Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

Food Production in the Lunar Heartlands

Posted on July 3, 2023

Most of the people in the Lunar Heartlands are directly involved with food production:

  • 61% raising of grain (including rice) – main cults Seven Mothers, Lodril, Oria, Dendara, and Hon-eel.
  • 11% animal husbandry – main cults Seven Mothers and Dendara.
  • 6% river and marsh (fish and birds) main cults – Oslira, Surenslib.

Now wait – you might ask – the Seven Mothers really don’t provide squat in terms of agricultural magic. Correct! But they provide a path towards the Lunar Way, which many people consider far more important.

There’s actually a pretty dizzying diversity of cults worshiped by these agricultural producers, depending on social status, locality, etc.

Deezola? She provides Earth elementals, but not stuff like Bless Crops, etc.

In pre-industrial societies aren’t about 90% of the population is required to work in agriculture or animal husbandry? In truth, the number is anywhere from 60-90% depending on what you count. 78% is perfectly in the range.

As Glorantha is a magic rich world isn’t food production easier? Likely, but also that 90% number is not supported by a lot of archaeological field work. For example, Mesopotamia was far more urbanized than we give credit for – settlement surveys suggest that about half the population lived in cities and towns of over 2,000 people.

How does this contrast with other lands like Kethaela, Dragon Pass and Prax? Well with the Sartarites, we have a slightly lower percentage of society engaged in food production (remember a lot of food can be acquired from the nomads):

  • 45% raising of grain – main cults Orlanth Thunderous, Ernalda, Yelmalio
  • 5% fishing and birding – main cults Orlanth Thunderous and Ernalda
  • 5% hunting – main cults Orlanth Adventurous
  • 15% animal husbandry – main cults Orlanth Adventurous, Ernalda

There’s a lot of overlap between these occupations here.

Do neighbour Kingdoms/Empires send curses to undermine harvests of their rivals? There are a few ways to do that:

  • Blast Earth – that’s a Maran Gor spell, which means we are talking about the major Ernalda-Maran Gor temple complexes (Shaker’s Temple, Ezel, Nochet, Rhigos, etc.).
  • Cloud Call – that’s a very common Orlanthi spell. Have the weather suck and the harvest will suck.
  • Rain – that’s a fairly common Orlanth Thunderous-Heler spell. See above.
  • Cloud Clear – that’s a very common Yelm spell. Droughts suck for harvests.

In the Second Age, the EWF coordinated this on a huge scale and sent hurricanes to blast Slontos.

Given that Peloria has a maize and extensive irrigation, why they are slightly less efficient at agriculture than in Sartar? They aren’t less efficient. They produce far greater surpluses than Sartar. What they have is less direct cult support for agriculture.

Now that might well mean they don’t need it and many people engaged in agriculture are able to seek spiritual meaning beyond the agricultural cycle.

Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
Dendara, Food, Hon-eel, Lodril, Lunar Empire, Oria, Oslira, Seven Mothers, SurEnslib

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
  • Role-playing in Glorantha
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • Notes on Maniria III

    Between the Holy County and Ralios is the land of …
  • Slaves amongst the Orlanthi

    Orlanth, as the God of Freedom, finds slavery objectionable. His …
  • Lunar Empire Seventh Wane

    This map from the Glorantha sourcebook is very useful for …
  • Worshiping Deities

    Now being an initiate is not the only way to …
  • Lunar Empire events 1625

    With the Lunar Book getting close, it is perhaps worth …
  • The thirteen main cults in Sartar

    There are thirteen main cults in Sartar, which collectively are …
  • Orlanthi clans around the Quivin Mountains

    I particularly love this map of Old Sartar, showing most …
  • The Hill of Orlanth Victorious (Redux)

    Repost.
  • Dundealos and Pol-Joni

    Among my favorite Sartarite tribes are the Dundealos and their …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest Glorantha on MeWe
  • Glorantha Wiki on Fandom
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • Becoming a shaman of Daka Fal
  • Feedback from the BRP/Runequest community on creating a RQ Pbp (TOM?)
  • Tomb of Yurmonis
  • Runequest Starter Set player folio comments
  • POW, Rune magic and regaining stats
  • New on the JC: "Tiny Treasures" by Smol Snek
  • Munchkin Learners
  • Running Six Seasons in Sartar
  • zzaburi perspective of the invisible god
  • Volcanoes in Pamaltela

Popular Tags

Avalon Hill Boldhome (large city) Chaosium Cult demographics Cults of Runequest (preview) Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) Fonritian pantheon FR G+ post Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt Issaries Jar-eel Kralorelan pantheon Lhankor Mhy Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Malkioni pantheon Map Maps Michael O’Brien Mongoose Nochet (metropolis) Nomad Gods Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Photo reference Population demographics Prax (homeland) Praxian pantheon RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Subcult Tales of the Reaching Moon Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • Slaves amongst the Orlanthi

  • History of Kethaela – The Third Age

  • Notes on Maniria III

  • Notes on Maniria II

  • Notes on Maniria I

  • Comparable Manirian technology/historical level (2012)

  • CHA4042 The Prosopaedia – Contents

  • Oropum

  • Orxili

  • Oorduren

  • Oread

  • Oorsu Sara

  • Nymphs

  • Nralar

  • North War Wind

  • Negalla

  • Nomiama

  • Naveria

  • New Gods

  • New Hrestolism

©2023 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme