It is the year 1625. For years, the region known as the Dragon Pass has been rent by rebellion and unrest as the nation of Sartar and peoples of Old Tarsh attempted to drive out the occupying troops and proselytising red priests of the Lunar Empire, which views these lands as being home to barbarians. The conflict has escalated and spread, involving the Lunar client state of Tarsh, the neighbouring matriarchal nation of Esrolia, the nomadic tribes of Prax, and others. It has come to a head with a heroquest which saw the successful summoning of a True Dragon under the Temple of the Reach Moon just as it was about to be consecrated. This event, known as the Dragonrise, disrupted Lunar efforts in Dragon Pass and triggered an uprising across the region and the beginning of the long foretold Hero Wars. It is this conflict that the player characters will set out to join as Heroes.

The rolplaying game is RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, published by Chaosium, Inc. (a full review can be found here).  In this first part of character creation, we complete Step 1: Homelands and start Step 2: Family History by rolling up events for the characters' grandparents. Our Game Master is Pookie, and our players are...

Dave – Arim of Tarsh
Helen – Jarang of Sartar
Louise – Mirava of Esrolia
Mog – Harmast of Sartar
Niamh – Dorasa of Sartar