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Description

(Taken from Guide to Glorantha, pages xxx-yyy. Used without permission as fair use.)

The land is fertile, with extensive forest and light jungle broken by many rivers. Most river valleys have been cleared by people for rice planting, and the annual floods bring rebirth for farmers and fishermen.

The foothills are covered in light woods ranging from subtropical in the south to temperate and cold coniferous forests in the north. Many woods have thickets of bamboo as an understory, replaced by rhododendrons at higher elevations.

Just north of Kralorela proper lies the Kingdom of Ignorance, more properly titled Bliss of Ignorance. This is a human land, though it has an immense slave class of miserable trollkin. It is now an autonomous province of the Kralorelan Empire, whose common folk have proved unable to be lifted from their misguided ways. The favorite deities here are worshiped nowhere else, and these people have never had a ruler who followed their own ways.

Inhabitants

Most of the residents of Kralorela are human. Dragonewts, Wind Children, mermen (mostly hostile), and other non-humans lurk at the fringes of civilization.

Culture

Kralorelan. Kralorela is a remnant of an elder age. Its rulers strive to perfect an isolationist policy which was broken only twice, once by the God Learners and later by Sheng Seleris. As a result of these incursions, they consider all outsiders to be God Learners and deal severely with any intrusions into their realm. Since the Opening, they have kept almost everyone away. The only exception is through the city of Lur Nop.

The Kralorelans know that their civilization is the most perfect in the world. They believe their arts are the most refined, their soldiers the most courageous, their cuisine the most delectable, their rulers the most inspired, and their magic the most impressive. When presented with evidence to the contrary, they maintain that moral superiority makes up for crude ostentation.

Language

Kralori, a Vithelan language. At one time there were fifteen different languages in the area now covered by the Dragon Empire, but the famous ruler Vayobi standardized speech, taking the best of the old dialects and discarding anything inappropriate. Now all citizens of the Dragon Empire speak one elegant tongue.

Stultan, another Vithelan language, is spoken in the Kingdom of Ignorance. Scholars consider it to be a crude and bastardized form of the original Kralori language, predating Vayobi’s time. It uses many troll idioms and loan words from Darktongue.

Government

The civilization is ancient, based upon Golden Age customs long lost to the rest of the world. A single emperor rules all with legendary benevolence, assisted by appointed officials called exarchs and mandarins. The empire is divided into eight provinces for administrative purposes.

The emperor is rarely involved in mundane matters of state; court policy is made by exarchs, eunuchs, and mandarins, and imperial politics are decided by the effective central administration.

Military

The regular Kralorelan military consists of four mobile armies and three navies, plus the elite Five Dragon Warriors of the emperor’s bodyguard. The entire military is commanded by an officer called Archexarch Seven Dragon and Wisdom.

Each army is commanded by a Master General who has worked his way to this revered position through many years of work, skill, and luck. Exarchs of the eight provinces provide quotas of men and equipment as commanded by the Archexarch Seven Dragon and Wisdom.

Most military units consist of wellequipped, trained heavy infantry. They are divided into regiments of about 1,000 fighting men, half of whom are spear and pike men, the others who are archers or crossbowmen. All soldiers also carry swords and shields. Cavalry is rare because the Kralori do not know the secrets of raising great war horses. The Kralori usually hire Praxian or Pentan nomads if they feel they will need mounted troops.

Magic flying creatures, especially Spearbirds, are sent as reserves or pursuit forces where other nations would use cavalry. Dragons are also used, though less often, as are many other creatures.

The Five Dragon Warriors are so called because each of them can summon or turn into a dragon at least five times. Only twenty guard the emperor. Other qualified candidates patiently wait for their turn to prove themselves by working for the Exarchs or as field commanders.

The Kralorelan fleet remained intact throughout the Closing, although confined to the Suam Chow. Their merchant ships are called junks. Their warships are huge oared war barges which can be easily linked together to make a floating island, where men fight as if on land. Some war barges use animated corpses as their oarsmen, with more oars for the foot soldiers to use in case of emergency.

Creating a character

To create a character from Kralorela follow the steps presented here:

Base passions

Occupation tables

Roll 1d20 for parents occupation, or choose from the table. Kralorela is a Caste based society so if your character is not a bandit or martial artist he, or she, should have the same occupation or caster as his/her ancestors. PC can take any none caste profession, but should take -10% to his/her loyalty (Ancestors) passion.

Note that mandarin occupation is open to anyone who completes the imperial tests to become one.

Family history

This table determines the history of player characters grandparents and parents. Years are approximate outside of dragon pass, but they correlate fairly well with the years in family history sheet.

Rune affinities

Fire +10%

Cultural skills