is perfectly reasonable to imagine Sartarites traveling to Handra City some 800 km away. We know some Sartarites accompanied Argrath on his circumnavigation of the Homeward Ocean. Similarly, we know that Lunar merchants make their way to Sog City and to the Kingdom of Ignorance.

Do most people travel this much? Of course not. But many Sartarites might have kin in New Pavis or Nochet, have a friend that has been to Furthest, Filichet, or Mirin’s Cross, or have a relative who traveled as far as the Nimistori or to Talastar.

Remember that from atop the Quivin Mountains, you can clearly see all of Sartar. Not just Old Sartar, but the Far Place, Upland Marsh, Beast Valley, the Stinking Forest, Snakepipe Hollow, Skyfall Lake, Vale of Flowers, Greatway, Traders Valley, and the Dragonspine. Heck, you’d be able to see much of Tarsh pretty easily, except that Kerofin and the Dragonspine are in the way.


Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
Holy Country, Kralorela, Loskalm, Lunar Empire, scale, Seshnela

Sections

  • Search Tips
  • Current RuneQuest Glorantha Publications
  • RuneQuest Glorantha Corrections and Q&A
  • Catalogue
  • References for Glorantha
    • Gloranthan Canon
  • Gloranthan Documents
  • RPG Systems & Versions
  • Gallery
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • Lunar Resettlement of Tarsh after 1460 ST

    After 1460, large sections of Peloria (especially east of the …
  • The Spread of the Lunar Way

    In the Lunar Provinces, about 26% of the total population …
  • Gods of Fire and Sky and the Lunar Way

    The Gods of Fire and Sky co-exist alongside the Lunar …
  • How Much Land is a Hide?

    So in RQ, a “hide” is a unit of accounting …
  • Agricultural Data for RuneQuest

    Back in the late 70s and early 80s, Greg‘s only …
  • Farming in Dara Happa

    In anticipation of the Fire/Sky Book, here’s a few notes …
  • Farming in the Big Rubble

    There are some 1600 humans in the Big Rubble, with …
  • Farming in Pavis County

    So I’ve been looking really carefully at agriculture and farm …
  • Nochet – Sailing and Oceanic Trade

    One thing I think is easy to underestimate is just …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Chaosium’s RuneQuest RPG Wiki
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on Discord
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • A possible suggestion for sorcery
  • Out now on Jonstown Compendium: RuneQuest without a Gamemaster, a guide to playing RuneQuest solo or co-operatively with a group
  • Are there any official RQ scenarios regarding Mostali?
  • RuneQuest GM Screen Pack
  • Why does Orlanth have the Mastery Rune?
  • Cults books - state of completion, undocumented cults
  • Jeff Kyer's Blood Over Gold
  • Gagarth's steed
  • Does Issaries have a magical language?
  • How the Rebel Storm Set Me Free

Popular Tags

Boldhome (large city) Chaosium Colymar (Sartar tribe) Contents Cult demographics Cults of Runequest (preview) Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) FRA Furthest (large city) G+ post Gods Wall Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt Jar-eel Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Malkioni pantheon Map Michael O’Brien Mongoose MRQ1 New Pavis (small city) Old Glorantha Q&A Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Photo reference Population demographics Prax (homeland) RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Star Subcult Tapatalk post Tarsh (homeland & Lunar province) Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • Working on the Darkness Book

  • Vrimak

  • Sun Hawk

  • Red Goddess

  • Oslira

  • Nysalor

  • Hyalor Horsebreaker

  • Grain Goddesses

  • Ernalda

  • Entekos

  • Chalana Arroy

  • Buserian

  • Aldrya

  • Cult Writeups from the Distribution Tables

  • Aeolian

  • Malakinus

  • Malkionism demographics

  • Deep Lunar Synthesis

  • Myth of the Month – Pelandan Cosmology (2013)

  • Bentus

©2025 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme