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Indian Imagery across Glorantha... but what about Teshnos?

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So, this is something that's been bubbling in the back of my head for a good while, and it's not some huge issue or anything, but I think it's worth considering - and I suspect the people who work on Glorantha have done so to some degree.

Basically, it's this: there seems to have been over the last few years, (before my time, but still relatively recent) an increased usage of artstyles and iconography that is based on RW artstyles from the Indian subcontinent in cultures across Glorantha. We see multi-armed and dancing goddesses in Peloria as well as Esrola, we see North-Indian buildings styles in Seshnela, and we see Theyalan Orlanthi with a very Indra-looking Orlanth, and plenty of other Indian-styled things, including hats, clothes, and other items besides divine images.

First off, I think that's very cool. Indian artstyles are just... well, they look visually very interesting, they help convey the sense that Glorantha is not medieval Europe, or indeed not even Classical Greece. You could also argue that there is some level of shared artistic language across Western-Central Genertela - with the Seshnelans apparently having used some kind of Indo-Greek imagery in their royal friezes.

What it does, however, is raise the question about what Chaosium intends to do to make Teshnos stand out. To my knowledge, Teshnos is the closest we get to a Erschatz-India in Glorantha, which, while obviously no perfect match, is still more of a direct translation of a region into fantasy than the more well-developed and *highly* hybridized and innovated Central and Western Genertela. As much as Kralorela and Vormain suffer similar problems, they at least get to keep their Wuxias and coiling dragons and what have you to themselves to an extent. Teshnos seems like it won't really stand out in a meaningful degree.

Any thoughts on what the plans are from the developers/writers/directors?

And of course, from fellow fans, and long-time Glorantha enthusiasts who might know more about this than me? I know that some of the Teshnan islands, like the Amazon island and so on, might borrow more from Southeast-Asia, Malay krises (Teshnos seems to have these in the Guide as well), or maybe some Thair or Burmese styles - but that just leaves me wondering what the East Islands are going to do! :P

As always, looking beyond the Real World is always a possibility, but it I think most people here think whatever the styles or imagery should be, it should be somewhat rooted in some kind of verisimillitude, even if not outright realism.


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