Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

Glorantha is a Bronze Age setting

Posted on October 18, 2022

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, plenty of writing, ship transport between the continents, and giant flying Crimson Bats.

In short there are Real World historical analogies to use, but they are just analogies and sources of inspiration – recognize their limits. Glorantha is a fantasy, not a historical simulation.

From time to time a few people try to impose historical simulation on Glorantha but it isn’t going to work. Use the historical world as a model, but know when to ignore it in favor of the fantasy.

Note that calling Glorantha “Iron Age” gets very misleading. First and foremost nobody except the dwarves makes widespread use of iron (and most bronze in Glorantha is a mixture of tin and copper).

Second and perhaps more importantly, the Iron Age is usually used for that transition period from bronze to iron, and becomes replaced by the “Classical Age”- the Achaemenids in Persia, Classical Greece, etc.

This historical straightjacketing is exactly what I was posting about.

Note that the Gloranthan “broadsword” refers to a blade like these:

Artist, Lionel Marty from Weapons & Equipment

The Gloranthan “rapier” refers to a blade like this:

Artist, Lionel Marty from Weapons & Equipment

Not their medieval counterparts.

These terms are pretty common English language terms. Certainly preferable to using archaeological designations like Naue II.

Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
Bronze age, Weapons & Equipment

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

  • The Nine Good Giant Mountains

    The Nine Good Giant Mountains are about 60 km or …
  • Why Most Sartarites Hate the Lunar Empire

    From time to time it is worth reminding people why …
  • Suntown and the Eiskolli

    Suntown has always been in the hands of the Sun …
  • A Few Notes on the Grantlands

    To the south of Sun County are the former Grantlands, …
  • Sartar Cities

    Sartar can be thought of a confederation of small cities …
  • Catalogue of the Gods revisited

    This piece from the Mythology book is among my absolute …
  • Thunderbolts in Art

    One of the things that really got me down the …
  • RuneQuest Art

    So let’s talk RQ art for a moment. For the …
  • Top Five RuneQuest Cults

    So it is absolutely no surprise to me that in …

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

  • Odayla Initiation Heroquest
  • Did anyone get a good look at WB&RM?
  • Clearwine Assembly Hill and Orlanth's High Holy Day
  • Sun County pdf is drivethrurpg’s Deal of the Day for July 1st
  • Permission to use exerpt from map in Starter Set in a Jonstown Compendium release?
  • Sun County T-Shirt
  • Summon of Jaldon
  • Jonstown Compendium: Spawn of Molokka - The Cephalopods of Glorantha
  • Runelords and Retirement
  • Hospitality Hearth spirits - what are they ?

Popular Tags

1625 ST 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 Tarsh (homeland & Lunar province) Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • Keraun

  • Pamalt

  • The Tales of the Reaching Moon – Index

  • Best of Tales of the Reaching Moon

  • Tales of The Reaching Moon #03 (GBR 1990)

  • Tales of The Reaching Moon #05 (GBR 1991)

  • Tales of The Reaching Moon #06 (GBR 1991)

  • Tales of The Reaching Moon #07 (GBR 1992)

  • Reaching Moon MegaCorp

  • Griselda Stories by Oliver Dickinson

  • CHA4037 Dragon Pass – Q&A

  • CHA4034 Red Book of Magic – Chapter 02 Rune Magic Spells Q&A (A-M)

  • CHA4043 The Lightbringers – Q&A

  • CHA4029 RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack – Q&A

  • CHA4036 RuneQuest Weapons and Equipment Q&A

  • The Garden, Big Rubble II

  • The Garden, Big Rubble I

  • Half-folk

  • Orlanth Rex and Sartar’s Lineage

  • The Triceratops Queen

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