Friday Faction: King of Sartar

Originally published in 1992, King of Sartar stood out amongst all of the other titles that Chaosium, Inc. was publishing at the time because it was not related to Call of Cthulhu or Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos and because it was both fiction and not fiction. It was fiction because it was set within a game world, that of Chaosium, Inc.’s great fantasy world of Glorantha—the setting for RuneQuest and more recently RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha—and not fiction as it is a collection of myths and legends that are treated as being real within that world. King of Sartar draws together a number of myths and legends that relate to Argrath, the descendant of Sartar who appeared out of nowhere to drive the occupying forces of the Lunar Empire out of Sartar and Dragon Pass, defeat them again and again, defeat the Red Emperor and the Red Goddess, and ultimately win the Hero Wars. It takes the conceit—more recently applied in Six Seasons in Sartar—that the myths and legends have been collected and examined almost a thousand years after their events have said to have taken place. Further, as revealed in the conclusion to King of Sartar, these fragmentary, sometimes contradictory documents have been collated after a period in which knowledge of literacy was lost. As well as exploring the Argrath legends, King of Sartar will examine Orlanthi mythology, a history of Dragon Pass and those who dwelled in and round the area, provide multiple genealogies and timelines, and more.

King of Sartar brings together several documents. These include the Annotated Argrath’s Saga, the complete saga of Argrath’s adventures in the Hero Wars, appended by The Zin Letters; an overview of Orlanthi Mythology; The Composite History of Dragon Pass, from the Dragonkill Wars following the Empire of Earthwyrm’s Friends to Argrath’s marriage to the Queen of Saird; The Argrath Book, a compilation of material on Argrath; and Jalk’s Book, a compilation of material on the Colymar, Boldhome, and the Grazers. The more recent, annotated version adds The Lost Chapter of Fazzur Wideread. Alongside this are multiple timelines, genealogies such as those of the Kings of Sartar and Kings of Tarsh, lists that give all the gods of the Orlanthi pantheon, companions to both Argrath and Kallyr Starbrow, and more. The tone and style switches back and forth between the academic commentary of the collating author and the different voices of chroniclers recording the legends. Perhaps the most familiar here will be the sections on Orlanthi Mythology and Dragon Pass. The first presents familiar Orlanthi tales as well as the creation of Dragon Pass, his courtship of Ernalda, his enactment of the Lightbringers’ Quest for the first time, up to his confrontations with the Red Goddess, whilst the latter, supposedly one of the wedding gifts to Argrath, which presents the recorded history of the region, focusing on Sartar in particular, but also examining Tarsh and the Grazer Tribe, all the way up to Inkarne the Empress, the last great Sacred King of Argrath’s dynasty. The Lightbringers’ Quest is a subject that King of Sartar will return to several times, noting how challenging a task it is for mortal men, even Argrath, let alone Kallyr Starbrow, who either failed or was only partially successful in her reenactment, depending upon your point of view. It does describe the various steps and tasks necessary to complete the quest, but much like the rest of the book, they are open to interpretation. Added to the annotated version is The Lost Chapter, a chronicle of Fazzur Wideread, Governor-General of Dragon Pass, a counterpoint to much of the rest of King of Sartar, in that he is the only Lunar figure to be treated with any respect. The sympathies of the other authors throughout the book and even in The Composite History of Dragon Pass, lie with the Sartarites.

From a roleplaying perspective, King of Sartar not only examines the coming of Argrath and his rise to power, but also his influence upon Dragon Pass and the many changes he will bring about once his role and position as king is confirmed. This has long been prophesised, but never fulfilled. Only now with the publication of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha has the setting of Dragon Pass been advanced to the event seen as the trigger for the Hero Wars—the Dragonrise, in which the Brown Dragon rose and consumed the great and the good of the Lunar Empire’s sorcerers sent to consecrate the Temple of the reaching Moon and the Sartarite nobility who gave their loyalty to the Lunar Empire, thus curbing its ambitions to the south. Of course, there is no little debate as who exactly caused the Dragonrise, but King of Sartar suggests that Argrath was involved or at least one of his companions, Orlaront Dragonfriend, was. For the roleplaying game though, the Dragonrise is a significant and immediate event. It is woven into the background of every Player Character. With that established, every Player Character and every Game Master’s campaign has been moved forward too, and so stands on the threshold of the forthcoming events of the Hero Wars, prophesised in the pages of King of Sartar and promised in game terms by Chaosium, Inc.

Another aspect of King of Sartar also plays in the future of every Game Master’s campaign. The volume’s collating commenter cannot be certain as to who the real Argrath is—the descendant of Sartar, the member of a lost clan of the Colymar tribe, the petty criminal who rose to power out of the back streets of Pavis, or all three. This gives the Game Master the freedom to decide who her Argrath will be as his role becomes ever more important and prominent in the forthcoming support for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

King of Sartar is neither an essential volume that the Game Master must read to run a campaign set in Glorantha nor an easy read. Its fragmentary, often diverse subject matters, and multiple voices often leave the reader struggling to find purchase with the book. Only when the book returns to Argrath’s tale does that purchase find more solid ground, often because having one aspect of Dragon Pass or its people, King of Sartar will return to how Argrath interacted with that. This is not to say that the other diverse subject matters are not interesting, they often are, for there is some literally fantastic worldbuilding in the pages of King of Sartar. Of course, there is also much in the pages of King of Sartar that will be familiar to Gloranthaphiles as much of it has been reiterated in roleplaying game after roleplaying game and supplement after supplement. That though has always been with a more authoritative voice for the Game Master’s benefit and so has been easier to read and digest, whereas King of Sartar is without that authoritative voice by intent and is thus neither easier to read nor digest. Ultimately, King of Sartar is not a book for the casual reader or even fan of Glorantha, but for the fan who is interested in the lore presented as legend and myth, there is much here to explore from within the setting of Glorantha itself.