[Glorantha] Re: Imperial Bodyguard

John Machin:

>> I don't think the math there holds water. The heortlings are a warlike,
>> heroic people with an emphasis for personal combat prowess. The vast pool
>> of imperial subjects aren't anything like the hill-barbarians of Sartar.
>
>
>
>The Solar (now Lunar?) civilisation seems pretty militaristic! It must
>have some warlike heroism going on if it is able to become, and more
>or less remain, known as an Empire.
>
It may be worth noting that, according to ILH-1, every one of the cultures described in that book teaches combat skills to all of their adults, since its a part of their respective cultural keywords. That's even more than the Orlanthi do, who only teach combat skills to men as a matter of course. Now, granted, the Pelandans' favoured combat skill is Wrestling, which isn't a lot of cop on the battlefield, and Dara Happan women are probably just using daggers, but all of the others must be pretty damn well-armed, and at least a match for the Heortlings, if not better, in the proportion-of-people-able-to-fight stakes. Granted, one can question how many get beyond the 17 skill that they get automatically, but any culture that trains *all* of its people (barring healers and other unusual individuals, presumably) to fight with sword and shield is well hard in my book!

-- 
Trotsky
Gamer and Skeptic

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