Where I Read HârnWorld, Part II: Thoughts on Tharda, Tribal Nations, and Gargun

Tharda

Of the cultures presented in HârnWorld, the one that I have the most difficulty accepting is the Thardic Republic. The others, in the context of a fantasy realm, I don't really have any problems with. Even Rethem, where the aristocracy worships Agrik, the evil god of fire, makes a certain amount of sense - a warrior elite following a god of violence, cruelty and appeasement? Sure. (If anything it's probably closer to the character of knights in the real world than is the idealized feudalism of Larani, who's worshipped in the other feudal kingdoms. But more on that later.)

But the Thardic Republic has a population of a little over 100,000 people. Its capital, Coranan, has only around 12,500. It seems a little small to maintain a Senate or the "Pamesani Games" (gladitorial-style games, including bouts against Ivashu, the monsters that spawn from the Pit of Ilvir). Now, there is some suggestion that there were gladitorial combats in Roman Britain, as well as in smaller Roman towns (some of which would have been around Coranan's size) - but those would still have been reliant upon the overall structure of the Roman Empire.

The Pamesani Games (columbiagames.com)

There's also reference to "provincial governors" within Tharda being able to acquire vast sums of money through their governorship. Again, that seems something more in keeping with a grander empire than 100,000 people.

For game purposes, though, I think Tharda's a nice variation within the general Hârnic feudalism, and it does make a bit more sense in the context of Hârn's history, which is pages 38-51 of HârnWorld. But it'd be a bit grubbier than the terms "Senate" or the "Games" would suggest.

Speaking of which, I actually think that, in terms of readability, it might have been a better option to have some of the overall history of Hârn at the start, rather than jumping right in to individual kingdom entries. The empire of Lothrim the Foulspawner, for instance, shapes a lot of Hârn's history (including explaining Tharda and the Gargun), and having a taste of that history at the start of the module might give HârnWorld a bit more flavour for someone unfamiliar with the setting. More of an overview would help, I think, rather than bits and pieces mentioned in each individual entry (Lothrim is mentioned in the page on Gargun, but only in passing). But it might mean departing from the traditional "article" format of Hârn material.


Tribal Nations

Page 12 of "Cultures" briefly details eighteen "barbarian nations" whose total population is around 100,000. (By contrast, Tharda, Kaldor, Kanday, and Rethem each have around 100,000 people, and Melderyn has around 160,000.) All of the tribal nations are divided into tribes ranging from 30 to 1,200 people. Each nation gets a sentence or two, like so:

Anoa
These nomadic hunters live in the Anoth River valley in southern Orbaal. Conflict with Gargun and the Orbaalese is common.

Unlike the earlier kingdoms' entries, the tribal nations don't get a sidebar, probably because it would be tough to fit eighteen different nations onto one page, and various kingdoms already list HârnMaster Barbarians as a recommended resource, which includes all the tribal articles but also has HârnMaster rules for barbarian characters.

It's still kind of a shame that the tribal nations don't get a bit more of a shout-out in HarnWorld; a tribal character (or campaign) would absolutely be viable in Harn. HârnDex, at least, has entries for each tribal nation. But you can tell the emphasis of the setting is on the "civilized" nations and the various tribes are relegated to "...and miscellaneous."

"Taelda. There are forty tribes of us you know." ("Tluk" by Richard Luschek)

Gargun

Page 13 has a full page on the Gargun. Its sidebar includes a list of Gargun colonies and nomadic tribes, as well as brief notes on the Ilme ("intelligent mere-dragons") and Ivashu (creations of the god Ilvir).

There are five types of Gargun, we're told, ranging from the smallest (Gargu-araki, "Streaked Orc") to the largest (Gargu-khanu, "Black Orc") and with varying levels of aggression (the "White Orcs" are the second smallest, and least aggressive). They instinctively submit to authority and inevitably rebel against any sign of weakness. They're not native to Hârn or its world and were possibly brought to Hârn by Lothrim, but I think this is the first reference we've seen to Lothrim in HârnWorld so that's not helpful. They're natural antagonists; as HârnWorld says:

It is rare for a culture to have no redeeming features, but that of the gargun comes close. They are violent and malevolent, with an almost insane hatred for the Khuzdul [Dwarves]. They are carnivorous, even cannibalistic.

The Gargun have a hive structure, with only one fertile female (the "queen") and one fertile male (the "king"). Gargun are born from clutches of eggs laid by the queen, and have a "racial memory" that allows them to achieve adulthood quickly. This makes them fast-growing and fast-breeding. The King holds power (and access to the queen) until he's assassinated or overthrown.

Gargun lead a Malthusian existence, expanding their population until either brief but bloody civil war erupts within the colony, reducing the (ahem) excess population, or a large group of males sieze an infertile female (a "princess") and "swarm", boiling out to found a new colony.

What's Missing

Nasty, Brutish, & Short: The Orcs of Hârn and HârnDex give a lot more detail about the gargun. That's as it should be, of course; HârnWorld is a general overview. But I think the gargun, as a feature unique to Hârn (both the setting and, within the setting, to the island of Hârn), could use a bit more detail - a second page, at least - to grab people. Of course too much detail (on Gargun or otherwise) means that people might not buy HârnDex, but then again, if people don't find your version of Orcs that interesting, then they're not going to bother with any other supplements.

The following sums up a few additional gargun facts from Nasty, Brutish & Short.

• Gargun begin life with a common set of memories. While they can learn, the collective memory "pool" doesn't change, so Gargun society is quite static.
• They grow quickly, achieving adulthood within a year.
• They're irreligious. Their racial memory tells them they're "Forsaken by the Gods", plus, they require ongoing demonstration of authority - an absent god doesn't provide that.
• It's not clear how Lothrim introduced Gargun to Hârn - maybe they're from another world, possibly Midgaad (though I don't think Gargun make sense as Tolkien's Orcs), or maybe Lothrim created them through magic.

 Sidebar: Orc-on-Orc Action (Gargun biology)

HârnDex gives a bit more detail about the Gargun.  So, too, does Nasty, Brutish, & Short. The information conflicts in one important way. I'm glad I double-checked HârnDex, by the way, as the version in NB&S is pretty problematic, and all because of a single word.

HârnDex (both 2nd and 3rd Editions) says:

Both sexes become fertile only through continued social exposure to the opposite sex. All such contact leads to fertility, but most male gargun have no sexual contact with females.

 Meanwhile NB&S says:

Only one percent of the eggs hatch as females. If sexually exposed to males for about six consecutive hours, these "princesses" will become fertile queens. [Gargun 2]

Whether NB&S' phrasing is a typo, or sloppy wording for "exposed to the opposite sex", I'm not sure. But the NB&S version isn't particularly pleasant. See, Nasty, Brutish & Short sets out that princesses are killed in some colonies, but more often the infertile females form a "Queen's Guard" to protect the Queen, which is an interesting concept. Princesses often don't want to become queens, as they become "bloated and somewhat immobile" when they become fertile. Also prime game fodder - a Gargun princess who's decided to leave her colony rather than become a queen could be an interesting NPC or even PC.


This is all good. But couple "Princesses often don't want to become queens" with "abducting a princess and swarming" and "extended sexual exposure to males for six hours" and you have a recipe for extended rape, more or less.  Not that gargun mating habits will arise in-game, and the Gargun are intended to be pretty unpleasant, after all, but still...All told, I'll stick with the HârnDex language. It gives a basis for sequestering the princesses - they just can't be around males for an extended period of time without becoming fertile and instinctively wanting to take a mate. That still might lead to questions of forcible confinement by a swarm (to ensure fertility), but it makes it less overtly rape-y than the NB&S phrasing would suggest.


Of course both HârnDex and NB&S make it clear that while Gargun males may not be fertile, they're not impotent, and as far as other species are concerned, Gargun males will rape either gender indiscriminately. NB&S states that "sexual tension" and access to breeding rights are defining characteristics of Gargun culture. Despite raising these points, there's no mention of male homosexual behaviour - consensual or otherwise - amongst male Gargun. So, I mean, sexual violence among the Gargun of both genders seems likely, given how they've been written. But at least the HârnDex version doesn't make it an almost-inevitable precursor to reproduction.


But that's all from HârnDex and Nasty, Brutish & Short. HârnWorld just mentions the hive structure of the colony, the Gargun sub-species, and the swarming.

"And the killing and the swarming and the GLAVIN!"

So, moving on.

Ilme and Ivashu

The sidebar on page 13 talks about the Ilme, who are intelligent wingless dragons around 12' high. Male Ilme are apparently cowardly, prefer to scavenge, attack from ambush, and are often bullied by Gargun tribes. Females are much fiercer, especially when defending their young.

The Ivashu are creatures spawned from Araka-Kalai, the pit where the god Ilvir dwells. The Ivashu are sexless and sterile and vary widely, with some intelligent and others not, some unique and others relatively common. (This, by the way, provides GMs with an excuse to bring pretty much any monster into Hârn - "It's an Ivashu".) 

Next, Governments and Guilds. For real, this time.

Where I Read HârnWorld, Part I: Welcome to Hârn

In 1996, I was introduced to the setting of Hârn, and I've been very fond of the setting ever since. It was a serendipitous combination of factors. I had a great gamemaster and good fellow players. I had come off almost fifteen years of playing mostly D&D and needed a change. I like maps, and Hârn had some great ones. And Hârn had a versimilitude that I hadn't really seen before in an RPG setting.

(I've never cared about "realism" as such, though Hârn certainly aspires to that, too; but I do like settings that have some internal consistency and "feel" real. I can roll with some niggling inconsistencies. As far as rulesets go, I care even less about realism, as such; no RPG is going to "realistically" model an actual combat, as far as I'm concerned.)

The heart of the setting is the island of Hârn, which is based, more or less, on various aspects of England between the 9th and 12th Century, though the land mass of Hârn is significantly larger than that of the British Isles. Most of the main kingdoms on the island are based around a feudal aristocracy, with knights and peasants; there's a corrupt, vaguely Romano-Celtic republic, and an unstable quarrelsome version of the Danelaw. As befits a setting that saw the light of day in the early 80's, there's a forested kingdom of Elves and a mountainous one of Dwarves - though the ruler of each has human vassals as well as non-human ones. Between the various kingdoms are lands populated by human tribes, the Gargun (Hârnic Orcs), and various other threats. There are henges, remants of an ancient culture; strange pyramids and dimensional portals left by the mysterious Earthmasters; and a bloody great pit, ostensibly inhabited by a god, from which all manner of monstrosities emerge.

"Gargun Attack" by Richard Luschek

Hârn isn't for everyone; much of it is low-fantasy, it's very detailed, and it cleaves too close to the "real world" for some. There are explicit ties to Middle-Earth (the Hârnic Elves, the Sindarin, are canonically from "Midgaad", the Hârnic term for Tolkien's world), which can make it feel derivative. And it still feels like a setting created for, and in reaction to, Dungeons & Dragons, with elves and dwarves, wizards and clerics, fighters and thieves. And it is, frankly, expensive for what you get; Hârn products are usually well-done, but they're pricey compared to comparable products for other game lines. I'm not sure anyone involved in Hârn is interested in marketing outside of the existing fanbase, to be honest.

(A quick note: Following a nasty dispute between N. Robin Crossby, the creator of Hârn, and Columbia Games, the game's publisher, Crossby started up his own company, Kelestia Productions. The dispute apparently remains unresolved, but both companies now produce Hârn products, though Columbia Games focuses more on the island of Hârn itself, while Kelestia Productions focuses on the game world outside of the island. Both companies also produce their own version of HârnMaster, the ruleset designed for use with the setting - HarnMaster 3rd for Columbia Games, and HarnMaster Gold for Kelestia - but the setting material is mostly rules-agnostic.)

But all that said, Hârn's still one of my favourite settings. Part of its appeal is unquestionably nostalgia. However, I also like the scale of the setting; it's very local, in the sense that the countries are quite small (the largest city on the island only has about 12,500 residents) and scattered. As I mentioned above, it has versimilitude; its "realism" is debatable, but it hangs together pretty well. And there is scope for a broad range of adventures, from a Game of Thrones-esque mud-and-blood campaign to wizardly intrigues to dimension-hopping via the Earthmaster sites. It is, admittedly, not really well-suited for grand epics, in my view; unlike Westeros, Hârn isn't a single kingdom so what happens in Kaldor stays in Kaldor won't have much impact on Kanday or Melderyn, for instance. But provided you're okay with that limited scale, there's a lot you can do with the setting.

I periodically drag out my Hârn stuff to leaf through, though I haven't actually played or run the setting for probably a decade now. I do liberally steal from Hârn for other games, though; both setting features and adventures (e.g. "100 Bushels of Rye" became "100 Koku of Rice" in a Legend of the Five Rings game) have made their way into games I've run.

Even so, I hadn't bought any new products for a long, long time. I have enough setting material to see me through, and the HârnMaster rule system just isn't for me anymore. But recent online discussions inspired me to buy the new (2014) version of the HârnWorld and HârnDex modules, in PDF. I don't get the full-size map of Hârn that way, but that's okay; I already have two laminated copies...

So I'm going to read through HârnWorld, and share my thoughts as I go. Let's get started!

First Impressions

Right off the bat, there's a problem. The HârnWorld PDF - or at least my copy - lacks the (IMO quite splendid) new cover for the paper copy.

Not a huge deal; it's not difficult to add a picture to a PDF. Still, it's a shame that CG doesn't let you know that this is the case. I was a bit disappointed.

Printed out, it makes a surprisingly slim booklet. It's only 60 pages, counting title page.

Stylistically, the new HârnWorld uses the same "article" format that other Hârn articles, with a heading bar on each page with the article title, page number, and topic within. The entire product in this case is comprised of the "Hârn" article, with a variety of topics such as "Religion", "Towns and Cities", and "Hârnic Guilds". Some pages have two columns, others have a single column with sidebar. It's clean and simple. Unlike the 2nd Edition HârnWorld module, this version has colour illustrations throughout, some of which are coloured versions of pictures from the previous edition, while others are new.

It retains the descriptive style of past editions. There are no snippets of fiction and precious few in-character quotes or explanations. I like that there's no fiction at the start - I've never found gaming fiction to be particularly good or useful - but a bit of in-character stuff can make the read a bit less dry. 

HârnWorld also maintains the campaign year as 720 in the Tuzyn Reckoning (720 TR); it's been a long-standing tradition that no Hârn supplement will move the timeline past 720 TR. Which has its up sides - there was no "Hârnic metapolot" in the metaplot-mad 90's, for instance. But it does also mean that you won't find an official supplement on how to run the Kaldor Civil War, for instance, which could, I think, make it a bit more difficult for new players to find a "hook" without reading the whole setting.

Cultures (Pages 1-13)

We start with a couple of maps. The first is a small version of the "poetic" map of Hârn. On the next page, there's a cultural/political map of the island. 

Under the poetic map, we get a brief introduction to the island. 

Hârn is a rough, hazy, forested island about 100 miles off the northwest coast of the continent of Lythia on the edge of the Haonic [not Hârnic, note] Ocean. It is a wild, dangerous land, where pockets of civilization are surrounded by large tracts of wilderness. It is a land of feudal kingdoms, religious turmoil, savage monsters, noble knights, beleaguered peasants, industrious craftsmen, barbarian tribesmen, and secretive wizards.

A sidebar describes geography (primarily about the large central lake and major rivers), weather and climate (maritime - cool summers, mild winters, and damp), vegetation (decidious forest and woodland, mostly), communications (Hârn suffers from rough seas, a lack of good roads, and general disdain from the continent), and calendar (12 months of 30 days each, so a Hârnic year is slightly shorter than the Terran one).

A nitpick - the main text notes that there are seven "civilized" human states on Hârn. I have never particularly cared for this term, as the term "civilized" has always had a lot of value judgment wrapped up in it. Plus I'm not sure that you can group five feudal kingdoms, a "pre-feudal" polity, and a "plutocratic republic" all into one "civilized" group. It's meant to contrast them with the eighteen "barbarian" or "tribal" nations on Hârn but the language is a bit dated. Anyway. The map itself is clear, showing the borders of the various kingdoms as well as the lands belonging to the various barbarian tribes.

(It's possible I'm overthinking the "civilized" thing; Legend of the Five Rings gets away with using the term gaijin, after all. But L5R makes it clear that's the perspective of the Empire. Here, it's just blithely phrased that way. It just feels very...80's.)

Anyway. Pages 3-11 detail the "civilized" nations of Hârn. Human tribal nations, the Gargun, and some "unique cultures" each get their own page later. In order, the main nations of Hârn are:

• Azadmere (Dwarven mountain kingdom);
• Chybisa (tiny - 8,000 people - feudal kingdom);
• Evael (Elven forest kingdom);
• Kaldor (large feudal kingdom, facing a succession crisis (again) and possible civil war (again);
• Kanday (overall-pretty-decent feudal kingdom with some unpleasant neighbours);
• Melderyn (the "Wizard's Isle", largest kingdom in Hârn, off the southeast coast);
• Orbaal (collection of squabbling domains ruled by Viking-type invaders);
• Rethem (overall-pretty-awful feudal kingdom, Kanday's unpleasant neighbour #1); and
• Thardic Republic (corrupt plutocracy, governed by a Senate; Kanday's unpleasant neighbour #2). 

Each nation gets a one-page summary with a related colour picture, as well as a sidebar that provides some pertinent details like population, largest town, exports, and the country's dominant religion, as well as a picture of the country's crest. The summaries are quite good, providing a bit of the "flavour" of each kingdom (Orbaal has a lot of racial tension between the governing Ivinian invaders and the native Jarin, for instance). But you'd really need the HârnDex to get beyond that level of detail.

Azadmere's Crest

Historically, one of the criticisms of Hârn has been the difficulty for new players in figuring out what they need to play. A brief perusal of Columbia Games' website reveals a bewildering array of supplements, ranging from kingdom supplements such as Kaldor and Evael to supplements about individual castles and settlements like Olokand Castle and City of Golotha, never mind the various supplements regarding the Harnic Orcs, Harnic Undead (like the good-looking chap below), and, er, Harnic Rabbits.

 

A Gulmorvrin, a form of Harnic Undead

Columbia Games addresses this concern in the new HârnWorld by adding a listing of "related products" in the sidebar for each country. Azadmere's sidebar, for instance, includes the products Azademere Kingdom Module, Sorkin Mountains, Silver Way, Kiraz, and Nasty, Brutish and Short: The Orcs of Hârn. This is a good move overall, I think, but the down side is that it feels a bit like reading a catalogue or ad copy. Given Columbia Games' sales model, however - publishing numerous modular articles rather than bound books - this kind of list is really almost a necessity. And indeed Columbia Games says as much on the very first page of  HârnWorld:

With all this detail, HârnWorld can seem overwhelming to newcomers. But don't worry, you don't need everything we've published to get started. The descriptions of the Hârnic kingdoms in this module will give you a taste for each and should spark ideas of the kinds of adventures they are best suited for. Just pick one and dive into the related supplements. Use what fits your game, change what doesn't. Above all, enjoy exploring Hârn!

What this means is that it would take a lot of work to run a campaign with HârnWorld on its own. There isn't enough detail in here to make sense of the map, for instance. (It is described as a "general overview" in its product listing, in fairness.) At the very least, you need the HârnDex to provide the necessary details about various kingdoms, gods, personages, and so on. Without it, you'd have to flesh out the bare bones of HarnWorld on your own.

Again, I make no judgment on Columbia Games' business model - it seems to be working for them - but I can't help but think that a new player might be turned off by what is, in effect, advertising for other supplements in the natural first module purchased. It also doesn't help that HârnWorld shows up in the middle of all the product listing on CG's website - though the interactive map might make it easier to find. The 2nd Edition HârnWorld module had both HârnWorld and HârnDex bundled together; it doesn't make much sense to buy HârnWorld on its own, in my opinion.

In any event - that's it for this post. Next, Gargun, Governments, and Guilds!