LucaCherstich
Mongoose
Will the new sourcebook have a section about how to reach Khitai?
Since Khitai is DEFINITEVELY not the place where usual Hyborian campaigns are held, can we have a discussion about how to reach Khitai?
Possibly the sourcebook on Khitai is already completely written and nothing can be added ...
... but I hope it already has something like that.
I'm saying so because, re-reading "Pirate Isles" I've noticed that the tables for "travel time between common ports" (Pirate Isles page 37) is completely wrong if one considers the new map from "Return to the Road of the Kings" (or the originals by V.Darlage in http://hyboria.xoth.net/maps/index.htm).
The tables were calculated on the old maps...while in the new maps now Yota-Pong (Kosala) is east of Khorala (Vendhya), not the opposite!
Furthermore the presence of the "Swamps of the Dead" peninsula should make the trip to eastern Khitai longer...and one must also consider that now both Paikang (Khitai) and Angkhor (Kambuja) are land-locked: NO MORE PORTS!!!
We should make a new table regarding the ports which serve Paikang, for example Ruo-Gen in Western Khitai (see http://hyboria.xoth.net/maps/vd_khitai.jpg).
And we definitively need to know whether Khitai could be reached by land and how.
Marco Polo's trip to China was possible since in that period the whole area between Turkey and China was under control or influence of the Mongols...but for the great part of history travelling through Centra Asia incredibly unsafe (brigands, too many governments with too many different taxes) and difficult (think about crossing the Hymalaya....).
What has been (maybe improperly) called silk-road never runned like we use to think!
The so-called main Silk Road is probably just a late 19th - early 20th century invention!
The reality is different for 4 reasons:
1) The main trade was not silk but the much more demanded and precious spices (Marco Polo never mention any bloody silk-road in his "Millione").
2) It was not usually run by the same person from Europe to China but the spices went through numerous intermediaries doing small trips. The Polo's experience is quite unique...and in fact he was out of Venice for decades!!
3) The bulk of the trade went by SEA through a route from the Arabian peninsula to Southern India. There are proofs of this trade from Roman times and it possibly always runned like that.
The Polo's experience is quite unique!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4) There was not juts ONE "silk road" but there were many possibilities, as you can see in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road
Bits of the "silk road" by land existed (e.g. to Samarkand) but in general, it never went directly to China or better, it DID NOT ALWAYS go directly to China but the "silk road" was just par of a wider WEB OF ROUTES.
The "Silk-road" cannot be imagined as a line connetting China to Europe but as a web of routes by land and sea which linked all the numerous and different countries which existed between the two ends (China and Europe).
In any case, Marco Polo's experience was just extraordinary!
On the other hand pcs in Conan RPG are inclined to greater-than-life deed.
However, I think, it should be clear that a trip from the Hyborian lands to Khitai by land going through miles of hostile Hyrkanian lands should be INCREDIBLY difficult.
NEVERTHELESS, from Conan's maps it looks like Khitai is nearer to the Hyborian kingdoms than Venice to China, so maybe the Thurian continent was not as wide as modern Eurasia.
I want to say that I have not the definite answer to these issues but I think that these arguments should be discussed in a sourcebook on Khitai.
Are these issues discussed in the book or not?
Since Khitai is DEFINITEVELY not the place where usual Hyborian campaigns are held, can we have a discussion about how to reach Khitai?
Possibly the sourcebook on Khitai is already completely written and nothing can be added ...
... but I hope it already has something like that.
I'm saying so because, re-reading "Pirate Isles" I've noticed that the tables for "travel time between common ports" (Pirate Isles page 37) is completely wrong if one considers the new map from "Return to the Road of the Kings" (or the originals by V.Darlage in http://hyboria.xoth.net/maps/index.htm).
The tables were calculated on the old maps...while in the new maps now Yota-Pong (Kosala) is east of Khorala (Vendhya), not the opposite!
Furthermore the presence of the "Swamps of the Dead" peninsula should make the trip to eastern Khitai longer...and one must also consider that now both Paikang (Khitai) and Angkhor (Kambuja) are land-locked: NO MORE PORTS!!!
We should make a new table regarding the ports which serve Paikang, for example Ruo-Gen in Western Khitai (see http://hyboria.xoth.net/maps/vd_khitai.jpg).
And we definitively need to know whether Khitai could be reached by land and how.
Marco Polo's trip to China was possible since in that period the whole area between Turkey and China was under control or influence of the Mongols...but for the great part of history travelling through Centra Asia incredibly unsafe (brigands, too many governments with too many different taxes) and difficult (think about crossing the Hymalaya....).
What has been (maybe improperly) called silk-road never runned like we use to think!
The so-called main Silk Road is probably just a late 19th - early 20th century invention!
The reality is different for 4 reasons:
1) The main trade was not silk but the much more demanded and precious spices (Marco Polo never mention any bloody silk-road in his "Millione").
2) It was not usually run by the same person from Europe to China but the spices went through numerous intermediaries doing small trips. The Polo's experience is quite unique...and in fact he was out of Venice for decades!!
3) The bulk of the trade went by SEA through a route from the Arabian peninsula to Southern India. There are proofs of this trade from Roman times and it possibly always runned like that.
The Polo's experience is quite unique!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4) There was not juts ONE "silk road" but there were many possibilities, as you can see in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road
Bits of the "silk road" by land existed (e.g. to Samarkand) but in general, it never went directly to China or better, it DID NOT ALWAYS go directly to China but the "silk road" was just par of a wider WEB OF ROUTES.
The "Silk-road" cannot be imagined as a line connetting China to Europe but as a web of routes by land and sea which linked all the numerous and different countries which existed between the two ends (China and Europe).
In any case, Marco Polo's experience was just extraordinary!
On the other hand pcs in Conan RPG are inclined to greater-than-life deed.
However, I think, it should be clear that a trip from the Hyborian lands to Khitai by land going through miles of hostile Hyrkanian lands should be INCREDIBLY difficult.
NEVERTHELESS, from Conan's maps it looks like Khitai is nearer to the Hyborian kingdoms than Venice to China, so maybe the Thurian continent was not as wide as modern Eurasia.
I want to say that I have not the definite answer to these issues but I think that these arguments should be discussed in a sourcebook on Khitai.
Are these issues discussed in the book or not?