Another Earth parallel for Ralios

From: Joerg Baumgartner (joe@sartar.toppoint.de)
Date: Fri 27 May 1994 - 10:57:55 EEST



Gary Newton in X-RQ-ID: 4157

> Linked with this is Graeme Lindsell's interesting comment about Tsarist
> Russia. As I tried to say previously, I'm not wild about "Earth in Glorantha",
> but a couple of interesting parallels struck me -

One Earth parallel for Ralios which seems to have escaped note is the late Frankish and early German "Roman" Empire. The north Italian city states of the Lombard union still were squabbling among themselves, as were the clerically ruled city-states of Germany. From the north, Saxons, Vikings and Danes threatened the safety, from the east Slavs, and horse nomads. While the Saxon/Viking parallel for the Orlanthi is well reported, the Slav parallel has been ignored. The western Slavs had been christianized slowly by German efforts, often by force, much like Rokari Malkionism was spread in Ralios. Heretical deviations blossomed among these, one of the most important, the Hussites', to break open a few centuries later. Slavic housing and lifestyle isn't too different from the other earth parallels for Orlanthi either, although the more shamanistic Slavic nations which coexisted later with urban German culture had something of Hsunchen.
The Awars and Magyars could have been the horse-riding Galanini and/or Dangkim of earlier ages, or the rests of these still living their traditional lifestyle. Another (admittedly crooky) parallel to the eastern invaders could have been the Halikiv trolls.

> OK, enough of the Earth parallels. I'm afraid they're a good jumping off point
> for hang-glidings of the imagination, but Gloranthan "reality" dictates the
> way things unfold... (erm... possibly...)

Just so. That's why we use them. And the more the better, so we don't become too fixed in our perception.
--
-- Joerg Baumgartner joe@sartar.toppoint.de



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