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The Saga of the Gwandorlings - Volume 3
- by Myrinthal the Wise These are the collected tales of the third volume of the Gwandor Saga. This volume, unlike the previous two, was not found in the Gwandor Achive. It was in the Stormchaser Annex of the Library of Sartar. This volume continued the stories of the Dragonfriend and was written in the same style as the first two volumes thus confirming that it was of the same series. There are three main themes to watch for in this volume. First, this third volume marks yet another change in the Dragonfriend's tale. The first volume covered the Hidden King period. The second told of Argrath the Dragonlord. This third volume covers the time in the Liberator's history when he was to become the Dragonking. His fearsome war-making powers had freed a kingdom from the Dara Happan Empire while his regal charisma had won him much support among the liberated peoples. In this, the latest period in his story his enemies were to fear his vengeance and his followers were to cheer his successes. Secondly, this volume shows the first schisms among the Dragonking's Companions as obvious mental instabilities and religious fervour took hold. Finally, the Wintertop scrolls, How I Won the Kingdom, by Maniskisson diverge quite seriously from the Saga at this point. Kingdom tells the modern historian how High King Maniskisson laboured against the petty bickering on the Argrath Council and the indecisiveness of his warlord to free Tarsh from the Dara Happans. Well, we are through another notebook and coincidentally into another period in the game. These sagas are getting harder to write but the feedback from those reading them makes it worth doing. I am especially pleased, and honoured, that the Gwandor Saga is now available in three languages: English, Japanese and French. The first time I fed the Japanese site through a translation program it was quite strange to see Argrath described as a samurai… I hope you are enjoying reading them as much as we are enjoying playing them. Wesley I have been looking forward to this stage of the campaign and dreading it for the limitless horizons of work I see ahead of me. The scope has begun to widen immensely as Tarsh slowly falls before the forces of the Argrath Council (regardless of bickering between its members), the bottlekneck to the wider empire will be past and open and largely undetailed country follows. The future wars in the Provinces, Saird and beyond are massive in scope and I intend to capture that flavour with the players, to have them as core forces in the Hero Wars. Much to the players chagrin, I intend to make those wars as realistic in the Gloranthan setting as all my reading on war in our own world and work on Gloranthan warfare can allow. Therefore the future will hold great triumphs but also terrible costs, immense frustrations in logistics, funding, defeats and all the other Clausewitzean frictions of war. Ultimately the players will be involved in the fall of the Red Moon but how this will occur and what form the Empire and the player characters themselves take at that point is open to the vagaries of play. In effect, the players are writing their own story and Wesley is detailing it in the saga. We only play on Sundays and my work means I have only 2-3 Sundays out of every 7 weeks. When I started the saga in 1999, I had no grey hair. For those who follow the saga you might be reading for a goodly few years to come! Finally a word for my players. Aside from Wesley not one of them is a Gloranthaphile, none of them read or debate Glorantha outside of the game. While Wesleys talents provide me in effect an associate narrator, the players have thrown themselves into their characters with great verve and passion. I told them that the campaign would be longer than anything they'd ever played, that it would change their characters and provide ample opportunities for satisfaction and anger and they have taken the challenge and come back for more each session. This they do even in the face of my Gloranthaphile narrating where I heap upon them obscure Gloranthan detail and experiment with materials from unpublished sources and my own writings. This they do even in the face of my militaristic leanings while none of them have an abiding interest in war and its prosecution. Why do they come back for more? Beats me, but without them there is no game and there is no saga and for me there would be no inspiration. Cheers lads, you're the best! Martin Laurie
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July 12, 2002 All graphics and articles on this site are the property of their respective owners. Glorantha, Hero Wars, and Issaries are Registered Trademarks of Issaries Inc. No infringement on these trademarks is intended.
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