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The Dara Happan Emperor

Posted on April 4, 2024

In 1247, the Red Goddess ascended into the Middle Air as the Red Moon. She appointed her son as her temporal viceroy, and charged him with the responsibilities of her affairs in the lower world. Her friend and ally, Yelmgatha, was the Dara Happan Emperor in Raibanth, and her son was acclaimed as Yelmgatha’s co-ruler and heir, commonly called the Red Emperor (to distinguish him from the Solar Emperor).

In 1249, the Red Emperor founded his city at the base of the Crater, just 30 km away from the ancient city of Raibanth. The new city, Glamour, was intended as a Lunar city from the start and as the center of the Lunar religion. From Glamour, the towers and ziggurats of Raibanth can be seen, and vice versa.

The next year (1250), Yelmgatha died, and the Red Emperor became the sole Dara Happan emperor. That’s some 375 years ago.

Glamour has long been the sole political and religious center of what has become known as the Lunar Empire. I’m not sure when it became clear that Raibanth ceased to have real power in the empire, but I suspect it was obvious after the Tripolis Revolt. Raibanth is now significant largely as the center of the Yelm cult (and associated Sky deities) and as an important market and river port for Glamour. Raibanth still has a significant population – at 40k inhabitants (although that is a fraction of its former population), it is one of the largest cities in the world – but Glamour has far surpassed it with 100k.

A good historical model for this is the relationship between Seleucia-Ctesiphon and Babylon. I suspect if it were not the role of Raibanth as the de facto port of Glamour (there is a canal running from Glamour to Raibanth which makes transport easy), Raibanth would have declined into little more than a temple town.

Raibanth is the southern port, and Good Shore is thenorthern. Raibanth gets the trade goods coming from the south. And Raibanth is connected to Glamour by road and canal, which I imagine is filled with little boats carrying foods and other goods.

Is the decline for Thebes and its replacement by Alexandria another parallel here? Thebes is almost 800 km south of Alexandria, so I think that was a very different dynamic going on. What really strikes me is that you can see Raibanth from Glamour – the cities are in such close proximity.

As an aside, although I often look at Seleucia-Ctesiphon for a point of comparison, another perfectly good one is Mexico City. Glamour is about as old a city as modern Mexico City – as the old Aztec city of Tenochtitlan was pretty much completely razed to form the foundation of colonial Mexico City.

And it helps give a feel for how old Glamour is – it is old, the same way Mexico City is old.

Remember that the Red Emperor is highest priest for both the Lunar Way AND Yelm. So much of his life is spent in religious rituals in Glamour, Raibanth, and Blessed Torang, plus lesser ceremonies in Yuthuppa, Alkoth, and Jillaro. I imagine he must travel to Raibanth at least once a season, if not more often, and to Bless Torang once a year. Now fortunately, that’s not all that far – let’s assume it is around 300 km to go from Glamour to Blessed Torang, which is probably an annual procession to go to the birthplace of his divine mother. Raibanth is much easier – that’s only 30 km from Glamour. Plus there are no doubt less regular ritual activities – the Heron Dance at Dorkath, the offerings at the Hill of Gold, the celebration of the defeat of Sheng Seleris at Kitor, and so on.

Sometimes, the Red Emperor has chosen fit to appoint a Proxy – a substitute authorised to carry out specific tasks on his behalf. The Mask known as Reclusus (1586-1599) did this many times to rid himself of minor duties that took him away from his personal tasks. But this is dangerous. The next Mask, known as Ignifer, hunted down and killed those same Proxies!

This is also one of the more densely populated areas in Glorantha. There’s easily 750-1,000k people in the area shown.

And those big wetlands are sources of rice (think wild rice), water fowl, and fish.

Jeff Richard

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1247 ST, 1249 ST, 1250 ST, Dorkath, Glamour (metropolis), Kitor, Photo reference, Raibanth (metropolis), Reclusus (mask), Red Emperor, Torang (large city), Yelmgatha

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