From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@toppoint.de)
Date: Fri 30 Aug 1996 - 00:55:00 EEST
>Joerg asks sweetly
>>give some information from East Isles stuff. pretty please...
> What kind of thing would you like?
I'd like anecdotal stuff about some of the main cultures, or even better
I'm also still puzzled where the Haragalans get their divine sun magics. Do
stuff I could use for possible naval encounters. There must be more to the
isles than just canoes and Haragalan Tallships...
the larger of the East Isles (like Haragala or Mokato) have more than one
deity? I mean, both Mokato and Haragala are about as large as Sartar or
Tarsh, geographically, and will likely be less uniform in cult and culture
than say Rathmorasomangon, the island of Comb and Braid (and no, I did not
know _that_ name, but had to look it up).
>Me
>>2) the Admiral of Rightarm betrayed the rest of Kethaela, and later
>>had his fleet sunk by the Wolf Pirates. It's clear that the balance
>>of power in Rightarm has passed from the humans to the mermen. Now
>>they are in charge.
>Joerg puzzles
>>Ok, I did know that the Rightarm isles are effectively run by the
>>Ludoch. The Islander admiral has nominal control of all the fleet
>Yes. His power is far lessened now.
Apparently the fleet has. Since I am currently working on various Mirrorsea
Navy related matters, I keep wondering about the size of the Pharaonic navy,
and the number of ships in the Holy Country beyond this body of ships.
After only one year, the Holy Country had outfitted 42 ocean-going ships for
When did the Admiral come to importance? Did his office exist already before
>>I did not know that the Ludoch did forsake their historical allies
a quick strike against the Alatan navy. This in addition to the flottilla
traveling westward with Dormal, and likely more ships being used for
internal transport on the Mirrorsea.
the Closing, or was it created when Dormal Opened the seas?
>>at any point - the Wolf Pirate success over the Pharaonic navy was
>>possible even with mermen support of the Holy Country,
> They did not have to forsake their allies. They fought at the
>destruction of the navy, and carried many, if not most, of the losing
>sailors to safety ashore.
Did they make a distinction between the sailors and the marines (and other
(In reply to Peter Metcalfe's correction of my dates: I still think it's a
warriors on board the Holy Country ships)? (Did the Wolf Pirates?)
pity that Harrek did not command the Ice Serpent in this battle...)
>>What puzzled me most is Sandy's sequence of events. The Kethaelan
>>fleet is sunk in 1616, three years before any Lunar move south from
>>Sartar.
>I misspoke -- the betrayal of the Lunar admiral was during
>the Kethaelan civil war. There was Lunar meddling in the war, but not
>an troop invasion.
I suppose you mean the 1620 siege of Karse (when the fleet carried off the
Caladraland defenders), and the 1621-1624 civil war in Esrolia? Or do you
say that after the Pharaoh's disappearance in 1616 and his failure to
reappear by Sea Season 1617 was followed by a civil war not only in kingless
Heortland, but all over Kethaela?
>>Of course the mermen were largely untouched by this defeat - what
>>are ships to them?
> Ships are items of worth to land-dwellers -- they can be used
>to achieve and maintain domination over the humans by controlling
>ship numbers or access. And the fact that the mermen would be
>untouched by such a defeat was known to the mermen before the battle.
Still, the mermen (in fact their Wenelian brethren) had called the Pharaoh
>>What would the Ludoch gain from this shift of alliances?
and his ships to their aid in 1582 against Alatan (in the first of a proud
tradition of desastrous defeats of Holy Country fleets, almost as continuous
as Napoleon's fleets performed...).
> What _have_ they gained? The wreck of the City of Wonders.
Well, Loon Island still disturbs the centre of the Mirrorsea Bay, even
>The elimination of the Holy Country's fleet.
Once again. This was the third major eradication of a Holy Country fleet. It
though it cannot be entered any more (if it is Loon Island upon which
Belintar built his city - seems logical to me, even though I can't think of
a reason why to call the island that way. Any Ralian Old Beast Society
connections?).
seems that the Aldryami suffer more from this than either the Holy Country
sailors or the economy, since the Pharaoh always commissioned new, and
better, ships.
>The destruction of any
>means of convenient communication between the various factions of the
>Holy Country, thus tending to break up and disunify the factions even
>more -- from which some factions have suffered more than others
>(notably the Esrolians).
Was this defeat that serious? Then how do the Capratis grain ships travel to
In my vision of the Holy Country, what was lost were the rowed galleys, both
On a geographically related issue: what is the role of the sea trolls off
And where do the murthdryami fit into the offshore politics? Their habitat
and from Nochet? And are all fishing vessels and fish freighters (to carry
local catches to the markets at Karse, Nochet, or Vizel to cater for inland
customers) affected?
pure military vessels and semi-military merchant galleys forming kind of a
ship militia, crewed with militia marines from the surrounding lands. Quite
a couple of these vessels made their way into the Wolf Pirate fleet, IMO.
Overall, the number of military vessels on and around the Mirrorsea Bay
hasn't changed much, only the dominance of a single power is broken. I
really wonder what the Ludoch gain from this. The Pharaoh, for all his
magic-grabbing, ritual-warping ways, was an ally of the merfolk, and never
hesitated to send considerable ressources to their aid. Why should they want
to weaken this ally?
the shore of the Holy Country? According to the distribution map in
Gloranthan Bestiary, they inhabit all the waters frm the Rozgali Sea to
Valind's Glacier (as well as the seas around the Jrusteli Archipelago and
the East Isles). This overlaps mostly with the Ludoch realms of Genertela
and the East Isles, with the Ouori shore areas of western Genertela, and
with the Malasp are of the Jrusteli isles. (BTW: Why do the Ludoch and Ouori
habitats overlap in the Seshnegi Isles when it is stated elsewhere that
Ludoch and Ouori have not had contact for centuries? Misinformed sources?)
coincides with both sea trolls and Manirian ludoch.
------------------------------
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #162
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