Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

Old Seshnela

Posted on June 19, 2025

Old Seshnela in the far west of Genertela is about 240 km wide from north to south and about 320 km long from east to west. It is about twice the size of South England (from Cornwall to Kent and up to Worcestershire). It might well have the weather most like that of England or Brittany in all of Genertela.

It’s also populated by elves and beast men, with a handful of castles ruled by old school Seshnegi. Or at least folk that consider themselves old school Seshnegi.

Cartography

To the east of Old Seshnela is another fertile and pleasant land, the Tanier River valley. And very populated as well. I imagine a lot of that area to be like the Loire River valley. Here’s our classical Rokari land of fortresses, cities, temples, and rural villages, and the distinctive caste structure of Third Age Malkionism.

This area’s only real connection to Dragon Pass and Prax is through the Holy Country and later through the Wolf Pirates. Trade between the Holy Country (and Handra) and the coastal cities of the Pasos Islands and Nolos is heavy. There might be some small communities of Esrolian merchants in these cities, temples to Issaries and shrines to other Lightbringers. But it is only about 60 years old, and although some merchants may have taken low caste Seshnegi wives, this community is still likely very small.

Now if we were going to explore here as a RQ game, this is a very different setting from Dragon Pass and Prax! The beast people and elves are probably the most familiar.

The Rokari with their strange castes – imagine them from an Orlanthi perspective. The rulers all belong to a clan where every member is ruling caste, and there are several of these groups. Below them are warrior clans, where everyone is a warrior or soldier. There are also numerous clans of workers, crafters, labourers, and agriculturalists. And then there are these clans of priests – sorcerers really – who are recruited from the others, removed from their family and kin, and raised as a caste of magicians. They worship no gods, but worship a long-dead mortal man and their own ancestors.

At the risk of going down into esoterica, here’s a little bit about the ruling talar clans of Tanisor-Seshnela. Some of them were likely of a different caste at the start of the Third Age. For example, the Bailifids were most definitely originally horali in the Second Age, likely an Enerali tribal group that were Malkionized in the Second Age. Many of the other ruling Talar clans lead horali in battle, defend their realms, and even engage in personal combat, which definitely marks them as barbarians to the Brithini. But the ruling clans have a strong alliance with the zzaburi priests and sorcerers, who have long since blessed and sanctified their status as talars.


Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
Aldrya, Beast people, Playing RuneQuest, Rokari, Seshnela, Tanier River

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

  • Layout of the Big Rubble

    The Big Rubble is about 15 square km or 1500 …
  • The Fall of Lunar New Pavis

    This is something I put together for Andrew Cowie (and …
  • Old Seshnela

    Old Seshnela in the far west of Genertela is about …
  • Great Gods and Elemental Runes

    In Glorantha, many of the great gods embody one of …
  • Humakt and Orlanthi society

    The relationship between the cults of Orlanth and Humakt also …
  • So what are the Thunder Brothers?

    Now I rather thought the description in the Lightbringers book …
  • The Size of Sartar

    At the time Argrath is acclaimed Prince in 1627, Sartar …
  • Sun County, Prax

    There’s about 19,000 people in Sun County, with some 4350 …
  • Hey that’s cool Jeff, but what the heck am I supposed to do with that in my Runequest game?

    I posted two “deep” background articles on the nature of …

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

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

  • Layout of the Big Rubble

  • The Fall of Lunar New Pavis

  • Map of New Pavis

  • Great Gods and Elemental Runes

  • Humakt and Orlanthi society

  • So what are the Thunder Brothers?

  • The Size of Sartar

  • Sun County, Prax

  • Spirit Magic by Cult and Associate Cult

  • Humakt Temples, Shrines and Sites

  • Ernalda Temples and Shrines

  • Orlanth Thunderous Temples, Shrines and Site

  • Maran Gor Temple, Shrines and Site

  • Barntar Temples and Shrines

  • Seven Mothers Temples and Shrines

  • Hon-eel Temples and Shrine

  • Twilight

  • Nightlight

  • Lunar Deities

  • Petersen’s Campaign Log (1984)

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