Glorantha Orlanthi Campaign Question

[sword'n'buckler]

I fancy writing a campaign for a group starting from an Orlanthi Heortling clan - typical Celtic style culture and flavour to start - but with some contrasting (more civilised) cultures bordering to make foreigners seem much more foreign and strange to the PCs. Long time since I used the Gloranthan setting 15+ years ago, and my mind is pretty sketchy. Where are my options and can anyone help fill in a little colour with a brief sketch of geography and politcs for second age for me please?

 

[Loz]

I'd seriously recommend that you take a look at the following:

Ralios (available on PDF through Drivethru), which has some Orlanthi detail in an area where both God Learners and EWF are active. Gives a nice contrast to the old Sartarite Orlanthi of the 3rd Age.

Blood of Orlanth: a complete campaign that can be played from a purely Orlanthi perspective and introduced both EWF and God Learner opponents.

Even if you're writing your own campaign, you'll find a ton of useful things in both books.

 

[richaje]

I fancy writing a campaign for a group starting from an Orlanthi Heortling clan - typical Celtic style culture and flavour to start - but with some contrasting (more civilised) cultures bordering to make foreigners seem much more foreign and strange to the PCs. Long time since I used the Gloranthan setting 15+ years ago, and my mind is pretty sketchy. Where are my options and can anyone help fill in a little colour with a brief sketch of geography and politcs for second age for me please?

For the Heortlings, I would grab a copy of History of the Heortling Peoples (available as a pdf from Drivethru RPG I think). It gives tons and tons and tons of content about Second Age Heortland and the Heortlings. However, it is a Stafford Library book - so it is a pure background book.

Jeff

 

[Deleriad]

I'm actually in the process of doing this right now as a prequel to running Blood of Orlanth. I've set the player characters up along the Marzeel river which means they get the EWF on one side, can head down river to meet the God Learners, can head into the woods for really dirty Orlanthi clans, trolls and nasty chaos nests or can travel along the coast to all sorts of interesting places. Basically, the PCs are slap bang in the middle of a bunch of empires.

Politics are really simple. Everyone fears, distrusts and loathes everyone else but right now things are fairly balanced in a cold war which is about to get very hot.

Depending on your budget, History of the Heortlings and Glorantha Second Age plus, if interested, the Blood of Orlanth campaign should get you all the background info you need.

 

[sword'n'buckler]

Thanks everyone. I'll sort myself a copy of 'Glorantha: Second Age'. I'd sort of intended to do this anyway. Your comments are, as always, useful. Like the sound of the MArzeel River setting. This should be just what I need. By the way, until I can sort out my copy of G:T2A, can someone tell me whereabouts the Marzeel River area is in Glorantha (say, relative to Dragon Pass / Prax, which I remember from my old RQ days of long ago).

 

[StephenT]

By the way, until I can sort out my copy of G:T2A, can someone tell me whereabouts the Marzeel River area is in Glorantha (say, relative to Dragon Pass / Prax, which I remember from my old RQ days of long ago).

South of Dragon Pass, west of Prax. It's the northernmost river of Heortland, flowing out of the Stormwalk mountains (that separate Heortland from Prax) into the Mirrorsea Bay next to the Shadow Plateau. Karse is the city at its mouth, Whitewall is to the north.

 

[sword'n'buckler]

Are the Marzeel River Heortlanders independent or under the heel of any Empires? What cultures / allegiances are Karse and Whitewall?

 

[Deleriad]

Are the Marzeel River Heortlanders independent or under the heel of any Empires? What cultures / allegiances are Karse and Whitewall?

My limited Glorantha-fu tells me that technically the Marzeel Orlanthi fall under the kingship of Androfin the Defiant. Androfin reinstated the old-ways worship around 906 I think but is based futher south. The Marzeel appears to be something of a buffer.

For my own purposes I treat the Marzeel as a bustling, thriving interface where an uneasy peace is based around trade and people still adopt the Orlanthi philosophy of pragmatism. I've set my campaign before Androfin's bombshell as his declaration is a crucial endpoint which shatters the peace of the Marzeel.

I believe at this point that Whitewall is a ruin. I don't know the history behind that. The whitewall wiki (google fu) will tell you more. The major settlements down river are Jintul and then Karse on the coast. Karse is, IMHO, a major trading port city with trade routes over the sea to the Jrusteli, west to the Shadowlands north to Dragon Pass and Prax. I don't know the official size of Karse in 906 but it's a large city in the 3rd Age and I would expect it to be about the same now.

Basically, from Karse up the river and off to the Whitewall ruins you've got pretty much every setting you might need and an excuse for a PC from almost anywhere.

Hope that helps.

 

[StephenT]

What cultures / allegiances are Karse and Whitewall?

Karse was one of the few human settlements that survived the Great Darkness; it has a strong stone fortress and a good harbour, and the people are noted boatbuilders and fishermen.

Whitewall is a sacred hill-fortress and settlement of the Orlanthi: it's where the kings of the Hendriki were traditionally crowned. The EWF conquered the city and drove out the inhabitants in about 775 - although Orlanthi resistance leaders still sneaked back into the city occasionally to be crowned there. At some point before 925 the Orlanthi re-occupy the city in defiance of the EWF.

 

[Sinisalo]

My own campaign is set in Dragon Pass. The clans are all draconised but in a fairly superficial way: they continue to worship Orlanth and Ernalda but with draconic elements added to the rites and Wyters and Ancestor worship banned (at least in public). Life goes on pretty much as in the third age. The towns and cities are where the real draconic worship and culture takes place.

A wind lord (in my game) from a hill clan would be fairly indistinguishable from a third age wind lord - perhaps with a draconic tinge to his magic or the occasional wyrmfriend talisman. Frex, Vanganth flying is done by blowing air downwards like a dragon exhaling and Humakti swords are known as Klanths but they still war amongst themselves and resolve disputes at the moot.

Once the dragonspeakers had converted the people to Wyrms Face Believers (and remember this status doesnt prohibit their access to theist magic or religion) they went on elsewhere looking for more to extend their own status. As long as the Great dragon project receives collateral worship through draconised Orlanthi rites they are not really interested what the clans are up to.

The towns and cities are highly draconised and a wide swathe of the population has abandoned theist worship in favour of draconic illumination. You could make the argument that Wyrmsfriendism is a civilising factor in the region.

 

[richaje]

Are the Marzeel River Heortlanders independent or under the heel of any Empires? What cultures / allegiances are Karse and Whitewall?

In 910, the Marzeel River Heortlenders belong to the Hendriking tribe whose sacred center is Whitewall. They stopped paying tribute to the EWF in 907 but loosely cooperate with the EWF against the God Learners of the Machine City.

There is a detailed narrative description of Hendrikiland in History of the Heortling Peoples ("My Travels in Hendrikiland") which dates from circa 924 (but is largely accurate for 910).

Karse is cosmopolitan city where many cultures meet, and also many races, all as equals. It is called the Decadent and it is said that anything is available: one traveler met a man who said he had sex with an Aldryami there, and a woman who said she exchanged gold for royalty.

 

[Sinisalo]

For the Heortlings, I would grab a copy of History of the Heortling Peoples (available as a pdf from Drivethru RPG I think). It gives tons and tons and tons of content about Second Age Heortland and the Heortlings. However, it is a Stafford Library book - so it is a pure background book.

Jeff

And partly written by you, you shameless hussy

 

[richaje]

For the Heortlings, I would grab a copy of History of the Heortling Peoples (available as a pdf from Drivethru RPG I think). It gives tons and tons and tons of content about Second Age Heortland and the Heortlings. However, it is a Stafford Library book - so it is a pure background book.

Jeff

And partly written by you, you shameless hussy

As is Middle Sea Empire (and indirectly a number of sections of Second Age which was based on MSE), the Esrolia Book, the forthcoming HQ 2 book (in particular the Glorantha Section), the Sartar Book, and the new Pavis Book. And probably a few other small bits here and there I am forgetting about.

Jeff