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The Population of Lunar Tarsh

Posted on October 19, 2021

About 35% of the population of Lunar Tarsh are members of Lunar cults and a little less than 20% of the population of Lunar Tarsh came from or are descended from settlers from the Lunar Heartlands. Now that is a big number – about 60,000 people – and is mostly concentrated in Furthest (where they make up the majority of the population) and along the Oslir River between Kordros Island and Talfort, with a few colonies on the Kordros Island and around Stopover. This is sometimes called the “Maize Belt” – at least by Matt Ryan and I!These populations do not follow Orlanthi clan structure. Instead they follow Pelorian kinship organization, with networks of kin and associates throughout the kingdom. Land grants were given by the kings – much of this land was taken from rebellious Orlanthi and supporters of Palashee the Usurper.

Outside of this area of course, there are numerous Orlanthi clans, although officials appointed by Furthest resolve disputes between them, lead them in times of war, etc. Most of these officials are converts to the Lunar Way (remember almost half of the Lunars in Tarsh are converts); despite that some are the leaders of powerful clans (such as the Orindori of Dunstop).

Cartographer, Matt Ryan

This does mean that a clan map of Lunar Tarsh would look a bit strange, with large areas simply labeled as belonging to Furthest, the Temple of the Reaching Moon, or important Lunar families, and then the rural areas looking more like Sartar with numerous clans.

The only place this really happened in Sartar was Wulfsland.

Also worth thinking about is that most of the Lunars in Tarsh are culturally Heartlanders. Furthest is an island of New Pelorian in a sea of Theyalan speakers. A good model for this are the Greek colonies in Persia, Syria, and Bactria.

Do the numbers for the lunar cults also include fire/sky cults such as Yelm? No. The relatively small number of Yelm cultists are all part of that Heartland colonists. The cultists of Yelmalio are culturally Orlanthi, not Heartlander.

A good model for Furthest is Alexandria Eschate (“Alexandria the Furthest”), which for 200 years was the center of a semi-independent Greek-Sogdian polity that was part of the Bactrian kingdom until its conquest by Han China.

In some ways, Furthest is even more Lunar than most of the Lunar Heartlands. Fully 70% of the population belong to Lunar cults, which is higher than pretty much anywhere outside of Glamour. But at the same time there are plenty of Lightbringers cultists, so it is kind of how we might have imagined a Lunar city back in the days of RQ2. Which is kind of appropriate, as it was the Lunar city back in the days of RQ2.

Furthest really is a remarkable colony of the Lunar Heartlands. “More Lunar than the Silver Shadow” so the boast goes.

And of course, with the exception of Glamour itself, the boast is largely correct. And unlike Glamour, in Furthest Lunar authority is not filtered through the Yelm cult but is there directly.

Jeff Richard

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Furthest (large city), Population demographics, Tarsh (homeland & Lunar province)

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