[Glorantha] The March of Arkat

On August 25, 2006 01:08 pm, glorantha-request_at_rpglist.org wrote:

Greg Stafford writes:

> The time is notable because teh westerners keep writing about fighting
> off the "Krjalki armies," which were Bright Empire armies. The krjalki
> = nonhumans (mainly dwarves, elves, dragonewts)

Yeah, I have noticed that. It's something I want to use for the adventure.

> This could also be in the fringes of Safelster someplace.
>
> Or heck, in Hendriki, which was never conquered...

A question about the timeline.

I know in general the war took 75 years or so. How is that divvied up? Does that start from the crusade on Tanisor, or earlier? How long did he stay dead, btw?

> From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph@quicksilver.net.nz>

> The Tanisorans spread plague as a guise to promoting their
> religion, they turned to vampirism to save their skins and the
> Bright Empire never lifted a finger to save them.
>
> The Dari, on the other hand, stayed clean which lead to
> Bright Empire support when Arkat attacked them.

For which he quotes Dorastor: Land of Doom, p.9.

I don't think there is much of a contradiction, as I think the quote from Dorastor is from a pro-Empire view, and so casting it as "we didn't help the people who fell from the way but we did those who didn't" is just good PR. It could easily be "we didn't throw a lot of help to the far kingdom, but now that he's marching to our doorstep, we are going to justify sending our armies into the field."

> There is Telmoria which straddles the Nidan mountains.
> Arkat sacked the City of Wolves on the Ralian side but
> never crossed the High Llama Pass to attack the
> Fronelan werewolves.

Good to know.

> From: Stephen Tempest <gd@stempest.demon.co.uk>

> Yes, but it took him about 50 years...

So can anyone clear up the timeline here? (Or is this one of those "everyone remembers it a bit differently because it was so long ago" kind of things?)

> and much of that was a story
> of him being defeated, going back to regroup, heroquesting for new
> Kewl Powerz, then attacking again. It's only in the hindsight of
> history that it looks like the continuous forward advance of a
> conqueror.

Which could be fine. Basically, I want a story with a left over of that very aspect. It's the old "Weapons Left From a War Unfinished" kind of thing. I want a weapon/object/item that Arkat (or one of his generals) created/brought back in order to break through somewhere. The Empire (or its allies) hastily made a counter-weapon. The result was a stalemate and the weapon/items were not used.

Now, a thousand years later, someone has found Arkat's weapon. This wakes up the Empire's weapon, and the PCs find that. The result is something coming to lay waste to an area that no longer is a line of defense against Arkat. It's the last battle of a war that doesn't exist anymore.

(I would go with Arkat's as the attacking and Empire's as defending just because most of the players I have had tended to view Arkat as the good guy. If the players were leaning the other way, I'd probably reverse it.)

LC Received on Sat 26 Aug 2006 - 17:16:38 EEST